Starflower wrote on 01/13/13 at 02:15:51:These slides are not a very high-quality resource for understanding histamine intolerance. Here's a better one (from a peer-reviewed, academic journal):
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/5/1185.shortThis thread belongs in the "Non Mast Cell Disorders" category. While I do think histamine intolerance is real and something each one of us should consider as an alternative or co-morbid condition... it's not a mast cell disorder.
Heather
Heather and others,
Thanks for reposting this article on Histamine and Histamine Intolerance, Heather. I read it about a year ago and you prompted me to reread it. I now have a deaper understanding of many of the concepts in the piece so am reading it differently now.
As stated in the abstract and introduction, histamine intolerance results from a disequilibrium of accumulated histamine and the capacity for histamine degradation. This to me points to problems in histamine catabolism or too much histamine as a reason for histamine intolerance.
Check out page 1187, where it restates that histamine intolerance can develop through both increased availability of histamine and impaired histamine degradation. It goes on to list multiple underlying conditions for increased availability may be endogenous histamine overproduction caused by allergies, mastocytosis, bacterias, GI bleeding, or increased exogenous ingestion of histidine or histamine by food or alcohol. I take this as meaning that these authors in mid 2006 believed that mastocytosis can cause histamine intolerance. This is before MCAS, so no suprise here that MCAS is not listed.
Check out table 1, which lists the various histamine levels that were found to trigger various clinical effects. At 3-5 ng/ml, anaphylaxis is triggered, with cardiovascular consequences of decreased arterial pressure at 6-8 ng/ml and bronchospasm at 7-12 ng/ml. I am overwhelmed by reading the Figure 1, which concisely summarizes histamine mediated symptoms, many which I have faced, and the unique constellation of symptoms that counted as one criteria for my diagnosis of MCAS by a top mast cell specialist. While several places throughout the article attributes these symptoms to healthy individuals transciently, as well as those with "histamine intolerance", how can this not be considered part of MCAS?
Just as some with previous diagnoses of IA and IC are now being diagnosed with MCAS, I wonder how many have been diagnosed with Histamine Intolerance. I've emet several from the UK who carry this last diagnosis and are seeking a MCAS diagnosis. Interestingly, DAO is a tested in the UK much more readily than here, and DAO supplementation was availaable in the UK long before here.
The way I understand, MCAS is a syndrome, or a collection of symptoms, and is NOT defined as a disease. Histamine Intolerance is a state of being or a symptom in itself. I take it that histamine intolerance is a symptom of a mast cell disorder, just like flushing can be a symptom/sign of a mast cell disorder.
Check out Figure 3. Other than paying attention to DAO inhibiting medications or histamine liberating medications and DAO supplemention, it pretty much fits a typical MCAS diagnostic pathway and treatment plan for MCAS. Considering this article comes from 2 Dermatologists from Germany in mid 2006, I feel this information, as well as the powerpoint I originally posted connects some big dots for me. Maybe others will learn from it as well.
Lyn