Quote Originally Posted by KimInGA View Post
Holy cow, I looked up histamine intolerance and I found every one of the symptoms that have been bothering me: fatigue, runny nose, headaches, sleep disorders, low blood pressure, nausea, bloating, constipation. It would make perfect sense too, because I've felt like the symptoms were always there but got WORSE after switching to a primal diet. Since I replaced the ~30% of my diet that used to be grains with primal foods, many of which are on the high-histamine list (bacon, aged cheese, nuts, many fruits/veggies), this theory makes perfect sense.

I started furiously googling and it seems like every list of high-histamine foods is different! They all seem to agree on alcohol, smoked/canned/processed fish/meat, sauerkraut, aged cheeses, balsamic or red wine vinegar, aged soy products, chocolate, peanuts, walnuts, strawberries, citrus, tomatoes, eggplant, spinach, avocado, mushrooms, canned/prepared veggies, coffee and black tea. However beyond that it is a crapshoot. Some list all berries, yogurt, spices, chicken, coconut, all nuts, pork, eggs, shellfish, milk or dry-aged beef. I wish I could find a list of the actual amount of histamine in each, because I don't know what I'd be left with if I cut out every single thing I found on every high-histamine list. The only things I can think of are butter, coconut oil and certain few fruits/veggies!

I did order a quercetin supplement though ...
Hey! I'm glad you've ordered that quercetin supplement.

High histamine has several causes (often in combination) other than classical allergic reactions:
1. Leaky gut letting more histamine into the blood stream - there's a positive feedback loop here because if you have high histamine (i.e. you are histadelic) your body excretes excessive amounts of watery mucous - hence the gut lining is weaker and permeable to nasties like lectins (e.g. gluten and casein). It is also likely that you produce excessive amounts of saliva (lack of dental decay is an indicator). You may also suffer from interstitial cystitis due to a compromised lining of the bladder - I've had this from the age of 6, and reducing intake harmful lectins and phytic acid seems to have eliminated it. I had an acute episode that lasted 4 months or so during my love affair with wholegrains, during which I was in constant pain.
2. Mast cells release histamine more readily than average - this can be exacerbated by dry indoors environments with an excess of positive ions triggered by electronics and computers.
3. The body being slow to break down histamine due to reduced DAO activity. DAO is the enzyme that breaks it down.
4. The effects can be amplified by having overly sensitive histamine receptors. Also, there's a synergistic effect between oestrogen and histamine.

I was led up the garden path because there are a lot of genuine allergies on one side of my family. However, a major difference is that I have hayfever and eczema but not asthma and my relatives who have a strong allergic reaction to long-haired animals have asthma but not eczema or hayfever. The high histamine comes mostly from the other side of the family, but possibly from both sides.

I doubt that it's allergic hayfever with me though - I react strongly to any airborne particles - be they dust, pollen or diesel fumes. That's due to the thinner mucous lining in my nasal passages.

Anyway, don't get too disheartened by the list of high histamine foods to avoid. I discovered the high histamine problem about a month before I discovered paleo diets. A year or so later I can consume a lot more food high in histamine without triggering much cattarh at all. I'm currently eating left-over cold risotto with prawns and manchego cheese with a glass of rose wine and no symptoms. However, I found that 8 months or so eating a low-histamine diet really helped... so it's worth doing. I'd been eating a low-yeast low-sugar diet before which helped but was clearly not the whole story.

And more good news is that you may not have any genuine food allergies at all.

Other symptoms of high histamine are being a high achiever, phobias, addictive personality, warm hands, being artistic, sensitivity to mercury poisoning (being an under-methylator), a photographic memory, a family history of mental disorders, cancer and suicide.

BTW coffee is a strong anti-histamine which works great for me - it also helps keep blood pressure up. Just avoid the green stuff. That gave me massive symptoms but at least it helped get me on to histamine intolerance. Green tea is good though and a good alternative to black.