As we are working to achieve the proper dosing of amino acid therapy to correct a person’s underlying neurotransmitter imbalances some people experience transient nausea lasting 45-60 minutes periodically throughout the day. The underlying reason for this side effect is distinctly different from the GI upset/nausea some people experience at the initiation of amino acid therapy.
The cause of this transient nausea often has to do with food hypersensitivity or intolerance. During the optimization of neurotransmitter function, the body may begin to react differently to certain foods and this can cause nausea. Typically, the offending food is a grain-based carbohydrate; most of the time, it is a bread, cereal, noodle or cracker that needs to be identified and replaced. This usually does not indicate an intolerance to an entire group of foods (i.e., gluten-based grains), but typically is isolated to 1-2 foods within that food group (i.e., like a specific type of bread or cracker). Eliminating and replacing the offending food eliminates the nausea.
Examples of successful management of this carbohydrate intolerance include: changing from whole wheat bread to sourdough bread; changing from egg noodles to brown-rice noodles; changing from one cereal to another. At times, the identification of the offending food can be difficult and a food diary can be a big help.
For instance, we’ve seen a case where a gentleman using amino acids experienced nausea for about 45 minutes after lunch, but this only occurred on certain days of the week he was a work. After tracking is food for a week, it was determined that the breading on the chicken he was eating with most lunches was the culprit and when he changed breading, the nausea went away.
