The dose makes the poison, and the 72-hour histamine clock
In which our protagonist poisons herself, again.
Seven years. It has been seven years since I have (known I have) been dealing with histamine intolerance and most of the time I am doing a-ok. But it means constant, continual, always-on monitoring of the food and drink situation and this, as you might guess if you don’t know, and surely know if you know, is a giant pain in the everything.
As I get older and my hormones shift around more um, notoriously (wheeee), there is the chance that my body will make enough progesterone to balance this wobbly boat, which maybe was brought on in part by estrogen dominance (it’s a thing, look it up!) But I don’t know how much progesterone that would be, and I don’t think anyone else does either, and I probably don’t want to supplement, and so I cautiously eat of the food and partake in the pre and the post meds and supplements and I hope for the best.
Unless I get lazy.
It all started last weekend when I had some friends over for brunch. I made a leek tart (you should make this tart, it was very tasty). Leeks good! eggs good! flour, not so good! mild cheese, neutral! And I had not one, but two cups of coffee, because we were there and we were chatting and my friends call coming to my house “the café” and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, least of all myself. And we ate and we joked, and there were asparagus, and they were good (And good for me!). Some more (mild) cheese and a piece of bread (meh) and some green chile spread (ummm), oh and sautéed mushrooms (eep) because why not add those in, too? And then there was dessert. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite foods is berries. We didn’t use to get them out of season here in Chile, but now we do and I am messing up the environment and I am so sorry, but I bought some strawberries and blueberries.
Blueberries are our friends. They are low in histamine, high in quercetin. They do my body good. Then there are strawberries. The very porters of discomfort, a highly allergenic food in general, one that used to cause me mouth ulcers (canker sores) when I was a kid, sometimes hives, but still I ate them, and also they are the the last thing I recall eating when, at a conference, I got a “fast-moving migraine” that sent me back to my hotel for a freezing shower, a nice session of “get this out of my body” and a nap, followed by some very salty potato chips. It is fair to say that strawberries are not my friends. But they used to be my very very favorites.
So we had strawberries (though I had actually just bought them for my friends). I had probably 5 small strawberries. I took the DAO and I took the antihistamines and I was fine.
Did I stop there, dear reader? No. I did not.
The next day? five more strawberries. That was Monday. And I got bold dear reader, I did. One day I ate seven cherry tomatoes over glutenful pasta. I ate another handful of strawberries. I made wheat-based chocolate-chip waffles with dark chocolate (which I don’t even particularly like, but it is good as chips). And I was fine. Fine, I tell you. And it went on. It seems like eating more things with histamine made me want more things with histamines. Also, I kept on eating the tart, a slice at a time, until it was gone (old protein=bad) and putting it in the oven to heat with some mushrooms on the side. Mushrooms. I also ate a small avocado, and it was riper than the ones I normally eat. Also in this time, I bought some decaf coffee, so I could have a second cup of coffee EVERYDAY.
Remember the old Brim decaf coffee commercial, where the person says that they love the coffee but “it’s the caffeine I could do without?” Well I have a surprise for you. Actually two surprises. First, here’s a link to the commercial.
Second, I’m pretty sure decaf coffee also blocks DAO. Remember DAO? our friendly neighborhood enzyme that breaks down histamine? Our body makes (or should make it) and some foods can block its production. What a beautiful way to mortgage your wellness for tomorrow, today! But also coffee is life. But maybe one cup of coffee is life and two is tomfoolery for this human. It is not the caffeine that is my enemy, it is this DAO-blocking superpower.
But also, was this fruit salad of agitators enough for your protagonist? It was not.
I also bought one of those things where you can carbonate your own water. I was saving the environment, I was reducing my use of single-use plastics. I was… poisoning myself.
I don’t understand the interplay between carbonated water and histamines, but I know (from previous experience) that it can’t be the only water I drink in a day. After a while it gives me a headache and gets me a bit histaminey. I know this makes no sense. But I also know how I feel when I drink too much carbonated water. But did I heed this knowledge? I did not. I drank and drank the bubbly deliciousness.
So in the something like 72 hours before I found myself quite histamined, I had consumed: an excess of coffee, avocado, tomatoes, strawberries, old tart, mushrooms, wheat in many forms and a ton of bubbly water.
And what did I do last night to celebrate? I went out with a friend to a Spanish place near my house and I had a single glass of Pinot Noir and some patatas bravas and two slices of sourdough baguette dipped in a tomato sauce and some more bubbly water. I took the DAO, I took the antihistamines.
Last night I was super agitated, kind of moody. I had had a nice time, but after the walk home I was internally kind of unsettled. Kind of hopped up on my own anxiety, even though I hadn’t been anxious that night. Not entirely unusual, but I also figured it was the wine. Slept ok, but not great. And I woke up and it seemed everything was fine and I was kind of tired and headachey (red flag) and had a second cup of coffee and then.
Well, and then it was not ok. I should have known, from the agitation last night, and the headache this morning and the way I could barely eat my lunch and so then I had a second cup of coffee and was this second cup of coffee fully caffeinated? Well, YES, yes it was.
My friends, I am an idiot. My keeping-track-of-food fell by the wayside and became histamine attack from a thousand bites of stupidity.
First I lamented my fate, swearing off coffee, wine, potatoes, sauces of all kinds, seeing my friend, going out to dinner, the restaurant, the very street it was on.
And then I did a recount. Of all of the ways I had not been giving my body what it needed and not resetting, and not taking into account what I had eaten the day before before making new food choices. I remember briefly sautéing the tomatoes and thinking, should I do this if I’m going to have wine tomorrow? But look at my body! So strong and free and histamine resilient, remember the strawberries, the wheat, the coffee, the avocado? Everything’s been amazing!
Except then (after the fact) I realized I had taken multiple naps in the week. A well-rested person such as myself does not usually require naps (though they are delicious), and certainly not so many. But you know what makes me sleepy? Histamines. Also, I have been freezing all week. Know what makes me cold? (I know, you know, we all know).
So my body had been sending me signals all along, and I can’t believe I’m here and telling you that seven years in I screwed up again, because I didn’t follow my own instructions, and didn’t think about my 72 hour clock. For me, personally 72 hours is when the histamines seem to fully stop messing with me, go down, get excreted or broken down or whatever, and I zero back to normal.
So what have we learned? Even if you have histamine intolerance (unless it causes anaphylaxis in which case, proceed with extra caution), you can probably eat small amounts of the foods you love if you medicate and supplement and give your body a chance to catch up. What you can’t do is dump a veritable Niagara Falls of aggravators into your system and expect to feel great.
So now I hum to myself a song with lyrics about histamine intolerance that starts with the line: “That’s me in the corner,” to the tune of REM’s Losing My Religion as I sip nettle tea. I will spare you the dysmusic details. But I will leave you with two pieces of wisdom, one coined by me and one from a Latin scholar.
Mine is this: The 72 hour histamine clock is real. I say this to you today.
And Paracelsus’ wisdom is the following: The dose makes the poison. He said this in 1538, which, by the way, is a lot more than 7 years ago.