I have seen endless doctors and a neurologist. Last week saw a neurosurgeon who is referring me to a neurologist who specialises in migraine. I have no headache problems. My symptoms are bilateral facial numbeness which sometimes feels more like a burning sensation. It's pretty much a constant feeling though at times the discomfort is minimal. It's worse with stress. I also sometimes have neck ache. A recent MRI with contrast ruled out MS, brain tumours, cranial nerve compression (though it was commented that there are some small blood vessels close to the trigeminal nerve). The neurosurgeon doesn't believe i have any form of trigeminal neuralgia or neuropathy. I also have a burning sensation at times when i breath through my nose. Any thoughts, have had this now for about 15 months.

Any chance you feel better in the morning and get worse as the day goes on?

Hi rweidn,

Migraines do not always include headache, but the symptoms of these "silent migraines" appear to be different from what you describe:
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-heada...lent-migraines

Doc

I have virtually the exact same symptoms. I'm discovering they are associated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) ingestion. The problem is that MSG is in almost every product on grocery store shelves. MSG can be a side effect of food manufacturing processes, so labels are allowed to flat-out lie about the presence of MSG. This scenario forces a particularly drastic experimental method for confirming MSG as a disease culprit. Eliminate all possible sources of MSG by ingesting only food and drink which you know contain no MSG.

Google around. I thought I was already MSG free. Wrong. MSG was in my cheese. It was also in my corn chips. That's right, virtually every U.S. food product which is fried in lard contains lots of MSG. Why? Because lard manufacturers add "citric acid" to lard, and the citric acid contains MSG ......which points out the fact that virtually all foods and drinks which list "citric acid" in the ingredients contain MSG.

MSG in lard is particularly heinous. First the mainstream media directed us away from food fried in vegetable oil toward food fried in lard. The problem? Trans-fats. Then low carb sites pointed us in the same direction. The problem? Omega 6 content.

So now people concerned about their health are ingesting copious amounts of MSG. For most of us MSG is far worse than the substances we're trying to avoid.

Here are three very technical articles by Dr. Kruse, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Kruse describes how MSG crosses the blood-brain barrier, and how it damages and kills neurons.

http://jackkruse.com/concussions-die...isease-part-1/

http://jackkruse.com/msg-your-gut-an...n-post-trauma/

http://jackkruse.com/where-concussio...neration-meet/


Here are a couple of sites outlining foods which contain MSG, and how they get into the foods without triggering labeling laws.

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

http://nikas-culinaria.com/2007/02/2...d-your-health/