| Author | Message | ||
| Richard
|
I posted the following post on another forum and was told it could be from MSG and referred to this site. I am unsure myself, especially since I haven't gotten a migraine headache, which seems to be the most common symptom described here, and I've had reactions after having things like chocolate and other sweet foods. I am a 19 year old college freshman and I have been having episodes of strange symptoms often within the first few hours after I eat, but aometimes at other times too. The major symptoms include, Increased heartbeat and shallow breating, feeling very tired, feeling suddenly thirsty even though I've been drinking a lot of water, a spacy and slightly dizzy feeling like I'm not all there, a weird sensation in the back of my neck that's hard to describe, a tingling feeling of pins and needles, weak muscles, and sore legs (this one happend less frequently but lasts longer when it does, this soreness is not the same as exercise soreness, it seems to be coming from farther inside the leg, and is really noticable when walking up hills or especially stairs). They don't always happen together but sometimes do. I have been getting the pins and needles feeling for the longest, for several years, and it typically happens when outside on a sunny day or in a warm building, although it doesn't happen much in the summer, more likely at other times of year after warming up quickly, and it usually affects my hands, head, and back of the neck. The symptoms were only a fairly minor annoyance until I started college last fall and they have slowly gotten worse. During the fall, they got so that they became a major annoyance and I couldn't do active things at certain times. They got temporarily better when I went home for winter break, but still worse than before I went to college. Since I have come back this semester, they have become a major problem, especially in just the past month. Several times this month on nice sunny spring days, and once in a warm classroom, the pins and needles have been much more intense and occured on not only my fingers, head, and neck, but also my back, my legs, and much of my body, and I was so tired I struggled the few blocks back to by dorm room feeling like I was going to faint. That's only happened a few times but much more common is lesser symptoms that are still annoying. I like to hike and have gone from always being able to walk fast to often being the slow one depending on how I feel. I used to play ultimate frisbee all the time but now only occasionally feel well enough to run or do vigorous sports. I also work outside and am getting noticeably slower, luckily I haven't had any of the real bad episodes on the job yet. I've tried to figure out if it was something I was eating, and I have noticed that it is less if I avoid sugar, which I'm doing now, but I've never had a big sweet tooth anyway, and the symptoms can happen after eating a meal without any sugar, with only normal ingredients I know caused no problem before. I've also started taking vitamins, but they've been no help. I've seen the nurse about it, and the nurse said they were symptoms of hyperventilation, and said I should eat slower. I wasn't eating particularly fast to begin with, and eating slower didn't help at all. I also can't figure out why I would be hyperventilating, I don't feel particularly stressed, except about the symptoms themselves sometimes. Although I had a lack of sleep last semester, this semester I have no early classes and get over 8 hours of sleep on a typical night, sometimes even over 9. The nurse seemed to think it wasn't a big deal, but I'm worried because now it just keeps getting worse. The relatively normal periods keep getting less frequent, and the bad periods worse and more frequent. Richard | ||
| Deb A. |
Richard, what you are describing sounds very much like an MSG/aspartame condition or toxicity. Have doctors ruled out everything else? Many students begin to experience this once they leave home and mom's home cocking. Suddenly they are eating more junk food, processed foods and party foods than ever before. And foods bought in school cafeterias and restaurants are loaded with MSG. I suggest that you go to our site at www.msgmyth.com and click on the menu listing for our simple diet, which should let you know if MSG is the culprit. Forget vitamins at this point. Most contain sources of free glutamate (the harmful component of MSG) in the fillers, binders, and coatings...and gel caps are high in free glutamate from the hydrolyzed protein or animal collagen. I have been right where you are. It was a nightmare . You can read my story at our site, also. Take care and read all that you can on the subject. The glutamate industry sites will try to convince you that MSG is a safe substance, but it is NOT. And you need to know the hidden sources of in\t that are found in most processed foods. Let us know how you do, okay? | ||
| Tome Fernstrom
|
Richard, One of the hardest tasks of any practitioner of medicine is to link symptoms to accepted disease definitions and then suggest appropriate treatments. Tons of knowledge are needed to do this properly and knowledge of nutrition seems low on the list of these practitioners. Reading your above symptom list as a layman and because of your young age, I immediately thought of MS or ALS. I have listed some symptoms of each that could match yours. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ MS The symptoms of MS may include tingling, numbness, painful sensations, slurred speech, and blurred or double vision. Some people experience muscle weakness, poor balance, poor coordination, muscle tightness or spasticity, tremors, or paralysis which may be temporary or permanent. Problems with bladder, bowel, or sexual function are common. Fatigue is a major concern for many. MS can cause forgetfulness or difficulty concentrating. It can also cause mood swings, and may make people more susceptible to depression. Symptoms may come and go, appear in any combination, and be mild, moderate, or severe. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ALS Muscle weakness is a hallmark initial sign in ALS, occurring in approximately 60% of patients. Early symptoms vary with each individual, but usually include tripping, dropping things, abnormal fatigue of the arms and/or legs, slurred speech, muscle cramps and twitches and/or uncontrollable periods of laughing or crying. The hands and feet may be affected first, causing difficulty in lifting, walking or using the hands for the activities of daily living such as dressing, washing and buttoning clothes. As the weakening and paralysis continue to spread to the muscles of the trunk of the body the disease, eventually affects speech, swallowing, chewing and breathing. When the breathing muscles become affected, ultimately, the patient will need permanent ventilatory support in order to survive. Since ALS attacks only motor neurons, the sense of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell are not affected. For many people, muscles of the eyes and bladder are generally not affected. For the vast majority of people, their mind and thoughts are not impaired and remain sharp despite the progressive degenerating condition of the body. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ But I would hesitate to be an alarmist due to our statements on this discussion board and website of linkages of these diseases to Excitotoxin (MSG & Aspartame) ingestion. Surely diagnosis is required, but the linkages you profess about different meals being consumed at school as opposed to home might be a detective’s first clue to excitotoxin ingestion being responsible. I hope your parents are aware of your health problems. And I hope you pursue the potential dietary differences between home cooked meals as opposed to processed foods or cafeteria provided foods that you might be having at college. I think it would then behoove you and them to try to assure you are provided proper foods. Other college students have posted here with their experiences of trying to avoid processed food in the college environment. Perhaps a search of the site will provide info or some of them will again post suggestions. Good luck and I sympathize with your health problems. Everyone used to tell me that I was nuts to take my life into my own hands and take my heart problems so lightly as to think they may be purely associated with diet and excitotoxin ingestion. I've proved them all wrong. | ||
| Bruce Nelson
|
Hi, Richard. I have recently been diagnosed as diabetic. I have learned that some of the same symptoms as you describe seem to go with elevated blood sugar. If you have not done so, you might want to get your doctor to order the appropriate tests to check for diabetes. Even if those tests are negative, you should still go easy on sugar sources (not just candy & sweet baked goods, but fruit juices, heavy sugar cereals, anything that lists a sugar as the #1 or #2 ingredient). I have since learned that my long time high sugar intake (coke, chocolate ice cream, my wife's chocolate chip cookies) could have brought on my type 2 diabetes. | ||
| Carol H |
Bruce, be aware that MSG raises blood glutamate levels which directly raise insulin levels. When insulin is released too much, the body can become resistant to it. It may not be sugar alone that brought on your type II diabetes - especially since you happen to be posting here. |
