Enjoying Full Remission by Managing Histamine and Its Triggers

Hello friends.

I had my first Menieres attack in 2019 which lasted about 20 hours. And it persisted from there with periodic attacks lasting 8-16 hours at a time for another year during which time I was officially diagnosed. Like all of you, I experienced the full range of emotions during that time with many fearful sleepless nights. I had great difficulty coming to terms with the thought that my business, my family life, my dreams and hopes were all headed down the toilet. And I just couldn't accept the “we don’t know and there’s little you can do about it” that I was getting.

For context, I have degrees in Biology and Naturopathic Medicine. While I left my practice many years ago to follow another career path, I witnessed first hand how foods and supplements could have a great impact on my patients’ quality of life. So finding myself in this dark place, I set to work on trying to figure out what was going on, at least for me, and how to “fix this”.

Many people will say “it’s the salt”. But it’s not enough for a lot of people and I could never understand the rationale. Yes, salt can make you retain water but how could it be limited to only a small area in your inner ear? Why is there no water retention anywhere else (pitting edema in the legs is the hallmark sign of water retention). Similarly, many people feel that there is a viral component to MD. And there may well be – but what was the mechanism behind the virus and the vestibular system issues? Does a virus directly attack the inner ear and only that? And again, this approach doesn’t work for everyone.

What I have come across, and it has made the most scientific sense to me, is that there is a histamine connection at play, whereby someone may just have way too much histamine in their system for a variety of reasons – viruses and dietary choices (including salt indirectly) included.

I enjoyed two full years of remission when I started experimenting with this. I then stopped the program for 6 months (to see what would happen) during which time the MD returned. I started being carful with my diet and supplements again and then had another two full years of remission. I can honestly say the MD is no longer preventing me from doing any activities I used to do (and I’m a super active, super busy person).
I wanted to share my research and my thoughts with this community so have created a document (nothing fancy) that outlines everything from the science, to the diet and the supplements that you may want to be taking. (I do make suggestions on specific supplements but I am not selling anything – this is for your information only.) I would suggest trying this program at least a month, as it takes time to turn things around, but you should start feeling better and better week by week.

Note: I don’t expect that histamine issues are the root cause of everyone’s MD, especially as in some cases it could be due to physical abnormalities but for those of you who have had all the tests and nobody can find any physical reason for this disease…..it is my sincerest hope that this may help some of you. And this is not a “cure” but a suggested means of managing your symptoms. I have no illusion that if I slip back into my old ways, my MD will return.

I would love to hear feedback from anyone who does give this a go. Right now I have created a web page where you can download the document but if the feedback is positive, I will go to the effort of building out a proper website as a more “polished” resource.

Check out: www.spindoctor.ca

Wishing you renewed health!

 

Hi Donamo!

I'm thrilled to hear your positive review as you are someone that has been very engaged in these forums with thoughtful, helpful and intelligent comments.

I'm super busy all the time so for breakfast (and often snacks) I just get some frozen blueberries or cherries (sometimes a few strawberries which I know are on the histamine bad list but I tolerate a few) and put that in my Ninja blender with a scoop of Unflavoured Whey Protein Isolate from Protein Co. (it's the only one I've found that is really pure with no added "natural flavour" (aka citric acid) crap in it. Then I add some ice to thicken it, some pure fibre powder (I can recommend brands if you want) because you can never have enough fibre and some Stevia sweetener and some Splenda (whatever, I'm not perfect).

What's key on this is that there are a lot of foods that are on the "Bad/Avoid" list but they may not be a problem for everyone. You have to figure out what you can tolerate. For example, for me the worst thing is citric acid and anything with citric acid (like lemons). I can eat wheat and drink milk no problem. However, it may be the opposite for someone else. So in the interest of "kick starting" this for people - I suggest just removing all potential bad foods and then you can experiment a bit, bringing in a food or food group one at a time (standard "elimination diet" protocol). But you have to get to a place of feeling good to really know.

And reading labels are critical. For example, this week I bought some turkey. Okay it was sliced turkey but I caved and it looked a whole lot less processed than the usual deli stuff. I ate it for a couple days and then I just started feeling like "Hmmmm.... is that a hint of pressure in my ear?" and then asked myself "what is new in my diet?". I looked to the turkey and read the label. Sure enough - they have added concentrated lemon juice. Deadly stuff for me. And I've seen this over and over that something new will be introduced that doesn't look like it has "offensive" things in it and only when you read the label do you realize what extras were hidden in there. As I mention in the document - citric acid triggers my MD for sure - and if you read labels... you will see it everywhere! But knowledge is power and I can avoid it generally speaking.

I didn't come up with the food lists entirely on my own. I combined lists from the research of other people, cross-referencing their lists. There is:

• The extensive pioneering work done by the Swiss Histamine Intolerance Group with a very comprehensive list: https://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/downloads/SIGHI-Leaflet_HistamineEliminationDiet.pdf
• The work of Dr. Becky Campbell, one of the pre-eminent voices on this
• The ladies of Histamine Haven who have also done their work of "researching the researchers" and you can refer to them at https://www.histaminehaven.com/
• Just from my own war with citric acid and knowing it is a potent liberator of histamine, I also cross referenced the standard histamine food list with with the lists of foods that are high in citric acid (there are similar forums and groups for citric acid intolerance out there that I check out and many people there talk about vertigo as being a symptom they experience with citric acid consumption but they haven't connected it to MD). Want to cover all the bases here....

I don't know exactly why most nuts are not allowed - you might be able to find that somewhere on one of the above sites. I don't pretend to know it all!

Hope this helps!

 

My friend - 100% thumbs up on that idea.... I live for ice cream! (Interestingly the higher the quality of ice cream the more "pure" and histamine approved it is! A true blessing!)

 

Hi Linda!

Thank you for the feedback! I know for sure that many people will think the diet is too much and they give up. But I've tried my best to let people know that it's not going to be every food there, forever. It's more like "follow as close as possible for a month or until you are feeling well and then experiment from there". There are lots of food on the "bad" list that I eat all the time because they don't trigger MD. But knowing that we all have different histamine triggers.... I can't just list my own. Better to be comprehensive and then cover all the bases for all the people to start. Then folks can do some trial and error experimentation on themselves and the only way to really do that is if you are feeling well again.

Anyway, it's like exercise - doing something is better than doing nothing. I am 100% on board with someone trying their best even if it is not perfect. "Don't let perfection be the enemy of good."

 

Oh, and I just want to be clear to those reading just in case.... DAO supplement is great but it only works on the food that you eat, in your gut, before any histamine gets absorbed into your body. Therefore you must take it with your meals (and not necessarily all of them, only ones which may have a bit more histamine in it per the list). and it's only half the battle because then there is histamine that is released INSIDE your body that the DAO doesn't access. That's where the other supplements come in to bypass or assist the biochemical processes that degrade histamine inside. I just don't want people thinking DAO is a miracle cure and getting discouraged if it's not enough. It must be part of a total approach.

Also, I'm glad that DAO is now becoming more mainstream. When I was studying Naturopathic Medicine (a long time ago), NOBODY in the regular medical profession was talking about things like probiotics for gut health, glucosamine for joint health, fish oils for heart health... except us NDs. Now it's everywhere, every time you turn on the TV.... so standard medicine has figured out, 20 years later, that these things have great merit. Right now this "histamine intolerance" thing is still unknown to the average MD.... but mark my words, in 20 years it will be a commonplace diagnosis. I suggest that folks not wait around till then to check this out!