3 days off diet = 3 weeks recovery

Today I’m off to see the UK’s only/best mastocytosis specialist. The reason is simple – I want to know exactly what I’m dealing with. Thing is, I don’t suffer like I used to. In fact, it’s almost a distant memory, so right or wrong, I decided show him some of what I used to go through before changing my diet. In short, I went off the grid these last few days.

My 3 day “cheat”

4 slices home made organic wheat bread (with yeast)

8 tbsp agave

1 raw chocolate bar (home made)

1/4 raw chocolate cake (avocado/agave)

8 tbsp sugar free all natural marmalade

1 orange

3 shots of alcohol

1 pack plantain chips (organic)

1/2 box organic cornflakes (2 ingredients – corn and salt)

whole wheat pasta

8 tomatoes

The fallout

yellow berried nightshade

Here’s an interesting headline for you: nightshade flower as effective a mast cell stabiliser as commonly prescribed sodium cromoglycate. This definitely brought a smile to my face, given that most of us in the allergic world only have to hear the word nightshade to run a mile in the opposite direction. It also confirmed that some foods we’re told are bad for histamine related conditions, may have benefits that far outweigh the modest amount of histamine they release. Unless you’re allergic to them!

AS EFFECTIVE AS COMMONLY PRESCRIBED MAST CELL STABILISER/ANTIHISTAMINE

Tropical Fruit Cup – On the Go Cookbook

A lot of people ask me how I’ve got from total histamine intolerance breakdown to where I am. While I do believe my recovery is still a work in progress, I thought I’d share how a combination of militant food planning, 30 minutes of inflammation fighting yoga and daily chanting (OM!) have allowed me to reach a far better place than I have ever been.

Thanks to my years studying nutrition (unofficially) through the teachings of Drs Fuhrman, Weil, Oz and others, I was well aware my new low histamine diet had the potential to be unhealthy and counter-productive, if applied strictly, and blindly.

To acknowledge something and to implement it are two very different things. It took me a while to get my sea legs. I floundered around for some time, terrified to add new foods or even entertain the idea of being proactive in my recovery. But I knew I had to take action when I began to approach meal time with fear and hatred, focusing on the food rather than the state of my broken body and mind. I was now eating the same five foods every single day, usually in large amounts, not understanding why I wasn’t “recovering”.

There’s more to the low histamine lifestyle than elimination!

UPDATE: there is a ton of misinformation flying around on the internet. I’m constantly flummoxed by how people will attribute feeling awful to chickpeas or a banana rather than the taco bell, potato chips or chocolate they also had. I have yet to see any scientific study showing high histamine content in chickpeas. On the

Low histamine recipes in 20mins (or less!)

Do you spend hours roaming the supermarket in search of a quick meal? Are you bored with eating the same five foods over and over? Would you like to whip up nutritious, low histamine recipes in 20 minutes (or less)? Then make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter for an exclusive 10% discount on the 60+ page Low Histamine ‘On the Go’ Cookbook!

The Low Histamine ‘On the Go’ Cookbook takes you on a whirlwind tour of Vietnam, Lebanon, Italy and India, via the good ol’ US of A. Eating healthy’s NEVER tasted so good, or this easy.

WHO AM I?

YASMINA YKELENSTAM – THE LOW HISTAMINE CHEF

The fridge and fields are my medicine cabinet. I’ve managed to withdraw from all pharmaceuticals including: anti-histamines, anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, migraine, nausea, and dizziness meds. I’m now the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever been. I’ve learned to harness the positives that high histamine bestows (appetite suppression, higher metabolism, energy) and make them work for me!

Who the hell am I to give dietary advice? My cookbooks reflect the incredible amount of research into histamine and other biogenic amines in food that I’ve obsessively collected over the last two years since my histamine intolerance diagnosis. As a former journalist with over 10 years research and international news production experience for 60 Minutes, CNN and the BBC, I know how important the facts are. Not only do I back up each claim on my site with numerous studies, I’ve even used myself as a guinea pig, taking myself from washed up medical mystery to successful 21st century businesswoman.

The surprising link between allergies and migraines.

woman with head on fire I suffered daily migraines for many years. At some point I finally came to the conclusion that my headaches, which made me bang my head against the wall on occasion, had something to do with my diet. I was vindicated by the person who diagnosed me with histamine intolerance in London, and now by the growing number of studies clearly spelling out the allergy/histamine migraine link.

I cannot even begin to properly thank my lucky stars for curing me of this blight. I was about six weeks into the low histamine diet when I was able to trash the 600mg ibuprofen that I had been scarfing daily by the handful for most of my adult life. Not to mention the migraine injections. Youch! You truly haven’t experienced hell till you’ve had a constant migraine for six months.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW I WORKED OUT MY TRIGGERS AND FIGURED OUT A HISTAMINE-BALANCED DIET THAT WORKED FOR ME.

Interestingly, in Spain (and France), it’s commonly acknowledged that migraines are caused by a lack of the histamine-lowering enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO). Seems that the US and UK are way behind the curve on this one.

But histamine can also cause migraine in “healthy” people:

Read more

Low histamine recipe challenge!
What recipe would you absolutely love to have low histamine-i-fied? Had a good think? Please post your requests on the Facebook Page and I’ll pick one to adapt. Keep in mind I’m not a miracle worker but I’m confident that I can whip up something low histamine and nutritious in its stead. No major junk

Read more

Surfing the crimson wave make you crazy? Could be histamine…
A little insulting but still pretty funny…

Tired of your man attributing every nuance of behavior to your menstrual cycle? Well, he could have a point, but you’d die before admitting it (yup that’s me I’m talking about).

Well here’s a little nugget to wave under his nose. It’s not the menstrual cycle, it’s the histamine stupid!

Japanese researchers have (re)confirmed that the histamine lowering diamine oxidase enzyme (DAO) is influenced by the menstrual cycle.

“Serum DAO levels were influenced by the menstrual cycle. Furthermore, our findings suggest that serum DAO levels should be interpreted cautiously in premenopausal women.”

This could explain why an allergy to food or environment seems to affect you differently each time, depending on where you are in your cycle and how much histamine-lowering diamine oxidase is available to you.

We know from Maintz and Novak’s seminal histamine study, that DAO is at its highest during pregnancy (500% – 1000% higher) so it’s a not unreasonable to conclude that lower hormones = lower diamine oxidase? BUT, that’s not right…

“estrogen can influence histamine action. A significant increase in weal and flare size in response to histamine has been observed to correspond to ovulation and peak estrogen concentrations (118).” Maintz and Novak.

This would seem to point to diamine oxidase being lower during ovulation – though we’re now not taking the potential involvement of monoamine oxidase and HNMT (the other enzymes involved in histamine metabolism) into account. Phew, I’ve confused myself. What is certain is that high histamine mimics the symptoms of anxiety so if you have a histamine-related disorder, certain times of the month are going to be tougher than others.

So, where does this leave your average diamine oxidase impaired lass?

Read more

Your own personal food histamine sensor? It’s almost here!
“The ultimate goal of the project is to produce detectors for expert and non-expert staff to assess when unhealthy levels of biogenic amines have accumulated in foodstuffs.” That means we’ll soon be able to measure the level of histamine at the dinner table! How incredible would that be? From the University of Brighton website… “They

Read more

Is your anti-histamine making you fat?

In last week’s post “Histamine’s upside: I lost 35kgs in 6 months” I mentioned the role of histamine in appetite suppression. I recently had a conversation with a friend whose family member suffers from anorexia nervosa. I felt compelled to share that in my teens I too was thought to be anorexic. Food was hurting me so badly that I was starving myself to make it stop. It was more than just a physical reaction, because as we know, histamine is a neurotransmitter and as such affects mood. Food made me crazy, depressed, anxious and manic but I had no clue what was causing it all, despite my raging allergy symptoms.I’ve spent the last few days doing some more research into what’s behind my suddenly stable weight these last two years:H1 receptor antagonists like loratidine (claritin) and cetirizine (zyrtec) make you fat. It’s just a fact. It’s in the medical inserts of both and my own personal hellish experience on them confirms it.

Read more

Holy Basil! Anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine superstar
Not only is Holy Basil tasty in just about any Thai or Vietnamese dish – turns out it’s an anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine herb that’s as effective as Ranitidine/Zantac at treating H2 (histamine) induced ulcers, preventing mast cell degranulation and anaphylactic shock. How do’you like them apples? I like Holy Basil a lot better than them apples…but

Read more

Exercise is good for you, so why does it make you sick?

New studies show that aerobic exercise raises histamine levels. This isn’t news to me. When playing squash I have to take time outs to scratch myself silly and wait for the room to stop spinning. My man, now used to such bizarre-isms, plays against the wall for a while till it calms down again. I looked a lot crazier, to a much larger crowd, during our recent trapezing class! I’m sure I can thank adrenaline for that…What really interested me in this particular study is that they determined resistance training (weights/yoga) doesn’t raise histamine levels. They highlight how histamine released by aerobic exercise causes significant vasodilation (the widening of blood vessels in the body).This study ties in nicely with last week’s post about histamine being a vasoactive amine that can increase or decrease heart rate and induce anxiety-mimicking symptoms.

*Resistance training is any exercise that causes the muscles to contract against an external resistance with the expectation of increases in strength, tone, mass, and/or endurance. The external resistance can be dumbbells, rubber exercise tubing, your own body weight, bricks, bottles of water, or any other object that causes the muscles to contract. http://www.emedicinehealth.com/strength_training/article_em.htm

Interestingly, I meeting quite a few people who are being prescribed anti-histamines by their docs to deal with asthma/wheezing, abnormally high heart rate and passing out while exercising. Wouldn’t it be simpler to go on a low histamine diet? Probably not, but it would yield better (healthier) results!

What does this mean for your work out routine?

Read more