Hi Kay,

 I, like yourself, am vegetarian (I do eat fish/shellfish) and understand fully about having such a limited diet.  Although I don't have any confirmed food allergies, I have  many foods that fall under the "oral allergy syndrome" category.  Plus, I have a long list of foods (not all that are high in histamine) that have become triggers for my MC issues.  Put all that together and there are a good deal of foods I no longer eat.  

I was diagnosed with MCAS by Dr. Afrin when he was at MUSC.  He and I talked then about the benefits of a low histamine diet.  He told me that a low histamine diet works well for some MC patients, and is less effective for others.  Given what he said and the fact that my diet was already limited, I opted not to follow the low histamine diet at that time.  I simply wasn't ready to give up more food choices, especially if it didn't guarantee a reduction in symptoms.

Fast forward a couple of years later and I was struggling (again) with severe bouts of itching.  I had one episode that was particularly bad and I realized that I had eaten shrimp the day prior.  At that point I decided it was time to give the low histamine diet a try.  I was so tired of itching and I was becoming suspicious that food played a role in the episodes.

 I can say without a doubt that the low histamine diet helped with the frequent itching episodes I was experiencing. I still eat high histamine foods from time to time, but I "dose" those foods if you will.  I might put some shrimp on a salad for instance, but the serving size will be small and I won't eat another high histamine food for at least a week.  I never have back to back days of high histamine foods.  For myself there is a direct correlation to the quantity of high histamine foods and I eat and my symptoms. It's very like the "bucket theory" you read about with high histamine foods.

I was pretty skeptical about the bucket theory when I first read about it.  But, by keeping a diary of food intake and subsequent symptoms, I came to recognize that it really played out the way described.  (The bucket gets filled with histamine from food and then spills over, causing symptoms.)  When I ate high histamine foods, especially if I ate a lot of them over several days, my symptoms worsened.  I didn't want to give up some of my favorite foods, but I couldn't argue with my findings.

I suggest you give it a try.  You'll never know if you're one of the people who can have a positive response to it, if you don't give it a try.  Think about keeping a food diary and symptom log and see if you see any uptick in symptoms when you eat high histamine foods.

So much can't be controlled when it comes to MCAS...it really does have a mind of its' own.  But, this is one area where you can take back some control and impact your symptoms in a positive way.

I wish you good luck!  Let us know how it goes.

Julie

Hi Kay,
I did the low histamine diet a few years ago, and got stuck on it. It worked within a day or 2, for me. I am very regretful that I followed it so well. I got rid of many foods, and wasn't able to add them back in. It takes me a month of eating small bites of a certain food, to tolerate it without a reaction, and sometimes that doesn't even work. I did find out that spices were a huge trigger for me. I do eat bananas and mushrooms daily. Wheat is also okay for me. I think we all react so differently to everything,  it's really just trial and error. I changed all of my diet to organic, and got rid of all food dye. I found out yellow dye puts me into anaphylaxis.  I recently added grape juice and cherry juice to my diet. Even though cherries are high in histamine, they block prostaglandins, so it seems to balance out for me.

If you are trying the low histamine diet, I would recommend just eliminating one food at a time, and keeping a food/symptom journal. The more nutrients you can keep in your diet, the better off you'll be:)  Wishing you good health--Sarah