An Allergy or overload of Histamine?

Allergies are an IgE medicated, histamine response to an allergen, ie. pollen or cat

Histamine intolerance (HIT) is a toxic response by the body due to the excessive accumulation of histamine from an inability of the body to efficiently break it down and hypersensitivity of cell antigen receptors

Symptoms of Histamine Intolerance (HIT)

· Histamine serves various functions in our body. This is why histaminosis may trigger a wide range of symptoms, affecting different organ systems.

· People suffering from HIT may display highly diverse symptoms. Every person has individual weak spots, which may be afflicted earlier than other parts in the body. Sufferers may be troubled by many of the following symptoms, either simultaneously or alternately

· Some afflictions are chronic or very frequent, others may only occur sporadically. The symptoms are so varied that the people affected by HIT often do not suspect a single trigger

HIT and Gastro-intestinal and Urinary Symptoms

· Irritable stomach or an irritable bowel respectively. A direct connection between food intake and the symptoms is often difficult to discern. This is due to the fact that the ingredients of ingested foods are only slowly absorbed by the body during the bowel transit time, which may last several hours, so that problems may only manifest themselves with a considerable delay.

· Eating aged or leftover foods, or those with high histamine content, may trigger abdominal cramps and severe diarrhea within 15-30 minutes.

Histamine increases the motility of the bowel movements, so that the bolus passes the intestines faster than normal, which impairs the absorption of nutrients because of the short retention time.

· More rarely also constipation or constipation alternating with diarrhea

· Heart burn, acid reflux