The Holy Grail

I have had a big day.  BIG.  Huge.  If you’ve never seen the film ‘Pretty Woman’ you won’t get the reference, but trust me when I say today may have been a game changer.

The Holy Grail for anyone suffering from Histamine intolerance (HIT), and people with Mast Cell Disease who find it necessary to follow a low histamine diet, is the ability to test the food we eat for histamine.  The reason it’s so vital is that many factors affect histamine formation, the main ones being how old a food is and how it’s been stored.   A lab testing the histamine content of imported strawberries that have spent weeks travelling from Israel, for example, may come up with a very different result than if they’d tested strawberries taken straight off a bush in their garden.  And how do we know if a specific strain of British strawberries have the same histamine content as a specific strain of Spanish strawberries?  The answer is, we don’t.  Realistically the only way to test the amount of histamine in the food we eat is to actually test the food we eat, and my food here in the UK will be different to the food you might be eating in the States, Europe, Australia, Asia or anywhere else on the planet.

In October 2018 I wrote this post about researchers at City University of Hong Kong who were developing a way of testing for histamine using your mobile phone and a sensor.  Well, today I had the joy and privilege of meeting one of the researchers, Victor Lau, while he was on a short trip to the UK.  I have been excited all week waiting to meet Victor and was not disappointed.  He was absolutely lovely and has given me permission to talk about our meeting and the home histamine testing device.

Hong Kong practically lives on fish and seafood but food standards aren’t as good as they might be, so since 2016 the researchers have been working on a way to test for histamine in seafood for use in the commercial food industry.  The research is Government funded so not driven by profit.  Until I emailed them back in October they had never heard of Histamine Intolerance or Mast Cell Diseases and are now hugely interested in our plight.  Victor made a point of telling me that it’s not through any desire to make money out of us – they genuinely love the idea of helping patients and when the device becomes available to buy they will keep the cost as low as they possibly can.

I have to stress that the current device is a prototype and still being refined.   There’s a long way to go to reach a saleable product, not least because the results have to be rigorously accurate if you’re dealing with sick people and allergic reactions and then the device would need the relevant Governmental approval, however I’m assured that we’re only talking 3-4 months before a working prototype would be available for me to test 😮

The equipment needed for the current testing system is as follows:

• An app for your phone.  They gave me the app and it was a doddle to install on my Android phone.
• The testing device, which is about half the size of a mobile phone.
• Some testing strips – these slot into the side of the testing device and you place your food sample on the strip.
• Some food to test, preferably something which can be formed into a liquid when mixed with water.
• Some distilled water.
• Some weighing scales able to measure in individual grams.
• A dropper.

Here’s a picture of today’s set-up:

This is how the testing currently works:

• Place a sterile pot on the weighing scales.
• Measure out 1gram of food into the pot.
• Add the same amount of distilled water.
• Mix together until you have a liquid thin enough to pass through a dropper.
• Open the app on your phone – it gives you guided instructions as to how to conduct the test.
• Using a dropper, place 2 drops of the food mixture onto the end of the testing strip (that’s the small orange-coloured strip sticking out of the right side of the device in the middle left of the picture).  Wait 2 minutes for this to be measured and registered.  Wipe off.
• Add 2 drops of distilled water onto the testing strip to re-calibrate.
• Repeat another 4 times, alternating food and water.
• An average histamine content will be calculated from these 5 samples.
• At least, I’m hoping I’ve got the technique correct – I’m no scientist and it was all new to me!  I’ll show the guys this post and they can correct me if I’ve got something wrong.

Victor about to weigh tea!

The process is a little time consuming, taking about 10 minutes per food item, but it’s really easy to do.  Currently it’s not something you’d be able to do in a restaurant, but I don’t care so long as I can test the food I eat at home!  Speaking of which, Victor asked me to take some food samples along to be tested.  They’d never tried the device on anything other than seafood, so were as excited to see the results as I was!  However, the device is currently only calibrated to test for histamine above 100ppm (parts per million), which is a safe level for healthy people but of course not for those of us who have to follow a low histamine diet – we need to be able to test for 20ppm at the very least and Roy Vellaisamy, Victor’s colleague in Hong Kong who I spoke to today on the phone, assures me this should be possible.  So bear in mind today we could only say if a food was below 100ppm or above 100ppm but not give a precise figure.

I miss tomatoes sooooooo much, so the first food tested was tinned, chopped tomatoes from Tesco.  They tested above 100ppm so there’s no way you could include them in a low histamine diet 😦  However, I’d also taken with me a fresh tomato and this tested below 100ppm!  We’ve no idea, though, how much below – it could be 10ppm or 99ppm so tomatoes are still not a food I’ll be eating until I know for sure how much histamine they contain.  Interestingly, Victor re-tested the fresh tomato a couple of hours after I left, which by this time had been out of the fridge and in a warm environment for several hours.  It now tested above 100ppm, which on the surface looks as if histamine had formed rapidly in the warm environment in which Victor was testing.  However, it may not be quite that cut and dried.  We only know it initially tested below 100ppm, but we don’t know by how much – it could actually have been 99ppm.  And in the second test, we only know it tested above 100ppm, but again we don’t know by how much – it could just be 101ppm.  Of course, on the other hand it could be that it tested as low as 30ppm on the initial test, but after being kept at room temperature for several hours it had reached histamine levels of 190ppm!  The ability to test precise levels of histamine in a food sample is something which would be vital to us if the device were to be useful to us as a patient population.

The next food I wanted to test was a good old British brew (well, actually, my tea was organic black Clipper tea from some far off land 😉 ).  I was gutted when this tested above 100ppm (and that’s without adding milk) but I have to be honest and say I still don’t think I can give my daily cuppa up.  Histamine is a bucket effect, and as long as my bucket is low from eating foods low in histamine the odd cup of tea shouldn’t fill the bucket too much and tip me over the edge and into a reaction.  That’s my excuse anyhow and I’m sticking to it 😉

By this time my train home was almost due, so I had to leave my other samples with Victor to test in my absence.  I’d taken some Quorn mince and some cocoa powder, so I’ll let you know the results when I have them.

Today has felt like a watershed day for those of us with HIT and/or MCAD.  I can’t stress enough how interested both Roy and Victor are in our situation, how generous and lovely they are being with me and how much they genuinely want to help.  It certainly makes a change from the usual way we rare disease patients are treated.  I told Victor that HIT seems to be much more recognized in Germany than here in the UK, and he luckily has a close colleague who lives in Germany whom he can find out more from.   For my part, I gave him Dr Seneviratne’s details being as though he’s the leading HIT & MCAD doctor in the UK and is so knowledgeable on all things histamine.

Victor stressed that they want to make a device which is useful to us, so if any of you have any questions please do comment below this post and I’ll forward them all.  I have every faith that, with a bit of tweaking, the device could be brilliant for us – the ability for you to be able to test the food you eat, and for me to be able to test the food I eat, would be awesome and something I didn’t even dream would be possible.  Not only that, but Victor thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to develop the device to test for things other than histamine – nuts, for example, or gluten!  All that would be needed is a separate testing strip whose receptors bind to gluten instead of histamine – the rest of the testing kit, ie the app and device, would remain the same.  Imagine the possibilities in our modern world where food allergies are rampant!

Watch this very exciting space 🙂

 

 

 

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Weekly roundup

I’ve had a fairly quiet week for a change and it’s been nice to relax and have some time to myself.  I had a pleasant day on Monday going up the lakes with my friend for his birthday – he was widowed 2 years ago and is still grieving for his wife, so I was happy he’d asked me out rather than moping around on his own at home.

Wednesday evening I’d agreed to do two talks at my Camera Club on various types of software.  Whenever I commit to doing something I worry myself stupid in case I’m ill on the day and have to pull out, but I was fine and it went really well, including good-hearted banter from the audience,   I was finally presented with my certificate for achieving the DPAGB back in November by an official from the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain, who also asked if I’d be guest speaker at his Camera Club in Carlisle next season which was flattering 🙂

I felt physically great at the start of the week, but rubbish by the end of it.  My brain fog today is ridiculous, every part of my body is aching and I have the energy of a zombie.  I’m currently on day 32 of my cycle so am wondering if I’m going to skip a period this time as it’s so late.  All this uncertainty, and not knowing when or if Aunt Flo is going to put in an appearance, is doing my nut in.

I spoke to the GP about my Dad.  His last B12 test twelve months ago was fine, so low B12 is clearly not the cause of his neuropathy.  She’s put him on amitriptylene for his aching leg pain and, being as though he’s also understandably a bit low, I’m hoping it will help.  She also said he most definitely should be tested for Lyme disease, so has arranged for him to have a blood test this week.  To be fair to her, she takes everything I say on board and if I request a test or referral she’s usually more than happy to agree.

I’ve had time to work on another photograph this week.  I live right next to a little village Church, which luckily is still open to the public all day.  Hardly anyone goes in the winter, so I’m able to take my camera in there and have done several photos inside.  As a teenager I seriously considered becoming a Nun but I would have been disastruous at it, on account of the fact I hate being told what to do 😉  I hope no-one is offended by my picture which I’m calling Disobedient – it was simply inspired by my story.

 

Jak’s Low Histamine Diet List

I spent the entire day yesterday re-vamping the Low Histamine Diet here on my blog.  It is now largely evidence based so at least you know the actual histamine content of the foods I list.  Bare in mind that hardly any food has been tested for histamine, so if a food isn’t listed it hasn’t been tested.  As far as I’m aware, this is the only free list available which gives actual histamine values of specific foods, so I hope you find it useful.

As you get your histamine bucket under control most people are able to occasionally eat high histamine foods without symptoms.  I eat chocolate now and again, some tomato puree on a pizza and fish in restaurants which I know isn’t as fresh as it should be and I cope with that OK – my wish is that this knowledge gives people who are newly diagnosed and currently reacting to everything hope.

I eat as wide a diet as I can get away with.  Not only in terms of fresh fruit and veg, but also treats like puddings and sugary snacks – my life is restricted enough without depriving myself any further.   It’s weird, but I react to lovely apples yet have never reacted to nutrionally-deficient rubbish like Starburst or Pringles in my life despite the fact they are packed with preverves and additives! (not that I’m complaining you understand, hell no 😉 )

This diet focuses on histamine alone, but that’s not the end of the story as you will read in the Further Information at the end of the List.  In addition, my MCAD complicates things further and makes me more reactive than I would be if I ‘just’ had HIT, so there are some days I simply have to accept the fact I’m having a reactive day and nothing I can do is going to help.  Having said all that it’s extremely rare these days that I react to any food and that’s solely down to following a Low Histamine Diet.

 

So what CAN I eat?

Following on from yesterday’s post on new research into the histamine content of non-fermented fruit, nuts & vegetables I thought I’d break down the information contained in the paper for us mere mortals to understand.

Histamine Intolerance (HIT) is thought to be caused by low levels of two enzymes: HNMT and DAO.  DAO is an enzyme in the gut which breaks down and converts the histamine we eat in our food, and if levels are low this process isn’t effective and results in high levels of histamine in our bodies (at least, that’s the layman’s version!).  In order to keep symptoms at bay, HIT patients need to stick to a low histamine diet, which makes perfect sense and has worked miracles for me personally.

However, there is very little information on the actual histamine content of foods and the researchers found that many foods excluded from low histamine diets actually have been shown to be low in histamine and therefore are safe to eat which is fabulous news!

What constitutes a high level of food histamine is currently guesswork – we don’t know what ‘high’ is, and safe levels of histamine in food probably differs from patient to patient depending on how well their DAO and HNMT are functioning.  I’m making the assumption that ‘high’ is anything over 20mg/kg but this is a purely made-up number in the absence of any guidelines.  Based on this, then,  the only non-fermented plant foods tested in this research paper and found to be high in histamine are:

• Eggplant (aubergine)
• Spinach
• Avocado is borderline at just over 20mg
• Fresh tomato & tomato ketchup is borderline at just over 20mg & chopped tomato is fine!

So as you can see, there are less than a handful of non-fermented plant foods which are high in histamine (though of course fermented plant foods like sauerkraut aren’t included and are known to be high in histamine).  I don’t know about you but this tiny list is a massive shock!  To think I’ve been missing out on loads of foods for no good reason for the past five years is heartbreaking.

This isn’t the full picture however.  The research paper suggests that it isn’t just histamine which may be causing a problem for HIT patients.  Other biogenic amines, such as putrescine, compete for DAO and the reason that patients report issues with foods low in histamine may be that they’re high in other amines.  We have no evidence this is true though – bare in mind it’s just a theory and might be totally wrong.

The biogenic amine putrescine is found in nearly all foods to some degree, so again we have no idea what a high level is, so I’m using 20mg/kg as my figure but it’s not based on anything.  The following is a list of ‘high’ putrescine foods – if you react to any of these, none of which are high in histamine, it might be you have an issue with putrescine instead:

• Green pepper
• Sweetcorn
• Tomato, fresh, concentrate & ketchup
• Peas (fresh & frozen)
• Soybeans, dried & sprouted (but not soya milk or tofu!)
• Banana
• Grapefruit, fresh (juice is borderline)
• Mandarin
• Orange
• Passion fruit
• Pear is borderline
• Papaya is borderline
• Pistachios
• Wheatgerm (but not bread or other wheat based products)
• Green beans
• Purple beans
• Broccoli was borderline in 1 study but fine in the others
• Courgette was borderline
• Cucumber was borderline in 1 study but fine in the others

I regularly eat several of the foods on this list, including bananas, passion fruit, pear, broccoli, courgette, green peppers, sweetcorn and peas and have no problems with them whatsoever.  However, you may have a totally different experience.

Tyramine, another amine, was found in some of the foods tested, though in very low levels.   So using pure guesswork and nothing else I’ve based my ‘high’ figure on foods which contain a level of tyramine of 5m/kg – it’s not based on anything though and could be way off the mark.  Foods with a ‘high’ level of tyramine include:

• Fresh tomato
• Avocado
• Plum
• Green beans are borderline

Bare in mind that tomatoes and avocado contain relatively high levels of histamine, so you may react to those due to their histamine content, but if you have a problem with plums or green beans it might be due to their tyramine content.

Cadaverine was found in some of the foods tested, though like Tyramine in very low levels.   So using pure guesswork and nothing else I’ve based my ‘high’ figure on foods which contain a level of cadaverine of 5m/kg.  These include:

• Spinach
• Soy milk was high in 1 study but fine in the other
• Tofu
• Pistachios
• Green peppers were borderline
• Banana was high in 1 study but undetectable in the others
• Grape was borderline
• Almonds were borderline
• Sunflower seeds were high in 1 study but undetctable in the other

The biggest question people new to low histamine diets asks is, “now I know what I can’t eat, but no-one tells me what I can eat!” and this new paper helps with this.  There is a long list of plant based foods which are low in all amines including:

• Lettuce
• Onion
• Red pepper
• Potato
• Apple, fresh & juice
• Grape
• Cherry
• Guava
• Kiwi
• Lemon
• Mango
• Peach
• Pineapple (fresh & juice)
• Strawberry
• Hazelnuts
• Barley
• White bread
• Wholemeal bread
• Corn-based cereal
• Oats
• Pasta
• Rice
• Asparagus
• Yellow beans
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
• Celariac
• Chard

If you have symptoms after eating any of these foods it looks like it’s down to a problem not related to biogenic amines and therefore isn’t Histamine Intolerance.

There are some interesting foods on the ‘allowed’ list.  Bread contains yeast and yeast is banned from most low histamine foods lists, however from the research trawl I did for my Histamine in foods: the Evidence page, and from this research paper, baker’s yeast (ie the yeast used in bread) tested low for histamine, it was the yeast extract (a by-product of brewer’s yeast) found in marmite which was the problem.  Many low histamine food lists exclude nuts but most appear to be low in all amines so should be fine.  Soya beans are also excluded on all low histamine lists, yet tofu and soya milk tested low in all amines and soy beans tested low in histamine yet high in putrescine.  It’s the fruit which has shocked me the most though.  Berries, cherries, pears, plums and pineapple are all excluded from low histamine food lists yet all are low in histamine and most are low in all amines so I will be eating strawberries again before the week is out (I already eat blueberries and drink pear juice daily so knew I had no problem with them).

Although dairy foods weren’t looked at in this particular research paper milk, fresh cheeses like mozzarella (but not hard or blue cheeses!), butter, cream and yoghurt have all been found to be low in histamine, though I’m unsure of their other biogenic amine content – I’ll look into that when I’m not suffering from a sickening migraine, which I currently am   Most fresh meats have also tested low for histamine, but again I’m unsure of their other amine content.  So, all in all low histamine diets don’t need to be anywhere near as restrictive as they are which really is great news 🙂

In light of recent evidence I’m going to totally re-vamp the low histamine food list on my blog when I have the time, energy and brain power.  I haven’t been following the list faithfully for a long time and am managing my HIT symptoms really well, so for me the list here on my blog is way too restrictive.  However, as I say all the time, my blog reflects my experience and yours may be totally different.

The new research paper talks about cooking methods and the fact that boiling vegetables reduced their histamine content, sometimes dramatically.  So, if you’re having an issue eating raw veg you might want to try boiling it and eating it cooked instead.

The other thing to mention while I’m on about food reactions is that Mast Cell Activation Disorder (MCAD) and Histamine Intolerance (HIT) are two distinct and separate illnesses.  Patients with HIT only have a problem with amine-related foods, while people with MCAD can react to just about anything so trying to control MCAD symptoms by a low histamine diet alone is fruitless.  The two diseases can sometimes occur together as in my own case, but many people ‘just’ have HIT and most people with MCAD ‘just’ have MCAD, so  when I talk about low histamine diets I’m exclusively talking about controlling HIT.  If people with MCAD find eating low histamine helps some of their symptoms too that’s great but it’s much more complicated than just diet for mast cell diseases.  If you’ve been religiously following a low histamine diet for more than 6 months and are still reacting to foods, or are reacting to foods low in biogenic amines, or are reacting to other things in the environment like heat or cold, your period makes your reactions worse, stress or strong emotions like excitement make your reactions worse and/or your hair is falling out, I would imagine you have more than HIT going on and it’s much more likely you have a mast cell issue.

Don’t believe the lists!

I’ve been diagnosed with Histamine Intolerance (HIT) and Mast Cell Activation Disorder (MCAD) for over 5 years now and I forget that people newly diagnosed don’t have the same level of information, and skepticism, about the diseases as myself.  So this post is aimed at the newly diagnosed, or those who think they might have problems with histamine.

I’m only going to talk about diet, because that’s how I control my HIT – I don’t take any supplements because my mast cells hate supplements.  MCAD isn’t controllable by diet because mast cells can be triggered by just about anything in the environment, such as hormones, stress etc, but many people with MCAD follow a low histamine diet to reduce their bodies histamine load.

There is loads of information ‘out there’ on histamine in foods and for the most part it is absolute rubbish.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is currently no lab which is testing the histamine content of foods.  None.  I urge you to read my Histamine in Foods: the Evidence page which outlines the situation.  Most of the current lists rely on one paper for their information, but it is years old and has been discredited.  Sadly, however, most of the histamine food lists online use this research paper as their source without checking its validity or accuracy.  The histamine content of food is simply chinese whispers – it is not based on fact, no matter which list you look at (including the one listed here on my blog).  Bare in mind that many popular online histamine sites are making money out of their books and online courses – they’re not suddenly going to turn round and say ‘oops, turns out everything I’ve been telling you for the past 5 years is a pile of poo’.  I don’t make a bean out of my blog and am just trying to be objective.

If you’re following a low histamine food list have you checked where the author has gleaned their information from?  I mean, really checked it?  Have you followed the research links (if they’re available) and actually read the research?  How old is it? Has it been replicated by another research group or testing facility?

The problem with the histamine content of foods is that histamine formation and degredation depends on how old the food is and how it’s been stored.  Just because a lab in Norway has found a level of, for example, 5mg/kg of histamine in yoghurt doesn’t mean the yoghurt you’re eating contains that amount because you have no clue how the milk the yoghurt is made from was stored or handled.  This is why the only accurate way to test for histamine in the food we eat is by actually testing the food we eat – which is why I’m so excited by the home testing kit I’m hoping to try next month!

Information on the histamine content of food is changing all the time.  The most recent reseach paper to come out about the histamine content of foods was undertaken by the University of Barcelona and focused on the histamine content of non-fermented plant based foods, including fruits, nuts and legumes.  It’s a really good paper and I urge you to read it.  Hardly any information on the histamine content of plant-based foods is available, and this new research found that the only products of plant origin with significant levels of histamine were eggplant (aubergine), spinach, tomato and avocado – which is good news and makes most plant based foods fairly safe in histamine terms.

Most of the online foods lists say people with MCAD or HIT should avoid citrus fruits, berries etc., yet this new research demonstrates that no fruit is high in histamine.  The food lists say that strawberries, for example, may not be high in histamine themselves but liberate histamine in our bodies.  It’s tosh.  There is no way of testing whether or not any food liberates histamine stored in our mast cells and you need to be questioning the author of any such information on how they’ve reached this conclusion.

The histamine content of wheat products, eg bread and pasta, all showed undetectable amounts of histamine.

The authors state that storage temperatures are the main contributor to histamine formation in plant based foods, so the rule is to eat plant foods within a day or two of buying them and to keep them refrigerated.

The way we cook food can also affect histamine formation.  It appears that boiling vegetables decreases histamine, sometimes quite dramatically, as the histamine transfers to the cooking water.  In a very small study frying, however, increased histamine (though this hasn’t been replicated in other studies as far as I know).

Having said all that, although the only plant based foods which were found to be high in histamine were eggplant (aubergine), spinach, tomato and avocado, some foods were found to contain other biogenic amines such as putrescine and spermidine.  How much these other amines are implicated in HIT is completely unknown, so how much you want to worry about them is up to you.

The conclusion of the research was that: “the exclusion of a high number of plant-origin foods from low histamine diets cannot be accounted for by their histamine content” which is what I’ve been saying for a long time now.  We are cutting out nuts, fruits, wheat and most veg from our diets for absolutely no good reason!  The authors do conclude that some of these foods contain putrescine and if you have an issue with them it might be because of that, but the foods aren’t high in histamine and if anyone tells you they are they’re fibbing.

 

Weekly roundup

We finally heard from the hospital about my Dad’s lumbar puncture this week and it was devastating news – they still don’t know what’s causing his severe, progressive, axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy.  They thought it was most probably down to CIDP, but there was only a very slight increase in protein in his spinal fluid so they’ve now ruled that out.  My Dad is angry, frustrated and terrified.

His blood work this time did show decreased B12 at 140 (normal is 200-900) so he’s been referred for B12 injections, however I’m not sure when this has happened so can’t say whether it’s connected to the neuropathy or not.  He’s had enough blood taken to sink a whole fleet of ships in the past two years, so if he’s never had his B12 checked before I’ll fucking sue the NHS, and if he has had it checked it must have been normal so can’t be the cause of his 18 month long neuropathy.

The consultant now wants him to have a full body CT scan.  I assume she’s looking for cancer, but she can’t be that concerned because it’s been a month now since his lumbar puncture and we don’t even have a date for the scan yet (you’re supposed to be seen within 2 weeks if cancer is suspected).

We just don’t know where to go from here and all the while my Dad gets worse and worse…….and worse 😦  I’m hoping to speak to his GP on Tuesday to arrange his injections and I’m going to ask if he’s ever been tested for Lyme disease.  He’s been an avid walker his whole life and we live in an area which is endemic for tick borne Lyme disease which, if left untreated, can cause neuropathy so I’m going to ask the question – we’ve nothing to lose.

I put in a formal complaint to the Managing Director of RMB Automotive about the terrible experience I had at RMB Darlington where I bought my new car, and have not even had a reply let alone an apology.  The fuckers tried to rob me and not even the MD of the group cares

I have been having a serious bash at losing some weight since Christmas.  I usually like to be around 8st 5lbs (119lbs) but in December was 9st 1lb (127lbs) and realized all the peri-menopause induced guzzling of sweeties had to stop.  I’m currently having 2 slices of toast with jam at 8am, a main meal at lunchtime, then just having a fruit & yoghurt smoothie and some cashew nuts for supper with the odd handful of grapes if I get really hungry inbetween meals.  I’m delighted to announce that so far I have lost 3lbs, go me! 😀

Speaking of smoothies, I decided to re-introduce organic, plain yoghurt into my diet.  Some of the info I’ve read online states that live cultures, as is used in yoghurt, contain histadine however I’ve no idea on what tests or research this is based.   From the limited testing which has been done (as shown on my Histamine & Foods: The Evidence page), yoghurt has been shown to be low in histamine so I thought I’d try it and see how it went.  When you haven’t eaten a certain food in five years because you’ve been incorrectly brainwashed into believing it’s bad for you it’s hard to re-train yourself to think of it as fine, and I admit the first night I tried it I was anxious.  I shouldn’t have been, though, because I’m not allergic to any food so it’s not like I’m going to have an immediate anaphylactic reaction.  Histamine Intolerance is more of a bucket effect so even if yoghurt were high in histamine, unless my histamine bucket was already high (which it currently isn’t) it should have been fine.  As it is, I’ve been eating 3 tablespoons of yoghurt most nights for three weeks now and I’ve had no HIT symptoms at all.  I’d forgotten how lovely a banana, passion fruit and yoghurt smoothie was and I’ve been really enjoying them 🙂

I’ve barely picked my camera up since last November, so this morning I decided to try an idea I’d had in my mind for a while.  The resulting picture, ‘Reading by Candlelight‘ is OK I think, though nothing to write home about.

Tomorrow is a friend’s birthday, and he’s invited me out for lunch to a lovely hotel up the Lakes.  That’s my diet scuppered then, and I’ll probably gain back the 3lbs I’ve lost in one sitting, but life is too short not to eat pudding, especially when someone else is paying for it 😉

 

Home testing for histamine

Back in October I wrote in this post about some researchers from Hong Kong who were in the process of inventing a sensor which works with your mobile phone to test for histamine in foods.  There are a handful of other researchers around the world who are also working on ways to test for histamine in foods, but the Hong Kong group seemed to be the closest to development so I contacted them to find out more.

They had principally built the device for use in the food industry, so that supermarkets and food manufacturers could test their foods for spoilage, but when I told them about MCAS and HIT patients they were extremely interested in our plight – they didn’t know there was a patient population out there who were desperate for a way to test for histamine in foods and had never considered selling the device to the general public.

They were still working on a prototype but asked me if I’d like to test it and give them feedback.  Is the Pop Catholic?!  I said I’d love to, but by Christmas had heard nothing from them.  Last week I emailed the team again who replied straight away to apologise for not being in touch.  Apparently they had had some issues with the chip inside the sensor device, and one of the researchers was currently in Taiwan liaising with another company to produce the chip.  He did, however, send me a video of the device and asked for my comments.  I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say as obviously there is the competition to think about, but the device looks straight forward enough to use if a little fiddly.  It isn’t the case of sticking a probe into a food item and taking a reading which is what I’d kind’ve had in mind, but once I’d got my head around the fact it will be more complex than that I still think it’s going to be usable by the public, at least in a home environment if not in restaurants or on the run.  They are hoping to streamline some parts of the process before it becomes generally available.

One of the researchers is coming over to London in February and asked for a meeting with me, but unfortunately he’ll be in London and I’m not sure I feel up to travelling 600 miles just to have a half hour meeting   I was hoping one of my good friends who lives nearer the capital would be able to attend instead, but unfortunately she’s really unwell at the moment and doesn’t feel up to it.  It feels like a hugely wasted opportunity 😦

Obviously I’ll keep you all informed of developments.  Any chance to test for histamine in foods would be a massive bonus in mine, and many of your, lives.  The first thing I’d look at is tomatoes………….how I miss them……..closely followed by tea!