I have blood tests booked for 27 March as I have been feeling symptomatic again. GP has included some new blood tests I have not had before including for inflammation.
In the meantime, over the last two weeks, I have had a very itchy rash that comes and goes all over my body and is most annoying on my wrists and forearms. Is this a thyroid thing? I have hashimotos disease/
It looks like a heat rash/allergy rash but I have not been anywhere hot or had anything new to trigger an allergy.
TIA
Tired, I have found that some things I used to eat in abundance now make me itch particularly in the evenings and night and if eaten enough bring up hives on my back and abdomen. I have read about hypo folks developing problems with histamine. It may be because we have developed deficiency of the gastrointestinal enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO) which breaks down the histamine in foods. Not having enough DAO means that histamine is not being degraded and/or absorbed properly within the GI tract so we experience hives, itchy, runny noses etc.
Take a look at a list of foods high in histamine and see if any feature regularly in your diet. Then eliminate one at a time to see if that helps. Bananas were one of the culprits for me.
Hi Tired, sorry to hear this is happening to you. Lalatoot is spot on suggesting looking at histamine in food. I have a condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS for short) - along with Hashimoto’s and a few other connected conditions - and this is all to do with my mast cells going crazy in my body all the time for no reason. When they break open, they release loads of histamine into my body and this can definitely cause rashes.
For me, the symptoms are mostly internal. If I get something wrong my body swells for example, and high histamine food is a big one. Tomatoes, bananas, avocados, eggs, fermented foods like yoghurt, kombucha, alcohol all are high in histamine or release histamine in the body. Lots of foods that are ‘good’ for you are actually not good for people dealing with this. You may feel better on days when you’re eating ‘bad’ foods like chips, crisps, etc.
Definitely worth checking out the list of high histamine foods and seeing if any specifically affect you. mastzellaktivierung.info/do...
This is a list of foods and their histamine content or ability to release histamine. I have found it very useful in managing my condition.
But it isn’t just food. Exercise can make mast cells react, so can strong perfumes, insect bites, getting too hot or too cold. It’s a real balancing act. I even react to people wearing strong perfume if I’m walking behind them in the street. MCAS is a rare condition but increasingly the thinking is that actually more people have it than they originally thought but just haven’t been diagnosed.
I’m not saying this is what you have Tired, so please don’t think that. But even if just changing some of the things that can impact histamine levels can make a difference then it might help. Many of the symptoms of long Covid are similar to MCAS and there is a lot of crossover treatment now, so if you have had Covid then perhaps that has kicked things up a notch?
I have an amazing doctor in Nottingham who helps me if you needed a recommendation to find out more info. Just let me know.
Hopefully this helps but happy to answer any other questions you have if any of this resonates with you.
Thank you. That all makes sense and is a lot to think about. Please do let me know the name of your recommended doctor. Thanks
Hi Ironchica, just came across your post (reply to Tired )regarding MCAS. Unfortunately, Iam too reacting really badly to all the food you have mentioned and to lots of "smells/ inhalant/chemicals-viniger, ketchup ,food flavourings, spices...,?additives in supplements and medications .
My worse reactions are to smells of parfums/sprays/ laundry detergents/smock/ fumes/ paints...... list could go on....
It is affecting every aspect of my life, and Iam desporate to find a doctor to help me ,
afraid not much help from y GP surgery. Iam strugling to get diagnose / receive a proper care to improve quality of my life.
You have mentioned "amazing doctor in Nottingham", that could help with similar problems,
If you wouldn't mind , could you please share some info /details regarding this.
Thank you in advance
Have sent you a PM Tired.
At one point I was sleeping with my arms wrapped in bandages that were left in the fridge during the day !! This stopped the painful itchy hives being scratched whilst asleep.
For me it was low B12 in spite of reasonable blood test results. I inject weekly. Do you know your B12 level ?
Thank you for this. I got this result in December 2022:
B12/Folate Haematinic assays
Serum vitamin B12 level 747 ng/L [197.0 - 771.0]
Serum folate level 3.1 ng/mL [3.0 - 20.0]
It's being tested again next week.
I noticed that the B12 is high in range and he folate is low, but the GP said it was fine...
I would break out in horrible hives after my thyroid was removed had them so bad I ended up in the emergency room looking like the elephant lady … horrible thing and yes it is possible that thyroid can cause hives.
That sounds awful. I hope yours have gone away now xx
I have had urticaria on and off for many years and developed hypothyroidism about 5 years ago. Told my GP about the link to histamine intolerance and was refered to an allergy clinic who said there is no link and it's idiopathic. I take 180mg of Fexofenadine daily and that is working at present but I have stopped eat loads of high histamine food, such as tomatoes, yogurt, pineapple and spinach.
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