My personal theory about Carrageenan causing pain & inflammation

I'm not a scientist, so here's my personal theory as to why carrageenan affects some people, but not all:

Carrageenan is injected into tissue in medical-science experiments to determine if a medicine relieves pain and/or swelling.
  • Analgesics is tested with Lambda carrageenan as dilute carrageenan solution when injected subcutaneously leads to swelling and pain. (Carrageenan as Food Additive)
It would seem that carrageenan doesn't cause problems if one's skin/mucous membrane is intact. Otherwise carrageenan would have never been successful as an adult lubricant, however I do wonder if any ladies were more sore than usual after a more athletic-than-usual encounter, from using a carrageenan-based lubricant.

But what if someone's mucous membrane wasn't completely intact, such as stomach ulcers or Leaky Gut syndrome? Then the carrageenan could enter into the tissues of the stomach lining, or tissue of the intestine.

How did I come up with this carrageenan-IBS theory?


My "IBS" always happens in the exact same place, usually between 20 minutes - 2 hours after eating something. Once my 3rd GI told me I didn't sound crazy when I told him out of all the rule-out diets I'd done, with the only pattern I picked up on was commercial food had a higher chance of triggering an IBS attack. He explained that the only way I could figure out what I was sensitive to was to first establish that 100% whole foods kept the IBS away for a week or so―it did. Then I was to challenge myself with one commercial food at a time, writing down that food's ingredients if I suffered an attack.

It took a few months and lots of pain, but I finally figured out that carrageenan was my #1 IBS trigger (I also figured out that nitrites (chemical form, I tolerate celery & beets just fine) and Annatto are minor triggers, as well as something unknown in commercial broths, but none of these caused the extreme swelling and burning pain that carrageenan does).

So that's how I've come to suspect the same area that always swells/burns after eating carrageenan must be a Leaky patch. I've only recently found how to see whether I actually have a Leaky area in my gut lining, so I'll be requesting a Mannitol/Lactulose test next time I visit my GP.

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