Food sensitivities - a glimmer of hope
 

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I'd give an update on where things stand. I have a plethora of posts here that tell my now 8-year saga of idiopathic SFN, so I won't rehash everything. I'm posting this in the vein of "if I can help just one person..."

Trying to keep this as short as possible and to the point, I have discovered over the past year that the severity of my neuropathic symptoms are directly tied to what goes into my mouth. I have developed dramatic food sensitivities that I believe are pretty-wide ranging, but I am -- after 8 long years of hell -- FINALLY able to exert some control of how badly I burn.

Food sensitivities aren't regular IgE allergies--they're your body's inability to properly process certain things in food. Everyone knows about gluten and lactose, but there are a slew of others that can cause issues...oxalates, salicylates, phenols, casein, etc... And what causes the processing problems? All kinds of things...gut damage, blocked pathways, enzyme deficiencies, mineral deficiencies, etc....

I believe my body is producing histamine when I eat something I can't properly process. Getting congested and sneezy isn't the only histaminic response your body can have. Histamine is a neurotransmitter, and depending which receptors are getting hit, a raft of symptoms can be produced, including neuropathy (Pleasure reading: Histamine, histamine receptors, and neuropathic pain relief)

So for everyone out there still suffering with idiopathic neuropathy, on the outside chance you have something like what I have, see if you can associate the severity of your symptoms with what you eat or drink. Eating "serially" and simply can help determine if it's part of your problem.

Happy 2022 to all.

Janie

Thanks janieg.

The article on histamine etc. that you mentioned is worth a read.

I looked it up online; not too much low quality work gets published in the British Journal of Pharmacology; it is definitely looking at carefully.

This is a question posed on a research group thread

I hope this is not against the rules. This is the thread link and I've reproduced the original question. It seems very appropriate for this thread.

Antihistamines for Nerve Pain?

**Copyright**

Thanks Janie for this thread. It's extremely impressive.

I am afraid I don't have the patience to follow an elimination diet but I did wonder whether just taking an anti histamine would help with symptoms and nerve health.
This is a paper I have found that shows that an H1 antagonist antihistamine repairs Myelin Damage in Chronic MS. Demyelination is also common in Peripheral Neuropathy. I have been diagnosed with this type.

DEFINE_ME

So I have started taking Loratidine 10mg. Its best known as Clarityn in the UK but I have the generic and much cheaper supermarket home brand. it's also an H1 antagonist. If anyone shows any interest, I'll report back.

There's more in the PN Tips, Resources, Supplements & Other Treatments subforum at the top of the page if anyone is interested.

I don't take them all the time but it all started with my awful reactions and exacerbated neuropathy symptoms due to my Immunotherapy and the AstraZeneca vaccines. I've noticed a huge difference.

Histamine reactions and PN:

I just want to add that two other primary "features" of my disorder that have developed over the past few ears are tinnitus and thermoregulation issues.

My tinnitus can range from non-existent to to a high-pitched siren, apparently dependent on my histamine levels.

The thermoregulation problems are particularly problematic. At their worst, I will toggle between freezing cold without explanation to being a hot, sweaty mess. When I discovered I had a large kidney stone last summer, I immediately made major changes to my diet to reduce the amount of oxalates I was eating. In doing so, I inadvertently switched to a high salicylate diet, which sent me into a tailspin. There would be some nights that I wouldn't sleep at all and would flush (aka have a hot flash) every 30 minutes. It was misery until I got a handle on it. The hypothalamus is apparently what's getting hit. Histaminergic Modulation of Body Temperature and Energy Expenditure | IntechOpen

I also have one other clinical finding that may point to histamine as being the issues. On brain MRIs, I have two areas of hyperintensity that are of "unknown clinical significance." Somewhere I came across research reports that indicate this accumulated histamine in the brain shows up as areas of hyperintensity in white matter on MRIs.

Histamine is also associated with wakefulness, so when my histamine levels are high, I just don't sleep. Benadryl does actually help in that state (I buy ones that aren't bright pink since I react to food dyes), but that's not something that should be taken too frequently.

So anyway, I feel like the mystery is slowly unraveling.

It might be interesting to explore the blood type diet theory..
www.dadamo.com: The official Blood Type Diet website
I feel better when I eat the suggested best foods for my type.

Janie,

Thanks for the reference to the histamine journal article. I started taking Xyzal to see if it does anything for my iSFN. It's only been two days but I swear I'm feeling 10% better. Could be placebo effect, but hands look a bit less red too!