I started this blog in 2013 when I had just discovered the connection between histamine intolerance and menopause. It was a time when I suffered, among many other symptoms, with an invisible itch that made me scratch my arms until they got dark and leathery.
Once I got my body under control the itch went away. It was back for the first time since, on Saturday. I cannot begin to tell you how terrifying it was to feel it again.
If you’ve ever had an itch with no hives, you might know what it feels like. It’s almost hard to describe how differently it feels from an ordinary itch. It feels like there is no way to get relief from it even if you scratch it or rub it. It just laughs at you and comes on stronger!
I ran for the ginger and quercetin and managed to get it to go away. It’s not been back since. So why did this thing rear its butt ugly head all of a sudden? I started analyzing the last couple of days before it showed up.
One day last week I remember scratching my leg like the old days of raging intolerance. But I’m not sure why. Then, when I got home from work on Friday I noticed someone had cleaned the condo’s common areas with some kind of very pungent cleaner. It wasn’t bleach, but I think I reacted to it as if it were. Bleach is one of the most triggering things for me to encounter.
I left to go have a snack with a friend and wound up having a large amount of spinach dip washed down with a histamine triggering grapefruit drink. You see where I’m going here?
Let me just say I am not the least bit careful about my eating these days, as I’m sure you can tell. I pretty much can eat anything I want. But my body gave me fair warning. “If you stop paying attention than one day you are going to pay, and pay big!” The dreadful itch was a warning shot across the bow.
I’ve felt fatigued and like I have “fat eyes” since. As I write this I’m thinking wow, I feel awful. And I have parent teacher back to school night tomorrow, so I’m going home early to bathe in ginger and quercetin. Well maybe not bathe in it… But I will be having butternut squash and apple soup tonight. My old standby of high nutrition and low histamine. Got to get in shape to talk to parents about their little darlings.
I’ve always questioned whether I’m cured, healed, or managed. I think these last few days indicate more managed than cured. But honestly I’ve never actually felt cured. I’ve always felt as if I got the intolerance under control but that it’s still something I have. And this weekend really proved that out.
I still think of myself as histamine intolerant. I’ve never thought I was, as in past tense. I think I am. But it lost its meaning along the way. And now my 83 year old mother is struggling with debilitating hives that the allergist and the dermatologist and the internist can’t figure out. She won’t listen to me. But watching her makes me very aware that I do not want to be suffering with this at 83. I can control it before I ever get to that point.
So here’s the lesson for the day. Don’t fall into the same trap I did thinking it all won’t come back if you just go back to “normal” life without intolerance. You are probably intolerant and always will be. But you can manage it and keep it at bay if you are thoughtful and careful.
Don’t be like me! Live more mindfully than I have been. And always listen to your body. It knows best.
Be well friends,
Dale
The menopause histamine connection 
I wrote something similar a couple months ago, except I purposely ended up eating things I shouldn’t have because I was on a self pity trip that sent me spiraling again…it didn’t take very much to set me of. I also thought I was cured. It scared the heck out of me. I had to except the fact I will have to fight this to my dying day and that I manage my body…I will never be cured. That was the hard part. I’m sorry this happened to you. It really sucks. I don’t know about you, but I watch everyone around me enjoy everything I want, but can’t have. Going out to eat has become more difficult and I don’t enjoy eating at all. It’s a chore…worse that cleaning the bathroom! I have to plan ahead constantly which is draining. I hope your body has bounced back and this episode is over quickly.
Erin
Oh I’ve had those self pity moments too for sure. I’m feeling better thank you. And thanks for sharing!
Dale
Heal the gut, heal the gut, heal the gut…that is what I am mindful of since the leak can come back so quickly when our resistance is down. I have been there also, not as bad as your episode sounds. Stay strong souls.
Thanks for stopping by! I’m definitely on the mend and figure by tomorrow I should be back to normal. Well, a new normal. A more mindful normal to be sure.
Stay well!
Dale
Thanks Dale…I can totally relate. I can go for weeks without many symptoms but the consequence of this is diet slips and then all the symptoms are back…its a vicious circle. On the positive side, I do at least know what to do these days in order to get everything back under control….Your blogs have been a huge help!
I so happy I’ve helped. And I feel the same way. I knew what to do to get it under control before it got out of hand.
Thanks for writing.
Dale
Thanks for sharing your vulnerability. I hate the diet slips and slide. It takes my body a while to respond to change and I am needing to up my self discipline. Difficult too and I have pity parties with poor results I might add. Thanks to everyone who commented. Our own experiences are so helpful and full of hope. Cheers.
My next post should be about pity parties I think. We all have them occasionally it sounds like!
Thanks for sharing,
Dale
Thanks, Dale. I followed a low histamine diet for a year but never quite got well. I added some foods back and after a few dizzy spells in the mornings until I went to the bathroom caused to to take another look. I realized that I also had a Candida overgrowth. I started getting hives on my neck when I ate sugar. 3 days into the Candida diet they disappeared. I did the diet about 80% and had a couple more dizzy spells. OK, time to get serious about this. I am on day 36 of Dr. Bakker’s Candida Crusher program while also weeding out all the high histamine foods on the diet. I feel GREAT! I have lost weight and am 10 lbs or less from my normal weight and I am healing beautifully, thank God!
I hope you get everything under control and that your Mom will figure out that she needs to get on board, too.
God bless!!!
Sue 🙂
Both my partner and I occasionally get an itch that does not respond to any medication we could find. Eventually we discovered two things: first, shower water as hot as you can handle directly on the itch initially hurts but makes it ease rapidly and the relief lasts a while, second if you take a damp washcloth and pour table salt thickly on it then sprinkle water till it forms a thick abrasive paste, then rub the itch using the salt paste to scratch it, the itch is relieved and goes away entirely after often one, sometimes two such treatments. I don’t know what it is specifically but a paste of salt is so concentrated it would pull the water out of any living cell and kill by osmosis. It probably kills the outer layer of skin but so does scratching and it stops the rash.