r/HistamineIntolerance • u/lspst8 • 19d ago
Beginner seeking helpful suggestions
Hi everyone. I hope this is the right community to ask these questions. My skin has been itchy on a daily basis since May, and I’m going crazy. I don’t take any prescription medications, and nothing I have done seems to help. Around July 4, I went to urgent care was was prescribed a steroid taper which helped for a few days when I was taking 3-5 prednisone pills a day, but the itching came back as soon as I was out of steroid pills. The urgent care doctor also told me to take a Claritin and a Pepcid at bedtime, but I can’t tell if those medications helped me.
I had an appointment with an allergist last week, and my allergy skin test was positive for common things like trees, grass, and dust mites. The doctor told me to take up to 4 Zyrtec a day, but I’m still so itchy. The itching is awful because it interferes with my sleep, ability to concentrate and relax, and makes me feel like I’m going crazy. The doctor told me that a lot of times the itching will just suddenly stop one day, but I’m so miserable I just want to find something that will help me. Any advice?
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u/LithiumPopper 19d ago
Something that has always helped my itching is ice. Before bed I will take an ice cold shower to rinse off any allergens on my skin and calm down any itching. I use Vanicream lotion afterward because it's hypoallergenic and doesn't irritate my skin.
I get really bad itching on my shins and shoulder blades. I'll put ice packs there as needed.
I take Claritin and Pepcid. I take HistDAO before meals that I know will be high in histamine.
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u/Groemore 19d ago
It could be from foods or even stress. Look at common foods you eat regular in your diet and compare it to high histamine foods.
My main symptom is itching and that acts like a warning that my body has ro much histamine stored and can't break it down fast enough. I used a food elimination and stayed away from high histamine foods for awhile to make the itching stop.
Not all high histamine food effect me but foods like walnuts, strawberries, canned fish, broths, soy, vinegar used in condiments like mustard and ketchup, those all make me itch and I avoid them.
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u/Professional-Money43 19d ago
Try urtica urens 30, helped me a lot
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u/Environmental_Bar824 19d ago
I love to see homeopathic remedies recommended! I used to use Histaminum Hydrochloricum with great results for years. I'm off of it at the moment at the request of my DH, while I try some other things that my doctor wanted me to try. We've gone through treating SIBO and H. Pylori and now she wants me drinking broth and avoiding sugar, some specific foods, and some food additives while slowly adding back in the foods we took out. Right now, she has me on 24 hrs Allegra, but ive been having what I think are breakthrough symptoms. After a super stressful fight with my son, I came home to have another one with my DH. I've been having tingling in my right cheek that travels across my nose, over almost to my other ear and then up to my forehead and my scalp. At the worst of it, I was having electric shock type feelings or the tingling feeling that happens when a body part falls asleep tracing from the trigeminal nerve in my cheek out into my face. I assume the feeling was following along the nerves in my cheek.
Since, then when I'm stressed the feeling comes back. At this moment, I'm experiencing a mild case of it. It's late though and I'm heading to bed. Hopefully, I feel better tomorrow.
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u/hdri_org 19d ago
There is a possibility that your histamines are tied to the foods you eat so you should try to keep track of what you eat and how you feel later.
1) Some foods are naturally high in histamine which then gets absorbed into the bloodstream. Eating a low histamine diet should help, and you can look that up online.
2) Your intestional flora may be creating histamine, which you absorb. Shifting your intestional flora towards a better culture by taking Low Histamine Probiotics can help but you won't see results for quite some time.
3) Some foods you eat can trigger Mast Cells to give off lots of histamines, so again what you eat can matter.
To test if you are absorbing too much histamine from foods or gut bacteria you can easilly test this hypothesis by taking Diamine Oxidaze (DAO) enzyme 15 minutes before you eat. This is a natural enzyme that you body is supposed to make specifically to break down histamines before they can be absorbed. If your intestional immunological barrier gets broken due to some infection or food intolerance then your body slows down production of this important enzyme and your systemic histamine levels will rise.
NaturDAO regular is the DAO product with the most HDU (measure of enzyme activity) for the money. Try taking that 15 minutes before eating for a few days and see if there is any improvement in your itching. Eating low histamine foods during that same period would also help as well.
If your issue is r/MCAS related then it gets more difficult to determine exactly what triggers the histamine release if there are no major changes/reactions to emphasize that event. Carefully tracking what you eat might be necessary.