Migraines and monosodium glutamate...

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This maybe a stupid question but... I think the frequent migraines I have had all my life maybe my version of "meltdown"... There are a number of factors that can cause them, and I try to "manage" them in order to avoid the migraines... But I noticed I had a few really brutal and violent migraines after eating food containing monosodium glutamate...

Are Aspies more sensitive to MSG? Does it make sense to any of you?

MSG is a known migraine trigger. You could try avoiding it to see whether this is the case for you.

I would not be surprised if meltdowns and migraines happen simultaneously for you. A high stress level can also be a migraine trigger.

I am not sensitive to MSG.

Good luck figuring this out. Migraines are, I am told, among the more frustrating of chronic ailments...

I'm sensitive to MSG but only in unusually large amounts, so it usually doesn't bother me. If there's enough in a food to make me really thirsty soon after eating, that's too much and is getting into the neighborhood of migraine trigger.

I really wish it was just not used. It seems a rather useless ingredient, and difficult to avoid if you eat out or eat any convenience foods - which I can't afford right now anyway, so I guess that's one advantage of being broke. I cook all my food and know what's in it. But it's even in canned soup, and condiments. There are so many people sensitive to it, I don't understand the thinking behind that. It's like whey, my spouse has to avoid dairy (due to allergy, not lactose intolerance), and whey or casein are included in the most surprising things, usually not necessary at all.

If I have a meltdown of any degree I usually wind up with a migraine the following day. Definitely stress and especially anger/frustration related.

But mine can also be triggered by weather changes and other things, so for any given migraine there are sometimes two or more possible triggers going on, some unavoidable.

My older brother gets bad headaches if he eats anything containing mono sodium glutamate, and did research on it. Yes, it is a trigger in some people. So is stress, as another poster mentioned.

I get terrible migraines but MSG does not appear to trigger them for me. I can eat a whole tube of Pringles and be migraine free for a few days after so I reckon I am lucky enough to be able to scoff MSG as much as I like :p I also get horrible tension headaches sometimes. Some guy was following me in the car and threatening to kill me when I was forced to cut him up or end up on the motorway and end up taking a 15 mile + detour because I was not familiar with the junction and it was not signposted well. I ended up with the craziest headache right on top of my head. It was excruciating, by far the worst headache of that type I've ever had. I thought I was having a stroke or something it was that bad - perhaps if I was 20 years older it might have actually resulted in a stroke :/

edit: I didn't dangerously cut the guy up we are talking 10mph pulling away from the lights here.

Recently I was trying to find some info about MSG and it's pretty interesting. You can find that it causes nearly every illness - including autism! But when you find more reliable sources, you'll find that it's pretty safe and most of the negative effects that many sources link to MSG aren't proved to be caused by MSG. So if you want to find it MSG trigger your migraines, get MSG and placebo capsules (so you will not feel the taste) and make a double-blind experiment. Then publish the result here - always, positive or negative! If I were you, I would try to find other possible causes.

i get migraines from msg. they usually last for a few days. i also get migraines from meltdowns. those only last about a day. there are lists of migraine triggers that should be easy to find online. most don't bother me but its helpful to have a place to start when you're trying to find the trigger.