<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I had an unusual experience last week, and I wonder if some of the
medical people who read this list can speak to it.

I took part in a taste test in the food science dept. here at Corell.
The point was to rate some solutions  as sweet, salty, bitter, or sour.
I don't worry as much as some people. or as much as I should, about
gluten content- I'm not diagnosd celiac and presumbly "just" allergic.
Everything was fine at first with some mildly sweet and salty mixtures,
then there were a few that were REALLY bitter.  OK. So I made a few bucks.

But I didn't get that taste out of my mouth for a couple of days and
felt really lousy the rest of the week as though I'd had a bad
wheat/gluten slip- diarrhea, achy muscles, depressed, crying and finally
migraine.  Then i kicked  myself for taking this blind taste test.  We
didn't swallow but sublingual absorption could have occured.   Inquiry
confirmed the bitter agent was PROP, propylthiouracil, which is a tasted
by half the population as a genetic trait.  The test was to see if tasters
experienced artificial sweeteners as bitter more than nontasters (I
didn't, but was  definitely a taster).  The graduate student running the
study said it was safe- FDA approved.

Well, I did a lttle web searching and found that it's FDA approved as a
as an antithyroid drug for the treatment of hyperthyroidism.

I  wondered, after seeing so many with thyroid problems on the list,
if there's a possible link  with the gluten-like symptoms I had and the
exposure to this thyroid medication.  Or could it be coincidence and
there just happened to be a simultaneous unexplained gluten source?

It was an  interesting but not a pleasant experience, for sure- I felt
ike a human guinea pig!   I'll be more careful about  what I put in my
mouth (I do read labels and stay away from gravies, sauces, and obvious
gluten traps, but haven't worried about clear colorless liquids except
vinegar and grain alcohol).  So please don't write to scold me, but
otherwise I'd be interested to know what the experts think about this.

Thanks,

Mary Thorpe/Mutschler lab
Dept. of Plant Breeding
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850