MSG is the Devil

"What is food to one, is to others bitter poison." Lucretius (96 BC - 55 BC), De Rerum Natura



I ingested some MSG today. MSG and I do not get along. Now I can't blame my brain injury on MSG but I can tell you that it certainly doesn't help it.

MSG is an excitotoxin. Basically, that means it makes your brain "fire" more than it should. It excites the chemicals and ramps up the chemical reactions, which may cause cell damage and death. (It has in animal testing.)

Food manufacturers put it in food because it makes food taste better. It has been called the fifth taste, Umami, which is sort of savory. Forms of MSG occur naturally in things like cheese and tomatoes and meats, but the natural form does not react like manufactured MSG does in the body.

In my body, it causes pain in all of my old injury spots, headache, and muscle tension. Given all the things that already going on in my body none of these symptoms are good options.

I've found a combination of things that seems to lessen the effects of MSG if administered fairly quickly after MSG ingestion. They are Vitamin C, Essential Fatty Acids (Fish oil or Evening Primrose oil), and Benadryl. I take at least 1000mg of vitamin C but sometimes as much as 3000mg and typically use an effervescent vitamin C powder.

I should probably say here that this is not medical advice nor is it meant to replace the advice of a doctor.

The only downside with this "treatment" is the Benadryl which tends to knock me out for two to three hours. It's 7:30pm and I just woke up from the nap I started at 5:30. Even after I get up I tend to feel just a little out of it after a Benadryl nap. Tonight, for example, I was planning on making Picadillo with rice and fried plantains. My husband just asked me what was for dinner. I think I answered some other question and when I realized my mistake we said, at almost the same time, "How about pizza?" "Yeah," he said, "It doesn't look like you're in any shape to cook." When I tell you that I used to own and operate a catering company and have cooked on numerous occasions under less than ideal conditions you can understand that my current inability to brown ground beef is significant. (I'm still not sure how I'm managing to form sentences here.)

So what I'm saying is that MSG is probably not the best thing for brain injury people and neither is my home remedy for dealing with the MSG. Along with the physical symptoms, I also tend to get snappish after eating MSG. This is a sign not a symptom. Symptoms are self-reported (pain, muscle tension, etc.), SIGNS are observable by others. The connection between my mood and MSG was made several years ago when I came back from lunch at a fast food restaurant (fast food is notoriously laden with MSG) and one of my coworkers remarked about my, ahem, bad mood. She may have used the word "bitchy" but you get the idea. She then asked me if I'd eaten fast food for lunch. "Why?" I snapped. She then informed me that she could always tell when I'd eaten fast food because I got bitchy afterwards. Hmm.

Imagine a person with brain injury who is already experiencing emotional symptoms like decreased tolerance to stressful situations and increased frustration and anger and add in the MSG excitotoxin and you can easily see how this can end badly. Top it all off with an increase in pain and it's a party.

The problem is avoiding MSG. It's in almost all processed food and many foods that are prepared in restaurants. Almost any soup that you purchase in a restaurant, if they are not made from scratch, will have MSG in it. It's in almost all soup bases and broths. It is in many sauces and almost all salad dressings. I've even seen MSG in crackers. Crackers for God's sake!

Sometimes even the most vigilant MSG avoider will accidentally slip like I did today. Just something to think about, even if you don't have a brain injury. It's also something to consider if you have children. What happens to your kid's brain when it's jacked up on MSG? Do you really want to find out? Maybe you already know - what happens to them when they eat that processed "food" do you notice any changes? If so, maybe you should blame it on the MSG.