TeaChat

I love the taste of Rooibos teas and used to drink it every almost every night.
Afte rusing it for a short time I started being awakened in the middle of the night with SEVERE headaches, migraine like.
Found that when I quit using the Rooibos I don't have the headaches.
Just thought others might need to know about this if they are drinking it and having headaches.

I have a migrane problem, but I drink Rooibos to help get rid of them. I'm not sure what's at work here but your body may just not be used to certain properties of Rooibos.

Your choice of tea for a specific reason (eg: headache), like any other pharmecutical or home remedy, depends on so many other personal factors of individual make-up, chemistry and surrounding habits, that only you can figure out what works for you. Trust your body - it knows what it needs and knows what it doesn't want.

If you really like your rooibos, it may haelp to blend ith with chamomile and/or peppermint to see if that helps...

I find just peppermint does a lot for my headaches!

Madam Potts

Rooibos has a lot of tannans in it doesn't it? (I thought that was why it was such a dark red)... maybe that's the culprit! Try drinking green rooibos, it's almost the same flavour and it's better for you, maybe that will help!

rooibos has very little tannin, regardless what type it is

Try a Rooibos tea with ganoderma extract in it. SOD tea , you can find it at: http://www.healthycoffeebeverages.com It is very calming, better than chamomile tea. I drink it every night before I go to bed, and I sleep soundly.

It's interesting that Rooibos leaves you with such severe headaches because some say that, as Carnelian pointed out, that Rooibos helps headaches and many online journals and healthy tea books support the claim.
However, it's importat to realize that Rooibos' effects on the body, just like any other herb, can very greatly from person to person.
It's like chamomile, it might bring you down, it might leave you just as you were before you drank it, or it might agitate the living day lights out of you.

Like sunlily, I also drink rooibos at bedtime -- with a little milk. I get slightly nauseous drinking some kinds of green tea. (I've been combing old posts for similar subject) There may be some trace element in a particular tea that gives some folks a headache or nausea.

Since I started drinking tea regularly I have not had a migraine in almost a year . . . coincidence???

This is the first I have heard rooibos causing headaches. Seems that about one in ten people become sleepy after drinking rooibos. And I know two friends that use it to treat their headaches. My brother uses it as an anti-spasmotic. I am wondering if your rooibos is pesticid free? If you are not drinking an organic rooibos...that could be the issue.

I get headaches if I allow the bag to steep for a long time so I just wanted to bump up this thread to see if anything new about Rooibos causing headaches has come up.

I just tried my first cup of rooibos, from an Adagio sample, brewed to their recommendations. Not only did I have to dump it after half a cup because I really, truly did not like it, I got a headache very shortly thereafter. I am a chronic migraineur and completely get that different substances affect people in different ways. I, personally, will avoid rooibos. I've now brewed some citron green and we'll see if that helps to kill the headache.

Wow, I hadn't heard anything about rooibos triggering a headache before. In fact, I often drink it in the evenings and have found that my stress headaches seem a little less when I drink it...but that's probably psychosomatic.

I think I'll do a little research on this topic.

I'd never heard anything of this sort either. I've really grown to love rooibos lately as a nice evening tisane and I've never gotten a headache from it. Googling "rooibos headache" seems to pull up web pages touting rooibos's ability to relieve headaches!

That's the odd thing about headaches, especially migraines, I think. Different substances can relieve or trigger headaches in different people. I would never warn a migraineur off of rooibos based on my personal experience, certainly as at least one other migraine sufferer here attests that it helps. The brain's a wacky place. Too bad I dumped my sample (I had that strong an aversion) or I could have sent it to one of you who adores it!

Every person's physiology works a little differently from the next person's. If rooibos gives you migraines, definitely avoid it. I'm sure you can find another tea or tisane that you'll enjoy and won't have any adverse side effects!