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Histamine intolerance - signs and prevention.

It would seem that food is what the body desperately needs to replenish nutrients. But in some cases, food intake causes a riot in the body, which manifests itself in very painful symptoms. This rejection of certain foods by the body is called intolerance. Unlike allergy, which is a reaction of the immune system to substances that are considered foreign, intolerance is directly related to the digestion process and is due to the absence of a certain enzyme involved in the breakdown of food (digestion) to the components necessary for the body. Food intolerances take various forms, depending on the lack of a specific digestive enzyme, such as gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance. These are the most well-known types of intolerance in medical practice, but there is another type of intolerance - histamine intolerance, which is mistakenly considered as an allergic reaction to certain types of food and is referred to as food allergies. In fact, histamine intolerance is not associated with the reaction of the immune system, but is triggered by the absence in the body of an enzyme responsible for the digestion of histamine (Diamine Oxidase).

Signs of histamine intolerance are manifested by symptoms similar to both dyspeptic disorder and allergic reaction:

diarrhea,
bloating,
skin rashes like hives,
itching of the mucous membrane in the mouth,
runny nose,
cough.

Unlike an allergic reaction, which can be stopped with antihistamines, histamine intolerance does not have the right drugs to provide first aid and eliminate unpleasant symptoms. To establish the exact cause of the body's inadequate response to certain foods is possible only through differential diagnostics, which draws the line between food allergies and histamine intolerance. A therapist, allergist and gastroenterologist are engaged in this kind of diagnostics, who exclude diseases similar to the symptoms of histamine intolerance, and thus reveal the true cause of the development of painful phenomena associated with food intake. Since there is no drug therapy to treat histamine intolerance, therapeutic treatment of this phenomenon is reduced to the exclusion of products containing histamine from the diet forever. Obvious foods with histamine content include bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, red wine, certain types of cheese, smoked products (meat and sausages, fish, seafood), sauerkraut, and chocolate. Most histamine-rich foods are obtained by fermentation of lactic acid bacteria or fungi. Histamine can be found in many semi-finished products if their storage conditions have been violated, for example, it is formed during the souring of the product obtained by fermentation of lactic acid bacteria or fungi. Histamine can be found in many semi-finished products if their storage conditions have been violated, for example, it is formed during the souring of the product obtained by fermentation of lactic acid bacteria or fungi. Histamine can be found in many semi-finished products if their storage conditions have been violated, for example, it is formed during the souring of the product.

It is recommended to replenish the list of foods that implicitly turn out to be among those that cause specific symptoms due to the content of histamine in them, it is recommended to independently, with the help of the so-called "search diet", when every four days from the usual diet they begin to exclude foods presumably causing intolerance histamine. Due to the fact that the signs of histamine intolerance can be delayed in time, that is, they do not appear immediately after eating, but after hours and days, then the exclusion of products with suspicious properties is carried out after 1-4 days. If, with regular use of a product, symptoms appear that are similar in combination with the listed signs of histamine intolerance, the products are alternately excluded from the diet for several days (for example, for a week), and then reintroduced into the diet, if painful symptoms persist. Those products, which are associated with the disappearance of painful symptoms, are not returned to the diet. In this way, the methodological enumeration and exclusion of foods from the diet replenish the list of implicit foods associated with histamine intolerance.

The search diet can be very effective if, while observing it, you keep a food diary with a description of the diet, symptoms, excluded and returned foods. Analysis of entries in the food diary in a month will make it possible to summarize and clarify foods that cause histamine intolerance. Unfortunately, after the end of the search diet and the refinement of the list of intolerable foods, they are never returned to the diet, even if they are very attractive to eat. Prevention of histamine intolerance is based on abstaining from eating foods containing histamine, since there is no other way to maintain health in the case of identified histamine intolerance today.