Why is the antihistamine helping when Gastrocrom didn't?

[Pat]

Is it because of diet? I think probably so. Several years ago I went to an allergist and he first had me take Singulair but I didn't see any help with GI issues. It did help sinus problems. Then he had me take Gastrocrom, pretty pricey. He didn't have me change my diet!!!! I didn't see any benefit from the Gastrocrom so when all this came up here on this board about histamine and mast cells I didn't think that I was a candidate for the antihistamines. Fast forward to last June and I had been on the SCD diet and trying the almond yogurt and thought I was getting a lot of benefit from that but ALSO at the same time I had been to the local ENT because my left ear was stopped up with earwax and he cleaned that out and while I was there I quizzed him about my sinus issues, not severe but a nuisance and he told me to take Allegra everyday, just take it. So I did but didn't get the connection between the Allegra and my improvement in my MC issues. I thought I was seeing improvement in the MC from the yogurt and SCD diet. Wrong! I slowly quit taking the Allegra and MC issues slowly got really bad again. I was so dense not to see the connection between the Allegra and the MC. Anyway, I have ordered the Histame and now just trying to figure out a new diet quite different from SCD. The same foods sort of, but not yogurt, bone broth and cooking large quantities and eating leftovers. SCD recommends fermented foods but not for low histamine. I really saw a connection when I looked at the websites for low histamine diets and knew that I was intolerant to all the foods they recommended staying away from. I am so intolerant to everything it seems. Any suggestions are definitely welcomed. Thanks so much. Sorry this is so long.

Pat

PS I have been reading everything on here about the low histamine diet and saw where Mary Beth recommended a dietician in Austin which is close for me but sadly online it says she no longer takes new clients.

[dfpowell]

Pat,

Your SCD update is interesting. I don't have any suggestions but can relate my own experience. About 6 weeks ago I discontinued the SCD, after I found out that I was sensitive to almonds, dairy and eggs. Eliminating those foods made a difference for me. However, I also added an antihistamine and started eating low histamine foods at the same time so I don't know yet how much of a factor histamine plays in my MC. A number of members follow a low histamine diet so hopefully you will get some suggestions.

[tex]

Is it because of diet? I think probably so.

I believe you are correct. Consider this (from page 168, in chapter 14, of the book):

Mast cell stabilizers such as cromolyn sodium work by stabilizing the membranes of mast cells, and by doing so they help to prevent the mast cells from degranulating.

That suggests that Gastrocrom should help to prevent mast cells from degranulating (releasing histamine). But Gastrocrom apparently does nothing to reduce the effect of histamines that are already in circulation, nor is it able to prevent the histamine available in the diet from attaching to histamine receptors and triggering the release of cytokines and other inflammation modulators, because these sources of histamine are already out of the bag, so to speak, making mast cell stability irrelevant, as far as they are concerned. Therefore a relatively high-histamine diet is still free to promote inflammation for anyone who has mast cell issues (mastocytosis), despite the presence of Gastrocrom.

Histame can help to purge the body of excess (leftover, or unattached) histamine in circulation (IOW, in the bloodstream), but it cannot prevent the histamine in food from attaching to receptors in the digestive system on the first pass. For that job, only antihistamines (and minimizing the amount of histamine in the diet) will be effective.

The SCD is good as far as it goes (provided that it is modified so that all the sources of dairy are removed from the diet), but it's obsolete technology for treating MC, since a very high percentage of us seem to be vulnerable to mast cell issues.

PS I have been reading everything on here about the low histamine diet and saw where Mary Beth recommended a dietician in Austin which is close for me but sadly online it says she no longer takes new clients.

That's probably because she actually knows how to deal with food sensitivities and mast cell issues, so she's flooded with clients. Sadly, as we all know, medical professionals with that attribute are as scarce as hen's teeth.

Hopefully the rest of them will wake up and update their education someday soon, so that they can actually begin to help patients who have food sensitivities and/or mast cell problems.

Tex