# Histamine Intolerance- The Cause of your IBS?



## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hey there guys,Hope you're all doing well.I have been rather ill lately. It seems that no matter what I eat I have to run to the bathroom straight after. Nothing stays inside of me!I used to just suffer from chronic constipation, but a switch has been flicked it seems, now I definitely hold back on the Movicol.From a young age I suffered from insomnia, eczema, and of course constipation. I found that elimination diets helped me, but still had remaining symptoms. I was diagnosed with fructose malabsorption (dietary fructose intolerance) at a young age.I started a very strict low fructose diet and as a challenge for my symptoms, I decided to only eat certain foods for 5 days. These foods were: tahini (sesame seed paste), gluten and yeast free bread, rice crackers and rice, canned tuna and spinach and lamb. After only a day on this diet I experienced severe wind, stomach cramping and bloating, depression and moodiness and fatigue. I decided that it must have been a delayed reaction- something I had eaten a couple of days ago that was making me feel so awful. On the second day the symptoms only got worse. I didn't want to leave the house as I was so full of wind and didn't want to embarrass myself by going out. I was really down in the dumps, too. The third day was much much much worse, so I decided to kick the diet and switch the low fructose foods to some other low fructose foods instead. I was searching the web for reactions to spinach and canned tuna and found lots of links to histamine intolerance. Tinned tuna and spinach are some of the highest in histamine!! Symptoms of histamine intolerance include eczema, diarrhoea, constipation, wind, sneezing, fatigue etc etc. I found that a lot of what my diet consisted of was super high in histamine... I was eating the following foods on almost a daily basis. These foods are high in histamine:-Avocado-Smoked salmon-Smoked mussels/oysters-Canned tuna-Spinach-Aged cheeses (like parmesan)-Alcohol-Dark chocolate-Sesame paste (tahini)-Hummus-Sesame oil-Chilli-Vegemite-Smoked meats-HamI have now been really careful to avoid these foods just to see if this could be the cause of my distress. I have still been experiencing diarrhoea on almost a daily basis. I hope that this is just my system flushing the histamine :/I'll keep you all posted on how I go.I wanted to post this on the IBS forum because it has been shown that a lot of IBS sufferers have actually been histamine intolerant individuals. There were a couple of studies that were undertaken a few years ago that even showed that antihistamine actually relieved symptoms of some IBS sufferers. This is a link to an article on that study: http://www.doctorwascher.com/tag/antihistamineI have found that a lot of symptoms of IBS are also symptoms of histamine intolerance. Some of these include:-Very painful periods-Diarrhoea-Depression/ moodiness-Symptoms that disappear or lessen during pregnancy-ConstipationI really hope that this could be a solution for me, and hopefully a solution for some of you too!!


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## CJ78 (Jan 12, 2012)

I am extremely interested in this.I am a hayfever sufferer, and typically take antihistamine from April to August.Now, my IBS symptoms I believe were before this (around March time last year), but symptoms were bloating and flatulance.However, I never really thought about breaking these symptoms away from my current D symptoms, and the latter did seem to happen at a similar time I cut down on my antihistamine.Does this sound plausable?I also had more reactions to bites last summer (and more of the bites), could this have triggered my D?


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

CJ78 said:


> I am extremely interested in this.I am a hayfever sufferer, and typically take antihistamine from April to August.Now, my IBS symptoms I believe were before this (around March time last year), but symptoms were bloating and flatulance.However, I never really thought about breaking these symptoms away from my current D symptoms, and the latter did seem to happen at a similar time I cut down on my antihistamine.Does this sound plausable?I also had more reactions to bites last summer (and more of the bites), could this have triggered my D?


I'm no expert on this but yes, that sounds very plausible. I definitely feel it when I ingest a high histamine food, so yes- the histamine in the environment could have triggered your symptoms.Have you noticed that you also react to certain foods or alcohol?Do you find that your symptoms disappear or lessen at certain times of the year? I'd suggest taking the antihistamines for a week and seeing if they helped your symptoms! I would be very interested to hear how this goes.I also suffer from wind and bloating- they really suck!!! I went out last night and had a bit to drink- my stomach was cramping up so bad this morning that I had to stop walking and sit down. Wind was bad too. I should stop drinking!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I don't know that histamine in foods will convert someone who never had problems into someone with IBS.However, some people are sensitive to foods with histamine in them, and when you have IBS it certainly can be part of triggering symptoms.Food-poisoning and other GI infections seem to be much more likey to be the cause of IBS (what made it start). Inflammation from an IBD can set it off (so people with IBD's may end up with IBS between IBD flare ups) and seems the inflammation from the GI infection is enough to get IBS going.Once it is going foods that may not have triggered symptoms before the IBS can be a big trigger afterwards. Many of the IBS triggers can cause symptoms in people that don't have IBS, but it takes a bigger dose and usually they don't have as bad of a reaction.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Kathleen M. said:


> I don't know that histamine in foods will convert someone who never had problems into someone with IBS.However, some people are sensitive to foods with histamine in them, and when you have IBS it certainly can be part of triggering symptoms.Food-poisoning and other GI infections seem to be much more likey to be the cause of IBS (what made it start). Inflammation from an IBD can set it off (so people with IBD's may end up with IBS between IBD flare ups) and seems the inflammation from the GI infection is enough to get IBS going.Once it is going foods that may not have triggered symptoms before the IBS can be a big trigger afterwards. Many of the IBS triggers can cause symptoms in people that don't have IBS, but it takes a bigger dose and usually they don't have as bad of a reaction.


Hi Kathleen,Thanks for your reply. Interestingly, I have had symptoms of histamine intolerance since birth. The symptoms that I have always had include disturbed sleeping patterns/ insomnia, chronic constipation and my body rejecting certain foods. When I was a baby I used to throw up but now expelling food comes in the form of diarrhoea. I'm really hoping that this information might be able to unlock a bit of the puzzle for me!


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Just FYIhttp://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/tests.html


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Histamine does have a "get it out, get it out now" role in the body as well as things like the "stay awake" signal in the brain, etc. And if you have had long standing issues with it, or a disease that effects it, there are likely to be GI effects from that.So histamine can have effects. I just don't think that in a standard issue healthy person that doesn't have issues with it that eating these foods will make you have IBS all of a sudden one day out of the blue. GI infections can, and it is rare that someone has been able to avoid every GI bug going around for their entire life.


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## XXXBerto55 (May 4, 2010)

Kathleen M. said:


> I just don't think that in a standard issue healthy person that doesn't have issues with it that eating these foods will make you have IBS all of a sudden one day out of the blue. GI infections can, and it is rare that someone has been able to avoid every GI bug going around for their entire life.


It appears to me that you are trying to discredit this by pushing the conclusion further than the OP originally intended. It doesn't appear that the OP originally inferred any connection at all to the origin of the symptoms, simply that it was possible Histamine was not contributing in a beneficial way. So perhaps, in this scenario the GI infection caused the Histamine Intolerance, it doesn't seem the OP is excluding this as a theory.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Well the title says "cause of IBS" I'm just saying it is unlikely to be the original trigger for IBS.Can it trigger symptoms once you have IBS, I agree it can, and it can in high enough doses in the diet cause diarrhea in any human being. I just put "the cause for IBS" in a different pot than "symptom triggers".If you want to avoid getting IBS, avoiding GI infections is the best thing to do. Once you have IBS you have to deal with what triggers your symptoms, but it causes me symptoms now is not the same, IMO, as this is why I have IBS at all. Your mileage may vary. My feeling is sometimes people look for a cause that fits with a change the cause make the IBS go away. I think the GI infection cause is very unsatisfactory because it is the damage that remains after the infection is gone and that isn't a clear "here is what you fix".I also hope people understand that "avoid the trigger-avoid the symptoms" often means avoid the trigger for the long term. Avoiding the symptom trigger won't make the underlying IBS go away (it may go away on its own eventually) but it can certainly make life much better and I would always recommend avoiding triggers when you can (as long as you can also maintain a healthy diet, etc.).


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## knothappy (Jul 31, 1999)

Maybe coincidence..but every fall and spring when my sinus and allergies go crazy, you can bet i am in the house with terrible diarreha no matter what i take..Benadryl helps but it makes me so tired.In ohio we got warm real fast ,too early and for the past 6 weeks my ibs is awful. makes sense that if sinus drainage is dripping down your throat into your gut night and day it will irritate someone with an already sensitive stomach as with ibs d !!


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Kathleen M. said:


> Well the title says "cause of IBS" I'm just saying it is unlikely to be the original trigger for IBS.Can it trigger symptoms once you have IBS, I agree it can, and it can in high enough doses in the diet cause diarrhea in any human being. I just put "the cause for IBS" in a different pot than "symptom triggers".If you want to avoid getting IBS, avoiding GI infections is the best thing to do. Once you have IBS you have to deal with what triggers your symptoms, but it causes me symptoms now is not the same, IMO, as this is why I have IBS at all. Your mileage may vary. My feeling is sometimes people look for a cause that fits with a change the cause make the IBS go away. I think the GI infection cause is very unsatisfactory because it is the damage that remains after the infection is gone and that isn't a clear "here is what you fix".I also hope people understand that "avoid the trigger-avoid the symptoms" often means avoid the trigger for the long term. Avoiding the symptom trigger won't make the underlying IBS go away (it may go away on its own eventually) but it can certainly make life much better and I would always recommend avoiding triggers when you can (as long as you can also maintain a healthy diet, etc.).


Hey Kathleen,Yes, I have definitely heard many cases where IBS begins after a stomach bug. This stomach bug would have to have been caused by ingesting some form of spoilt or contaminated drink or food, or by coming into contact with harmful germs. It is proposed that with intolerances to food, symptoms arise when too much of the untolerated substance is eaten. You acknowledge that diarrhea may be caused by ingesting large amounts of histamine in individuals without IBS, and I have been ingesting a diet very very high in histamine for quite some time. I am suggesting that I have poisoned myself by eating too my histamine and now my body rejects it. Similarly, like a stomach bug, my body may be trying to rid itself of these toxins, therefore causing gastrointestinal distress.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I don't know if you can poison yourself with histamine and drive your body into having IBS, but certainly after you get IBS you may react to it a lot more than you did before.Histamine's job in the gut is to trigger a cascade that causes diarrhea (you don't have to have a bad reaction to histamine to get diarrhea, that is one of it's typical functions), but I don't know if there is a way you can permanently set that off so it will never turn off and your gut will act as if the histamine is always there all the time. I just don't know if it causes the type of damage that a full blown attack of the immune system can cause.Just like some food intolerances were always there but until IBS came along and your gut over-reacts to the increase in gas volume when you eat them. With a lot of food intolerances who actually has them (based on testing) and who has symptoms are not the same group. Many people can't digest a lick of lactose but have no symptoms from that at all. However, if you have IBS and you are lactose intolerant you will have symptoms from it.That being said, my IBS usually was a bit worse when my allergies are bad as there is extra histamine being produced by my body (and everyone's body produces histamine every single day, just sometimes it makes more, and I am unclear you could have an autoimmune reaction to your own histamine and only have IBS symptoms, autoimmune problems usually cause more problems than IBS). With my allergies it is just one more thing in the body that is pushing in the same direction as the IBS. So it didn't help. And I've had a bad reaction to improperly processed tuna (which is the same reaction to an allergy shot I had once when my body over-reacted to it) and that is a very different diarrhea than my IBS diarrhea, once that cleared I was back to business as usual.If you were eating these foods and not having any problems before the IBS hit, I'm not sure you could have been getting enough to do any damage. My histamine reaction (food or internal) is about 4-6 hours of severe watery diarrhea every few minutes until excess is gone. This is before and after IBS hit. Makes me a bit wary of eating tuna ever again when I am out and about.







Most of the time it isn't bad, but if it sits a bit too long before they can it, tuna can have a butt-load of it.Does taking a Benedryl or a Zantac (block two different histamine receptors) make your symptoms go away? I just haven't heard of permanent GI damage from diseases that cause high levels of histamine all the time every day that are not allergies. These people do have GI symptoms, but usually treating the disease will make the symptoms of high histamine levels go away. Some people have found an antihistamine does seem to help diarrhea as histamine is part of the "get it out now" signalling process in all humans, not just from some kind of histamine induced damage.AND I never was implying you or anyone else shouldn't avoid high histamine foods if they trigger your IBS symptoms.I just worry because some people do seem to want to find a behavior that they think caused IBS damage, I'm not sure that is necessary to say if only I hadn't eaten X or Y so often I would have been fine. I'm also not sure how helpful that is as usually it doesn't seem that anyone finds that just stopping the behavior makes all the IBS go away. If my attempts to reassure people they probably didn't do it to themselves is a problem, I'm sorry.


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## CJ78 (Jan 12, 2012)

Interestingly, and too early to say, but I had a flare up yesterday morning.I took, alongside my usual loperamidex2 in the morning, 1xloratadine for some bites. Back to a better BM last night.An ok 6 this morning, then a good 5 this afternoon. I also took 1xloratadine this morning for the bites still.As I said, too early to tell, but willing to keep taking the loratadine and see what happens (its nearly hayfever season for me too).


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## Bettsann (Mar 28, 2012)

knothappy said:


> Maybe coincidence..but every fall and spring when my sinus and allergies go crazy, you can bet i am in the house with terrible diarreha no matter what i take..Benadryl helps but it makes me so tired.In ohio we got warm real fast ,too early and for the past 6 weeks my ibs is awful. makes sense that if sinus drainage is dripping down your throat into your gut night and day it will irritate someone with an already sensitive stomach as with ibs d !!


Hi Knot!I found your post very interesting because it simply spoke very plainly to me about the relationship of the seasons to when my IBS kicks up the most! I had NEVER associated the two before... WOW... and I appreciate all the great input from all of you on histamines! --and of course they all go together. In reflection, now I can see that my worst flare-ups have always come during late spring and summer. It probably has to do with my 'attitude' towards hot weather too







since I really REALLY dislike hot weather and tend to be cranky!







Which produces stress...which ALSO triggers my IBS. Thanks for helping me put together some of the pieces to the puzzle!!


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## CJ78 (Jan 12, 2012)

Well my daytime BM's were better, but had scale 7's both thursday evening and at 3am this morning.Perhaps more time needed to see if it makes a difference, but nothing within 24-48 hours.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hey guys,I have gone 1 week with no diarrhoea and reduced gas.I went on a trip for work to Indonesia and was eating fried rice with sausages and other processed meats in it as well as being quite spicy. I started to get cramps and a burning sensation in my stomach!! This lasted for one day after I had consumed these foods. Another interesting thing about histamine is that the histamine levels in the body go up when one is stressed! This could explain why stress is a trigger for histamine sensitive individuals.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

CJ, are you avoiding histamine rich foods too, or just taking antihistamines? Antihistamines may help to reduce symptoms of histamine intolerance, but aren't preventing excess histamine from entering the system in the first place.Obviously we can't expect to steer clear of environmental sources of histamine, but through eating less histamine rich foods we are lowering the levels, thus allowing the enzymes which break histamine down to be free to deal with the environmental sources.I recently found a book that documents a woman's experience with histamine intolerance. She suffered diarrhoea as one of her symptoms. The book is called 'what HIT me' and it is by Genny Masterman.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Kathleen, you know how you were talking about most cases of IBS starting after food poisoning or a stomach bug? Well read this blog post: http://histamino.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/what-is-histamine-intolerance/Here, the author talks about the enzyme that breaks down histamine- DAO.DAO levels are depleted when one has a stomach virus or bug. This means that the level of histamine that the body can digest properly is reduced. This in turn causes the symptoms of histamine intolerance. This could explain why we find that we can't tolerate foods that we could in the past.


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## CJ78 (Jan 12, 2012)

Hi GTGB.Actually, because I have been trying to lose weight for the last 3-4 months, I would say that I either have low histamine foods, or avoid eating foods with high histamine.So that, in combination with anti-histamine, have not had an effect.However, I may not have given it long enough and/or it is likely to be different to individuals.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

I'm still feeling so much better. Anyone else feeling the same?


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## neild7744 (Feb 5, 2011)

Hello. Just read this post. Quite interesting. I suffer from diahhrea and have had ibs for 2 years. I've also had bad hayfever for many years.On my quest to find the cause of my ibs I looked down the histamine intolerance route, simply because I couldn't work out (and still can't exactly) what my body is reacting to. I've done quite a bit of reading on it and have some suggestions...Take vitamin b if you suffer with hayfever. I plan to try it this summer to see if it helps. Vitamin b helps break down histamine within the body apparently.Take vitamin c.Antihistamines off the shelf may help, but there are different types of drugs available depending upon tge reaction.


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## Tracy54a (Apr 23, 2011)

In conjuction with a low-histamine diet, which is essential, I highly recommend sodium chromoglycate (Nalcrom in the UK & Australia, Gastrocrom in the US). It's better than an anti-histamine. It's a mast cell stabiliser that stops the mast cells in your gut wall producing so much histamine. Ketotifin is another mast cell stabiliser used for the same purpose. Alternately a natural mast cell stabiliser that works for some people is Quercetin. Nalcrom has been great for me. It hasn't cured me but helps manage the symptoms. S-ame with Vitamine B is also a good preventative taken daily if under-methylation is the cause of the histamine problem.


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## Colt (May 5, 2011)

Tracy54a said:


> In conjuction with a low-histamine diet, which is essential, I highly recommend sodium chromoglycate (Nalcrom in the UK & Australia, Gastrocrom in the US). It's better than an anti-histamine. It's a mast cell stabiliser that stops the mast cells in your gut wall producing so much histamine. Ketotifin is another mast cell stabiliser used for the same purpose. Alternately a natural mast cell stabiliser that works for some people is Quercetin. Nalcrom has been great for me. It hasn't cured me but helps manage the symptoms. S-ame with Vitamine B is also a good preventative taken daily if under-methylation is the cause of the histamine problem.


This is an interesting thread. I find that I got post-nasal drip around the same tie as my IBS started. Now I notice that my symptoms (leakage) are worse whenever I am having Post-nasal drip.Prior to two years ago, I had no health issues whatsoever. No allergies and I could eat from a trash can without so much as a hiccup.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hello all,It's been a while since I have posted, and I have been doing relatively well at keeping my diarrhea and flatulence under control with a low histamine diet. It is quite hard to keep a strict low histamine diet, however, and especially as I am living in Asia, there are loads of unavoidable sources of histamine that I seem to be consuming such as soy sauce and chilli.I have just received a supplement called histame that is a source of the digestive enzyme DAO. DAO is needed for the successful digestion of histamine and a lack of this enzyme will contribute to many symptoms such as diarrhea, flatulence, constipation and fatigue. I am so excited to try this out! I will post about how it goes.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hello all,It's been a while since I have posted, and I have been doing relatively well at keeping my diarrhea and flatulence under control with a low histamine diet. It is quite hard to keep a strict low histamine diet, however, and especially as I am living in Asia, there are loads of unavoidable sources of histamine that I seem to be consuming such as soy sauce and chilli.I have just received a supplement called histame that is a source of the digestive enzyme DAO. DAO is needed for the successful digestion of histamine and a lack of this enzyme will contribute to many symptoms such as diarrhea, flatulence, constipation and fatigue. I am so excited to try this out! I will post about how it goes.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hello all,It's been a while since I have posted, and I have been doing relatively well at keeping my diarrhea and flatulence under control with a low histamine diet. It is quite hard to keep a strict low histamine diet, however, and especially as I am living in Asia, there are loads of unavoidable sources of histamine that I seem to be consuming such as soy sauce and chilli.I have just received a supplement called histame that is a source of the digestive enzyme DAO. DAO is needed for the successful digestion of histamine and a lack of this enzyme will contribute to many symptoms such as diarrhea, flatulence, constipation and fatigue. I am so excited to try this out! I will post about how it goes.


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## goingtogetbetter (Feb 24, 2012)

Hello all,It's been a while since I have posted, and I have been doing relatively well at keeping my diarrhea and flatulence under control with a low histamine diet. It is quite hard to keep a strict low histamine diet, however, and especially as I am living in Asia, there are loads of unavoidable sources of histamine that I seem to be consuming such as soy sauce and chilli.I have just received a supplement called histame that is a source of the digestive enzyme DAO. DAO is needed for the successful digestion of histamine and a lack of this enzyme will contribute to many symptoms such as diarrhea, flatulence, constipation and fatigue. I am so excited to try this out! I will post about how it goes.


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## grigor (Feb 27, 2014)

Hello ,

I just got Nalcrom at home.

The prescription from the doctor says 4 times a day ?? That seems a bit much??

How often did you have to take it ??


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## c_ralu (Aug 24, 2015)

Hello guys,

I think a lot of the replies here are useful but they are going away from the intention of this post which is Histamine intolerance and Ibs. Histamine Intolerance has nothing to do with alergiesbut its a very specific deasese where people react strongly to the histamine thr body is producing. I had Ibs -c for 4 years, did an elimination diet and i felt a lot better but during reintroduction, i would react differently towards the same foods (worked with a dietician). Then i started having alergic reactions with my eyes swelling and so on. It is true that the ibs elimination diet is high in histamine. So i went in and had allergy tests and everything was negative ... EXCEPT... For the control test where i was injected with pure histamines.

I will go in a couple of months and have the tests done with the following hypothesis:

Histaminosis-histamine intolerance high histamine and low dao
Mastocytosis- very high histaminr and low dao
Mast cell activstion

In conclusion, if a person is normally reacting strongly towards histamine, ot will have symptomos similar to those of Ibs.

Its not an allergy but symptoms are similar to ibs and allergy
- poor sleep
-low body temperature
-swolen eye lids 
-bloating
-diarea andconstipation
-reactinon to weat germs and lots of vegetables

Just like in Ibs, very is an inflamatory bucket and the reactions only appera later... Easiest to propf is through low histsmine diet for one month or rice and potatoe for one week.

Once i get my exact levels of histsmine and dao, i will post more.


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