I noticed today that my caffeine tolerance seems to be really low while recovering from a tonsillectomy, is this plausible? What about other surgeries?
I remember hearing a while back about mouth tissues absorbing chemicals very readily.
Ahhh, it shouldn’t change absorption. I can’t be certain, but there’s no reason that it should purely because of a tonsillectomy.
I would suspect some kind of medication interaction before any changes to absorption.
If anything, the inflammation would be more likely to decrease the amounts absorbed orally.
That would go for any surgery I can think of.
The caveat being that I’m not a doctor, much less an oral surgeon.
But I’m sitting here running through things in my head that might cause a change in perceived caffeine affect. I still think the most likely cause would be changes brought on by whatever anaesthetic was used, or post surgical medications.
Could be the empty stomach and/or having previous caffeine out of your system entirely, but that would only be the case if you’re a fairly steady coffee drinker, but not a heavy one. Someone that’s mainlining lifer’s juice would have such high tolerance it wouldn’t change at all. A light drinker, say a small cup with breakfast might notice a change post surgery, but it’s a pretty dubious might.
I dunno, that’s all I got.
Could having open wounds in your mouth allow caffeine in a beverage to directly enter your blood stream much more quickly than when it is processed by your digestive system?
Maybe? But mouths heal so damn fast - and getting hot coffee on a wound sounds nasty
It could be a cool or lukewarm beverage with caffeine, and I have seen people drink and eat stuff their dentists tell them not to after an oral surgery, and tonsilectomies can leave open wounds if the dentist doesn’t fully cauterize them or bandage them properly… and I have also seen people remove bandages/gauze faster than they are instructed to for all kinds of wounds…
But southsamurai seems confident that the difference between absorption into exposed oral capillaries and just normally through your gums/mouth is negligible.
Good points, indeed
If you have a wound open enough for the coffee to get into the bloodstream directly, you won’t be drinking anything, much less coffee. But the amounts you’d be able to get in that way, it would be negligible. Not enough to have any increase in the effects of caffeine for sure.
Tbh, even if you’re holding the coffee in your mouth, have an open wound, and are applying pressure you force the coffee into the wound, you’re talking a drop of actual coffee that would get into your system. There’s not enough caffeine in that to do anything compared to swallowing the mouthful instead.
It’s one of those things where you’d have to jump through so many hoops you get even a single sip of coffee into the bloodstream through the mouth that it might as well be impossible. Just holding the coffee in there and letting any of the chemicals in it get into your system passively through absorption would net you a higher amount of caffeine than trying to get it in the capillaries more directly.
How long were you off caffeine for the surgery? I believe it only takes a couple days for your body to lose its tolerance
I suspect that the anesthesia may have influenced your caffeine tolerance.
I tried to find a paper to support that idea but a lot of it is behind paywalls. So explore that possibility if you are interested.
I don’t think it’s the open wounds allowing more caffeine in.
Sci-Hub 👍
