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Critterina - how did you know that you were histamine intolerant? I'm very sensitive to particulate matter (pollen, pollution, dust); not sure if it's a histamine thing (no allergies) or something else.
thanks
Long story. I was very sick, starting December 2011. Five rounds of antibiotics killed the infection, but I was still sick for unknown reasons. I was on a list of meds for 10 months. Then I did an elimination diet and improved somewhat, but couldn't figure out exactly what it was that caused me to be well sometimes but not others. Then, 9 months later, someone here (I need to figure out who, to give credit) pointed me to an article called "Histamine and Histamine Intolerance" in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Maintz and others. It's list was very close to my own. Eventually I got up the courage to test the foods that they said were low in histamine, even though I thought I reacted to them. Here are the corrections to my list:
Good: oatmeal; bad: cinnamon (I always had them together)
Good: fresh dairy and dairy products made with rennet; bad: fermented, cultured, or aged dairy
Good: freshly cooked meat; bad: same meat the next day
I remember I cried the first time I used real cream (well, half-and-half) in my coffee after none for so long.
Reintroduction of these foods reliably made my symptoms return and removal of them caused my symptoms to abate. With this information, my allergist, who had earlier refused to test me for food allergies, reversed his decision. I was negative for the foods that cause me the most problems: Tomatoes, spinach, peppers.
Seven months later, I consulted my pulmonologist with the article and my symptoms. My pulmonologist (my symptoms are respiratory, while most people have GI symptoms) would have done a DAO activity test, but we didn't know any labs that offered it. In the end, he said that the reintroduction/removal of the foods consistent with relapse/abatement of symptoms was enough for a diagnosis.
I have introduced DAOsin (enzyme) at times when I was unsure, usually of a restaurant's ability to make food to my specification. It doesn't work as well as I expected. I also researched and selected some probiotics, but that hasn't had a lasting effect.
Just this week, I've used Betaine HCl and Ox Bile with meals and Swedish Bitters once a day between meals. That is one interpretation of the second step of the 4R gut rebuilding program. (The probiotics are step 3). Maybe I'm onto something. It seems good, particularly in regard to stool consistency. I think I should really post a journal of histamine intolerance recovery, but I'm well enough now that I have lots of other things going on.
Today I found that Trader Joe's carries several cheeses made with "microbial rennet". I asked and found that it's rennet enzyme produced by microbes (bacteria and fungi), but that the cheese itself is not exposed to the microbes. Hooray! Now there are cheeses that I can eat! They said they have 27 pages of information on cheeses and what kind of rennet or cultures they use in them in an Excel spreadsheet. The NICE fellow offered to sort the spreadsheet and print out which cheeses are made with rennet. My world is opening up!