Supplements’ Side-Effects

Supplements side-effects are usually searched by many of those deciding to try something and should be approved by doctors or dietitians, who can provide additional information too. As we’re reacting differently, some of us may get more unusual reactions, sometimes hard to explain.

I will to get to the point I’m trying to make first, so you’ll know what to expect in this post, and thereafter I’ll explain. So the “punchline” is that glutamine can contribute to migraine headaches. Headaches and dizziness are mentioned as possible supplements’ side-effects, but seems to be more to this.

I recently tried to use some supplements that Functional Medicine claims are very beneficial for autoimune diseases, and L-glutamine was one of them. Starting more than one supplement at the same time may prove problematic to differentiate which one exactly may be responsible for new symptoms. That’s why waiting about two weeks after starting unflavored collagen powder seemed to me a reasonable interval.

Gradually, I experienced more dull headaches with the unusual pattern of feeling really sleepy and tired for a few days, culminating with a migraine. This happened a few times, especially after I changed to a different brand with more collagen proteins per scoop. Initially I didn’t think they were supplements’ side-effects, but there was a definite change.

I made what I would call tremendous progress improving my migraines after eliminating, as much as feasible, my exposure to estrogen-mimicking chemicals. Now I get them rarely, but any change in their pattern challenges me to identify the possible triggers. Thats why I’m puzzled when I get one and can’t explain it.

People dealing with this condition know some basic advice that migraine headaches can be avoided by maintaining regular sleep-wake patterns and proper hydration; avoidance of artificial sweeteners (aspartame), additives like MSG, some condiments, excessive caffeine, perfumes, and certain types of foods—like wine and aged cheese (because of their tyramine content).

Beside, there are certain fresh fruits and vegetables that can play a role and these are very different from person to person. I pretty much learned what triggers mine and I didn’t use any of them, which puzzled me even more.

And then it dawned on me, that as far as I was concerned, maybe these migraines are actually supplements’ side-effects. Possibly, glutamine behaves in my body in a way similar to monosodium glutamate (MSG), a known migraine trigger. Their structures are related and maybe people prone to migraines have a different way of handling this supplement, they metabolize it differently.

Aspartic acid, together with phenylalanine, are used in synthesis of the artificial sweetener aspartame, another migraine trigger. Moreover, glutamic acid and aspartic acid are incorporated in many hydrolyzed protein supplements, including collagen. 

Of course, aspartic and glutamic acids are part of the meats and other proteins we eat, but I always believed our body handles them differently when we obtain them foods compared to supplements. For now stopping the L-glutamine and collagen supplements seems the reasonable thing to do. I will probably restart collagen after monitoring the situation for a few weeks. In the meantime, grass-fed bone broth as a collagen source seems a good option.

Quercetin is another anti-inflammatory supplement raved by Functional Medicine and I started that at a lower dose. Apparently it helps against allergies and some infections as well. I found some research (in animal models), suggestive that combining higher does of quercetin and estrogens produced breast tumors, while quercetin alone didn’t.

For people naturally producing estrogens, taking birth-control pills, or other estrogen supplementation this may be a concern. Not my case, (but I stopped quercetin for now anyway). However, most of us are unknowingly exposed to foreign estrogens through synthetic chemicals. Removing them from my daily routine helped my migraines as well as other tissues sensitive to estrogens (breasts). Some exposure can occur through natural foods (soy) and excessive essential oils (lavender and tea tree oils).

Other similar supplements’ side-effects are linked to the famous resveratrol. Used as anti-aging and antioxidant, resveratrol can mimic estrogen hormones, that’s why I decided not to take it. Just to illustrate how different our metabolisms are, resveratrol can  behave as pro- or anti-estrogen, depending also on the dose.

Elysium supplements have a small amount of pterostilbene in one of their products (50 mg, while the maximum daily does would be to not exceed 250mg). The amount in 100 grams (about 3 oz) of blueberries is between 99 and 520 ppm—parts per million, meaning a thousand times less. Considering that pterostilbene is a cousin of resveratrol, I decided to try organic blueberries powder instead of supplements. Although I enjoy them as fresh or dried fruits, blueberries seem to make me feel bloated.

To conclude this post, I think people experiencing more headaches or migraine sufferers who use L-glutamine or protein and/or collagen supplements, should be aware of all these possibilities. If my findings don’t apply to some (or many), all the better. But if they do, removing possible triggers can spare them some suffering.