Histamine (and other vasoactive amine) intolerance can be a cause migranes as well as GI symptoms. The links below are to excellent resources for lists of foods with naturally occuring histamine and foods that cause the body to release histamine. Histamine is generally a dose-response problem — the more you eat, the worse your symptoms.
Histamine is very difficult to avoid, and impossible to avoid completely. We aim to reduce the level of histamine intake in all of our recipes. Some are marked “low histamine” because they contain almost no histamine. (See list of low histamine recipes) Others are not marked low histamine, but generally contain much lower levels of histamine than in most recipes for the food. For example, our salad dressings are all made with fresh-sqeezed citrus juice rather than vinegar. Citrus can be a histamine trigger, but has much lower levels of histamine than vinegar.
The foods most commonly reported to induce urticaria are shellfish, fish, egg, nuts, chocolate, berries, tomatoes, cheese, milk, and wheat.
Foods reported to release histamine directly from mast cells are uncooked egg whites, shellfish, strawberries, tomatoes, fish, chocolate, pineapple and alcohol.
Foods containing histamine—Aged protein containing foods and fermented foods commonly have increased histamine levels.
Foods reported to be high in histamine are fermented cheeses (e.g. Camembert, Brie, Gruyere, Cheddar, Roquefort, Parmesan), brewer’s yeast, shellfish, many fin fish, canned fish, tomato, spinach, red wine (especially Chianti), beer, unpasteurized milk (e.g., cow, goat or human milk), chicken, dry pork sausage, beef sausage, ham, chocolate, fermented soy products, and all fermented vegetables, such as sauerkraut.
For more information about a histamine avoidance diet, see the Chronic Uticaria Society web page.
would histamine cause eczema?
Yes, it can. It can also cause chronic hives:
http://urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/whatis.htm
I read in the Daily Mail this morning about histamine intolerance. This was the first time I’d heard of it and so looked further on the Internet. Imagine my surprise to find so many foods on the ‘avoid’ list were ones which my body had told me I didn’t like for years – shellfish, fish, eggs, cheese, cloves, pineapple, alcohol, sauerkraut, tomatoes. There were several I DO like!! Following two bouts of flu at the end of last year and the advent of a number of styes, I began taking Brewer’s Yeast. Shortly after, my face broke out into a thick lumpy rash which itched for days until the doctor prescribed some ointment but that didn’t work. I already have exzema on one leg and recently got exzema on one foot and was prescribed another ointment which has worked. Ever since my teens I had suffered from migraines (‘runs in the family- take these tablets to stop the pain’). So many of the symptoms listed have been ones I’ve had for years, including arithmia and fainting spells; can it possibly be histamine intolerance? I think it probably is and will test out the suggested diets.
I hope avoiding the yeast and major sources of histamine will help!
Me too!
count me in
Thanks
MH