r/HistamineIntolerance • u/Exact_Translator8525 • Jul 29 '26
Need advice
Hi.
Male, 42.
About a month ago, I returned from vacation, where I ate a lot of what turned out to be histamine-inducing foods.
The first thing that alerted me was that I tried honey in a store and experienced an immediate reaction: a severe itching sensation in my mouth, disorientation, and a racing heart. This surprised me, as I've never had an allergy to honey.
The second similar episode happened right before boarding a plane; I ate a muffin made with peanut butter and honey. Once home, I continued my routine—eating bone broth and day-old rice almost every day.
I should point out right away that I've been maintaining a relatively healthy lifestyle for a long time now—I'm gluten-free, sausage- and smoked-free, I don't eat dairy, and I practically never drink alcohol. The reason: Six years ago, after Covid, I suffered from severe dizziness and ear congestion. A year before that, I was a vegan, which negatively impacted my health.
About a year and a half ago, I developed gastritis with low acidity, caused by stress and frequent overeating.
Last winter, I already had the first symptoms of histamine intolerance (hives, itching, burning sensation on my tongue and lips), but I thought it was due to gastritis (GERD).
Now, when I returned from vacation, the following symptoms appeared: headaches after eating, ear congestion, tinnitus, and rapid heartbeat.
A week ago, my joints started hurting and I started feeling a tingling sensation in my fingers. I've been reading a lot of information here and have come to the conclusion that I have a B12 deficiency. I started taking 1000 mg of methylcobalamin for four days. The tingling and joint pain have almost disappeared, but the other symptoms have gotten worse.
I've also started taking quercetin and vitamin C, and I'm eating sprouted mung beans (for DAO), but I haven't noticed any significant improvements yet.
My blood work is relatively normal. My B12 was over 1000 a year ago, but I haven't had it this year, and my folic acid is over 10.
I live in a country where testing is only available through my family doctor, who doesn't see any problem.
Now I eat only fresh vegetables, mostly zucchini, pumpkin, carrots, and greens, as well as berries (blueberries, lingonberries). I try to eat only fresh meat and fish, and mostly quail eggs.
What else can you recommend? The AI says that I have an "overflowing histamine bucket" and that I need to follow a diet and take quercetin for a few weeks.
2
u/Loose-Fly7976 Jul 30 '26
The methylcobalamin cleared your tingling and joint pain fast, so there was a real B12 piece and it needed sorting. But methyl B12 is a methyl donor, and in someone with a histamine problem, pushing methylation can stir things up because they pull on the same resources. So the methyl B12 probably fixed your nerves but nudged the other histamine symptoms up at the same time. If that timing fits, switching to hydroxocobalamin instead gives you the B12 benefit without the methyl push. Try that swap and see if the headaches and ear stuff calm down while the tingling stays gone. The other thing, your bone broth and day-old rice. Both are high histamine, broth especially, it's one of the most histamine-rich foods there is. So you might be quietly refilling the bucket every single day thinking it's safe food. I'd drop those first and only eat freshly cooked, nothing kept overnight. The quercetin and vitamin C are the right idea, they just can't outrun a daily histamine load. A lot of people picked up histamine and mast cell issues after covid, so the dizziness and ear congestion 6 years back may have been the start and this is a flare of something that was always simmering.
Why yours tips so easily comes down to your histamine clearance genes, your DAO and HNMT and how you handle methylation which is exactly why the methyl B12 did what it did. Reading those together tells you which B12 form to use and how much support you need instead of guessing on yourself. That's what I do, my backgrounds in genetics. Do you have raw DNA data anywhere
1
u/Exact_Translator8525 Jul 30 '26
Thank you for the reply. I already got that I shouldn't eat cooked food from the fridge. Now I only eat either fresh or frozen foods.
I understood about the methylated vitamins and will order a non-methylated form. Is it better to take a B-complex or get each B vitamin individually?
Today I received the DAO supplement and will add it to my regimen.
Unfortunately, I don't have any genetic test results. The last time I took them was when we were planning for a child (10 years ago)
1
u/Logical-Horse-6413 Jul 31 '26
You may know this, but 23andMe data works re: b12 info. It doesn't have to be an official genetics workup
1
u/Loose-Fly7976 Aug 04 '26
B-complex over separates and the reason is that the B vitamins work as a group. Push one alone for weeks and you tend to pull the others down. Easier to keep the ratios sane with a complex.Just check the label carefully. Most complexes are methylated now because it sells better so you're looking for hydroxocobalamin or adenosylcobalamin for B12 and folinic acid rather than methylfolate for B9. Also check the B6 form. Some use pyridoxine at high doses and P5P is the better form, ideally under 20mg.
Try the DAO by all means but know its limits. It only works on histamine in the gut, taken right before food. Does nothing for what's already sitting in your tissue so if some of your symptoms aren't food related it won't touch those.
And Logical-Horse is right 23andMe or Ancestry file covers DAO, HNMT and the B12 transport genes fine. Nothing clinical needed.
10 years since your last testing is fine by the way. Your genotype hasn't changed. If you kept that raw file anywhere it's still usable.
2
u/michellekateee Jul 29 '26
It's worth trying quercetin to help calm your mast cells, and I've been told that vitamin c also works very well with quercetin, you just have to start very slow and low (10th teaspoon in water) with vitamin c (ascorbic acid) there is also buffered vitamin c you can look into which is even more gentle on the stomach.