Hi all,

I know that MSG has been written about here extensively, but I am not convinced that is what triggered my reaction to soy sauce this evening; I have also had similar almost immediate reaction to any soy based marinating sauce sold for making "Chinese" food at home like Kung-Pao chicken. In the past, I would end up with an intense stomach ache, or sometimes a migraine almost immediately after ingesting. This was pre or very early PD. I hadn't that reaction in awhile so cooked with it last night and less than thirty minutes later had a migraine and could not walk. This lasted nearly two hours with meds not working...the migraine lasted literally all night?

At first I thought MSG, but I don't eat the purest of diets so surely I am ingesting MSG daily. Furthermore, I used Kikkoman this evening which is MSG free. This leads me to believe that it is something in the fermentation process or wheat. Though again I think if it were wheat, I'd also feel super crappy given all the gluten laden food I eat. So that narrows it down to the fermentation. I think based on what I have just read that MSG is the least of our worries...

I came across the Kikkoman site to rule out MSG an they discussed in great detail their fermentation process. It includes a fungus or mold. I would have never thought of correlating PD but recalled the blog ramblings of some guy on the Internet saying that a fungus was the root cause of AD and PD. Dismissed it even though he could site a study linking fungus in drinking water with PD. Well, this has aspergillus oryzae fungus used in soy sauce has to be benign, right. We ingest it. Not quite so...as a matter of fact the EPA has issued a toxicity report on this fungus. The fungus is not the problem but the potential for release of mycotoxins. One in particular has it out for the basal ganglia: this is the toxin known as 3-nitropropionic acid and it is food borne. The EPA also reports it can be found in soil and obviously groundwater. From their report:

A. oryzae can produce b-nitropropionic acid, along with other food-borne molds (Gilbert et al., 1977). Its mode of action is apparently irreversible succinate dehydrogenase inhibition which can cause a variety of symptoms often neurological in nature.


Gould, D.H. and D.L. Gustine. 1982. Basal ganglia degeneration, myelin alterations and enzyme inhibition induced in mice by the plant toxin 3-nitropropionic acid. Neurpathol. Appl. Neurobiol. 8:377-393.

EPA REPORT

Anyway, not saying soy sauce causes PD. I just fell into it really thinking it was nothing but an allergy, but given that it is thought we have a mitochondrial deficit... Is this just yet another possible pathway to the "kitchen sink" of Idiopathic PD?