Jericho: DIY Heart Palpitations
I had a follow up with my doctor yesterday. They find nothing wrong with me. My X-rays are fine, my blood is fine, my blood pressure is fine, heck, even my blood sugar level, which had previously scared my doctor, was well low. Nothing ever showed up on the heart monitor I wore. As before, I'm pretty fit for a fat guy. My knees and back won't agree to that, and yes I still need to crack my ass on the diet and exercise tip. However, nothing is wrong with me that can't be fixed with months of treadmill walking.
None the less, something did happen. I had the heart palpitations.
I have a theory!
Two nights ago I was sitting on the couch waiting for dinner. I grabbed a snack off the table. Steph and I have made many changes to our diet. In an effort to be lower carb, lower calorie and high protein, we have began to keep peanuts in the house. They are high protein and high fiber - make you feel full so you won't eat as many. They are low carb and taste good, quite the punch for their calories. Normally, when properly dieting, I wouldn't eat them before a meal. I would eat a small portion a few hours after a meal, both as a snack and to prevent spikes and troughs in my blood sugar - which increases insulin intolerance.
However, we haven't been very good recently, and we just bought a new container and I've been snacking on that container whenever - better than candy or chips! So, I flip the container around and look at the nutritional information. Something catches my eye. Fourth item on the ingredients list is MSG. Wasn't there something about ....
Wikipedia has this to say on MSG. WebMD chimes in here. In short, the scientists say MSG does nothing but enhance the flavor of food. Yet there is years of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. They even have a term for it: Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Of course, if you don't believe any of this, there is always the propagan-er, um, "facts" from the industry.
The point is that MSG is known to cause chest pain and heart palpitations. Now, I've never been aware of having any MSG issues or sensitivity. Heck, as a kid I would pour Accent in my hand and eat it - I was a strange kid. None of this has ever shown up before. Why now?
Steph and I have tried to reconstruct our memories. As close as we can remember, we had left-overs for dinner. Those would be take-out leftovers from a Thai place we rarely go to - my first time as a matter of fact. Later that night, I stayed up late, playing World of Warcraft and eating, you guessed it, several handfuls of Planters Dry Roasted peanuts. I went to bed late, woke up a few hours later to go potty and had the palpitations.
Most MSG issues begin before people leave the restaurant. Why did mine take so long? I don't know. I wonder if it was a matter of levels. I don't have a sensitivity issue, until you build up a ton of it in the bloodstream, maybe? This may not be the case, I might be reaching here. But, it does explain a few things. I haven't had an issue since, I also haven't had many peanuts nor much asian food. They couldn't find anything wrong with me, yet it happened. I brought this up with my doctor, she said she had seen weirder, so this may not be the issue but I'm not insane, either.
Either way, I'm going to watch my MSG intake. The thing that kills me is that I could have eaten a bag of chips and not ended up in the ER! Trying to be better, and get bitten by some random food additive! I can't win!
None the less, something did happen. I had the heart palpitations.
I have a theory!
Two nights ago I was sitting on the couch waiting for dinner. I grabbed a snack off the table. Steph and I have made many changes to our diet. In an effort to be lower carb, lower calorie and high protein, we have began to keep peanuts in the house. They are high protein and high fiber - make you feel full so you won't eat as many. They are low carb and taste good, quite the punch for their calories. Normally, when properly dieting, I wouldn't eat them before a meal. I would eat a small portion a few hours after a meal, both as a snack and to prevent spikes and troughs in my blood sugar - which increases insulin intolerance.
However, we haven't been very good recently, and we just bought a new container and I've been snacking on that container whenever - better than candy or chips! So, I flip the container around and look at the nutritional information. Something catches my eye. Fourth item on the ingredients list is MSG. Wasn't there something about ....
Wikipedia has this to say on MSG. WebMD chimes in here. In short, the scientists say MSG does nothing but enhance the flavor of food. Yet there is years of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. They even have a term for it: Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. Of course, if you don't believe any of this, there is always the propagan-er, um, "facts" from the industry.
The point is that MSG is known to cause chest pain and heart palpitations. Now, I've never been aware of having any MSG issues or sensitivity. Heck, as a kid I would pour Accent in my hand and eat it - I was a strange kid. None of this has ever shown up before. Why now?
Steph and I have tried to reconstruct our memories. As close as we can remember, we had left-overs for dinner. Those would be take-out leftovers from a Thai place we rarely go to - my first time as a matter of fact. Later that night, I stayed up late, playing World of Warcraft and eating, you guessed it, several handfuls of Planters Dry Roasted peanuts. I went to bed late, woke up a few hours later to go potty and had the palpitations.
Most MSG issues begin before people leave the restaurant. Why did mine take so long? I don't know. I wonder if it was a matter of levels. I don't have a sensitivity issue, until you build up a ton of it in the bloodstream, maybe? This may not be the case, I might be reaching here. But, it does explain a few things. I haven't had an issue since, I also haven't had many peanuts nor much asian food. They couldn't find anything wrong with me, yet it happened. I brought this up with my doctor, she said she had seen weirder, so this may not be the issue but I'm not insane, either.
Either way, I'm going to watch my MSG intake. The thing that kills me is that I could have eaten a bag of chips and not ended up in the ER! Trying to be better, and get bitten by some random food additive! I can't win!
posted by Jericho at 10/06/2006 11:27:00 AM
4 Comments:
Did you propose this idea to your doctor when you had your follow up appointment? What did he say about the idea of overdosing on MSG's?
Eat other nuts, sans MSG. They are loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids which are supposed to be good for you.
Laura, do you ever read my posts? :)
"I brought this up with my doctor, she said she had seen weirder, so this may not be the issue but I'm not insane, either."
Trust me, I'm going to keep eating my nuts ... um, yeah.
Sorry... thought I read the whole thing, but I had to come back to it three times before I could actually finish it (distractions), so I guess I missed that. My bad!
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