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?

I thought soy sauce was MSG. or at least free glutamate.

yep:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...0025158AAjQR8E
"All soy sauces contain MSG, even the 100% naturally brewed ones. Why? The fermentation process hydrolyzes soy protein. Soy protein contains the amino acid, glutamic acid, some of which is freed as the protein is broken apart. In solution, there's a dynamic equilibrium between glutamic acid and glutamate ion.

Soy sauce also contains salt...we've got both sodium ions and glutamate ions in the same solution. That's logically equivalent to having MSG in the solution..."