I have no antipathy towards MSG. I can taste that it tastes good. The thing is really: It messes with my sleep. I don't know how, but sometimes I get a high dose in me and I just cannot get to sleep, like at all. Elevated heart rate, mind racing, all night long. _That_ I do not like. I don't believe it's an evil chemical, it's naturally occurring after all. But yeah, if someone knows a hack to cure the occassional insomnia... that'd be great.
Could the intense short lived headaches be caused by something other than glutamate? I consume a lot of msg and aren't bothered by it but I do get severe acute head pain when I eat McDonald's spicy buffalo sauce. Kind of freaked me out the two bites I had before quitting.
Wanted to give you a separate reply for an insomnia hack. The best thing I ever did was find someone who did cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Ultimately insomnia is self perpetuating because we start to have anxiety about not being able to sleep, which fires up our fight or flight responses. Our body then starts to automatically associate bedtime with anxiety.
If you can find someone who treats anxiety with CBT they should be able to cure you of the insomnia.
If you can’t, then the best advice I ever got was to simply repeat to yourself, it’s not a big deal. “Maybe I’ll stay awake all night. Who cares. It won’t kill me. Even laying with my eyes closed is recuperative.” Basically don’t fight the insomnia or anxiety it produces. If you can just stop caring about it, eventually your nervous system will catch up.
Also make sure you don’t have sleep apnea... that can also cause anxiety because you’re choking on a nightly basis.
Agree with other reply that tptacek has a good take. One thing to keep in mind is that glutamates play a role as neurotransmitters. It’s possible that if large doses are taken on an empty stomach they may exacerbate some insomnia symptoms.
It’s unclear how much of an effect it has though. Just like tryptophan in large doses can cause drowsiness. However for instance people eating turkey and getting sleepy assume it’s the tryptophan when really it’s just the large quantities of food they just ate, and the tryptophan really has no effect.
So like tptacek says... could be the sodium. But also dont just dismiss the role of glutamate out of hand.
And even if it does cause issues in some people, it’s probably also totally safe based on all the evidence.
