Quitting caffeine

[naturegal]

Hi All,
I have stopped drinking coffee, decaff, and black tea as of three days ago. I switched to green tea to taper down on caffeine, and in three days will stop this also. I do not drink sodas or juices at all. I also do not use citrus or tomato products or any other known bladder irritants. My question is: once I am off the green tea, how long can it take to have bladder symptoms at least decrease if not go away? I don't want to give up because it's taking longer than I think it should. My symptoms are burning, frequency, and a bladder sensitivity and constant awareness of my bladder, if you know what I mean!
Also I use Silk creamer, which is soy based. It tastes great and I am lactose intolerant. However, can it be an irritant due to being soy? Why is soy irritating; is it acidic?
Thank you!

[fmcbride]

I find once I remove the item that inflames my bladder I am better within 3 days or so. I was so proud I went two weeks without problems until today. I think it was I ate a small amount of canned mandarin oranges two days running. I knew better.

[ICNDonna]

One thing you could do is to print out the food list and stick with the bladder friendly column for a few weeks. Soy can be an irritant --- and tea is a problem for most of us, green or black doesn't seem to matter. I wouldn't wait three days to stop the tea --- if you're in pain, why not stop today? It may not be easy, but well worth it.

Warm hugs,
Donna

[DaniMSC]

Soy

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that soy is problematic for IC bladders because it is generally fermented or 'aged' when it's processed for tofu and soymilk? Soy was a staple of my diet before IC and I have wondered why not soy, but this is what I've come to understand...

[naturegal]

You could very well be right about that.

[Mothergoose]

I can't do soy at all, and it goes by many names you have to read all labels.

Green tea would put my bladder over the edge and if you are cutting down on caffeine, green tea has lots of caffeine in it, I agree with Donna cut it out now, if you need to taper down caffeine because of getting a headache, I would think a better option would be watered down coffee and only enough to take the edge off the headache.

My experience is it can take a month for the bladder to feel lots better, you should be able to notice a slow improvement by a week, but if you are still eating any irritants your bladder will still hurt.

It is not a diet where you can cut out 1/2 of the bad stuff and 1/2 improve you don't get the improvement till you cut out all potential irritants, and yes this can take quite a bit of detective work to figure out what is right for you or not.

But the good news is once your bladder feels better you can tell right away what bother your bladder because it will let you know right away.

MG

[wagamama]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that soy is problematic for IC bladders because it is generally fermented or 'aged' when it's processed for tofu and soymilk? Soy was a staple of my diet before IC and I have wondered why not soy, but this is what I've come to understand...

Actually, I think part of it is also because of the phytoestrogens. Soy contains an estrogen-like substance. Since IC symptoms can fluctuate with hormone levels, it's possible that eating soy may affect your estrogen levels, which may trigger IC symptoms. I don't know how true this is, but it's another theory why soy might be an issue.

I stay away from soy now, but I honestly haven't tried it since I was diagnosed. There are so many non-soy dairy substitutes, like rice, almond, and hemp milk.

[Mothergoose]

This makes sense to me.

My sister gave me a bag of toasted/salted soy nuts, she said they were good to eat a tablespoon a day and it would help with estrogen decline.

I could not eat them, I am really sensitive to soy and estrogen. This was prior to IC diagnoses.

My early teen son, found them liked them and ate the whole bag of them.

Later just by fluke I came across an article that you should watch how much pubescent boys eat of soy because of it estrogen.

MG

[earthlady]

It seemed to take an awful long time for my bladder to calm down after eliminating caffeine. I thought it would happen right away but it didn't. I use almond milk now when I used to use soy milk. I'm really not sure if soy actually bothers me but I didn't want to take a chance. I'm post menopause so I don't think any estrogen effects from the soy would bother me even though I'm on vaginal estriol. (which by the way is helping a lot) I've heard the fermentation theory before behind why soy is an irritant. My uro is really big on eliminating anything that is fermented.

[Julie B]

I can't eat/drink soy at all. I was in denial about that for a long time...but once I opened my eyes and started reading labels, I had to admit that I couldn't eat it anymore.

As for why....I suppose it could be related to the phytoestrogens, but I really don't know what is actually the issue. I think the "whys" are far from being known.

I actually was counseling a patient the other day who didn't know soy could be a trigger. Once she stopped it, her bladder calmed down significantly!

[penneyjo]

About the green tea, I have been told it is the worst because it has a bitterness. I wouldn't drink any kind of tea for any kind of reason. Good luck!

[Julie B]

Penny, I am with you. I am in a really good place where food is concerned right now, and can eat/drink a lot of food I haven't been able to in awhile. I have twice tried green tea and it put me in an immediate flare. Never never never again.