Dave Michaud - Phantosmia, Hyposmia and Food Triggers

This is a post from Dave about Food Triggers 
2007-10-26

Hi Olivier,

I promised you a report when I finished my elimination diet, I'm posting on the group in case others are looking at food triggers also, so here it is :-)

At the end of August this year, I had a health problem that caused me to go to the emergency room twice for TIA (mini-stroke) and following that I experienced a great deal of inflamation in my nasal passages and sinus. In the past this would have been a phantosmia trigger for me but fortunately I did not experience that. I did however experience a loss of smell that would be termed Hyposmia as I could still smell different things, but just barely. Since last October I have used saline 5 to 7 mornings per week in the head-down-forward position and have also used saline as a stand-up rinse after being in dusty/smokey environments when needed. I use 'Sinus-Buster' (capsacin, or pepper spray) for allergy relief and that is intermittent and maybe once per month only when needed. I still continue with this process.

In the past I had some relief from inflamation by eliminating much grain (wheat, corn meal, soy bean, etc.) from my diet. At the end of August I stopped eating all grain entirely except rice. I started by eating only rice, fish, chicken (without skin or fat) and common vegetables with nothing from the 'nightshade' family like tomatoes, eggplant and so on. I stayed on this diet for two weeks. During that time I did not have any optical migraines (migraine without headache), that was something I really wanted to accomplish.

I began to add items back into my diet at two week intervals, the first was dairy. Milk,cheese and eggs--there was no change good or bad with either the inflamtion or optical migraines, I have been using these as an indicator. The next items I added were vegetables from the nightshade family and one of the first things I made myself was a tomato sandwich. I had no reaction to these items good or bad.

The next thing I added was chocolate in the form of processed food. I pigged out on Snickers and Milky Way bars. After a few days I began getting the optical migraines again, sometimes twice per day. I stopped eating processed chocolate and the optical migraines went away. I continued with only the basic items in my diet (without processed chocolate) for another week and all was fine.

I next added wheat and other grains back into my diet. After several days I began to get the optical migraines again but not as bad as with the processed chocolate. I stopped eating those grains and the optical migraines went away. During this time, my sense of smell had not changed for the better or worse and the low-level nasal inflamation was pretty much constant.

A couple weeks ago I added chocolate back into my diet but only in the form of whatever I can make with cocoa powder (no additives) and sugar. I have had no ill effects from this.

All of us on this group have our own 'indicators' for smell whether our context is Phantosmia, Parosmia, Hyperosmia or Hyposmia--mine is my dog's feet :-) Every night when I go to bed, he hops into bed between my wife and I to get petted and then lays down on the cool tile for the night. It has only been in the last couple of days that I can smell his feet again, they smell like dirty gym socks. I don't really like the smell, but I am glad to be able to smell it again even if it is faint :-)

So that's my report. I am making french bread with rice flower and it is damn good and I'm very proud of it. I am enjoying chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--I just use rice flower and hershey's cocoa with sugar for frosting and it is better than the what I used to buy in the store. I cook ahead for the week on Saturday or Sunday and I'm usually able to avoid going to a fast food joint during the week. Overall I spend maybe an extra four hours per week for meals this way, but it has been worth it. My kids actually love making bread on Sunday for the week and it is has been 'fun-time' for us :-)

For me, it is NO cereal grain other than rice, and no processed foods. There are too many 'rendered and hydrogenated' items in processed food and one or more of them cause trouble for me, so those are my triggers.

Dave

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Phantosmia, Hyposmia and Food Triggers This is a post from Dave about Food Triggers 2007-10-26 Hi Olivier, I promised you a report when I finished my elimination diet, I'm posting on the group in case others are looking at food triggers also, so here it is :-) At the end of August this year, I had a health problem that caused me to go to the emergency room twice for TIA (mini-stroke) and following that I experienced a great deal of inflamation in my nasal passages and sinus. In the past this would have been a phantosmia trigger for me but fortunately I did not experience that. I did however experience a loss of smell that would be termed Hyposmia as I could still smell different things, but just barely. Since last October I have used saline 5 to 7 mornings per week in the head-down-forward position and have also used saline as a stand-up rinse after being in dusty/smokey environments when needed. I use 'Sinus-Buster' (capsacin, or pepper spray) for allergy relief and that is intermittent and maybe once per month only when needed. I still continue with this process. In the past I had some relief from inflamation by eliminating much grain (wheat, corn meal, soy bean, etc.) from my diet. At the end of August I stopped eating all grain entirely except rice. I started by eating only rice, fish, chicken (without skin or fat) and common vegetables with nothing from the 'nightshade' family like tomatoes, eggplant and so on. I stayed on this diet for two weeks. During that time I did not have any optical migraines (migraine without headache), that was something I really wanted to accomplish. I began to add items back into my diet at two week intervals, the first was dairy. Milk,cheese and eggs--there was no change good or bad with either the inflamtion or optical migraines, I have been using these as an indicator. The next items I added were vegetables from the nightshade family and one of the first things I made myself was a tomato sandwich. I had no reaction to these items good or bad. The next thing I added was chocolate in the form of processed food. I pigged out on Snickers and Milky Way bars. After a few days I began getting the optical migraines again, sometimes twice per day. I stopped eating processed chocolate and the optical migraines went away. I continued with only the basic items in my diet (without processed chocolate) for another week and all was fine. I next added wheat and other grains back into my diet. After several days I began to get the optical migraines again but not as bad as with the processed chocolate. I stopped eating those grains and the optical migraines went away. During this time, my sense of smell had not changed for the better or worse and the low-level nasal inflamation was pretty much constant. A couple weeks ago I added chocolate back into my diet but only in the form of whatever I can make with cocoa powder (no additives) and sugar. I have had no ill effects from this. All of us on this group have our own 'indicators' for smell whether our context is Phantosmia, Parosmia, Hyperosmia or Hyposmia--mine is my dog's feet :-) Every night when I go to bed, he hops into bed between my wife and I to get petted and then lays down on the cool tile for the night. It has only been in the last couple of days that I can smell his feet again, they smell like dirty gym socks. I don't really like the smell, but I am glad to be able to smell it again even if it is faint :-) So that's my report. I am making french bread with rice flower and it is damn good and I'm very proud of it. I am enjoying chocolate cake with chocolate frosting--I just use rice flower and hershey's cocoa with sugar for frosting and it is better than the what I used to buy in the store. I cook ahead for the week on Saturday or Sunday and I'm usually able to avoid going to a fast food joint during the week. Overall I spend maybe an extra four hours per week for meals this way, but it has been worth it. My kids actually love making bread on Sunday for the week and it is has been 'fun-time' for us :-) For me, it is NO cereal grain other than rice, and no processed foods. There are too many 'rendered and hydrogenated' items in processed food and one or more of them cause trouble for me, so those are my triggers. Dave
message for Dave 2007/01/28