How to know if you are histamine intolerant (plus cheese...)?

(Bob M) #1

Was reading this article about cheeses, and he discusses histamine intolerance:

How does one know one is or is not histamine intolerant?

I am trying to determine why after 7 years of low carb, I’ve had to start taking anti-histamines for seasonal allergies again. It could be related to what I’m eating. For instance, we’ve been eating fake pizza, with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese, every week now. Tastes great, but I wonder if this is hurtful in terms of histamines?

As for A1/A2 cheeses, I’ve tested goat cheese (A2 protein) with some of my lunches and I have to say if there is a detriment to this, I cannot find what it is.

(Bob M) #2

Found this:

Scored maybe 1 or 2 or 3 on it. This morning, I got up early, for instance. Not sure why. But also I worked the entire weekend on my house and getting our pool open, after it rained for 2 days straight. We used those 2 days to put our basement back together after moving everything out due to having a new heating/cooling system installed. My getting up early could be related to that.

(Edith) #3

I score a ten on that test.

I figured out I had a histamine intolerance maybe three years ago. I don’t remember the exact timing. I started getting heart palpitations after I ate certain foods. When I tried lower histamine that helped. There were other symptoms I had before going low histamine that I never really thought about, but they went away, too. My nose was always stuffed at night, and my right eye always watered. Why the right and not both? :woman_shrugging: It’s amazing how much we put up with not realizing the strange little symptoms we have are food related.

During my carnivore experiment, I started reacting terribly to beef: nausea, diarrhea, itching, racing heart, heart palpitations. I read that to make the enzyme we use to break down histamine, diamine oxidase (DAO), we need vitamin C and vitamin B6 (I think that’s the one). I was also dumping oxalate most of the time I was strict carnivore, so it’s possible the dumping caused the increased needs in those vitamins. Once I upped my B and C intake, the reaction to beef got much less. I also started taking ancestral kidney supplements before I eat, especially beef, since kidney contains DAO.

I know the reaction to the beef is not an allergic reaction because I can eat veal just fine. Beef is aged, veal is not. It’s sad, but grass fed beef is worse for me than the grocery store bought beef. I think the grass fed is aged longer.

The other thing that confirms in my mind that my reactions are histamine related is that if I take an antihistamine, it alleviates my symptoms.

One thing to point out. Anyone can have a histamine reaction if they overwhelm their system with histamine. So, it can be possible that a person produces a normal amount of DAO, but then they eat some salami, aged cheese, drink some wine or champagne, and then eat a dinner with fish that isn’t as fresh as they thought, and there you go, overwhelmed system. There are also a number of fruits and vegetables that either contain histamine, release histamine, or block the DAO. Many are foods we commonly eat on keto. It’s possible you are not histamine intolerant due to a lack of DAO but overwhelming your system. If you think the histamine intolerance is a possibility.