Do you think the red patches on my cheeks could be related to histamine intolerance?
They first appeared about three years ago. At first, I'd wake up in the morning with my face feeling like it was burning, and these red patches would show up. They would usually fade during the day, but after a while they stopped disappearing and have been there ever since.
Besides the patches, I seem to react to almost everything I eat. The biggest triggers for me are animal fat, acidic foods, fermented foods (especially fermented dairy products), and pickled vegetables. Tomatoes are by far the worst. If I eat tomatoes, I can end up in bed for up to two weeks feeling like I have the flu, with severe muscle pain.
I almost never have a stuffy nose, but I often get a burning sensation in my mouth and on my tongue, even after eating something as simple as potatoes with chicken breast.
Stress definitely makes everything worse.
Most mornings I wake up feeling pretty good (although not every morning), but as soon as I eat, I usually start feeling worse. Then, later in the evening, I gradually start feeling better again. I still don't feel well after eating foods that usually trigger my symptoms, but for some reason I seem to tolerate them better in the evening than earlier in the day.
One thing I find really strange is that I barely react to chocolate. I only eat small amounts of 100% dark chocolate—never regular chocolate—and I absolutely love it.
Yesterday I drank about a liter of kefir, and afterwards I felt extremely tired, but by the evening I was feeling much better again.
I also tried following a low-histamine diet, but honestly I felt even worse. Maybe the stress of trying to follow such a restrictive diet made things worse. The day I decided to stop the diet, I had a salad with olives, lemon juice, and feta cheese, and I actually felt better after that meal than I did after eating potatoes with chicken breast. But it's not consistent—it doesn't happen every time.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Do you think it's worth trying DAO supplements, or does this sound like it could be something other than histamine intolerance? I'd really appreciate any advice.
