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Histamine is the chemical (neuro-transmitter) your body produces when you're having an allergic reaction. Although there is always some histamine in your body, a mosquito bite (for example), causes your body to release more histamine in the area of the bite, making your skin red and itchy. In extreme cases, histamine levels in someone who is allergic to a bee sting or a particular food like strawberries can be elevated so high that it causes anaphylactic shock and possibly death. Adrenaline (Epinephrine) is the only chemical that can quickly eliminate histamine in a person. So called "antihistamines" like Benadryl only work to block some of your body's histamine receptors (relieving some histamine related symptoms), they do not remove histamine. If you do go into anaphylactic shock (where your organs essentially shut down), it is essential that you are injected with adrenaline immediately to counteract the dangerously high histamine level and prevent death. My histamine level was very high but not dangerous. My body tried in vain to reduce this high level of histamine to a normal level, by releasing abnormally large quantities (spikes) of adrenaline into my blood stream. This created nervous energy and sometimes even panic attacks if the spikes were large enough. The body normally has a certain amount of adrenaline that increases and decreases slightly to balance your body's histamine level. In its attempt to reduce my histamine level, my body would essentially use up all my adrenaline (as shown by my blood test). This would leave me feeling anywhere from moderately tired to frighteningly exhausted. Its probably difficult to imagine being so drained of energy that it would actually scare you, but it happened to me frequently. My high histamine level also caused my Meniere's like symptoms, as well as difficulty thinking, focusing, and remembering things. Its possible that many people diagnosed with Meniere's Disease actually have a high histamine level and not an inner ear problem.
High histamine levels can be gradually reduced over time if the cause of the "allergic" (autoimmune) reaction can be found. In my case it was determined that I had trouble metabolizing sulfur (contained in many foods) and had an excess of a chemical called histadine which is also contained in many foods, especially breads. The sulfur and histadine in the foods I ate caused my body to produce large quantities of histamine. This isn't really an allergic reaction in the typical sense. Tomatoes, wheat, milk and citrus fruits all contain high quantities of sulfur which caused my body to produce large quantities of histamine. To reduce my histamine level, I had to eliminate these foods from my diet (see Histamine Diet). If I ate some pizza (which contains tomato (sauce), wheat (crust), and milk (cheese) ) I would usually have a panic attack two or three days later because it took that long for the whole sulfur, histadine, histamine, adrenaline reaction process to take place. I would never have associated a panic attack or dizziness attack with something I ate two or three days before.
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