A long story made short: About 20 yrs. back my diet as a student wasn't the best, so resorted to lots of cheap baked bean tins, bought tons of pasta and pasta sauce. In short, a diet filled with concentrated tomato sauce (albeit cooked). Over time, the skin in my mouth and "the other end" disappeared. My stools looked like a grease spot and smelled worse. Further, started having markedly increased, horrendously vivid hypnapompic hallucinations (sorry for the technical stuff...these are hallucinations that occur on waking from a sound sleep. In essence, REM dreams while awake. Not a pleasant experience). Anyway, I consulted a doc who basically was clueless and thought I must be nuts. Be that as it may, I started experimenting with food elimination and wha-lah, after dropping all tomato products for one week, tested my theorem and indulged in a bowl of pasta heavy on the tomato sauce. Within 15 min. of ingesting it, I had a very unpleasant sensation known as "a feeling of doom" i.e. thought I would die. It passed after a few minutes and I felt unwell for a few hours. Well, I got my answer...my body is NOT fond of tomatoes, particularly concentrated sauces such as barbeque sauce and pasta sauces. Fresh tomatoes however...no problem. I stopped all tomato products for almost 3 yrs. (not easy to do). My skin returned to normal within a few months, the bowels returned to normal and the hallucinations all but stopped. I gradually reintroduced some tomato products with no problems.
Ok...jumping to "today" at age 47 vs. 27, I started having GI problems with bloating, trouble getting in a full breath, nervousness and some incredible weirdness that made me think I was losing my mind.
Here's the Scenario:
Going along happily at home or work, then *suddenly* my sense of smell increases very sharply, my hearing is muffled and all this followed immediately by a sensation that my stomach and bowels have been jolted like what you all have experienced when an elevator drops. Then, light-headedness, knee-weakness and that "sensation of doom". It only lasts a few seconds but happens several times a day. Very nerve-wracking and destroys concentration. Makes the hair stand up on my neck. And get this...when the smell hallucination starts, and if someone is speaking, I can "foretell" exactly what will come out of their mouth before they say it (I'm a scientific sort so this has me totally weirded out).
Well guess what. It's the tomato again. I'd forgotten (ok, how dumb) about the episodes 20 yrs. earlier and had been bringing in pasta tins rich with tomato paste to work for months. So basically I was eating this stuff 5 to 6 days per week. I've since recognized the problem and stopped ALL tomato (and potato) for good this time. Hopefully, this will take care of it.
I am most surprised however that this food effected me neurologically. Anyone else ever have any weirdness like this before?? I can't consult an M.D. because they'd think I'm just nuts and after all I can "cure" this myself (thankfully). Sorry to make this so long...just really no one else out there who can vaguely understand this. Any insights or experiences from the neurologic side would be great.
