If that's Sallyblooms, I already know her a bit. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll drop her a line.

I did look at Puritan's Pride, but international shipping is a bit tricky. If I spend more than £15 then I'm liable to be hit with a £11 customs charge, and the really good deal at PP is the five bottles of 5mg for $25, which is over the £15 limit. Swanson, Solgar, Source Naturals, Bluebonnet and Jarrow are brands I can get fairly affordably over here, at least judging from Amazon; there may be a few more lurking somewhere.

My gall bladder was removed a year ago. It sounds like I should be asking for some tests to be run, at least if the itching hasn't cleared up in another week (the doctor told me to give the new antihistamines a couple of weeks). Any idea what I should ask for? I did see a dermatologist in August, but she was a bit clueless, told me erroneously that dermographism (which I do have) doesn't cause itching, wasn't interested in looking into mast cell stuff, and concluded after seeing me that I was getting itching from codeine, not knowing that I very rarely take it and haven't taken it in months. I'm not on any blood pressure meds, though I'm due to see a cardiologist in a month. My BP is normal on average, but leaps about all over the place, including going down as low as 75/40 that I know of. The post at the top lists all the meds I'm on, though I do occasionally take tramadol, paracetamol and/or diazepam for pain relief. As for gluten intolerance, I tried going gluten-free for a year a while ago, and it didn't seem to make any difference. So eventually my GP ran a blood test, said I was fine, I went back on the gluten, and apart from a slight adjustment period both times, there was no difference.

The itching follows certain patterns: worse at night, worse on my legs in the evening, occurs together with dizziness, sweating, nausea blacking out etc. if I stand up and keep still. Hence trying to look into mast cell problems.