Back pain affects 9 out of 10 people at some point during their lives. It is one of the most common reasons for people to miss work or visit the doctor to find relief.
Many cases of chronic back pain can be traced to structural problems with the spine such as scoliosis or, of course, injuries such as car accidents.
However, for many who suffer from chronic back pain, the reasons are less obvious and in some cases, downright baffling.
What if a simple caffeine habit like a daily cup or two of coffee or even that afternoon chocolate pick me up is causing your sore lower back? Is this really possible?
Could your morning cup of Joe be having unintended consequences? Let’s find out.
You see, caffeine stresses the adrenal glands, round disk-shaped organs only a few inches across which sit atop each kidney on the posterior side of the body which is, you guessed it, right in the area of the lower back.
Just a single caffeinated drink stimulates your adrenal glands which translates into the energy boost that is the primary reason folks consume caffeine in the first place.
While this little boost is not a problem for most people on occasion, it can rapidly lead to weakened adrenals over time when this hit of adrenaline is sought day in and day out or even several times a day if that morning cup of coffee is followed by a caffeinated soda or chocolate bar in the afternoon and an espresso after dinner.
What about those 5-hour energy shots at the grocery store? I call them “chronic back pain in a bottle”.
How Caffeine Weakens the Adrenals and Leads to Chronic Back Pain
Here’s what happens as explained to me by a chiropractor friend…
Stressing out the adrenals all the time with an unchecked caffeine habit weakens not only the adrenal glands but the entire area around them which includes the lower back. Weak adrenals also suck vital nutrients away from the ligaments and tendons as keeping an important organ like the adrenals happy is more important than strong connective tissue.
The body is very good at sending nutrients to the area that needs them most. Trouble is, the less vital areas that get shortchanged in favor of the adrenals – such as the ligaments and tendons – suffer and over time, the first ligaments to go are typically the ones that support the sacroiliac joint which supports the weight of the entire body.
Where is the sacroiliac joint? In the low back/pelvic area of course!
Have you ever gone to the chiropractor to get an adjustment for a sore lower back only to find that by the time you got into the car to drive home, your back was out again?
This is what happens with weakened ligaments and tendons – chronic subluxations and folks who practically live at the chiropractor’s office.
Wouldn’t it be smarter to end the caffeine addiction once and for all, give your adrenals some relief, and strengthen those tendons and ligaments so your back doesn’t go out all the time anymore?
How to Determine if Chronic Back Pain is from Adrenal Burnout
If you suspect that adrenal burnout is causing your chronic back pain, here are some simple at-home tests to determine if you are on the right track as described by Dr. L. Wilson MD:
- First, take a fork and run it gently across the inside of your forearm. Within about 10 seconds, the lines should turn red. If the lines don’t turn red very readily, this can be a sign of adrenal fatigue. This article contains other little known adrenal fatigue symptoms for you to check such as wrinkles on the underside of your fingertips.
- Another way to test your adrenals is to lay down on the floor for a few minutes and then get up very quickly. Does your blood pressure drop and do you feel lightheaded like you might even pass out? This is another sign that your adrenals are struggling.
- The final test is to take a flashlight and look in the mirror. Shine the flashlight into one eye and notice if the pupil very quickly contracts as it should. If not, adrenal weakness is a likely cause.
Strengthen the Adrenals to Help Resolve Chronic Back Pain
If you discover that you do in fact suffer from weak adrenals, getting off dependence on caffeine is one of the very best ways to strengthen them and thereby indirectly reduce your chronic back pain. Three other effective strategies are:
- Adequate rest – get to bed no later than 10:30 if possible. If you are a night owl like me, resolve to get to bed by 10:30 pm at least a few nights a week at a minimum.
- Reduce dependence on grains and sugars in the diet.
- Increase the amount of salt in the diet – not processed salt, also called sodium, but sea salt which is full of minerals and is very soothing and healing for the adrenals (click here for quality sources). Ignore the low salt dogma which is dangerous to health and has no effect on hypertension anyway according to recent reports and salt your food to taste.
Getting off or at least reducing caffeine intake is one of the very best things anyone can do for a healthy back and/or to resolve chronic back pain issues
This article shares some of the best coffee substitutes out there. Don’t forget about yerba mate and matcha tea when you are removing stimulants from your diet that are negatively affecting your back health. These beverages are both extremely high in caffeine – nearly as high as coffee.
If you have chronic back pain that is baffling you as well as your doctors or you find yourself living at the chiropractor or acupuncturist’s office, the time may be right to take a look at these two little glands that may need some serious TLC.
Sources and More Information
Why You Need to Change WHEN You Drink Coffee
Bulletproof Coffee Shoots You in the Foot
Your Morning Coffee Fix
Coffee and Gluten Sensitivity
Gluten Sensitivity or Celiac? Don’t Drink Coffee!
Adrenal Burnout, Dr. L. Wilson MD
This is very interesting. My husband and I generally don’t consume caffeine (chocolate here and there, but no coffee or anything daily), but I suspect he has major adrenal issues. His back is always out, especially lower back, and the chiropractors don’t know why. He’s been seeing chiropractors for years and an accupuncturist/nutritionist for almost two years now, and we’ve seen a lot of progress this year, but still not quite right. We’ve been focusing on rest, FCLO, high quality sea salt, etc. for awhile but it takes time to heal.
Also, salt is related to blood pressure, in that if you don’t have enough, your blood pressure can be dangerously low. I don’t know that the reverse (too much = high blood pressure) is true at all.
My understanding was that too much salt causes edema around the heart, which squeezes it and raises blood pressure.
Not all salts are the same. Dr. Brownstein says it’s very difficult to heal the adrenals without plenty of unprocessed sea salt.
I don’t drink it for the energy…I drink it with cream in it for the taste. I love it! But I have been drinking it every day for a while now, and I know it is one of my two major vices (sugar/chocolate is the other) that are hard habits to break! I may try giving up caffeine on the weekdays and just enjoying a cup with my breakfast on the weekends. I don’t know if I can give it up completely.
Wow, an article that says coffee is bad for you. That is amazing. Seems everywhere I look there are articles saying why you should drink it. I have never been a coffee drinker, smells good but taste awful.
I’d love to quit and see the effect, but the addiction is strong. 🙂
Quitting coffee was the best thing I ever did!
I have noticed my dark circles under my eyes minimize when I am not drinking the Joe – I sleep better too. If only I could inhale the fumes and get the same energy I sometimes find in a cup of Joe. :))) I truly love the smell more than the taste……..
Is Caffeine Causing Your Back Pain? – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/HKcyuvt
Thanks for a great post. I have been treated for lower back pain for about 4 years with regular chiropractic adjustments. I altered my diet about 1 year ago and my chiropractor started me on adrenal support supplements about 6 months ago. My lower back has been holding its adjustments well for the past 4 months. I didn’t know why until your post today.
Karen
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for another wonderful post. I know I have weakened adrenal glands. I did the flashlight test about a year ago and was floored at the inability for my pupils to remain constricted (my husband as well). I also get very lightheaded upon standing or sitting up from a laying position.
I have been on the fence about quitting caffeine (16 oz. every morning). I saw something about caffeine as a cancer preventive, though I admit I know very little about that claim. Are you familiar with that?
Renee
I have seen the info on coffee as a preventative but to me the negatives of drinking coffee far outweigh any purported benefit. If I drank even 1/2 cup of coffee a day, my health would be in serious trouble. Caffeine absolutely KILLS my adrenals and I would have debilitating back pain.
HI Sarah,
As a chiropractor I can second that. In my experience, the long term effects of sub clinical adrenal insufficiency can affect all areas of a person’s health. There is a very accurate test for adrenal gland function. It is a saliva test for cortisol, one of the hormones secreted by the adrenal glands. Additionally the test shows the cortisol rhythm in a 24 hour period so that one can see if cortisol is too high or too low and at what time of day. It is simple, cheap and most alternative practitioners perform it. Once test results are in, very specific supplements can be recommended for specific times of the day. While I would certainly counsel patients on dietary changes to support the adrenals (sea salt and vitamin C), sometimes supplemental support is needed to facilitate healing. Great post!
Thank you for sharing this, Jill. =]
I agree w/Jill. 24 hour saliva tests are considered the gold standard for really diagnosing adrenal issues because there is a such a cortisol fluctuation in our bodies naturally throughout the day. I agree with dietary and lifestyle changes to assist the body in healing and building back a reserve in the adrenals. There are some people in which this is not enough and supplements are necessary to assist in that healing. I was one of those people and I am very thankful I had them. 🙂
I wouldn’t call that cheap. The one I was given to do was $130.
Thank you for sharing about the saliva cortisol test. Most doctors will insist that a blood test or even 24-hour urine collection will suffice. The truth is, I suffered from adrenal dysfunction and low cortisol for YEARS because I didn’t do the proper test. Another thing you can do is to take your body temperatures with a standard “mercury” thermometer for 5 days. Take it 3 hours after you awake, then repeat in 3 hours, and again in 3. Be sure to take them at the same time each day. Average your 3 daily temps and then compare them over 5 days. If the daily average fluctuates more than .2-.3 degrees, you have an adrenal problem. Other things that can cause adrenal dysfunction are undiagnosed (using useless TSH test or “thyroid panel”) or improperly treated (with T4-only synthetic medications like synthroid and levoxyl) thyroid disease, low iron or ferritin levels, and low aldosterone levels. These things should all be tested if you have an adrenal problem.