u/Bogdan_92

So for short introduction, I have POIS for ~ 8 years already and I have gotten some relief from ditching lactose , nuts honey, sugar and implementing intermittent fasting. This way the symptoms reduced from 7 to basically a day . I have an older post about , you can search it up.

So for a long while I though that I have no issues with gluten , because I did tests for it. I was so wrong , right now gluten free 3 months and my fatique and my POIS is basically gone. Of course if I ejaculate today for example and next day again I still have some symptoms but they subside in one day.

First thing first, if you test for it , the results will be basically worthless. It is estimated that over 70 % of the world population have some kind of intolerance to gluten. You can do it , but you will throw away your money on the window. Trust me that testing for gluten is worthless.

Even if you test negative , do NOT consider that you have no problem with gluten . Some bodies cand take on the abuse of gluten very well and other don't . That's just life, it is what it is . You can whine about it or you can do something about it. The ONLY reliable way to test for this is the old-school way :

For 1 month let go of any sort of gluten , be as strict as possible. I don't refer here just to wheat. Barley , rye and oats all have gluten, don't be fooled by marketing. Search it online and you will see all those foods have gluten. Then after 1 month , ingest gluten (bread, pasta whatever). Observe your symptoms . If you get within 1- 3 hours:

- Brain fog / mood swings

- Fatique

- Sugar cravings

- Dermatitis anywhere on the body

Then it is very likely that you have an intolerance. Now regarding POIS, you can test to see if you got symptoms while going gluten free, but the timeline may be too short.

The big problem with gluten is that it affects you villi's which are small finger - like formations on the surface on your small intestine. These villis are there to absorb as many nutrients as possible . Now gluten is a hard protein for the body to digest, if the body cannot digest it 100%, it will damage the villi's long term. And long term I mean years or decades of silent damage that is happening without you even knowing.

Now imagine if the villis are reduced by number, you cannot absorb properly what you just ate from food. Imagine maybe 50% or nutrients are lost just like that. Plus the foods today are already nutrient deficient, no wonder we all have all sorts of problems . It is just like adding oil to an engine that is leaking it , instead of fixing the leak you just add oil.

What is even worst than that is that is not just food. Anything, including medication is not properly absorbed. So whatever vitamin and/or supplements are you taking right now, your body may absorb only 10 - 20% of it.

I have a strong feeling that POIS is a nutrient deficient disease. All the functional doctors say that basically all the diseases are caused by nutrient deficiencies. Imagine you ate gluten basically your whole life, your villis reduced in number for decades , until something breaks. This break is POIS, but can be other disease. Nutrient deficiency caught up and it manifested in a way or another.

The good news is that the villis can rebuild themselves. The bad news is that it takes a long time to do so, somewhere from 6 months to even 2 years. It may took even longer if the damage is massive. Yes you heard that right, you would need to be gluten free for that amount of time so that your body to recover , it is not a fad diet. There are numerous articles and science literature that explains about this.

So a warm advice for all of you is to just test it , you have nothing to lose .

Hello fellow friends. So I have some issues that after a very long time of observation I strongly think that what I might have MCAS/histamine intolerance and I want to know your thought on this. I will try to make this as short as possible, so bare with me.

I will start in 2019 where I developed POIS (post - orgasmic ilness syndrome)

So what that is basically after ejaculation I have following symptoms for about 2-4 days :

- Fatique, muscle weakness,

- Sensitivity to light and sound

- brain fog/mental degradation/ wanting to stay in bed all day long

It didn't matter how much abstinence , symptoms were the same.

Anyway, fast forward to 2024, these symptoms started to be more intense. Also the same symptoms started to appear after drinking coffee/staying too much in heat (or sun)/intense phisical work. In the meantime I went to several doctors but they say it is all in my head .

In august 2024, one day I woke up and felt life dying, literally. My entire body felt shut down. Came without any warning prior to this day . Symptoms were the following :

- Severe POTS. to the point where I almost fainted if I stand up quick

- Intense brain fog/ sensitivity to light/heat.

- My brain was acting weird - like I was repeating same thing in my head like a fucking grandpa, at 32 years old.

- Severe gastrointestinal distress (bloating, stomach pains)

- When I took hot shower , I felt very sleepy and very fatiqued , i had to lay down

- Intense fatique after even very little exercise. I was sweating profoundely after even slight exercise

- Intense fatique after eating almost to fainting. Didn't really matter what I ate

- Basically I was reacting to any trigger of my environment.

- Fluctuating blood pressure . sometimes when I stand up i got nose bleed.

- Sometimes - Sternum crackling and pain - I had the sensation that my sternum will crack anytime. Also that iritation from sternum translated to my throat somehow.

Symptoms were so bad that I had to take off 2 weeks from work, and lasted several months. Interestingly enough I didn't have any hives whatsoever like alot of you folks mention in this sub reddit. Also my stool was fairly ok. Fast forward, I did lot of tests, went to alot of doctors and nothing showed up, so they concluded again that it was all in my head and I was stressed.

One day I had appointment to do an MRI with contrast substance. Did that kidney blood test prior to the MRI contrast, all good. After the imaging was finished I got home and felt very weird. Had the feeling that the contrast substance fucked me up big time. After 3 hours I had a panic attack (described by the nurses) with tremblings , irregular heartbeat and breathing, fatique.

So i reach to emergency room and they did some tests (of course). Slight electrolythe imbalance so they give me some electrolythe pills. However what a nurse said to me was what triggered me to self investigate. While I was on the bed, one nurse told me that I might have some reaction to nuts, since the contrast substance has this similar compound and since it was shoveled right into my bloodstream it was way powerfull than regular nuts which has to travel through your gut thus you have some protection.

So after that I went home and for the next couple of months I investigated myself , since no doctor could see what the hell I had. I found out very shortly that following foods were doing harm :

- Dairy - biggest trigger. Interesting enough aged cheese was not that bad. However if I ate too much, same outcome.

- Nuts

- Gluten and eggs (however those do not show up instantly - not really sure).

- Beans and derivates - basically all fermentable foods.

- Fruits were generally fine. However pears, apples were not so good

- Honey . Combined with nuts they were as worse as dairy. One time I ate honey + nuts and full blown symtoms came back . however not as hard as the first time.

- Any alcohol. Wine the worst

I cut those for some time and my symptoms improved. Also my POIS improved a little , that is why I told you about it , because it seems ejaculation also increases histamine.

Fast forward to today I still have some trouble with all the restriction I self-imposed. Now I am functional and can do daily chores, but still I feel something is off and I am very sure there is something in the food.

Another non-food triggers I found that leads to same symptoms:

- Wood dust. I cut some wood pieces, didn't wear mask and nearly got another episode like the first one. I had to stay in bed next day all long. I learned my lesson and now I use masks all time when doing such work.

- Other dusts, like concrete dust and regular dust.

- Exposure to sun too much .

- Exposure to intense exercise. Coupled with exposure to sun - total killer

- I somewhat get some symptoms if I get sad or mad too much

What do y'all think about this?
I will soon go to a functional doctor and hope he will get this right