The body normally has histamine and it's a good thing. It is when you get to much of a good thing that problems occur. When your "cup over flows" it is often referred to as the "histamine bucket" overflowing. The Low Histamine Diet attempts to help understand which foods are high or low in histamine so the bucket doesn't overflow and symptoms creep in.
Living with HIT (Histamine Intolerance) isn't fun, but not knowing that is the cause of your problems is even worse. Doctors don't consider it when diagnosing you, it almost never figures into the equation, for two reasons: they weren't taught about it in medical school and it doesn't make money for the medical cartel. The second reason is why the first reason exists.
I've had issues with histamines all my life but didn't know it was histamines causing it. In doing my research for this blog I discovered the likely start where I encountered my first histamine issue, it was at birth. Check out My Story in the blog to learn about the difference in A1 and A2 milk and how it affects bottle fed babies vs. breastfed infants.
Only when I read the book, "Mast Cells United" by Amber Walker did I put the puzzle pieces together. The odd things that I had experienced throughout my childhood and into adulthood finally made sense.
All the elimination diets I'd tried and failed miserably weren't considering histamines. The bone broth, the fermented foods, the yogurt, it was more than this tired body could handle. I'd give anything to know what it felt like to feel "normal" since I've been struggling since birth, I wouldn't know. I'm closer now than I ever was before to healing my gut and my body, once and for all.
This video will explain a little more about histamine and how deal with histamine intolerance.
DAO
Two things that clean up the excess histamine. One is HMNT which cleans up inside your cells and DAO which mops up the excess histamine outside the cells. DAO is made in the gut and requires a healthy intestinal lining. The key nutrients are B6 and zinc to create a healthy gut lining and make DAO, without those histamine intolerance can rear it's ugly head. In addition, a deficiency in B6 and zinc could be related to an inability of the body to make heme cells, called pyroluria. (There’s a private Facebook group, Pyroluria, where you can find Trudy Scott and more information.)
DAO is found in pea shoot microgreens, pork, or beef kidney which are not usually on the menu. The key is to repair the intestinal lining so your body can make DAO, but in the meantime I'm trying to "mop up" the excess histamine and stay on a Low Histamine Diet.
SIBO/SIFO
I've had histamine related issues all my life, none really debilitating until I was dealing with SIBO/SIFO (Small Intestine Bacterial/Fungal Overgrowth), This is caused by bacteria that should be in the large intestines gets into the small intestines where it doesn't belong. The bloating, gas and pain can cause a lot of suffering, missed work and strained relationships.
I'd always had a love/hate relationship with food and SIBO made it that much worse. Just as I thought I was past the agony of SIBO then my histamine bucket spilled over and made a good night's sleep nearly impossible. I'd wake at 3 AM soaked in sweat, so much I'd have to change my nightgown before I could go back to sleep. Every couple of hours I'd be visiting the bathroom to empty what felt like a full bladder. Not getting enough sleep wasn't helping me heal.
Long Covid
Long Covid sufferers would most likely benefit from following a Low Histamine Diet. The histamine intolerance often is linked to an autoimmune condition that involves mast cells that go "rogue" and cause inflammation throughout the body. The symptoms are varied for each individual and because of the variety of symptoms makes it hard to diagnose.
Two ways to manage HIT is by eating more DAO foods, supporting your methylation cycle to keep the HMNT cleaning up the cellular histamine load and supplementing B6, zinc and quercetin.
Histamine Intolerance doesn't have to be a life sentence. The key is to heal the gut, introduce fermented foods and slowly re-introduce the offensive foods back into your diet. Before you get to excited and start your first fermented veggie listen to the podcast below.
My experience with attempting probiotics and/or fermented foods, especially when also suffering with SIBO, only made the bloating and pain worse. The key is to start with probiotics formulated for people with histamine issues. The strains of bacteria are not the ones that create more histamine, instead they are the "missing piece". These are the Bifido bacteria family that are normally populated at birth and during infancy, especially the breast fed babies.
The first step is healing the intestinal lining and balancing the microflora. Slowly introducing fermented foods and ultimately reintroducing the foods that once were problematic. This will take time, discipline and patience and is not a "magic pill". The reward is a love affair with food, instead of eating to live, I plan on living to eat. You?