L-Arginine, an amino acid commonly found in most high-protein sources is touted as assisting with protein synthesis and cell division, it is often stated as being a precursor to Nitric Oxide production. Higher Nitric Oxide production leads to blood vessel dilation allowing for increased blood flow and better circulation. Other benefits include healthier Urea function, faster wound/injury healing and athletic performance improvement to name a few. On paper, these benefits seemed like they were worth the extra effort to increase my Arginine levels. I immediately stocked my kitchen with foods that had higher-than-normal Arginine/Lysine ratio, foods such as: Whole Grains, Nuts, Red Meat, Soy, Dark Chocolate, I also added an Arginine Supplement to my morning ritual.
I had been on an Arginine high diet for a couple of weeks and was definitely feeling stronger and more productive in the gym, I was less tired during the day and recovery time between sports felt improved. This may have all been placebo so I had no reason to stop the Arginine Experimentation. That was until, I woke up one more with a itch on the left hand side of my neck. Initially, I thought nothing of it, something had bitten me in the middle of the night, no big deal. The next day another bite! I fumigated my room and changed my bedsheets, that pesky critter had got me again, trick me once ... Day 3, the itch had spread up to my ear, I inspected the bites and they didn't look like ordinary mosquito bites. Additionally, I had a pounding headache localised around my left eardrum. I jumped online with the search string "insect bites on neck and ear". The search results all pointed at one conclusive answer "A spider had bitten me and crawled into my ear". Convinced that I was now a host to an arachnid that had decided to nest in my left ear drum, I headed to my local doctor.
"What seems to be the matter?" asks the GP, I boldly tell him that there's a spider in my ear and show him the bite marks that have led me to this conclusion. He smirks and takes a look in my ear and at the rash. "The good news is, there's no spider in your ear, the bad news is you have Shingles". For some reason when he mentioned Shingles I thought immediately about the First Fleet of Australia - and Scurvy. The Doctor reassured me that the symptoms of Shingles was not the result of a Vitamin C deficiency. "Are you stressed?", "Have you been getting enough sleep?" he asked. I was prescribed medicine and for the next two weeks endured some of the most testing physiological trauma on the left hand side of my upper body. Chicken Pox version 2.0. Ridiculous sensations of itch, unusual tingling, blinding flashes of pain and headaches that would cause my face to contort and twitch. I must reiterate, the flashes of pain are excruciatingly real.
Turns out, there have been reports of Shingles outbreaks as a side effect of high Arginine diets, particularly in the body building world. This explains how I managed to piss off the dormant Varicella-Zoster virus at such a young age. Again, this conclusion is on the back of sound online research tactics, the same tactics employed to help me reach my initial hypothesis of having a spider living in my ear.
[Update: I'm Shingles free and off the L-Arginine supplement.]
I had been on an Arginine high diet for a couple of weeks and was definitely feeling stronger and more productive in the gym, I was less tired during the day and recovery time between sports felt improved. This may have all been placebo so I had no reason to stop the Arginine Experimentation. That was until, I woke up one more with a itch on the left hand side of my neck. Initially, I thought nothing of it, something had bitten me in the middle of the night, no big deal. The next day another bite! I fumigated my room and changed my bedsheets, that pesky critter had got me again, trick me once ... Day 3, the itch had spread up to my ear, I inspected the bites and they didn't look like ordinary mosquito bites. Additionally, I had a pounding headache localised around my left eardrum. I jumped online with the search string "insect bites on neck and ear". The search results all pointed at one conclusive answer "A spider had bitten me and crawled into my ear". Convinced that I was now a host to an arachnid that had decided to nest in my left ear drum, I headed to my local doctor.
"What seems to be the matter?" asks the GP, I boldly tell him that there's a spider in my ear and show him the bite marks that have led me to this conclusion. He smirks and takes a look in my ear and at the rash. "The good news is, there's no spider in your ear, the bad news is you have Shingles". For some reason when he mentioned Shingles I thought immediately about the First Fleet of Australia - and Scurvy. The Doctor reassured me that the symptoms of Shingles was not the result of a Vitamin C deficiency. "Are you stressed?", "Have you been getting enough sleep?" he asked. I was prescribed medicine and for the next two weeks endured some of the most testing physiological trauma on the left hand side of my upper body. Chicken Pox version 2.0. Ridiculous sensations of itch, unusual tingling, blinding flashes of pain and headaches that would cause my face to contort and twitch. I must reiterate, the flashes of pain are excruciatingly real.
Turns out, there have been reports of Shingles outbreaks as a side effect of high Arginine diets, particularly in the body building world. This explains how I managed to piss off the dormant Varicella-Zoster virus at such a young age. Again, this conclusion is on the back of sound online research tactics, the same tactics employed to help me reach my initial hypothesis of having a spider living in my ear.
[Update: I'm Shingles free and off the L-Arginine supplement.]
