For the past two weeks, I've been in a horrendous flare-up of my symptoms. Starting with severe pain in my eyes and a feeling like someone had sprayed hot, burning chemicals in my eyes, going further to widespread "vague" neurological symptoms too numerous to list here, and finally culminating in the worst headache I've ever had which woke me from sleep at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning and had me considering whether to call an ambulance, it was that severe. The night before, I had stayed up quite late, having eaten my dinner at 10:00 pm. Dinner that night consisted of a phony BLT made with Morningstar Farms vegetarian breakfast strips (i.e., fake bacon).
One of the strangest symptoms was an incredible feeling of chills and shudders as I was trying to go to sleep late that night, and a horrible feeling of fear so bad that I had to leave the TV on in order to fall asleep. I was wearing a t-shirt, flannel sleep pants, a sweatshirt, socks and was under a sheet, blanket and TWO comforters. Nevertheless, I was absolutely freezing, despite the fact that the weather has turned and it was a seasonably warm night.
Now, a few days have passed, and I went into my freezer to read the label of the breakfast strips. To my horror, there were not only dozens of ingredients (that should have sent up a red flag) but a number of them are MSG imposters.
The more I started thinking about it, the more I realized that, due to my recent crazy schedule, I'd been consuming more processed foods, ready-made foods, all of which probably contain MSG or its affiliates.
A Google search provided the answers I needed. Chills and shuddering is a classic symptom of MSG or glutamate reaction. So are numbness, tingling, many other neurological problems. But, the most common reaction to MSG and its glutamate cousins? Severe migraine headache.
For those interested, here are some links. Read your labels. Know what you're eating. Don't buy this junk. And above all, if you buy it, don't eat it. I'm throwing my fakin' bacon in the trash.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/adversereactions.htm
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/action.html
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showConnection.php?id1=5427&id2=5439
One of the strangest symptoms was an incredible feeling of chills and shudders as I was trying to go to sleep late that night, and a horrible feeling of fear so bad that I had to leave the TV on in order to fall asleep. I was wearing a t-shirt, flannel sleep pants, a sweatshirt, socks and was under a sheet, blanket and TWO comforters. Nevertheless, I was absolutely freezing, despite the fact that the weather has turned and it was a seasonably warm night.
Now, a few days have passed, and I went into my freezer to read the label of the breakfast strips. To my horror, there were not only dozens of ingredients (that should have sent up a red flag) but a number of them are MSG imposters.
The more I started thinking about it, the more I realized that, due to my recent crazy schedule, I'd been consuming more processed foods, ready-made foods, all of which probably contain MSG or its affiliates.
A Google search provided the answers I needed. Chills and shuddering is a classic symptom of MSG or glutamate reaction. So are numbness, tingling, many other neurological problems. But, the most common reaction to MSG and its glutamate cousins? Severe migraine headache.
For those interested, here are some links. Read your labels. Know what you're eating. Don't buy this junk. And above all, if you buy it, don't eat it. I'm throwing my fakin' bacon in the trash.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/adversereactions.htm
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/action.html
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showConnection.php?id1=5427&id2=5439
Great post here about MSG, I read this and seriously it could have been me night after night for the last week or so....I'm thinking now after reading your post that I might be having adverse reactions to MSG that seem to make my fibromyalgia worse. Very interesting. I'll have to talk to my doctor about this.
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