Histamine intolerance

2-5% of all adults suffer from Histamine Intolerance (HIT). This official estimate (source: T. Schleip, Germany) shows that HIT is now a vastly more serious health problem than all food allergies put together!

Digestive problems (prolonged diarrhoea or constipation), bloating, stomach pain, heartburn, tension headaches, migraines, palpitation, low blood pressure, urticaria, hay fever and asthma can all be signs of a histamine intolerance (HIT). Incorrect diagnoses in the past lead to unbearable suffering for those affected (including the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS, often used when a practitioner is at his/hers wits' end. Pain and suffering has often been dismissed as psychosomatic.
Today experts suspect that approximately 15% of all asthma-cases are causally related with HIT-cases. Food allergies are IgE mediated (creation of antibodies). This immune reaction does not happen in a HIT which is a so called pseudo-allergy. The only way to detect a HIT is a very detailed and restricted 4-week-elimination-diet.

What is a histamine?

... this chemical substance has been known about for 90 years and is a by-product of the amino acid histidine. You find histamines in many foods, especially in those with a prolonged shelf-life. Many producers are not ready or willing to put details of the histamine quantities on their food labels. Because the body creates histamine as well (it is used, as one example, to stimulate secretion of stomach acid or cell growth and is stored in mast cells and in basophile granulocytes), we differentiate between histamine-rich foods and foods which act as histamine-liberators.

The diamin-oxidase (DAO), an enzyme that acts in the intestines, does break down the histamines. However, in case of a HIT the DAO is too weak and the release of the histamines creates the following problems:

disturbances of the digestive system,
vasodilution of the circulatory system,
disturbances of the central nervous system,
skin changes,
disturbances in the respiratory system.

FOODS HIGH IN HISTAMINES (just some examples)

CHOCOLATE
MEAT: all minced meat, all sausages, some hams, salami, liver
FISH: all tinned fish, all smoked fish, trout, herring
CHEESES:all ripe cheeses, only very young, fresh cheeses have a lower histamine level,
BREADS/CAKES etc. Yeast is extremely high in histamines
VEGETABLES: sauerkraut, avocado, aubergine, spinach, tomatoes
FRUIT: (histamine liberators)Banana, raspberries, plums, papaya, pears, grapefruit, pineapple.

If you suspect a Histamine Intolerance see a specialist and do not start your own designed elimination-diet.