Anyone know about sodium tripolyphosphate?

Hello,
I have been gone for a few months enjoying my blissful life without dizziness and only a few headaches until now. Last week I had an attack around 3am when I got up to go to the bathroom as I do almost every night around that time. This time just as I was about to sit a wave of dizziness hit me and literally knocked me back. Thankfully I was above the toilet so I landed on it instead of the floor. That was the first time I had any episode that made me completely loose my balance. I went back to bed and as I lay my head on the pillow another wave of dizziness. Get up in the morning and have to be very careful to sit on the edge of the bed and wait for dizziness to go away before I can get up and move around. Same thing every night and morning now including other positional dizzies like turning my head from side to side or looking up. This has been going on for over a week now. Luckily it is restricting itself to mostly in the evenings/night so aside from being a little brain fog during the day I am pretty much ok. The only thing that I am able to come up with that changed is a dish I ate with shrimp. It was veggies, noodles and shrimp but when I read the package it said it had sodium tripolyphosphate to retain moisture in the shrimp. Which I googled and read that it is a pretty undesirable chemical added often without us even knowing it.

I searched this site for any reference to it but found nothing and was just wondering if anyone has any insight or thoughts as to whether this is likely the cause of my relapse.

thanks, Chris

Hi Chris,

I’m sorry I don’t know that chemical. The next thing I’m going to say is one of those vexing MAV cliches. The positional stuff, timing, duration kind of sound like BPPV. Maybe not. I’ve had my share of useless Epplys, but you never know. Since it’s so straight up vestibular it sounds audiological to me.

Emily

Never heard of it but a lot of the general population do react to shellfish and as Mavers are notoriously sensitive to all sorts of things. It goes with the territory. I wouldn’t be surprised. Also let’s not forget triggers tend to be cumulative. Then of course there’s salt. I’m very sensitive to salt myself and it will directly impact my ears and therefore balance. Could be way off here but I always am suspicious of salt with frozen items these days and suspect a connection. I reacted recently to really posh ice cream. The cheaper stuff’s always been fine but I’ve found other comments on here saying much the same. Frustrating as it is triggers can be so difficult to link particularly with foods.

Hi Emily,
unfortunately it decided to not be so nice to me anymore. Woke up this morning and I’m now back to the full on brain fog and light head, tired…I had my ears checked twice and they found nothing. I will try to do an Epply on myself like you said, who knows…

thanks much,
Chris

1 Like

Yes, I’m thinking that was probably the catalyst that set it off. Then a few days later I found out about the death of a cousin (40) then a friend (62) then my walking parter and friend (57) all in the span of about 4 days so I suspect that has pushed my trigger bar well above my current threshold.

I’m only at 112.5 on the Effexor so I think I’m going to increase again.

thanks for the support as always!
Chris

1 Like

That’s too bad. It’s never the easy fix with us. I’m so sorry for all those losses in such a short span. I would start minding my triggers but it also sounds like you need to grieve and meditate and look for peace. You may not need to increase your meds. This could be a short term relapse related to all those painful emotional hits stacked on each other. You do have to take the time and the self love to heal from the emotional crisis. It’s no wonder MAV flared.

3 Likes

As @flutters said I wouldn’t necessarily jump in with a meds increase just yet. Rather extenuating circumstances currently I’d imagine which hopefully may never be repeated in your lifetime. Be kind and sympathetic to yourself for a bit, and steer clear of shellfish for a bit. Emotional upset or hassle will soon set it all off again. Take care. Helen

3 Likes

I wouldn’t suspect sodium tripolyphosphate over something like MSG, which has a clear theoretical link to migraine through glutamate. But it’s hard to know, best to avoid it if you think it could have been a trigger. It could have also been slightly spoiled food, its so hard to know. Hope you are recovering ok

2 Likes

Part of my decision to go up is because I have had other “break throughs” just not as intense or long so I got nervous. I’ll wait and see how things go. I am finally feeling better today so maybe like you have all said the added stress of life just made things worse. Thanks, Chris

1 Like

Thanks, I am feeling better today. I’ll definitely stay away from that and others like it! We grow much of our own veggies and I’m able to store them through the winter so I think I’ll try sticking with our stuff for a while, feed the frozen store bought stuff to the rest of the family :laughing:! Thanks, Chris