FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK FACTSHEET
Heart palpitations - MSG heart
attack
This factsheet covers heart
arrhythmias, palpitations, tachycardia, and pseudo heart attack
An arrhythmia is any
deviation from the normal rhythm of the heart. Symptoms can include
palpitations, breathlessness, fainting and chest pain. Heart palpitations refer
to an awareness of the beating of your own heart. It may be normal, too slow,
too fast (tachycardia) or irregular - skipping a beat or with extra beats. Some causes of heart palpitations include
exercise, fear, disease, drugs and food chemicals.
The food chemicals most
often reported to us in relation to heart palpitations are MSG and nucleotide
flavour enhancers (627,631, 635), and a smaller number reporting propionate
preservatives (280-283) and salicylates, all with corresponding medical journal
articles (see below).
Palpitations can range from
mild to extremely alarming with many people rushing to hospital convinced that
they are having a heart attack. “A feeling of doom” is a common experience.
“I had been getting heart
palpitations for about 18 months” wrote one woman. “My doctor said it was
anxiety attacks, but I started to take more notice of the foods I was
eating.” This woman was able to work out
for herself that her palpitations came on within half an hour of eating flavour
enhancers (627, 631, 635) in certain foods such as corn chips, Sanitarium
vegetarian sausages and some Chinese foods, and lasted quite strongly for about
2-3 hours.
In a medical report of the
Chinese restaurant syndrome, a 36-year-old otherwise healthy man developed
severe weakness, heart palpitations and sweating 30 minutes after eating wonton
soup. On admission to the hospital he was found to have a potentially lethal
arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia which was treated successfully with
medication. His physicians commented that MSG might produce potentially serious
arrhythmias in susceptible persons.
Reader
Stories
[542] Palpitations and MSG (January 2007)
Having suffered panic
attacks and palpitations on-and-off for years I started seriously looking at
the foods and additives I was stuffing into my system. I can now tell you that
the prime trouble maker for me is flavour enhancers. As others have done before
me I visited doctors and hospitals after bad attacks only to be sent home with
a "nothing wrong with you" report. Then one day, I had taken a double
dose (flavoured corn chips and kebabs) which well-and-truly landed me in
hospital. The interesting point to this story is the specific effect the MSG
had. While I was on the heart monitor (for about 12 hours) the doctors and I
could see what my heart was doing and we were able to determine the safety of
the situation.
The sinus node (the
electrical trigger) was firing and was firing regularly. This was a good thing!
The troublesome aspect was the MSG was somehow interfering with the
distribution of the signal around the heart. This meant that although the heart
was beating/pumping, it was doing so at a reduced flow rate. That is, the
contractions weren't as strong as they should have been. Although it was
pumping enough blood to keep me lucid/conscious, a beat could not be felt by me
in my chest, nor could a pulse be felt at my wrist. NOTE: it felt as if my
heart had stopped but in fact was just beating weakly. I tried to convince the
doctors this was MSG-induced, but they just closed their ears, their eyes glazed
over, and told me they couldn't understand why my heart was behaving the way it
was.
Now I know what my heart is
doing, I no longer have panic attacks triggered by a few 'missed beats'. The
difference is knowing that the ectopic beats aren't going to kill me, and even
though I can't feel the beats, I reason that if I'm still alive and not
suffering chest pain etc. then I'm just having another 'episode'.- by email
[458] 635: Irregular heart beat - “thought I was dying” (September 2006)
I had suffered from a
slight temporary problem now and again which seemed like an extra beat of my
heart but couldn't pin it down to anything so put it down to probable
after-effects of a cold or flu but one morning after enjoying a very large
multi-course Chinese meal while on a works outing dinner the night before, I
felt terrible and quite ill! I could sense an irregular heartbeat that seemed
to be every second or third beat, I was going dizzy and feeling faint now and
again, had a funny tingling feeling going up my neck into my head and scalp and
felt very weak. I honestly thought I was dying. It was so bad I even wrote a
quick note to the wife and kids. Obviously I sought medical treatment, had
various tests and an ECG which all showed up normal...the irregular beats were
intermittent now and I got to feeling a little better, the doctor said everyone
suffers from irregular beats now and again, it’s a benign condition and no
problem!
Anyway I decided it may
have been to do with the amount of alcohol I had drunk at this works dinner and
gradually the beats got back to normal and I put this down to my now 'sensible
drinking' . ....a few weeks later my wife and I arranged to meet up with a
couple of friends and have a Chinese takeaway at their house...you guessed it …
in the night and next morning the same feelings came back and the irregular
beats ... I now dismissed the alcohol connection and thought it could be
something I had eaten, so being a bit computer literate I looked up on a search
engine the phrase 'heart problems after eating chinese food'. I was amazed at
the search results, that so many people suffered from this and that largely
doctors were ignorant of this! One web site even referred to it as Chinese
restaurant sydrome!......so knowing the problem and after extensive research on
the net I know if I can avoid MSG as much as possible I do not get these heart
flutters!...even a packet of hula hoops (potato snacks) can give me slight
heart irregularities.
Two years later: I still
get irregular beats even after a packet of corn snack type crisps. I find that
the irregularities with MSG kick in after about 12 hours and around 24 hours
after eating 635, and that the 635 tends to hang on longer than MSG. With me
the effects of MSG last usually a day sometimes two, and with 635 it’s usually
two days sometimes three. – from the
[457] 635: Heart palpitations from 635 (September 2006)
I have been getting heart
palpitations for about 18 months. Saw a doctor who said it was anxiety attacks.
Rubbish. So I started to take more notice of the foods I was eating. I noticed
that it was instant after certain foods - corn chips, Sanitarium vegie sausages
and some chinese foods (fried rice etc.).
I know its 635 because the
palpitations come within half an hour of eating those foods, and are quite
strong for about 2-3 hours. I'm still trying to figure out if it lasts to a
lesser degree for a few more days, or if I've eaten something else in the
meantime that I don't react well to. – by
email.
[456] Heart palpitations and buzzing sensation (September
2006)
Some time ago I found some
corn chips (Viva brand) that advertised having no MSG. I bought them a few times before connecting
with them a very uncomfortable feeling of restlessness, agitation and panic,
heart palpitations, hot flushes and a "buzzing" sensation; I thought
I was having a panic attack. Since
recognising the link I bought the chips once more to test the idea that this
was the cause; after about 5 chips I started to feel the ‘buzzing’ and threw
the rest of the packet away. - Kathy from
Adelaide.
[116] 282: Fast heart
beat (tachycardia) (August 2001)
I have suffered for years
from episodes of fast heart beat. It can be very strong and disturbing, and I
have ended up in hospital but it goes away after a few hours and they could
never find anything wrong. For a while I was getting it every afternoon.
Eventually I worked out it happened on the days I ate bread. A friend suggested
it might be the preservative in bread. When I eat Brumbys' bread I have no
problems, but when I ate some preserved bread without thinking at my mother's
place, I had another episode. - NT
[197] 282: the bread
preservative and heart rhythm (September 2002)
Q. Thanks for interesting article on
the effects of bread preservative. I went to my heart specialist a couple of
weeks ago and told him I that when I eat bread, it makes the rhythm of my heart
go absolutely crazy. It misses one beat in four and makes me feel quite unwell.
He told me that was absolute nonsense, but he would get me to wear a 24 hour
heart monitor. So I did that and when they analysed the data, sure enough, 35
minutes after I ate four slices of bread, the graph went wild. But he still
doesn't believe that it was caused by bread. So I'm going to look for another
heart specialist who will listen to me. It was a real comfort to realise that
there is a doctor (Dr David Brewster) who does believe beyond the textbook.
Have you had any experience in 282 adversely affecting heart rhythm? I would be
really interested to know whether you have had any other reports of 282 having
other health side effects. - by email
A. See above for a report of fast
heart beat (tachycardia) linked to 282.
[339] 635: Meals on wheels disease
(Sept 2004)
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Six months
ago, I was rushed off to hospital after waking in the middle of the night
feeling edgy and hot with swelling of my face, heart palpitations and welts of
hives all over my body. Afterwards, I questioned was it something I ate - the
wine, the peanuts?
These awful
experiences went on for a period of about four months until my brother saw a
segment on A Current Affair about reactions to flavour enhancer 635 (also 627
and 631, ribonucleotides). I had missed the show but immediately got onto the
website and as soon as I started reading I knew that was exactly what I had.
This information is provided by Sue Dengate at http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/ on the factsheet
called "Ribo Rash".
I read
everything I purchase, I do not eat anything if I do not know exactly what is
in it, and before I go to a function I speak with the chef or caterers. When
dining I choose a meal and then request that the chef can assure me that there
is no 635 added. I went through my pantry and discarded any foods with 635 in
the ingredients and have not had a reaction of any kind for about two months
which is a wonderful breakthrough for me, after experiencing reactions 3-4
times a week.
I request
that you please take the time to read the attached information, as my parents
are both experiencing similar reactions. My stepfather has a chronic rash and
my mother gets hives at least one night a week. They receive "Meals on
Wheels" and my stepfather says it is usually after rissoles, stew or soup.
Therefore I request that you read the ingredients that you are adding for
flavour to these meals. Purchased chickens from Woolworths have the additive in
the stuffing, Coles marinated fresh chickens contain 635, Red Rooster have in
on the outside, some chicken salt has it as well as some stocks, tinned and
packet sauces and soups and it is even in some butter blends. Potato chips,
CC's and other flavour enhanced foods are all to be avoided but there are
plenty of substitutes, it just means being more vigilant as to what is served.
The elderly
in aged care facilities and even patients in hospitals are experiencing these
reactions due to flavour enhancer 635. There are plenty of natural herbs and
spices that can be added to food for flavour instead of an additive which is
causing a lot of suffering and possibly even death.
-
letter from
In the medical Journals See abstracts at www.pubmed.com
Gann D. Ventricular
tachycardia in a patient with the "Chinese restaurant syndrome".
South Med J 1977;70(7):879-81.
Mukerji V, Alpert MA,
Flaker GC, Beach CL, Weber RD. Cardiac conduction abnormalities and atrial
arrhythmias associated with salicylate toxicity. Pharmacotherapy
1986;6(1):41-3.
The information given is not intended as
medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for underlying illness. Before
beginning dietary investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food
intolerance. You can find a supportive dietitian through the Dietitians
Association of
© Sue Dengate update
January 2007
