Low Histamine diet worked for me!

[razorPP]

low histamine diet trail is over, some things positive, but to many ch hits for it to be a game changer, I learned a lot about trigger foods, and how histamine levels effect me

[eagle]

Sorry to hear the trial is over, razorPP, but glad you pulled some positives out of it.

 

Now it sounds like gloating but I'd really logged on to share that I just passed through my 4th cycle (mine our predictably fall and spring) without tipping over the edge into a full-blown CH by following a low-histamine diet during the cluster. I even got rid of my oxygen tank today. I'm very curious to hear if other folks have tried this.

[eagle]

Sadly, I'm back in a cycle (despite staying on the low-histamine diet). Not sure what's different. Very frustrating to be back in it after finding success for a couple years.

[Tony Only]

For anyone looking into the subject of trying to have an impact to cluster headaches via personal diet, I can give my highest recommendations for the book Brain Chemistry Diet by Michael Lesser.

 

As a personal opinion as many diets might help us as a patient group, after all we are individuals and each cluster headache is a little bit different. A custom made diet for cluster headaches would be rather interesting, one of targets probably being an effort to be able to affect our ("faulty"?) brain chemistry. Someone in the orthomolecular field came first to my mind. Many have found personal diets already that help them with cluster headaches.

 

Here's the book on Amazon (I think some have a way to get a preview of the book there?)

https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Chemistry-Diet-Michael-Lesser/dp/0399147446

[Pebblesthecorgi]

I've been following this concept for a while.  My personal opinion, for what it is worth,  Is that there is merit.  I have had personal positive results.  Now cetainly my positive observation are clouded by many confounding factors.  I currently use DALT every 5-7 days,  toss in some low dose mm sporadically when I have 6 hours to spare,  D3, verapamil and a beta blocker.  The verapamil and beta blocker are ostensibly for hypertension but I chose them for my blood pressure hoping they would do double duty. At night I take 75-100 mg of benadryl  which is a relatively new add.  To my delight it seems to knock out any lingering shadows and I sleep better.  Never was a dreamer but I've been having vivid dreams.   This I attribute to the DALT but its only a guess.

 

Following a diet would be a better physiologic test but my lifestyle and variable schedule would make this darn near impossible.

 

To be a bit analytic about this I should start withdrawing some treatments but I am so happy to have relative control of the beast its not worth it.  Same philosophy that makes all studies hard.

 

Bottom line  it is great folks are trying this and continue to report on their experience.  Information is power and helps fill in the blanks while helping others.  This forum is such a great place!

[eagle]

For anyone researching this angle, check out tyramines. I just learned about them from ThatHurtsMyHead in other thread ("why do I have food triggered CH when in cycle?"). They're very similar to histamines and his low-tyramine food list was almost identical to my low-histamine list. At the very least it's another search term to use when doing researching to try and unravel all this stuff. 

[WilliamT]

First time poster, been stalking for a while however.

 

I'm 24 and have been getting clusters for five years now. Usually pretty intense episodes for around one and a half months in Autumn, around the start of October usually. This year has been a fair bit different, possibly due to my move from London (I'm British) to Shanghai last Summer. Had a cluster of attacks around July, which was weird for me, but these passed after maybe a month. I then entered another cluster around the start of November and they've been here almost all the time since, barring a dip in frequency for maybe two weeks around Christmas. This period especially but also the last have been far less severe in terms of pain than previous years, but is lasting far longer.

 

The relevance to posting on this thread is that in July/August I began taking daily antihistamine, following research (AKA spending two hours Googling when every attack subsides...). I also tried to be sligthly more aware of histamine rich foods, and stopped drinking entirely - previously I'd not found alcohol to be a trigger but now wine and beer etc. definitely is. Well, this basically performed a miracle for me and within days my cycle pretty much ended and I was feeling great. I was having some shadows, but absolutely nothing in comparison to an actual attack. I honestly thought I'd found my 'thing' and kicked it forever. That was until this current cycle started, and I'm still taking the antihistamine daily. I must confess to reasonably quickly dropping my low-histamine diet, but for many months this proved to not be an issue. I started drinking again perhaps three weeks after the July cycle ended, not to extremes but also not incredibly lightly. I've just (literally today) started another kick to be properly low histamine in what I eat and drink - mostly due to a bottle of beer last night leaving me reaching for my Imigran injections...

 

Has anyone else found antihistamine to be a sort of 'miracle cure', only to find after a while it's not quite so effective? This current cycle is easily the mildest I've ever had, there's been very few moments writhing on the floor, but it is also probably my longest, and is showing no signs of letting up yet. 

 

[urs Brasil]

Welcome to the club WilliamT

It's very common something working great today stop working tomorrow, and sofort.

You have to gather your toolset and then switch from one methode to the other

[Michaelfern]

Here is complete list of most healthy anti-histamine foods that you should consume that can help you fight inflammation. Check them here:

http://www.foods4betterhealth.com/top-20-antihistamine-foods-that-help-fight-inflammation-28555

[Twisted-Melon]

I didnt see magic mushrooms on the must have list

 

heres my list of do eat and dont eat

 

do--anything i want JUST AS LONG AS IVE BEEN EATING THE MAGIC

 

Dont-- 

[Pixie-elf]

I don't know if this shines a light on anything, and I don't think they've done more research on it, as, it probably wasn't that interesting to them... But Mast Cells play a large part in allergic reactions. (And in life itself...) They release histamine and, oh, about 500 other hormones. And they've found them all up in our faces in the areas we have Cluster Headaches.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6733778

And

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2272091

Benadryl prevents mast cells from releasing histamine. Which is believed to also stop mast cell activation. The problem is, with mast cell disorders at least, generally if you take the same thing over and over again, you become immune.... Mast cells are jerks.

I think I tried the low histamine diet for the mast cell problems before we knew it was mast cell disorder and therefore did me no good. (Because I react to what my body has ID'd as the enemy.) But not for CH. I'm guessing it's not my problem as I'm on a shit ton of antihistamines still (No Benadryl, allergic to that) and Anti-IGE therapy with Xolair and no joy.. But maybe once we calm enough mast cells down it'll get better.

[CHfather]

You are such a great resource, Pixie!  Thank you -- again.

[Pixie-elf]

No problem! I'm happy to be of use! <3

[Arcan]

I've been reading up on histamines and how this causes CH but it's difficult to find good sources with easy to understand explanations. Does anyone have a good one ? 

 

My question is: if we know histamines are the problem, isnt there anything we can do about it? Taking out high histamine foods doesn't seem to be enough since stress and pollen can also be a factor and there's probably more. And mast cells seem to become immune to meds like benadryl. 

 

So how about increasing diamine oxydase which decreases histamine ? Dao deficiency is a primary cause for migraines and vascular headaches. I assume The Vitamin d regimen is helping on this because vit d decreases histamine but also because it facilitates absorption of zinc and magnesium which are essential to making dao. But has anyone tried dao supplements ? Or does our body get used to this over time as well ? 

 

See this research as well :

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/811920#vp_1

 

sorry if this was mentioned already earlier in the thread, I'm at work and didn't have time to read everything properly.

[Michaelfern]

Since we are talking about the diet that will help with lowering histamine levels, let me just put out the various foods that will help you with this condition. This list of foods include apples, onions, fish, turmeric, ginger and more. 

What these foods exactly do is that they block histamine activity and helps in stopping any allergic reaction along with it. 

You can check the complete information here: Antihistamine Foods

[Seth]

Thank you for this information.   Something to think about...

 

[Psiloscribe]

Pulling this old topic out of the closet. It's a good topic for discussion.

There is plenty of research showing how histamine can play a role in cluster headaches. The Diamond Headache Clinic has for decades used a histamine desensitivevation (sp) program in their in-patient unit. It's a long process but many people have had good results in breaking cycles this way. (as well as plenty of failures along the way)

Many of us prior to getting a proper diagnosis rely upon OTC antihistamines that do provide some relief. You end up needing more and more. In todays world, I'd probably be investigated for having a meth lab with all the OTC antihistamines I used for my clusters. ( the first 4 years i had a "sinus infection")

Anyway, I was sent this recent article about histamines that I thought someone may find helpful. (Ignore the ads for wine ;-)

 https://drinkpurewine.com/blogs/histamine-intolerance-side-effects/histamine-intolerance  

 

I hope everyone is having a great fall, at least weather-wise if not other areas of life. 

Hang in there people,
Bob

 

 

[regarain28]

Hey everyone -

 

I just came across this thread and have two questions:

1: has anyone experimented or read anything regarding DAO supplementation?

2: has anyone tried hydroxizine over the otc Benadryl?  Seems like a pretty script to get but haven’t seen much on these boards

 

thanks as always  

[Sue mcdonald]

I have also chased down that low-histamine path.... w.out knowing exactly what i was doing. I found fresh prepared food and organic to be helpful. I threw out the benedryl every 2 hours routine cple yrs back. Now i take larger doses when i want to sleep along w high protein right before bedtime. Thinking along lines of inducing a temporary ketogenic diet effect to help sleep. It works okay...usually....kinda...works. i also use robaxin and lorazapam to sleep and baclofen. My chas are fading (darned if I know exactly why? But thats how it is) but sleep im still chasing after hard. Sleep is more slowly coming along. Im up from 30 min to 3 hrs... to a good 6, 7 hours en bloc. Being a ten hour a nite girl? Its barely adequate, but its mucho better to be honest. I try most of all to eat fresh n organic and intake water. I used to take all my vitamins & minerals every morning w a diet coke. Left them behind in like 2007.. Ive begun adding them back in at nite. And ive also begun utilising Monster drinks. Thanx here for corrupting me? I love.love.love Monster drinks. I can remember standing at a party one nite and handing out super B vitamins to all the guys. As in? U gotta take these- theyre great stuff back in 1987ish... so, ive known i needed alot of B, for a long time. Ive basically lived on high protein since ohhh maybe like ~50 years? Knew i needed manganese for abt 45 yrs also since shinn splints started in college and tx was to walk backwards and drink original gatoraid (it had manganese) and rest w no running till completely gone. So i came into adulthood realising i needed hi protein, manganese and not too long after also needed B vitamins (i was running and lifting a LOT at that time in attempt to curtail injuries. Yes, it worked.). I just grew up knowing i needed minerals. I use guai to reverse fms - it works. And so i often toss down calcium pills after i eat because it binds to the phosphates and for me? W fms? Phosphates are the problem. Okay.. one of my body's problems.

Heres a puzzler for u. I react to apparently the fillers in most drugs. But 'they' say that guai and robaxin - if u rotate the molecule/s in space?  Exactly resemble each other except the methocarbamol has an added methol group (it may be that it has an extra carbamol group.. but im thinking its the methol group.). Why wld my fms chas body do so well on robaxin AND guai? Pretty necessary.... i simply dont have the answer for that phenomenon.