I have been feeling very exhausted, not the usual Hashimotos fatigue but instead completely run down, breathless, very dark circles under eyes and total lack of energy. This has been going on for years to be honest despite introduction of t4 and t3 and thyroid results being normal now. The medication does help overall but this deep fatigue and exhaustion has just never gone away. I’m 31, I have a very busy and stressful job that I need to be on the back every day and I just can’t shake this, it’s getting harder and harder to manage and I have even been taking some time off despite how much that is going to hinder me at work, plus I really can’t be taking time off so that can’t continue.
My husband and I have wanted to start a family for so long now but I just don’t know how we can take that step with how terrible I feel all the time.
I should note I also have soooooo many food sensitivities so I basically can only eat foods as part of the AIP protocol and even some of those I can’t have. I do spread out my eating regularly throughout the day and ensure I eat every 3 hours. Plenty of veg, meat and good fats so I don’t think diet is a factor here.
I had bloods done last week, my endo says all is fine and I don’t see anything glaringly obvious.
I wondered if someone could take a look to see if I am missing something that would explain these symptoms and how I can rectify things? Thanks in advance.
Iron profile
Serum iron 15 (no reference range or unit given)
Transferrin 2.05 (range 2-3.6 g/L)
Ferritin 150 (no reference range given units ug/L)
Transferin saturation 29%
B12 and Folate
B12 755 (no reference range or unit given)
folate 8.2 (no reference range or unit given)
Liver profile
T Bilrubin 10 (RR <21 umol/L)
ALP 32 (RR 30-130 U/L)
AST 16 (no reference range or unit given)
GGT 8 (RR 6-42 U/L)
ALT 9 (no reference range or unit given)
Urea Electrolytes
Sodium 141 (no reference range or unit given)
Potassium 4.4 (RR 3.5-5.3 mmol/L)
Chloride 101 (RR 95-108 mmol/L)
CO2 25 (RR 22-29 mmol/L)
Urea 4.5 (RR 22-29 mmol/L)
Creatinine 53 (no reference range or unit given)
Vitamin D 82 (no reference, unit nmol/L)
Bone Profile
Calcium 2.41 (RR 2.1-2.60 mmol/L)
Phosphate 0.96 (RR 0.8-1.5 mmol/L)
Adjusted Calcium 2.34 (RR 2.20- 2.60 mmol/L)
Free Thyroxine 21.3 (RR 12-22 pmol/L)
TSH 0.16 (no reference range or unit given)
I also have a full blood count which I can post if needs be but everything is showing in normal range. But let me know if that is required.
I have just noticed these results don’t include my t3 reading so I will contact my endo and post this once I have a note if it.
I would really appreciate any help in the meantime in regards to any other areas which could be causing these symptoms. Wether it be vitamins or minerals even.
Also is anyone aware what your folate level should be if you have Hashimotos and are considering pregnancy?
Many thanks, really appreciated.
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Wee_Bird
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Ask your endocrinologist to include all the ranges on these tests. You are legally entitled to printed copies of your blood test results and ranges
How much Levothyroxine are you currently taking m and how much T3
Do you always ensure they are the same brands at each prescription
What supplements do you take?
When you do your thyroid tests are they as early as possible in morning and fasting. Levothyroxine, take last dose 24 hours prior to test, and take next dose straight after test. This gives highest TSH, lowest FT4 and most consistent results. (Patient to patient tip, GP will be unaware)
And T3, make sure to take last dose is 12 hours prior to test
If you add your full iron panel results and ranges SeasideSusie or humanbean may have a comment, as they are the iron experts
These are printed results but in some of the results where there should be reference ranges or units, instead there is a superscript character which refers to the following statement “units or reference ranges differs”. I’m not sure what this means.
I take 125 micrograms of t4 always Teva brand as it seemed To be the only one that agreed with me. I suspect this is as I have problems with gluten and lactose. I do think it still contains maize/corn which I always have a problem with but I haven’t found a suitable alternative.
T3 is 10 micrograms always Thybon brand.
I take a probiotic and 4.5 LDN but no other supplements. I started magnesium citrate 3 days ago but his was after the bloods were taken.
I was taking Pure Encapulations Optiferrin-C up until around 6 weeks ago. So that may be why my ferritin has gone from 74- 150 since my last bloods around 6 months ago. But again I had stopped taking these about 6 weeks prior to these bloods being taken.
Bloods were taken early morning l, fasting and I had not had meds for just over 24 hours.
That’s the full iron panel results, I’m not sure what to do about the lack of reference range so in regards to that statement of “units or reference ranges differs”. Is there anyway to get some feed back without this labs reference ranges and instead using general reference ranges?
Looking at them I’m considering taking some vitamin d and folic acid but I would t think that would be what gets did if these symptoms.
Hi Slow Dragon, reading your reply to Wee Bird. I was interested in the fact that you mentioned change of brand of Thyroxin, I had been taking Actavis Levo for at least 10 years, but I am told by my Pharmacists that they are no longer available & are now on MercuryPharma brand 100mcg's & I don't think they are working as well as Acta! Do you think Brands vary in the composite making of the drug? Thank you. GingertheCat.
Different brands have different fillers and if we are settled on one brand that suits us then we should stick to it.
Your pharmacist is incorrect, Actavis IS available, I have it every time from my pharmacy, last prescription filled last week. I expect your pharmacy just buys in the cheapest at the time regardless of brand.
Next time check what has been dispensed before leaving the pharmacy, if it's not Actavis then refuse it and ask for your prescription back then ring round other pharmacies to see who has it.
Actavis is rebranded as Almus for Boots and Northstar for Lloyd's pharmacies (and pharmacies in Waitrose and Sainsburys I believe). The boxes are different but Actavis is printed on the foil strip. So if you can get to any of those you will be able to get the Actavis by another name.
A couple of people have noted my iron as possibly an issue on the comments below. SlowDragon mentioned that you have a good understanding of the iron. Would you mind giving me your read on this please?
Serum iron is optimal 55 to 70% of the range, higher end for men -with yours at 15 because there is no range then I can't work out the percentage so can't comment.
Transferrin - Low in range indicates lack of capacity for additional iron, High in range indicates body's need for supplemental iron - yours is low in range as it's barely scraped in at 2.05(2-3.6 g/L)
Saturation - optimal is 35 to 45%, higher end for men - yours is 29% so slightly low
Ferritin:
Low level virtually always indicates need for iron supplementation
High level with low serum iron/low saturation indicates inflammation
or infection
High level with high serum iron and low TIBC indicates excess iron
Over range with saturation above 45% suggests hemochromatosis
yours isn't low at 150 but I don't know if it's high without a range
So you might want to try and get the ranges and when you have them this chart may be useful
I mentioned in my 2nd post that “I was taking Pure Encapulations Optiferrin-C up until around 6 - 8 weeks ago”
So Might that be why my ferritin has gone from 74- 150 since my last bloods around 6 months ago? But again I had stopped taking these about 6- 8 weeks prior to these bloods being taken.
I wonder is this why my ferritin is higher than it is normally.
However would I be correct in saying that the issues that you have highlighted above Seaside Susie with the saturation and transferrin etc would still remain as these levels seem to stay constant from looking at all my previous bloods whether my ferritin is at 74 or 150?
Is my understanding correct in that despite my higher ferritin, even if it’s due to having previously taken the optiferrin C, that my body seems to be storing iron but not actually using it? My ferritin is more regularly in the 70s with the same results in the serum and transefrrrin. My saturation has only ever been 45% once and that was in my last bloods before I started taking the optiferrin C. It’s more regularly in the 20%-30% range.
Sorry I just want to be clear in my understanding before I go back to my endo?
I have sent him an email asking for the ranges, as well as asking why my t3 wasn’t measured in the last bloods along with a full thyroid panel, I have also requested a CRP test and questioned the strange iron panel results in relation in one and other. I have also queried the hystamine issue and if he feels we should be investigating a link here? I am at my wits end in regards to food even basic meat and veg aggrevates me sometimes now too so I’m wondering at what stage I will get to a point where I am left with nothing I can eat 🙄
But I will be making An appointment to follow up with him which will probably be on Friday so I want to make sure I am clear on this possible iron issue.
What might be happening is that you currently have too much ongoing inflammation and your body has stopped transferring ferritin to your iron serum. This is sort of like a safety valve that the body does when it is known that inflammation is fed by iron!
I have that problem. If you look at your hemoglobin and the shape and size of your blood cells, it can attest that this could be what is happening in your case as well.
If it is, there's really no remedy for it other than working hard to lower the inflammation. You say you are allergic to everything, I hear you. But that occurs when your body has too much histamine. This happens mostly by not being able to neutralize the histamines we ingest from foods. So our histamine levels are too high and cause inflammation.
That is the same inflammation overload that could be helping to shut down your ferritin from feeding your iron serum levels. It leaves you with good ferritin levels but you're not getting the benefit of the iron at all. This is the cause of your dark circles beneath your eyes and your exhaustion. I would highly suggest you get your histamine levels under control by drastically reducing histamine intake and when you do, take a DAO Enzyme replacement to neutralize it. It is what has been working for me to lower my ferritin which suddenly shot through the roof at well over 400. But that was the telling thing, as my iron serum was barely within range. The ferritin was stuck.
I found what I had was called Anemia of Chronic Disease (ACD).
"Anemia of chronic disease (ACD) is also referred to as anemia of inflammatory response. Although ACD can accompany life-threatening illness, anemia of inflammatory response is in fact a protective and natural mechanism that the human body uses to limit the amount of iron available when potentially harmful things get into our body. All living things, including bacteria and cancer cells, which are living things, depend upon iron to sustain life just like humans and plants do. This system was described by Eugene Weinberg, Ph.D., Indiana University in the early 1980’s.
When the body senses a potential threat, iron gets shuttled to ferritin to be contained so that the harmful invader cannot get to the iron. Just enough iron is made available to make red blood cells but no surplus is left to nourish harmful pathogens. Depending on the underlying cause of disease, a person with ACD will experience a modest decline in hemoglobin. This will take place over time following the onset of inflammation due to the presence of the infection or disease. Hemoglobin values will generally reach a low normal range of 9.5–10.5 g/dL and remain there within this moderately low range until the underlying condition is cured. If disease that results in blood loss is present, the person will develop iron deficiency anemia (IDA). ACD and IDA can be distinguished with a serum ferritin test."
This is why you cannot take iron pills for Anemia of Chronic Disease. You already have the iron, you just can't make use of it. The key is to reduce the inflammation that is causing the buildup of ferritin levels.
The article below is basic, for still informative for what most think is just simple histamine intolerance. It's not that simple! But it still good for gaining knowledge on the subject of histamines and how it works against our body:
All foods have some element of histamines in them. What I did was to get a list of histamines in foods and navigate my food so that I was took in as little histamine as possible from the meals I ate. All vegetables have histamines, some are incredibly high (like eggplant or any in the Nightshade family). Meat is terribly high with histamines, especially leftovers. I learned not to freeze leftovers if I wanted to eat it again. Otherwise, they are histamine magnets as the meat decays in your refrigerator.
Fish is out. Unless you can eat it within 3 hours of catching it. I can now get away with eating some seafood but only if they are frozen on the boat when caught and kept frozen at the grocery.
When you body is not optimal with T3 in all your cells, some things are going to have less T3 for functioning. Histamines build up as we don't know we're losing the DAO enzyme that neutralizes histamines. I learned all this while researching what was obviously happening to me. None of my doctors had a clue.
So I learned how to correct it myself. There are some things that you just will have to stay away from. For me, initially, casein was terrible (milk protein). But then again, I was losing stomach acid and had little to digest it with! I gave up all dairy. In six months of using corrective supplements, I was able to eat cheese again and every so often a glass of wine (full of histamines!). But it gives you an idea that this can be corrected. I'm sure your doctor is well-meaning, and if so, he or she will love learning all this. I learned it all through experience and research until I found information that coincided with what I was going through.
From 1987, there was a paper about the "Effects of altered thyroid function on histamine levels and mast cell number in neonatal rat brain."
"Abstract
The effects of altered thyroid function on the levels of histamine, histidine decarboxylase activity and the number of mast cells were studied in the brain of 5-day-old rats. At this age both brain histamine levels and mast cells number are at a maximum. In addition the major portion of the amine is stored in mast cells and upon subcellular fractionation it sediments in the crude nuclear fraction (P1).
Treatments with thyroid hormones or thyrotropic hormone up to 5 days of age leads to a decrease in the histamine levels and mast cells number in the brain, whereas administration of the antithyroid agent 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil increases both parameters.
All treatments affected only the histamine in the P1 fraction and failed to alter the levels of neuronal histamine which is located in the supernatant of P1 (S1). These facts suggest that in neonatal rat thyroid hormones could be involved in the regulation of the levels of brain histamine by regulating the number of brain mast cells."
Interesting, to say the least.
What I found is that when T3 is low in the cells and one is hypothyroid, the DAO enzyme production slows down -- just as it is well known that stomach acid does. We need DAO enzyme to neutralize the histamines in the foods we consume. But without the DAO enzyme to keep the histamines from building up in our bodies and causing mass inflammation, ACD could develop. In my case, it did. I think you may be having the same issue.
So to counteract histamines doing more damage to my body, whenever eating anything remotely elevated in histamines I would take a DAO Enzyme replacement capsule twenty minutes before eating. They are not cheap, but they work incredibly well to keep my response to histamines (called allergies) to a minimum. As your histamine response lessens, you will need less of the DAO Enzyme replacement. For me, now, I only use it when eating certain things. For the most part, I am gradually reducing the ferritin levels -- and that is the most important thing right now, to reduce the excess ferritin so that it doesn't overload and cause problems elsewhere. It won't go anywhere unless I first lower the excess inflammation. One such source of that excess inflammation is from histamine.
The product I use for DAO Enzyme replacement is called Histame, which I purchase from Amazon.
As you get more control of your hypothyroid condition, the DAO Enzymes of your own will increase accordingly. T3 is being meted out to the most vital systems of the body first -- so getting to where it has enough for histamine relief may be low on the totem pole of health priorities. But using a replacement can help very much. You may also have an issue with low stomach acid as well. HCL with Pepsin when eating proteins can improve your stomach acid levels.
The more we can figure out for ourselves, the more we can do for ourselves. We don't always need a doctor to tell us what we need. Sometimes, we can tell the doctor what we need!
Kudos to you for getting here and asking the right questions. Well done!
Great info. The product you mentioned does not appear to have the enzyme in it any longer according to a recent review.. Best double check that..for yourself as you rely on it.
Thanks so much. for your reply. And thanks oodles for the information about the new Histamine. This is what happens when you find a product and buy lots of it to have on hand. Wish I had bought more now! Amazing how supplements are getting to be under control that is detrimental to our health. It's a shame that Histame was pushed out for licensing as a DAO Enzyme containing supplement in the U.S. by another product that is twice as expensive! I doubt the new Histame will be effective since, as you noted, it has no DAO Enzyme in it. Again, thank you so much for letting me know.
Any product with about 4 mg DAO Enzyme would be a good bet. When my old Histame runs out, I won't be paying $1 a pill for the new brand as that's ridiculously high. Smells like something Big Pharma would do. Ugh!
But there are other things we can do, those of us who have such terrible histamine issues. There might be a MTHFR connection:
And it may be that our levels are high due to a number of things. Learning how to boost our DAO levels naturally by eating foods high in nutrients that facilitate that boosting, and to steer clear of the foods that work to block DAO Enzyme production is key:
P.S. Found out that the new Histame uses lactase enzyme instead of DAO Enzyme (so it could still be sold in the U.S. now that there's restriction on DAO Enzyme supplements). It is said that lactase enzyme can break down lactose (milk sugar) and that it has helped some who have DAO deficiency.
I don't think I'll be trusting it, as the DAO deficiency is a big issue for me. But I will look more into it. In the meantime, I have my reserves of the older version of Histame. What a shame! Thanks to you, I wouldn't have ordered more not knowing there was no DAO enzyme in it any longer.
What you need is a Full Thyroid Function Test. It should be at the very earliest and fasting (you can drink water) and allow a 24 hour gap from your last dose of levo and the test and take afterwards. I doubt endocrinologists and doctors know anything much more than looking at a TSH result and if it is within range they assume we're on sufficient. This may not be the case.
Request - or get a private test as GPs usually do not do all of the following:-
TSH, T4, T3, Free T4, Free T3 and thyroid antibodies.
They haven't a clue of any symptoms and the following link will be of interest to you, written by one of our deceased Advisers. You will have to take action yourself to make sure you are diagnosed properly and treated optimally.
web.archive.org/web/2010103... 'Normal' with regard to results does not mean optimal. We need optimal which means a TSH of 1 or lower with both FT4 and FT3 in the upper part of the ranges.
Our body cannot function without sufficient T3. T4 (levothyroxine) is an inactive hormone and has to convert to T3. T3 being the only Active Thyroid Hormone needed in our millions of T3 receptor cells otherwise we do not feel well and have symptoms.
I generally get a full thyroid panel so I’m unsure why his wasn’t the case during my last visit to get bloods. This was a private appointment which I paid for so I’m a bit irritated that fill bloods were not carried out.
In fairness my endo has been very involved and persistent to adjust my dose and usually on the ball with the bloods. I’m wondering have the lab either not fulfilled the full thyroid panel or if maybe all the results have not been sent to me. I will contact my endo and query this. He did get back to me to tell my my antibodies were down to 168 which is great news.
My mum also has Hashimotos and with the help of Health Unlocked she has consistently pushed my endo. If it wasn’t for her and this forum I would have never even gotten my Hashimotos diagnosis or been put on t4, t3 and LDN. A the meds have made a difference but then I seem to go down hill again but this extreme exhaustion just won’t go away and most recently it’s so debilitating. I’m 31, this has been going in for over 16 years and I was only diagnosed a couple of years ago after being Laughed out of my old endos office for thinking I had a thyroid problem. He was embarrassed to say the least when he received my initial antibody result 🙄
Yes the medication has helped but I’m not myself yet and you get to the point of “will I ever feel normal again”.
I will check out your links and look to get a full panel done and post the results.
Thanks, I know we are all in the same boat and actually it’s the good thing about this forum sometimes as it’s encouraging to know it’s not just you and that it’s quite “normal” 🙄 to feel like this with hypo and Hashis.
I read your earlier post and I would say I never did well with mercury. I have food intolerances and the mercury as far as I remember has lactose. I use the Teva brand only now and I make sure I get it every time from the pharmacy now:
There have been previous threads about the fillers in the different brands so maybe look for those threads and see if you can get more info about each brand.
My mum and I are very similar yet she seems to do well on mercury and not on teva so it definitely differs per person.
I'm a bit concerned about your iron panel as you have top of range ferritin, low/normal iron (although I'm assuming they used the same range that they do for me!) and low transferrin. This unusual ratio should have been flagged up. Call your doctor (GP) to investigate as you possibly have some greater degree of inflammation going on than is helpful while on thyroid replacement. (They also need to check C Reactive Protein).
It could be that you lack the enzyme that breaks down histamine. The NHS don't do the test for detecting this enzyme (yet). If you lack the DAO enzyme any amount of histamine could set you off spiraling out of control as you cannot recycle it and make you react to pretty much anything!
Thanks for this. I have never even heard of this before. It really has gotten to the point where I can only eat some meats and some vegs, super plain so this makes sense. Thank you very much for this I will look into it straight away.
I noticed that Medichecks do a test, but I think it's important to follow the protocol of elimination with your GP first - there are other things they need to check, such as mast-cell disorders and so on. That link I sent roughly explains it. I'm however convinced that it's going to be something to do with having an over-active / inappropriate immune response.
It appears it could be your Iron. I'm the same way feeling horrible but taking meds everyday and feel so tired. I can't even work a full week anymore. I was told I'm suffering from Anemia.
Thanks I’m hoping one of the admin who know a lot about iron profiles will see the comment so that I can get a better understanding of what the issue could be here with the iron and why: I just assumed that because ferritin was high that Ymir was ok. Thanks
There are some auto-immune iron disorders which correlate with having Hashi's. Your panel is a bit weird, so I hope someone out there can work it out. I'm not sure, for example, if you can have high ferritin, normal iron and low transferrin with haemochromatosis?
Yes it could be hemochromatosism, but first there must be evidence of an HFE gene mutation. Hereditary hemochromatosis is a genetic condition causes that causes a person to absorb excess iron from food and water. The body is in a state where it always thinks it doesn't have adequate iron and continues to allow more and more to be brought in to iron stores.
This occurs because the HFE protein can't detect how much iron is available. As such, the HFE gene mutation has coded the protein to cause excess iron to build up in the body.
Okay. So... if the same symptoms of high ferritin, normal iron serum, and low to normal transferrin are not caused by hereditary hemochromatosis, then what else can cause it?
It is probably something very similar, but with an altogether different remediation: called Anemia of Chronic Inflammation (AI), also called Anemia of Chronic Disease [ACD]). AI is preferred by most as it is more straightforward as descriptive of the dysfunction.
In Anemia of Chronic Inflammation (AI) there is no mutation of the HFE gene as AI is directly caused by excess inflammation in the body. The body holds nearly all iron as ferritin and refuses to release it -- not even when the body is anemic. It is well known that iron feeds inflammation (just as sugar does) and thus when inflammation is perceived as being too much for the body to handle; the body reacts in a protective manner by stopping all iron from being moved from the iron stores (ferritin) so that it cannot be available to feed inflammation. Iron serum can stay just around normal but no more -- and for quite a long time. But the body slows down with energy as eventually there is not enough iron available for good health as full thyroid function also depends on iron being available.
Another way to remember the difference of the two blood conditions is that Hepcidin deficiency is not only the cause of iron overload in hereditary hemochromatosis, but also associated with iron-loading anemias, and hepatitis C.
But it is an excess of Hepcidin that exists with conditions such as Anemia of Chronic Inflammation (AI), Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and Iron-Refractory Iron Deficiency Anemia (IRIDA). Excess hepcidin causes allergic responses.
It is common for people with autoimmune dysfunction to acquire AI. It just shows how closely it's all connected. When stomach acid is low, and our natural histamine neutralizer is low (DAO Enzyme), our body suffers needlessly with inflammation. And that's just some of the inflammation! But fortunately, it is excess inflammation that we can possibly reduce by embracing lifestyle changes.
Most doctors don't routinely investigate Ferritin levels to compare with iron serum. In the hypothyroid patient, AI should be avoided and the first step to that is to rule it out via the annual CBC panel.
Even so, when iron is hard to come by, we can avoid allergies getting worse by being tuned into to any allergic response we experience. When we have allergic responses, we all think that it is first just a symptom that we are coming into contact with things we should avoid. Be it foods or fabrics, our histamine response says it's full and to lower those levels if we ever want to resume coming into contact with it again. But does it only mean that or does it also serve as a reminder that we must make some adjustments to lower inflammation so that iron will be released and free us from an inundation of hepcidin and high histamine levels?
High histamine levels wreak havoc in the body and thus increase inflammation -- and remember, inflammation is fed by iron. As such, iron is stored and won't be allowed to be regularly released until those higher histamine levels are lowered. Then we can get adequate iron in the right places and stop the high histamine and high hepcidin response that triggers it all and lowered our iron serum in the process. By ridding our body of inflammation we can do wonders for our health. We can get iron serum higher and have our body function optimally... meaning breathing gets easier as blood cells return to their larger size and are all well-shaped.
Very interesting article:
Linking iron-deficiency with allergy: role of molecular allergens and the microbiome
... Misregulated iron-metabolism can affect atopy or the generation of allergies.
More female allergy sufferers: association with iron?
Finally, as iron homeostasis differs between the genders67 and before and after adolescence, it may contribute to the differences seen in the prevalence of allergy in the various groups. During childhood, boys are more affected by allergy than girls, but this changes in adulthood and women are more likely to be affected than men.
... All in all, there is consistent evidence that the iron-status of allergic subjects is reduced and may be linked with the disease.
Iron and cancer.
... As far as the iron content is concerned, while decreased iron levels predispose to allergies, increased serum iron correlates with an increased cancer risk.73–78
Therefore, iron levels affect in opposite ways the immune regulation in allergy and cancer."
If you have time, either read the entire article now or copy it so you can save it in your Favorites. It is truly a worthy read. Highly informative.
Until you can get your body back to normal with those allergies, ridding the body of that which irritates us and exacerbates the allergic reaction is a good thing to do.
Last note, some do not know that iron overload (or excess iron) is known to bring on conditions of arthritis -- including osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. High iron stores and arthritis are known to coexist. Many of us can see it in our hands and knuckles, or regularly feel increased stiffness that often goes away as the hours pass. If so, have your doctor do testing for the likelihood of Anemia of Chronic Inflammation (AI). Or you can begin to assume you have it and make changes in your diet right away. It will only help you if you're having problems with stiffness or arthritis. The more inflammation you can get rid of, the sooner your iron stores can release.
Also, inflammation from high histamine levels is also a culprit with AI. When eating fish or any other high histamine food, I always supplement with DAO Enzyme. Doing so has proved to help keep my histamine levels much lower. When I find I'm having symptoms, there is always a culprit high in histamines which I overlooked. Like avocado. Ugh! But I have learned to check the histamine content of foods and am getting used to steering clear of those too high in histamines for my daily intake. We're all different, so you'll have to experiment. If something sets you off with allergy symptoms, know that you are too high in histamine. That's unnecessary inflammation and you can do something about it on your own until you get the iron issue completely under control.
By lowering overall inflammation from any source, you can help keep ferritin from building up and being held by your body. We can do more about it than anyone else. There's no magic pill for any of this. It's on us to know about it and keep it from doing us harm. With AI, we can help ourselves tremendously with the knowledge to fight it.
I have battled this for three years and am making great progress. It's not easy, but the alternative is simply not an option! I smile a lot and am thankful for what I don't have... though 12 autoimmune dysfunctions is more than enough. Even so, it's not 13. LOL
Myriad thanks to all here who make this such an excitingly progressive place with regard to overall health and well-being.
Fantastic information. Will read up some more now. I think you have been one step ahead at joining up the dots. Much of this is relevent to my family actually, so I will pass it on. Also, it explains my recent improvement in serum iron and CRP (casein free diet). I must add that taking Magnesium has helped me a lot.. But I probably have less of a histamine issue than others in the family and my husband's and knowledge of this DAO enzyme and it's benefits should be better known.
Thanks so much for your reply. Much appreciated. I do hope the information is helpful to your family. Agreed that magnesium is a "miracle" mineral! Most people are low in magnesium (among other nutrients). Our diets are working against us in more ways than one. As long as we understand the need to replenish lost nutrients, we can overcome just about anything. Unfortunately, conventional doctors are making the same mistake as their patients as they still think we can get ample nutrients from diet alone. It's simply no longer true.
Lactose intolerance was a big thing for a long time, and still is -- but it's amazing how many people who think they are lactose (milk sugar) intolerant are actually casein (milk protein) intolerant. My sister was one of those until I proved it to her. All those years she thought is was milk sugar. It wasn't. It was casein, milk protein that was her problem.
You may find this interesting. I certainly did, as it happened to me and can happen to anyone having dysfunction in their body:
I discovered my casein intolerance by finding a second bright yellow, rather jellied like pod-like formation in my stool (the first one was about three days before that and I dismissed it, thinking I must be seeing things!). The second one, I took pictures and cut it open, seeing that the insides consisted of dry, white and fluffy powder. It was very light though, airy looking. So I began to do some research on it.
That "powder" was "casein curd." I didn't know that until after reading a 1913 medical case from The Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association, Volume 6. The journal had an extensive case narrative regarding the problem of infants and colic with "casein curds." Babies that were suffering from casein intolerance had these "casein curds" in their stools as they were being found within their diapers.
The doctor writing about it stated his advice was for the mothers to boil the milk first before giving it to their baby. Sure enough, the journal writes that it worked. Boiling the milk first was enough to neutralize the casein milk protein and the babies then no longer had stomach discomfort and no additional tell-tale "casein pods" or "casein curds" in their diaper.
"Artifical Infant Feeding with Special Reference to Stool Examination" by O.N. Torian. MD on page 107. The part about casein protein is on page 108.
Today, there are writings on "casein curds" being found in adults more and more. What used to be common as a problem with digestion as infants is now far more prevalent as a digestive issue in adults. It tells us a lot about what's wrong in our diets.
On the internet's "ehealthforum," there's a contributor who discusses their experience in finding out about casein and what those little "gummy bear-like" pods were in the stool! It's a fascinating narrative and is nearly identical to my own experience (over a three month period of time, all the curds I found were bright yellow, bean-shaped and jellied but the contents were the same). Lots of information at the forum post that will surely be helpful to others as well. It's important to know some of the manifestations that occur in the body that's not in balance:
Most all my research is done by perusing medical journals from at least 100 years ago. It's just amazing what has been known for so long that is now mostly ignored by today's conventional medical field.
We need to investigate those who have successfully healed in order to cure our own dysfunction.
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