Test to check for Histamine Intolerance and low DAO

http://lsialab.com/gb/Histamine_Intolerance_Test

I really don't know much about it. I was able to diagnose my own histamine intolerance myself after doing a lot of research. After eliminating many other things as a possibility this was the only thing left and since treating my histamine intolerance I have gotten much better.

Histamine is histamine. All foods containing high histamines will harm me without taking the DAO. The link I provided above in the "background information" tab lists several useful foods to avoid. In the end you have to investigate to see which food program works best for you. I personally hate name brand diets because some of the foods classified as illegal might not cause you any problems and some foods in the diet classified as legal might actually be giving you problems. If you have noticed that high histamine foods have caused problems then that is a good clue.

I get my DAO online from Swanson and I gave it the big test - taking the DAO and then purposely eating foods that I knew would make me go 10-20 times during the next few hours and I was happy to see that I had no problems. That was a confirmation to me that I was on the right track. If you really don't know what foods cause problems then you are just shooting your gun in the dark hoping to hit the broad side of a barn. The hardest part of the DAO problem is that there is no listing of the amount of histamine a product has in food labels - mostly because the longer a food sets around the higher the histamine count goes so it wouldn't be the same as when originally packaged. You need enough DAO in your system to counteract the histamine in the foods so if you don't know how much histamine is in the foods and you won't know how much one capsule of DAO eliminates of histamine then dosage becomes a huge guessing game. I take one DAO capsule before all regular meals and take as much as four when I know I am eating foods containing higher histamine counts.

I guess that might be the best place for you to start and see if it helps. That way you don't have to eliminate the foods you mentioned and can still do SCD and Fodmap. If you notice things getting better then the DAO might be helping. If not then I guess you'll know there isn't a histamine intolerance problem. I'm a big believer in investigating to see what foods bother you and what foods don't so you can eliminate only the foods that bother you instead of eliminating a whole class of foods in like the SCD diet. I don't know much about Fodmap. I think it's a shame when people eliminate a zillion foods from one of those name brand diets when it is very possible you don't really have to do all of that elimination. Part of the problem in UC is your good gut microbes are not plentiful and varied enough and when you limit your diet severely then your never going to get that amount and variation in your gut microbes that is needed.

Depending on the amount of tomato sauce you eat, make sure you take enough DAO to counteract it. Tomato sauce is very high in histamines. That's one of those meals where I usually take 4 capsules. You won't get any knowledge if you don't take enough DAO and then wind up having your same reaction. I was absolutely terrified to try my first test. I ate certain foods like pizza or cheddar cheese dishes and would go 10 -20 times in the next few hours. I took 4 capsules, ate pizza and notta. No one. Then I expanded to cheddar cheese dishes. Nothing again. What a relief!

I usually take only one per meal and only take more if I am eating higher histamine meals that I know cause me problems. Sometimes I take 2, 3, or four. Don't ever remember taking any more than four at once. It's all a guessing game and trial and error. Have to try to keep the errors to a minimum. It was a good test though. It gives you an idea if the DAO will actually help or not and if that was your problem in the first place. If you get sold on DAO you can order several at once so you only pay one shipping charge. Sometimes you get free shipping specials or if you order a certain dollar amount. If it works great sometimes you can cut back on the expense of some other things you are doing. One of my biggest problems has been eating high histamine snacks because I usually don't or forget to take DAO while eating them and then realize shortly after that I shouldn't have done that. When I was having problems with the high histamine foods I would have an almost immediate reaction, going 10 or more times in just the next few hours. Orange juice is a big one for me and I can't tell you how many times I had diarrhea in my pants less than an hour after drinking a large glass. It took me several accidents before I realized OJ was a big no no for me. I could probably drink it with a bunch of DAO but I just totally avoid it now.