Caffienated Soda Pain

I did this semi-unscientific experiment and wanted to share it with you. I did the experiment quite accidentally, but that doesn't change what I figured out...

I have a lot of leg pain (which I realized the year I went to work at the YMCA: 2005). I had decided it was my lot in life and I'd have to live with it. From knee to ankle, almost all the time (except when sitting) my legs ache.

Then came Lent, 2012. I gave up all soda. (I've done this before but was never observant enogh to put this together in my head). After 2 weeks of no soda, I remember thinking, hmmm, my legs don't ache, and I went on with my day.

For the rest of Lent, though, no leg achage!!! I thought to myself, I wonder...

So a couple weeks after Lent, I went back to drinking soda (not Coca Cola, but Barque's Root Beer)...1 a day with my lunch and a couple of weeks later I stood up from sitting at work for my 2 hour stint on the phones and my legs ached again. I was dumbfounded. Could I really have found a link for this constant, I have to take Motrin/Exedrin all the darn time, pain? Maybe...

So, I've had my last soda today. I don't know if it's just the caffienated sodas that do this to me (probably not all the people of the world, right?), or if it's all soda in general. I may try a non-caffienated root beer for kicks down the road (because, really, who can live their whole life without a root beer float???) and see if it causes the same thing.

I also don't know if it's just Coca Cola products, which are my sodas of choice, or all caffienated sodas. But I like the idea of not having leg pain when I stand up, so I think it's worth it to me to not have soda.

Pink lemonade, anyone?