Well, what a hypocrite I am

[jbrohlr]

Hello all,

Seems like every time I post I am warning people to read the ingredient list on products. I have been trying to find a safe toothpaste to use (been using bentonite clay and baking soda). I ended up buying a generic version of Sensodyne and, although I made sure there was no xanthum gum or xylitol I did not consider all the other inactive ingredients. I used it about 4 days ago and the next day my stool was pretty soft - made me a little suspicious.

I tried it again this morning and four hours later I was in the bathroom with WD. While sitting there I racked my brain for potential suspects and the only thing I could come up with was the toothpaste. I pulled the box that tube came in out of the trash and scoured the inactive ingredients (stannous fluoride is the active ingredient) and came up with 3 possibilities:

cellulose gum
sodium saccharin
flavors??

I'm sure it is at least one of these ingredients that caused my diarrhea (unless stannous fluoride is also a troublemaker for MC). I found several posts on this site that warned off of both cellulose and sodium saccharin.

My only question is, I was careful not to swallow any toothpaste, and I bent forward to keep gravity from pulling a small amount down my esophagus. So, I am wondering which is the likely problem:

1. No matter how hard you try, some toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. will trickle down into your gullet, or...
2. Just having an immune triggering substance in your mouth is enough to set off the alarm, so to speak.

I'm leaning toward cause #2, considering how fast I reacted (just 4 hours from cause to effect - new record for me, I think).

If anyone has had a similar experience I would like to know.

John R.

[tex]

Hi John,

I haven't had that problem personally, but since I'm seriously histamine sensitive, I'm somewhat familiar with issues of this sort. So here's my opinion:

This doesn't apply to all MC patients or even most of us, but it applies to a few of us, and those of us who have histamine sensitivity are much more likely to react to sodium saccharin. But we don't have to be histamine sensitive to react to sodium saccharin, because that seems to be a problem for more than a few MC patients, In general.

Artificial sweeteners (including saccharin) have been shown to trigger mast cell mediator release in some people. It can trigger mast cell degranulation in susceptible people, increase the release of histamine, prostaglandins, and other mediators, and it can so without involving IgE (which would trigger a classic allergy reaction). If it involved IgE, we would probably react within somewhere between a few seconds to 10 or 15 minutes.

My gluten reaction time is somewhere around 4 or 5 hours after exposure, and I believe that's relatively common, so I'm guessing that the reaction against saccharin is an IgA reaction (similar to gluten) caused by exposure of the epithelial lining of the mouth (which is part of the digestive tract) to saccharin. At least, those are my thoughts.

Tex

[jbrohlr]

Thank you Tex, everything you pointed out certainly rings true.

A few years before my initial flair (in 2021) I realized that I had a problem with sugar alcohols. I would eat some manner of "sugar free" baked good and then sometime later I would have a brief stint of diarrhea. I developed a histamine intolerance about 7 months ago as well (suspect I had it well before that - it just wasn't as obvious).

So, I guess it's back to bentonite and baking soda, although I saw a recipe for bentonite and coconut oil on this site that I think I will try.

Thanks again,

John R.

[tex]

Here are a few brands that have much safer (MC-friendly) ingredients. Have you tried (or ruled out) all of these?

RiseWell Mineral Toothpaste

MooGoo Skincare Natural Toothpaste

Ollie Clean Mint Toothpaste

TheraBreath Sensitive Toothpaste

ATTITUDE Fluoride‑Free Sensitive Toothpaste

Tex