I had my favorite food from my favorite Chinese restaurant last night. Today I have this headache that makes my skull feel like glass.
It hurts right at the base of my skull, right above the neck and I can’t turn my head without pain. I can’t do anything at all without pain. I just took a long nap and I still have this headache. I took a large dose of Tylenol just now. I hope it helps.
Does this mean I am sensitive to MSG? I thought this was an old wives’ tale, that people can actually be allergic to MSG. But I’ve been nauseated and headachy since 6 this morning, and it’s almost 6 PM mow.
Should I quit eating at my Chinese place? I don’t want to feel like this ever again! Is there anything I can do, like drink a lot of water while eating, to mitigate the effects?
As I understand it, people’s wacky reactions to MSG aren’t allergic as such, it’s an “intolerance”. Quite what the difference is I’m not sure, but it’s pretty well documented: behold msgtruth.org’s remedies page!
I was under the impression that the reaction, if there was one, tended to come on fairly quickly. Also, wouldn’t you have reacted the same way all the other times you ate there? Are you sure they even add MSG–a lot of places have stopped using it due to the number of customers who complained. Of course, it’s still used in a lot of prepackaged foods and sauces.
When I eat MSG I get a dull, throbbing pain that encompasses my entire head, neck and shoulders. And I can actually hear my pulse. The pain starts about an hour after I’ve eaten, and lasts about 3-4 hours.
All the Chinese restaurants I know don’t use MSG these days, but when I was a tyke, I’d regularly go with my family for dim sum, and got horrible MSG headaches afterwards.
I eventually learned that I could avoid the headaches by drinking lots of tea during the meal. Not sure if the tea dilutes the MSG, or there’s an ingredient in the leaves that counteract the MSG, but it always worked for me.
It’s possible that you bagan with a MSG headache but when it went away it triggered a migraine. Migraines are becoming more and more common and in various forms (not always the halo or the static vision).
Call your chinese place and see if they put msg in their food, then you can be sure if msg is even a factor. If it is not, then be sure to keep yourself hydrated. Dehydration is like asking for a headache :mad: