Red wine. Aged cheese. Citrus fruits. Sauerkraut. Bacon. These foods are frequently consumed by those on a healthy whole foods diet, and are often found in a variety of Paleo-friendly recipes and meal plans. Even conventional doctors frequently recommend including many of these seemingly unrelated foods daily as part of a healthy diet. After all, even a raw vegan probably wouldn’t argue against eating foods like oranges, spinach, or cinnamon.
It may surprise you to learn that these and other popular foods are capable of causing numerous symptoms in certain people, including migraines, hives, anxiety, heartburn and GERD, and nasal congestion, just to name a few. If you’re experiencing strange reactions to certain foods that most would consider healthy, you may be suffering from a little known but not uncommon cause of food intolerance and disease: histamine intolerance.
Still having strange symptoms on a real food diet? You could be suffering from histamine intolerance.
Never heard of histamine intolerance? You’re not alone. This food intolerance is difficult to diagnose, has a multifaceted symptom profile, and is often confused with a variety of other conditions. Many doctors and nutritionists have never even heard of histamine intolerance, and often treat the symptoms without ever addressing the underlying cause. In my practice, I see it especially with headaches and migraines, skin problems and mental health issues. It’s a fairly common, yet poorly understood, food sensitivity.
Histamine Intolerance: Not Your Typical Food Allergy!
Deficiency in the DAO enzyme system, found in the intestinal mucosa, has been suggested as the most probable cause of histamine intolerance. (2) There are likely genetic variations in individual enzyme function, but when activity of either of these enzymes is insufficient, the resulting excess of histamine may cause numerous symptoms resembling an allergic reaction. Common symptoms of histamine intolerance include: (3)
- Pruritus (itching especially of the skin, eyes, ears, and nose)
- Urticaria (hives) (sometimes diagnosed as “idiopathic urticaria”)
- Tissue swelling (angioedema) especially of facial and oral tissues and sometimes the throat, the latter causing the feeling of “throat tightening”
- Hypotension (drop in blood pressure)
- Tachycardia (increased pulse rate, “heart racing”)
- Symptoms resembling an anxiety or panic attack
- Chest pain
- Nasal congestion, runny nose, seasonal allergies
- Conjunctivitis (irritated, watery, reddened eyes)
- Some types of headaches that differ from those of migraine
- Fatigue, confusion, irritability
- Very occasionally loss of consciousness usually lasting for only one or two seconds
- Digestive upset, especially heartburn, “indigestion”, and reflux
Histamine intolerance is unlike other food allergies or sensitivities in that the response is cumulative, not immediate. Imagine it like a cup of water. When the cup is very full (high amounts of histamine in the diet), even a drop of additional water will cause the cup to overflow (symptoms activated). But when the cup is less full, it would take more water (histamine) to cause a response. This makes histamine intolerance tricky to recognize.
In addition, histamine intolerance is closely related to SIBO and dysbiosis, which suggests that curing the latter may alleviate the former. Many integrative practitioners, including myself, believe that a primary cause of histamine intolerance is an overgrowth of certain types of bacteria that make histamine from undigested food, leading to a buildup of histamine in the gut and overwhelming the body’s ability to catabolize the excess histamine. This causes a heightened sensitivity to histamine-containing foods and an increase in symptoms that are commonly associated with allergies.
For more detailed information on histamine intolerance, including causes, symptoms, and treatment, check out this article by Dr. Janice Joneja, a Ph.D. in medical microbiology and immunology and former head of the Allergy Nutrition Program at the Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre.
What to Do If You Have Histamine Intolerance
Histamine intolerance can be a challenging diagnosis to manage, since many foods contain histamine and for some patients, their gut bacteria is producing the excess histamine that is causing the symptoms. Fermented foods are some of the biggest culprits, since even beneficial bacteria produce histamine during fermentation. In fact, reacting to fermented foods is a classic sign of histamine intolerance, especially if probiotic supplements are well-tolerated. Other foods that are high in histamine include:
- Seafood: shellfish or fin fish, fresh, frozen, smoked or canned
- Eggs
- Processed, cured, smoked and fermented meats such as lunch meat, bacon, sausage, salami, pepperoni
- Leftover meat (After meat is cooked, the histamine levels increase due to microbial action as the meat sits)
- All fermented milk products, including most cheeses
- Yogurt, buttermilk, kefir
- Citrus fruits – eg. oranges, grapefruit, lemons, lime
- Most berries
- Dried fruit
- Fermented foods: sauerkraut, kombucha, pickles, relishes, fermented soy products, etc.
- Spinach
- Tomatoes- including ketchup, tomato sauces
- Artificial food colors and preservatives
- Spices: cinnamon, chili powder, cloves, anise, nutmeg, curry powder, cayenne
- Beverages: Tea (herbal or regular), alcohol
- Chocolate, cocoa
- Vinegar and foods containing vinegar such as pickles, relishes, ketchup, and prepared mustard
Individual sensitivity varies tremendously. I have one or two patients that cannot tolerate any amount of histamine in food, and others that are only sensitive to the foods highest in histamine.
In order to improve your tolerance to histamine-containing foods, it is crucial to heal the gut and address any dysbiosis or SIBO issues that may exist. I recommend working with a qualified practitioner who can help you address any bacterial imbalance and create a treatment plan that is tailored to your needs.
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What Can You Eat on a Low-Histamine Paleo Diet?
You may be feeling overwhelmed by the list of foods to avoid – I don’t blame you! It can be especially challenging to eat low-histamine foods on a Paleo diet. There aren’t many resources available for this condition, and everyone reacts in their own unique way to excess histamine and certain high histamine foods. For example, a person may do fine eating berries and citrus fruits, but they may have horrible reactions to wine or sauerkraut. If you’re dealing with histamine intolerance, you will need to determine your own trigger foods, and reduce or eliminate them accordingly.
For help figuring out what to eat, those with histamine intolerance may want to check out my Paleo Recipe Generator. It contains over 600 Paleo-approved recipes, and allows you to exclude many high histamine foods from your meal plan, including fermented dairy, eggs, tomatoes, eggplant, fruit, certain spices, vinegar, alcohol, and seafood.
Of course, you’ll have to pay attention to whether or not the recipe contains cured meats like bacon or sausage, other spices like cinnamon or cloves, and certain fruits and vegetables like citrus and spinach. Some of these issues can be addressed by excluding fruit and pork from the meal plan, which isn’t necessary but can help make your low-histamine recipe search a little easier. You’ll still need to double check the ingredients of each individual meal, but this search function makes it much easier!
Once you’ve made your selections for foods to exclude, you can plan meals for a full day, a week, or simply find a recipe for a single meal. Even with a histamine intolerance, you can still enjoy many delicious Paleo recipes: Lamb Roast with Fennel and Root Vegetables, Beef Brisket with Mushrooms, Sourdough Buckwheat Pancakes, and even Chicken Pot Pie, just to name a few.
There are few other online resources for low-histamine meal plans, and most are not Paleo compliant. The Low Histamine Chef has a “Low Histamine Diamine Oxidase Boosting Recipe Book” which some people may find helpful, though many of the recipes contain less-than-desirable ingredients such as grains, legumes, and sugar. It’s important to focus on healing the gut and identifying your specific trigger foods in order to reduce symptoms without indefinitely following a strict low histamine diet. Just remember, individual results will vary!
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Hi Bel, I’ve noticed Skin Contact can create problems that way. I have trouble when I touch carrots! But by reducing the histamine load internally, it has greatly reduced the contact problem for me. Nevertheless, working with food like you do, it could be a big problem. I suggest also considering going off all gluten and/or dairy since those foods can exacerbate symptoms all by themselves. And consider too reducing your histamine bucket so to speak! Articles by Janice Jonega can help, as can the Low Histamine Chef.
Meanwhile, Doctor Kesser, your paleo diet generator just is not working for me. I have too many histamine sensitivities it appears to go paleo. I signed up and listed my dos and don’ts, and did not get much satisfaction.
I do much better preparing my own food plans. I do use beans as a necessary protein since I am sensitive to almost all other proteins, with a few minor exceptions–most of which I can handle only in small amounts.
I also eat a lot more vegetables than your generator includes. And don’t eat fried foods.
It was worth the try. I will use the paleo generator however to help a friend who just may be able to use it this month (i.e., before I cancel my subscription).
Hello everyone. I’ve been reading a lot of helpful hints on here. I am also confused. I have been suffering from a histamine intolerance for 8 years and it finally got realllly bad last summer. I went to some well known medical centers and they gave me tons of prescriptions that made me gain a ton of weight and I was very depressed. I have been eliminating histamine rich foods like alcohol, cheese, tomatoes, spinach, anything fermented, soy… tons of stuff. I still react though and I have terrible eczema all over my body. I also seem to react to extreme cold and warm after exercising. Last night I was itching my legs until they bled. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative medicine doctor in Northern VA? That would be great.
Meaghan,
I am sorry that I don’t know of a doctor for you but I can very much relate to the severe itching. For me, I have found that eliminating the high histamine foods (as you have done) didn’t help me much UNTIL I found out that I needed to freeze my prepared proteins (meats/anything with eggs in it) instead of just refrigerating them, as histamine is formed in them in fridge temps. I also learned that it is the egg whites that cause histamine to go up in our body. So I eat only the yolks and bake with only yolks. I also stopped using any soap on my skin and that has helped me so much with stopping the itching. It got so bad for me that I could not even take a quick shower with no soap without having itching all night and even the next day and night. My skin improved so MUCH not using soap on it and just rubbing in raw organic coconut oil or evening primrose oil in it after showers. I can even take baths again without itching at all. Since you have the problems with skin itching, you would want to stop using any processed products on your skin. For example, lotions come with too many processed and perfumed ingredients so just use coconut oil or organic evening primrose oil. One important fact I learned the hard way though is to make sure you do not use even organic raw coconut oil that has been aged/fermented during processing. (by just the method used) For me, I use the cheapest of the three coconut oils from Tropical Traditions. (no financial interest at all). It is not labeled organic but if you read about it, tells how it is organic but not certified because the cost of certifying would raise the cost of the product too much. It does not have any smell or taste of coconut oil. (the most expensive gold label gave me intense problems though, and smelled strongly of coconut) I love it, use it on my skin and cooking. Bottom line, this itching problem will get better and go away with time if keeping all chemicals and perfumes off of your skin, along with a low histamine diet.
Hi, I was just wondering if the foods mentioned can trigger a histamine response by skin contact only? I have suffered from atopic eczema since I was born but have only in the last year had a MASSIVE flair up. At one point 90% of the skin covering my hands was covered in eczema and pompholyx. I work as a chef and in some of the flour mixes we use there is cayenne and chilli powder, and my skin burns when I touch tomatoes. I know eczema is caused by histamine and so I was wondering if just touching the trigger foods can cause a reaction.
After reading up on this condition I have decided to stay away from histamine rich foods. I wish I had thought of this condition sooner as a trigger, just today I ate eggs for breakfast, cola at lunchtime and for dinner I had a spinach salad and have been suffering from hives and a headache since noon. I usually try not to self diagnose but for so long i have suffered from hives, itchy throat (especially when eating tomatoes, avocado, strawberries) gut aches and random bouts of dizziness and heart palpitations.
I seem to need to be off all meat and fish these days or I get a migraine–unless the meat is super fresh or I catch the fish and cook it immediately. Similarly all fermented foods are out for me, though I do tolerate small amounts of very fresh plain organic yogurt. Thus in my quest to have the protein I need to eat sans migraines etc., I have found certain beans are agreeable to me: garbanzos, navy beans, white beans and lima beans. I also do well with sorbitol free and sugar free dried coconut, fresh ground plain flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. I just discovered meanwhile that nigella sativa seeds (the seeds pan roasted on low and then ground) and tumeric are wonderful antihistamine agents as well as healing in general. I had a horrific headache from trying out eating some tofu yesterday, and then had the nigella and tumeric today and finally felt better almost immediately! Both these herbs are great against eczema too!!
I also use other antihistamine herbs in my diet as well as teas: raw garlic, ginger, basil, chamomile, rosemary, nettles, skullcap, yarrow.
Am in addition I have started combatting likely bacterial overgrowth in my small intestines (SIBO is a common cause for histamine sensitivity, esp. more extreme cases like mine) by using golden seal or oregon grape root or burdock (I rotate these), dandelion and licorice root (these two herbs do not agree with everyone with histamine sensitivity I hear but they do agree with me), cats claw, and wormwood.
Just to conclude, I think everyone is slightly different in what is good for them or not and how they can deal with/combat this histamine sensitivity and related issues. I believe we have to listen to our bodies and psyches since that really is the ultimate authority in these matters.
I’m afraid I can’t use the paleo diet suggestions re- the paleo recipe generator. I simply do not tolerate eating eggs, milk or meat well enough to go that direction–i.e., maybe once a week if I am lucky! And I certainly am not going to eat sugary or fermented foods. This means paleo is out for me even though I do eat a lot of veggies and avoid grains.
However I will suggest the recipe generator for a friend. I paid for a month’s worth of recipes, so hopefully he can make use of it. He too has SIBO–but without the histamine problem that I have.
Meanwhile, The Low Histamine Chef cited a study that showed that soaked, cooked and well washed beans do have anti inflammatory, anti histamine effects. Its just if you let them sit around too long, or cook overly long and don’t change the water enough that you run into the histamine problem. So I soak my beans roughly 4 to 6 hours instead of the traditional 8, wash the beans before adding in purified water to cook, then cook the beans for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, after which I drain the beans and wash them off before putting them into a covered container in the fridge. Works for both me and my fiancee.
We are both extremely sensitive to meat etc. so we are glad to have found a safe source of protein! That actually helps us.
One extra reason I think the beans are good for us is that the beans have copper in them–a mineral that those who are histamine sensitive are often low in.
An additional supplement that often is good for us to take a bit more of is vitamin B1.
I now take extra of both B1 and copper, and it seems to be helping me. Plus eat the beans!!
With the B1 it makes sense since it is used as an anti stress product even for plants when you transplant them!! And since stress is a killer for histamine sensitive folk, it all adds up!
Thus yoga, meditation, painting, listening to calming music, walking are all helpful for histamine sensitive people.
That and taking antihistamine, anti inflammatory herbs with my food as well as in teas and I am starting to feel a lot better. Certainly my ears are no longer white with eczema, a real plus!!
And as Yasmina of the Low Histamine Chef fame suggests, the thing is to work up to eating a more balanced diet rather than feel deprived with say just 5 foods forever! Even if some of the food is just in little bits, it helps with the healing. All in balance of course!
Bea
I have been working on eating a low histamine diet, and taming histamine reactions. Here are some blog posts that might help someone trying to navigate histamine intolerance: http://www.familyhomehealth.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-to-stop-histamine-reaction.html
http://www.familyhomehealth.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-menu-plan-for-low-histamine-low.html
Kristie, thank you for the links to your blog. It was interesting to read your recommendations, and they all seem great – except I was wondering about this line: ‘Cooked Broccoli-vitamin C can destroy histamine’.
Yes you are right, Vitamin C does combat excessive histamine levels. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1578094
However, heat destroys Vitamin C, so uncooked fruits and vegetables are better for people who suffer from histamine intolerance. It’s perfectly fine to cook broccoli (broccoli raw or cooked is a fantastic antihistamine food), however if you have a choice, and if you don’t mind the strong taste, eat the uncooked version.
In your Menu Plan for for a Low Histamine Diet, I wonder if you’ve checked blueberries, black-eyed peas, and the chickpeas in falafels for their effect on histamine levels? Berries and pulses are mentioned in a lot of histamine food lists, and I would be wary of them if I were you.
Your suggestions for watermelon and apples are perfect!
Thank you for sharing your information! I am still experimenting, and I actually don’t eat black eyed peas or chickpeas very much. Though, I didn’t have a really noticeable reaction to them (in small amounts). I have been following the low histamine chef online, and she discovered that just eliminating foods didn’t work for her. That is why she eats things like chickpeas because they are anti inflammatory, and I think she feels that eating anti inflammatory foods helped her more than just eliminating foods. Blueberries seem fine for me so far. I think that they are helpful for my liver which I feel is a huge piece of the puzzle- http://www.familyhomehealth.blogspot.com/2014/04/waking-too-early-and-liver-health-low.html. PS I was interested in the book I saw you recommended on some of the other comments. 🙂
I’ve heard that long ferments drastically reduce histamine levels, but I’m having trouble finding any good information on this. Do you know anything about histamine levels in fermented foods throughout the fermentation process? I seem to remember it having something to do with vitamin C as well…
Katie, according to the book ‘Dietary Management of Food Allergies & Intolerances: A Comprehensive Guide’ (Janice Vickerstoff Joneja. 1998. J. A. Hall Publications), ‘All foods subjected to microbial fermentation in the manufacturing process contain histamine.’
This basic tenet is confirmed in the book ‘Is Food Making You Sick? The Strictly Low Histamine Diet’ (James L. Gibb. 2014. Leaves of Gold Press.)
As Chris Kresser himself states earlier in this blog article, ‘Fermented foods are some of the biggest culprits, since even beneficial bacteria produce histamine during fermentation.’
I would assume that prolonging the fermentation process can only increase the histamine levels.
Thanks for your comment, Sue. Maybe I was unclear. I do know that fermented foods contain very high histamine levels–higher than any other foods from what I know.
I have seen in various places that long ferments (over 30 days) can actually drastically reduce histamine levels, somewhat counter-intuitively. In another discussion of histamine-intolerance, one person said that though they are highly sensitive to histamine-containing foods, they tolerate long ferments quite well.
I’m wondering if anyone has seen any actual information regarding histamine levels throughout the course of a ferment or whether anyone knows why long ferments are occasionally tolerated by those with histamine-intolerance. Thanks!
I see what you mean now, Katie. Sorry, I read your post wrongly. There is some interesting information here on the topic of fermentation actually degrading histamine under certain circumstances:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9562873
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9678172
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10552691
It is possible that your cold allergy could be an autoimmune disease. If so it might possibly be helped by fixing the leakiness of you gut
If urine histadine is low in a urine amino acids test but almost all other amino acids are low (except ammonia), does this mean that histamine intolerance is ruled out? Blood histamine is normal as well.
Histamine intolerance is extremely difficult to test for, Terri. Unlike, say, blood sugar levels or cholesterol levels, it is a tricky one for pathology labs to pin down. The best way to diagnose histamine intolerance is to undertake a really strict low histamine diet for a few weeks. If your symptoms subside, you know you’ve found the culprit.
I do not seem to have chronic HIT. I can often eat many histamine rich foods. I am guessing something(s) are a trigger. For me at least there seems to be a possible link between high fat consumption and HIT.
This could include fats from nuts and seeds too (including coconut). I have been high fat VLC for the past 30 days on those sources plus fish oil. Felt good at first but then started feeling sick.
Is it possible I am not fully digesting my total fat intake? Not interested in taking enzymes just so I can eat excessive amounts of fat (+100 grams/day). I’ll just eat some starches and call it good.
Is it possible that VLC high fat is just not for some people? Or perhaps less than optimal liver function/enzyme production could play a role?
My gut feels inflamed after 30 days of my current diet (as mentioned above). This seems to correlate with when HIT became an issue again.
This is also very interesting:
http://paleohacks.com/questions/509479/is-high-fat-consumption-the-reason-for-so-many-pal.html
Hi Rob, I think you may be onto something with this. Ever since I started increasing my fat from coconut oil I have had a lot more intolerances. I know there’s some people who think coconut oil may in fact be bad for the liver, which would make sense – if its clogging up the liver then there’s less room to detox histamine?
You could try quitting fat for a few days and do some veg juice fasting…see if it clears things up a bit.
This is very interesting! I have had some liver struggles, and histamine struggles, and I have sometimes suspeced that too much coconut oil aggravates things. I wrote a blog post on how I am working on improving liver function: http://www.familyhomehealth.blogspot.com/2014/04/waking-too-early-and-liver-health-low.html
Many of the foods on this list also contain Tyramine which can cause a hypertensive crisis for individuals taking an MAOI. Could it be possible that a person who is sensitive to Histamine be sensitive to tyramine as well (or vice versa)?
I’ve found that to be true – I am also sensitive to glutamine (from protein shakes, bone broth etc).
Had an intolerance to histamines beat for over a year, then I got 40lbs. of frozen salmon for dirt cheap from the one of the warehouses here in Salmon Bay (Ballard area of Seattle). I know its cheap because it is past its date when they will use it. Still very much safe to eat EXCEPT it is going to be really really high in histamines. Should of thought of that one. I was beginning to shake that off then came berry season and Green Pasture Skate Liver Oil. Pushed over the edge again! My symptoms are inflammation in the face and joints, red patchiness on the face, and a general feeling of being poisoned. Feels like all my cells are just wanting to burst apart. Total crappiness and major fatigue. Back to square one! LOW TO NO histamine diet. Hopefully I can get back out of this again them slowly introduce some low histamine foods, but probably avoid the high ones altogether. What gives? How do you get rid of this permanently?
Thanks,
Rob
Hi Rob,
I think we all feel your pain! But compared to people with problems such as diabetes or bowel disease, Histamine intolerance sufferers are very fortunate, in that we actually have quite a bit of control over our symptoms.
We *can* get rid of our symptoms permanently, but only if we are reasonably vigilant about what we eat. And that’s not to say that we have to be on a low histamine diet forever! Not at all!
All we have to do is keep the contents of our ‘histamine bucket’ below the level at which it overflows. Which means we *can* eat high-histamine foods, as long as we take appropriate precautions, such as keeping up our supplements (as described in the book ‘Is Food Making You Sick?’), not overdosing on histamine-containing foods, avoiding allergens that contribute to histamine overload, etc.
The good news is that yes, we can eat salmon and delicious berries and gourmet oils, and we don’t have to suffer for it as long as we follow the rules laid down by our histamine-intolerant bodies.
For me personally, this is a small price to pay for feeling great! Good luck with getting better, and I hope you will get to a point where you can enjoy that salmon with no ill effects.
Sue
http://www.low-histamine.com/
So, i did one week of low histamine diet… and feel like new born. And when i look back, i probably had this since a long time, but the symptoms were like panic attacks in my 20s, tachycardie in my 40s, and these mood swings lately, with periods of being extremely exhausted. But it was always this underlying feeling of my body fighting against something, and this feeling is gone since i am on this diet. What a revelation. Very interesting seems the histamine-progesterone-xenoestrogen connection.
Isn’t it great, Maria, how the diet worked so quickly for you. With most people it only takes about week to feel the benefits (with others it can take a few weeks). We all feel so happy for you! What a relief, to have found the answer at last. 🙂
Blood pressure drop and dizziness my only symptom? Hello, I am confused about the symptoms of histamine intolerance as the list of symptoms is long and varied. I am a healthy person and my blood pressure is typically around 115/75. However, when I eat certain foods (Hi histamine foods) my blood pressure drops rapidly to around 65/55 and I feel dizzy. It is possible that I get a little flushed across my cheeks and my ears turn red but I am not certain of that. When my blood pressure drops it occurs while eating or immediately afterwards and after a few hours I feel fine and my blood pressure is normal again. I don’t tend to get headaches, my nose does not get runny, my breathing remains fine, no rashes, etc… I Just have the blood pressure drop. If I am histamine intolerant could I just have the blood pressure drop or would I have to also have other allergic type reactions? Thanks for the help.
Bill, people with histamine intolerance may suffer only one or two of the symptoms listed, or *all* of them. That’s what’s so confusing about the condition, and why it’s hard to diagnose. Your symptoms sound like classic histamine intolerance. Have you tried going on the diet for a couple of weeks? It can’t do you any harm and if it *is* HT that you have, you will feel the benefits enormously. And of course you can gradually reintroduce histamine foods into your diet after you get better.
Here’s the link to the diet book again: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Making-You-Sick-Histamine/dp/1925110508
Great article. Glad to read from Chris more on this very little known subject. Would love Chris to keep writing on this. What does it take to solve the problem. I am following a strict low histamine diet but still need to understand how to heal the underlying problem. I can’t do bone broth or any fermented foods which seem pivotal in healing. I stick to veggies grass fed beef, lamb pastured chicken if I can find it. Just cut out coffee and am dying. I can’t do even my iced green tea. So frustrating. We live in a society that a lot of the focus is on food. Chris can you please speak to how to heal the gut when you have histamine intolerance? I cannot tolerate fermented cod liver oil either.
Sharon, and others… There are ways to heal histamine intolerance! There is a method called NeuroModulation Technique (NMT) which can have the body repair such things as enzyme deficiencies and balance gut flora.
For example, your body is accustomed to the gut flora you were born with. Anything else that is introduced may be eliminated because it’s not “normal” to YOUR gut, even if it’s numerous strains of beneficial probiotics. NMT helps with this.
I suspect that people with histamine intolerance have also had some big stresser in their life prior to the intolerance showing up. If the body system or enzymes stay in that stressed mode – even if other parts of the body do not appear stressed – then an imbalance appears after a while.
Give NMT a try. It worked for me with food and seasonal allergies (which I know is different than histamine intolerance), but it can work with that too. http://www.nmt.md. You will soon find you can eat those histamine containing foods!
Hello, i LOVE most of the foods high in Histamine, like old cheeses, fermented foods… and never had any problem of histamine intolerance. Last week i went in a herbal store to get something to improve my pre-menopausal mood swings, and they gave me Griffonia (5-htp) and praised it. So, after some days, the symptoms appeared. I took only a very small dose, like the equivalent of 50-100 mg 5-htp per day. Is this possible??? I stopped it, hopefully the skin problems will disappear soon…
Forgot to mention: the symptoms are severe urticaria and itching all over the body… i prefer my mood swings;)
Now my question: the urticaria is better, i took a anti-histamine yesterday (cetirizin), and an hour after taking it, i felt like a layer of dizziness and heaviness was taken off my brain i carried around for some decades. A wonderful feeling. I have the impression, i compensated a histamine intolerance in neurological ways. Will my serotonin level rise, when i lower the histamine level (through diet)?
Can someone tell me the role of the DAO gene mutation and mast cell or histamine issues with food or sensitivities to allergens (without actually being allergic according to allergy testing)? I tested homozygous for the DAO gene mutation and am wondering what it has to do with gut DAO. Thanks!
Thank you for this article. I found it because I am confounded as to why I cannot tolerate fermented foods or any (tried) form of probiotic supplement, along with many foods that ended up on the histamine list. My reaction is occasionally skin related, at times will manifest as tummy distress, but is more regularly…and distressingly – to me…emotional. Even the smallest amount of citrus, citric acid, or fermented sauerkraut, for example, causes manic episodes of rage and weeping in an otherwise gentle, quiet demeanored me. Thoughts? I would be so grateful for knowledgeable assistance. (I know I have a permeable gut and am dealing with some bacteria in there as well…what is the best and most effective path toward healing?)
Hi,
I definately have SIBO, and have suffered skin rashes, and itching for years. My SIBO is pretty severe (much burping, bloating), and recently ive started having weird standing-only tachycardia – very intermittantly, combined with chills, itchy, and runny nose – noteably when I have eaten histamine effecting foods, like cheeze, or chocolate, or energy drinks. Now my doctors are looking at all the angles there (ECG totally normal), but it seems like this would fit, very very well.
My issue is this, I am going to trial a low histamine diet, but I am having trouble already managing my SIBO. Ive been using no sugar yogurts (oops!), coconut oil, cranberry juice, and oregano (as a herb on food), and these help – but how do I find that one two punch, in a low histamine diet that will hold my SIBO at bay as well?
I could really use some educated advice, and so few people know anything much about either SIBO or histamine intolerance….
I deeply appreciate any advice you can offer, even if brief!
Humbly,
Jamie
Jamie,
As I’m sure you know, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and Histamine Intolerance require very different diets. SIBO is treated with a low carb diet, while the HIT diet allows unlimited carbs. It would be impossible to follow both dietary regimes simultaneously.
There is an answer to this dilemma. Dr Amy Myers of Mind Body Green writes, ‘The standard treatment for SIBO is an antibiotic called Xifaxan. Because Xifaxan is not well absorbed throughout the body, it mostly stays in the gut and is very effective against SIBO.’
To heal your HIT, follow the Strictly Low Histamine Diet, http://www.amazon.com/Food-Making-You-Sick-Histamine/dp/1925110508 while taking Xifaxan to heal your SIBO.
Good luck,
Sue
http://www.low-histamine.com/
There’s also the option of an elemental diet to kill off the SIBO.
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I’m immensely glad I found this article. For a few years now I’ve been struggling with histamine intolerance. I’d already come to realize that the addition of caffeine and green tea into my normal life regimen had contributed to my histamine issues–presumably because of its DAO blocking capacity. Whenever I drank it, I could feel those nasty histamine sid effects. But I hadn’t come to realize until this article that the addition of a probiotic around the same time might have contributed to a histamine intolerance from a bacteria overgrowth. Sometimes I’d pop two of those probotics and think nothing of it. I’ll promptly be cutting out the green tea and caffeine in conjunction with giving the probiotics a break to see if my tolerance balances itself out.