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Histamine Intolerance:
A personal account
My daughter Jessie had eczema from infancy, bloating and IBS symptoms, and always looked pale and tired. We were constantly told she had infantile eczema and needed steroid creams, and that she would most likely grow out of it.
At the age of 12 we noticed that gluten and dairy worsened her eczema and so we eliminated these foods from her diet, thinking that she was ‘allergic’ to them. Whilst she improved a little, she would still have severe exacerbations, and we couldn’t work out why these were occurring. We felt that there was something else responsible for her poor health, but could not work out what this could be. At the age of 16 she had Swine Flu and she became much worse with a constant migraine, exhaustion, IBS symptoms and severe painful eczema. This episode of inflammation resulted in her becoming hypothyroid.
At the age of 19 she had chicken pox and, again, was very unwell for 6 weeks or so. After each infection she seemed not to recover her previous level of health, and was gradually becoming more and more unwell.
In May 2016, fed up with feeling so awful, Jessie increased her exercise, and started taking superfood smoothies to try and improve her energy. Of course, unbeknown to her, these superfoods are all high histamine foods, so in fact she was rapidly poisoning her system. She first of all felt as if she had flu, then her eczema became extremely severe, and then she started having numerous new symptoms, many of which were very alarming. Finally she woke with angioneurotic oedema (swelling of the eyes and face), dermatographia, severe pain in her face and severe asthma.
Finally we made the diagnosis (it was quite a newly described condition) and then started to try and find an experienced consultant to help us with the disease management. This proved to be very difficult. We saw six doctors - two of them Consultants in top London clinics - but nobody seemed to know anything about Histamine Intolerance or its management. We were desperate, as her condition was not improving in spite of the antihistamines she was taking and the food restrictions we tried to implement.
We eventually had a breakthrough, when a colleague at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital put me in touch with his colleague at St Mary’s Paddington who was conducting research into mast cell disorders - Mr Vik Khullar. Mr Khullar confirmed the diagnosis and gave us invaluable guidance on the antihistamines required and the food lists to follow.
Although Jessie’s condition improved following this regime, her symptoms would return all too easily, in spite of her being on the antihistamines and a low histamine diet. Determined to improve her health further, we had her genetic code analysed by a company called Lifecode Gx. This showed that she had methylation, folate and thyroid issues in addition to Histamine Intolerance.
Starting Jessie on various vitamins and minerals to support her faulty metabolism resulted in her abnormal liver function tests becoming normal within six weeks. She also looked and felt very much better. Now, finally, she has more good days than bad and her symptoms are never as severe as they once were, nor do they last as long.
This has resulted in a huge improvement in her health and her quality of life!
Listen to an episode of The Liz Earle Wellbeing Show where Dr. Peers talks about Histamine Intolerance.