Something to try if you are flaring

Hi, I am not here to give medical advice, but I found something by a happy accident that stopped a flare I was in cold and has continued to work for 2 months extremely well. I have had UC for forty + years and for the last 30, I have mostly avoided meds. A Paleo diet has helped me from spinning out of control, but in the last 3 years I have had multiple mini flares that has kept me walking on egg shells.

Anyway I took a Benadryl one night while in a flare because I had an allergic reaction to some plants I brushed up against while gardening. I woke up in the night passing a little gas, when on previous nights I couldn't without risking an accident. I wasn't thrilled about taking Benadryl during the day and experimented with other antihistamines, but Benadryl is the only thing that works. Here are a couple sites that mention it as treatment: http://www.digitalnaturopath.com/cond/C716505.html
https://selfhacked.com/2014/08/01/deal-histamine/

I buy a Walgreen knockoff that has no dyes in it. At first I took a Benadryl with each meal (for 6-7 days) until I got down to 1 BM per day and blood had completed disappeared. I went down to half a pill and now 1/3 a pill per meal and 1/2 pill at night. My diet already conformed to low histamine, but I am more careful now only to eat fresh cooked meals as histamine is higher in leftover food. By the way, I had previously done some 23andme testing that indicated I might have methylation issues, but I found the remedies pretty elaborate and impossible to explore while my UC was not stable.

I think of course you should check with your doctor first before taking Benadryl. But there are a number of reasons why people have too much histamine in their bodies including inflammation from an auto-immune disease, so I really think it is worth a try to those that can't get their diarrhea under control. I think you will know pretty quickly if it is working. If this note helps 1 person out their I would be thrilled. I will say that should it work for you, then there is more work to do down the road to find out why your histamine levels are high. But to get out of crisis mode and have the ability to try supplements as needed is a Godsend. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the great comment imagarden. I have learned a lot from reading your comments in the past.
Every drug has its downside, but compared to prednisone and other drugs gi's are prescribing, I think Benadryl is a much better option for many. I am taking Alpha GPC to hopefully ward off any negative effects of Benadryl on the brain. Bottom line is I think trying Benadryl to see if one has a positive response could be a game changer for some. Both as a way to stop a flare, and as a diagnostic path to find ways to reduce the histamine in one's body thru supplementation longer term and thereby reducing or eliminating the need for Benadryl (I hope).

Hi Tropitude. I don't have a silver bullet for the grogginess, especially since I take it all day now but you do build some tolerance. I tried Sam-e for dual reasons without success and just started the Alpha-GPC, which might be helping, but I need more time to see. If you are taking Benadryl only at night then taking it an hour or 2 before bed will make it easier to wake up. Also it's tough to do, but if I exercise after I wake up it seems to remove the cobwebs.

I used to take a lot of benadryl due to allergies but the article someone mentioned about the link between this type of med and Alzheimer's made me stop using it unless absolutely necessary. Instead I take Claritan in the AM and Zyrtec inthe PM. These are both antihistamines but much lower risk of dementia.