Effect of Systemic Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) on Headache and Pericranial Muscle Sensitivity
- 1Department of Clinical Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
- 2Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
- 3Department of Clinical Oral Physiology, Institute of Odontology, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
- 4Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
- Lene Baad-Hansen DDS, PhD, Department of Clinical Oral Physiology, School of Dentistry, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 9, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. Email: lbhansen{at}odont.au.dk
Abstract
We conducted a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover study to investigate the occurrence of adverse effects such as headache as well as pain and mechanical sensitivity in pericranial muscles after oral administration of monosodium glutamate (MSG). In three sessions, 14 healthy men drank sugar-free soda that contained either MSG (75 or 150 mg/kg) or NaCl (24 mg/kg, placebo). Plasma glutamate level, pain, pressure pain thresholds and tolerance levels, blood pressure (BP), heart rate and reported adverse effects were assessed for 2 h. No muscle pain or robust changes in mechanical sensitivity were detected, but there was a significant increase in reports of headache and subjectively reported pericranial muscle tenderness after MSG. Systolic BP was elevated in the high MSG session compared with low MSG and placebo. These findings add new information to the concept of MSG headache and craniofacial pain sensitivity.
Article Notes
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- Received November 25, 2008.
- Accepted March 1, 2009.
- © International Headache Society 2009. Published by SAGE. All rights reserved. SAGE Publications
