after she eats certain types pf foods her hand becomes swollen , the hospital said it was some type of allergy to a food product . i put it down to drinking several Singha beers , maybe high blood pressure .

has anyone heard of this in thailand ? i cant quite figure out what it is and she is

upset that i didnt rush her to hospital in the middle of the night ,for what i thought was a minor problem .

MSG, monosodium glutamate is widely used in Asia, many people have reactions to it and think it s the actual food they ate. Looks like sugar but I think is more elongated, like crystals.

here are a few pics and info.

http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:KYWtH...dlaunch/583.jpg

www.dcothai.com/ food/tomyum.htm

www.3eagle.com/ product.asp?p=5

possible histimine response. Need to moniter closely which things do this and gradually edit them out of the diet by process of elimination.

Re-introduce suspect food or drink 30 to 60 days later and observe the response

I know that a lot of folks are alergic to MSG. getting hard to find places that serve it in their food in the states anymore,,but here every shop has a ton of it for sale,but it is easy to tell what it is because of the crystal shape of the stuff in the glassine pouches,,looks like snow flakes in the pack.

We only eat what is cooked in our own home so never have to worry about eating any of it anymore.

MSG, monosodium glutamate is widely used in Asia, many people have reactions to it and think it s the actual food they ate. Looks like sugar but I think is more elongated, like crystals.

here are a few pics and info.

http://images.google.ca/images?q=tbn:KYWtH...dlaunch/583.jpg

www.dcothai.com/ food/tomyum.htm

www.3eagle.com/ product.asp?p=5

penezman

You hit the nail right on the head. Every year when we visit Thailand the wife and I both swell up around the hands and ankles. The doc said it was from all the msg in the food.

Does not stop us from eating all the awesome Thai food though.

One other thing to consider, though it's probably not the case here, is allergic reactions to shell fish. My (American) friend has this problem. It's something like an iodine build up. If he bites into lobster or shrimp (except for frozen small shrimp), his throat immediately swells up constricting his wind pipe. It just hit him one night at dinner and he's not been able to eat most shell fish since.

My Thai wife has a slight reaction to too much shell fish, either at one sitting or over a period of days. She gets a rash on the palms of her hands and then up her arms. VERY itchy. The best thing to do if you get the symptoms is to stop eating shell fish all together.

Thank you for this thread

I have been having a swelling of my right ankle for

weeks now. I thought it might me a beetle or cockroach

bite reaction, but it has persisited for more than

three weeks. Maybe this MSG is my problem.

But we eat at home nearly all the time.

Could we be buying meat or vegetables that have

it already when we shop at Vista or Foodland ??

Any information appreciated !!