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Mental health reactions from resistant starch?
Hi everyone. I switched my protein source from black beans to pea protein powder about two days ago. It seems I'm able to start working part-time again, but I've started having mood swings. And just a few hours ago I woke up sort of hot and weird like I was dehydrated, so I drank water (with a gram of salt as usual).
Within about an hour I had a unusual freak-out reaction for a few minutes: it felt like the air in the room got thick or heavy and actually looked darker, as if it was foggy. And I got upset and started intensely thinking about suicide. I have at least three years' history of having weird mental health effects shortly after drinking water -- and a few times intensely planning suicide if I don't drink enough water.
Now I'm still shaken up, unable to sleep, and super cold.
Since my diet is so limited the reaction must be from:
- Sea salt? (perhaps it has different component that aren't mixed evenly, which could explain why it's better some times than others) It doesn't have added iodine or a flow agent listed in ingredients. But maybe it tastes like dish soap? I wasn't salting the black beans so the amount of sea salt definitely increased.
- Instant rice? I've increased the amount in the last few weeks, at times eating a meal up to every hour instead of every four hours. I've been eating reheated white rice for years and I trust it's fine more than anything else, but the instant rice is somewhat questionable.
- Pea protein powder? But I've been eating it for many months now with breaks before, including a period where my brain worked pretty well.
- Extra light olive oil? I increased the amount somewhat but I really doubt
- Vitamin C tablet? But I was already taking 0.5 grams 2-4 times a day before. It does have magnesium stearate.
- Vitamin B12 - cyanocolamin? I started sort of recently.
- Distilled water that I drink and soak the instant rice in. I've been using different brands of distilled water for over a year now, including periods where my brain worked well.
I have a detailed log of exactly when and what I eat starting Jan 1, 2019, and I've been tracking more informally for a year before that, so it's pretty frustrating that I can't figure this out...
I think I have some problem with either minerals/electrolytes or sulfur/VitaminA/detox/kidneys/liver. Here are some clues:
- For months in 2016 I was convinced I reacted to magnesium stearate in supplements with mental-health/nap attacks, but ultimately removing those supplements didn't seem to fix the nap attacks.
- Most of my labs are fairly normal, but when I did a 24-hour-urine test, the chloride slightly below range and the sodium was far below range. So I eventually figured out that I need to take salt when I drink water to avoid headaches and feeling worse.
- When I stayed at a friends house for weeks, I was pretty convinced his salt was causing short (hours long) depression episodes.
- Some times I sleep over 12 hours and I'm tired/depressed/can't think, and some times I can only sleep 1.5 hours and I'm anxious/stressed/hyper-talkative. This looks like a bipolar type 2 pattern. And there's some evidence that bipolar is related to potassium or calcium ion channels in the brain.
- I've tried small amount of potassium citrate (a major ingredient of electrolyte drinks) and it does seem to have me feel sort of gross and unable to think for hours.
- Normal amounts of magnesium citrate made me a little dizzy/lips-tingling for days. I'm pretty sure about this after trying it a few times. I'm not sure if topical magnesium oil has this effect or not.
- Possible Vitamin A symptoms from past two years: pretty sure I react to: pork fat (yes, pure fat from farmer's market), probably after eggs, purple cabbage, Vitamin A+D+K supplement that had a smell, orange lentils. Maybe also reacted to: carrots, sweet potatoes, green cabbage, eggs, oranges, coconut oil.
- Then there are all my weird symptoms around mold or indoor air that I won't go into -- I think those are fairly well explained and treated by Annie Hopper's Dynamic Neural Retraining System (basically calming oneself down, positive self-talk etc). Unfortunately it's hard to tell the difference between symptoms that I can try to figure out and avoid vs. symptoms that I should ignore.
- My worst reaction ever was to a certain B6 (P5P) supplement -- for about two weeks I was horribly full / no appetite / burping / depressed / sleeping all day until I finally figured it what was causing it (it would go away soon after stopping the supplement and restart). But Pure Encapsulations P5P was fine. I never figured out what caused the problem -- possibly leucine as a filler? Those tablets did smell a little funky.
Any insights, particularly around mineral/potassium/calcium or detox theories?
If you've eaten all those foods in the past without issues then it sounds more like your problem is about something that you're not getting rather than something that you get. Maybe try mineral supplements, it's easy to get calcium/potassium/magnesium deficient. Your diet also sounds zinc deficient.
Is the pea protein white? I don't know how purified protein powders are, but maybe it still has carotenoids. Also if you don't digest it well I'd imagine it could really irritate the gut and thus powerfully raise serotonin, causing things like mood swings, heavy breathing, suicidality, insomnia etc.
Peas have quite a bit vitamin A in all forms: https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Peas%2C_raw%2C_green_nutritional_value.html
I would avoid it until you are further along in your healing.
Per 100g:
| Vitamin A | 765.00 IU | 15 % |
| Vitamin A, RAE | 38.00 mcg | |
| Carotene, alpha | 21.00 mcg | |
| Carotene, beta | 449.00 mcg | |
| Cryptoxanthin, beta | 0.00 mcg | |
| Lutein + zeaxanthin | 2477.00 mcg | |
| Lycopene | 0.00 mcg |
Something unusual is continuing to happen with my body. I couldn't sleep, and I'm very cold and shivering despite sitting in front of an electric heater.
Also I'm continuing to obsessively think about suicide -- this has happened a couple times in the last few years but usually improves within hours of drinking more water or taking tryptophan.
I was taking a multivitamin/multimineral supplement but discontinued it two weeks ago because it contains Vitamin A. It contains calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, potassium. Perhaps I'll buy myself a mineral supplement today.
Quote from Orion on February 18, 2019, 8:09 amPeas have quite a bit vitamin A in all forms: https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Peas%2C_raw%2C_green_nutritional_value.html
I would avoid it until you are further along in your healing.
Per 100g:
Vitamin A 765.00 IU 15 % Vitamin A, RAE 38.00 mcg Carotene, alpha 21.00 mcg Carotene, beta 449.00 mcg Cryptoxanthin, beta 0.00 mcg Lutein + zeaxanthin 2477.00 mcg Lycopene 0.00 mcg
Orion, what was your source for the nutritional data you posted? Thank you!!
Yikes, that was hard. Now I've calmed down somewhat, looking at my diet journal, I think the simplest explanation is that pea protein might give me "freak out" / "the air is dark" symptoms when I eat a few meals with it in a short time without a lot of water in between to detox.
@Orion Thanks for the info Orion.
Can someone recommend another protein source? Ideally a food that wouldn't require cooking since I don't have a stove or running water where I'm currently living.
> Orion, what was your source for the nutritional data you posted? Thank you!
@dswl His source is http://www.nutritionvalue.org
Protein sources I come to think of that does not require cooking would be any kind of pre-cooked meat, like chicken or turkey or even hard boiled eggs (remove yolk)? I dont know where you live but most grocery stores should have that in the salad bar section at least.
Regarding protein powder : maybe egg white, beef or collagen could work for you?
Quote from Guest on February 18, 2019, 10:39 pmProtein sources I come to think of that does not require cooking would be any kind of pre-cooked meat, like chicken or turkey or even hard boiled eggs (remove yolk)? I dont know where you live but most grocery stores should have that in the salad bar section at least.
Regarding protein powder : maybe egg white, beef or collagen could work for you?
This was me 😬
Or oat protein powder?
Peas are high in free glutamate (http://www.msginfo.com/PDFs/GlutamateContent.pdf), which can cause vasoconstriction, thus making you feel cold. This happens to me when I eat foods high in glutamate (either naturally occurring, or added MSG). The excitotoxic nature of glutamate can also affect mood and behavior.
As of this afternoon I've recovered to my low-normal baseline -- still too depressed/brain-fogged to work but not suicidal and nor feeling intense emotional pain. Wow I feel so much better. Here's what I think helped me:
- Before bed, I took 500mg tryptophan. I did take tryptophan the night before as well. Both times on empty stomach.
It seems likely that tryptophan actually helped me, because several times in the past, tryptophan has solved days/weeks of intense suicidal thinking / emotional pain within one or two nights, vs. other supplements like B6/P5P that did not. Be aware that contaminated tryptophan caused a deathly outbreak in the 1980's, and some people (e.g. Ray Peat) consider all tryptophan to be dangerous.
- I fasted for part of the day. In the past, I'd been afraid to fast, even for a day, but I noticed that eating yesterday seemed to make the emotional pain come back along with very minor gut discomfort and lack of appetite. Although I don't like fasting, it felt like the right thing to do for the day and may have helped.
- I did take 0.5g activated charcoal in the morning on both days, but I'm guessing this didn't make a difference.
- I did take a multimineral and B complex on the second day, but I'm guessing this didn't make a difference. Previous experimentation with zinc and B6, B12 has not an obvious short-term effect for me in the past.