A new connection to our Muslim brethren!
Got the YK headache blues? Apparently this is an actual phenomenon, which people are studying! All this lack of food – causes headaches! Pity our poor Muslim brethren who have a whole month of headaches to deal with….
From JTA... “Researchers from Tel Aviv University reported in 1999 that the most likely cause for the headache is lack of food, not lack of water, according to http://achenet.org… Celebrex may work just as well as Vioxx, he says, though it is not as long-lasting a pain reliever. And, he says, anyone interested in taking the drug should consult a physician first. The remedy, says Drescher, also works for the Yom Kippur fast’s Muslim counterpart — the Fast of Ramadan headache.”
One common source of YK headaches is caffeine withdrawal. So if you’re a regular coffee drinker, you might consider going off caffeine a few days early.
Or don’t. Maybe the whole point of fasting on Yom Kippur is make us uncomfortable, so that we realize that our comfort aint what’s important, but our service to Hashem. Maybe.
At any rate, I hope everyone has a good fast. I would say have an easy fast, but i’m not sure its supposed to be easy, so I’ll just say have a good one.
Yes and no. It’s also important to be able to focus at the end, and if you have to spend the last several hours of Yom Kippur lying down, that’s bad for kavanah.
shmuel– being hungry and dehydrated are natural human responses to fasting; caffeine withdrawal headaches are not. so no point in torturing yourself there.
As the posuk says Vi’ineesem Es Nafshoseichem .
i drink coffee on yom kippur. go ahead and excommunicate me. i don’t think that drug withdrawal on YK is a good idea. sure, if i wanted to kick the habit, this week would be a good time to do it. oh well. another year hopped up on legal speed…
I drink water on the morning of Yom Kippur because I need to take a medication daily. You need a lot of water to take a pill if you’re not going to be eating or drinking anything else, but it doesn’t seem to help.
what’s wrong with a little drug withdrawal now and then? that’s what shabbos is for!