mattyb
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Okay, so gbold thought it would be a good idea for me to outline what I did to fix myself using food and habits, as it might help to inform people with some similarities to myself.
I was suffering from chronic hives and dermatographia (very bad - half a dozen lesions popping up every day), very bad digestion with constant bloating after meals (hives would get worse then), and slightly lowered sex drive. I was very sensitive to amine rich foods, which would make all the symptoms worse, so DAO was likely very low. Sunlight would often give me hives as well. All blood tests had come back normal, except for high ferritin and low chloride, with iron and sodium being just borderline low, CO2 being on the upper end, and potassium middle of the range.
My first protocol that I tried, which I followed for about 3 months, was:
Vitamin A (retinol) topical, about 5000-10000 IU per day
Vitamin B Complex
Turmeric Suppelement
Zinc, 50mg/day
High fat diet (mostly dairy fat, so higher calcium too), moderate carb, low-moderate protein
Pea Shoots with most meals
Dandelion tea after meals
Hit 100% of RDA with almost all minerals/vitamins nearly every day
This helped a bit. Definitely lessened the hives for quite a while. But my digestion was not improving very much and the hives were still popping up. Then things just seemed to go back to baseline after 3-4 months. So I went back to the drawing board. Luckily that was around the time gbold started posting a lot on RPF, so it gave me inspiration to do a lot more reading and plan out a second protocol around fighting alkalosis, increasing stomach acidity, and reducing calcium/histamine exchange.
Second protocol, which I followed quite strictly for about 1 month, but still maintain some of these habits but in a more relaxed manner. I think certain parts are more important than other, which I will highlight. I definitely did the more important parts consistently, while the least important parts I did much less consistently.
1 week of low dose cyproheptadine (1g 2x day) before starting any of this (to sensitize cortisol and make fasting easier).
Important:
Morning salad with 1tbsp EVOO, salt, and 1/2 tsp ACV when waking at 6AM (from order of most to least greens: spinach, pea shoots, beet greens, lettuce, chard, dandelion greens)
Followed morning salad by a fast until around 11AM-1PM each day (stopped eating the night prior around 8PM).
Calories according to activity level (anywhere from 1000kcal to 3500kcal per day)
Eating only when really hungry or very fatigued
Caloric Restriction, hunger (lost 10lbs over ~4 months, was not overweight to begin with - 165lbs to 155lbs at 5"7. Still losing weight now)
Lowered calcium intake dramatically (very little dairy, mostly only butter)
Kind of important:
Breathing exercises - first diaphragmatic breathing, then diaphragmatic breathing with repeated maximal exhalations, especially if I was seated for long periods of time
Carbs according to activity level/recovery need (anywhere from 100g - 300g per day)
More exercise. 3 weightlifting or gymnastic sessions per week, 1-2 long runs per week (+60 minute runs, low intensity), stretches and light recovery work almost every day. In retrospect I would have ran more, but now it's winter and running outside sucks.
Cold showers or contrast showers
Least important:
Minimize sitting at desk job (get up often)
Drinking more water
Zinc, 10mg every other day - just enough to hit the RDA consistently
Still hitting 100% of RDA for most mineral/vitamins on normal days, but definitely lower on very low calorie days
Higher manganese intake, mostly from rice, oats and cinnamon
Turmeric (once every couple of weeks just to make sure gallbladder is getting cleared - I had gallstones last year, thankfully they were small and I passed them with very little discomfort by using high dose tumeric every day the year prior)
After about 3 weeks of this, I could eat protein in large amounts again with no digestion issues. Bloating went away completely. I was finally experiencing hunger again. I also really developed a taste for meat, so I began eating lots of it, as well as eggs and beans. Hitting well over 120g/day. Protein sources are mostly pork, eggs, and black beans. But I will eat steak, chicken and fish maybe 1-2 times per week as well. I began to also tolerate caffeine, so I could start drinking coffee again - before it used to give me hives and make me anxious. I love the taste of coffee, so I was happy to get that back.
I still practice much of this second protocol, but I am very relaxed about it and am not a perfectionist by any means. I eat lots of greens (mostly cooked), but never do the morning salad anymore because I don't find it necessary. I find now I can eat anything and be fine. I haven't had any hives or dermatographia in months. Sex drive has increased quite a bit too, back to a level I'm more comfortable with. On some days nowadays I will supplement with magnesium, NaCl, and KCl, but only when I am feeling dehydrated.
I was suffering from chronic hives and dermatographia (very bad - half a dozen lesions popping up every day), very bad digestion with constant bloating after meals (hives would get worse then), and slightly lowered sex drive. I was very sensitive to amine rich foods, which would make all the symptoms worse, so DAO was likely very low. Sunlight would often give me hives as well. All blood tests had come back normal, except for high ferritin and low chloride, with iron and sodium being just borderline low, CO2 being on the upper end, and potassium middle of the range.
My first protocol that I tried, which I followed for about 3 months, was:
Vitamin A (retinol) topical, about 5000-10000 IU per day
Vitamin B Complex
Turmeric Suppelement
Zinc, 50mg/day
High fat diet (mostly dairy fat, so higher calcium too), moderate carb, low-moderate protein
Pea Shoots with most meals
Dandelion tea after meals
Hit 100% of RDA with almost all minerals/vitamins nearly every day
This helped a bit. Definitely lessened the hives for quite a while. But my digestion was not improving very much and the hives were still popping up. Then things just seemed to go back to baseline after 3-4 months. So I went back to the drawing board. Luckily that was around the time gbold started posting a lot on RPF, so it gave me inspiration to do a lot more reading and plan out a second protocol around fighting alkalosis, increasing stomach acidity, and reducing calcium/histamine exchange.
Second protocol, which I followed quite strictly for about 1 month, but still maintain some of these habits but in a more relaxed manner. I think certain parts are more important than other, which I will highlight. I definitely did the more important parts consistently, while the least important parts I did much less consistently.
1 week of low dose cyproheptadine (1g 2x day) before starting any of this (to sensitize cortisol and make fasting easier).
Important:
Morning salad with 1tbsp EVOO, salt, and 1/2 tsp ACV when waking at 6AM (from order of most to least greens: spinach, pea shoots, beet greens, lettuce, chard, dandelion greens)
Followed morning salad by a fast until around 11AM-1PM each day (stopped eating the night prior around 8PM).
Calories according to activity level (anywhere from 1000kcal to 3500kcal per day)
Eating only when really hungry or very fatigued
Caloric Restriction, hunger (lost 10lbs over ~4 months, was not overweight to begin with - 165lbs to 155lbs at 5"7. Still losing weight now)
Lowered calcium intake dramatically (very little dairy, mostly only butter)
Kind of important:
Breathing exercises - first diaphragmatic breathing, then diaphragmatic breathing with repeated maximal exhalations, especially if I was seated for long periods of time
Carbs according to activity level/recovery need (anywhere from 100g - 300g per day)
More exercise. 3 weightlifting or gymnastic sessions per week, 1-2 long runs per week (+60 minute runs, low intensity), stretches and light recovery work almost every day. In retrospect I would have ran more, but now it's winter and running outside sucks.
Cold showers or contrast showers
Least important:
Minimize sitting at desk job (get up often)
Drinking more water
Zinc, 10mg every other day - just enough to hit the RDA consistently
Still hitting 100% of RDA for most mineral/vitamins on normal days, but definitely lower on very low calorie days
Higher manganese intake, mostly from rice, oats and cinnamon
Turmeric (once every couple of weeks just to make sure gallbladder is getting cleared - I had gallstones last year, thankfully they were small and I passed them with very little discomfort by using high dose tumeric every day the year prior)
After about 3 weeks of this, I could eat protein in large amounts again with no digestion issues. Bloating went away completely. I was finally experiencing hunger again. I also really developed a taste for meat, so I began eating lots of it, as well as eggs and beans. Hitting well over 120g/day. Protein sources are mostly pork, eggs, and black beans. But I will eat steak, chicken and fish maybe 1-2 times per week as well. I began to also tolerate caffeine, so I could start drinking coffee again - before it used to give me hives and make me anxious. I love the taste of coffee, so I was happy to get that back.
I still practice much of this second protocol, but I am very relaxed about it and am not a perfectionist by any means. I eat lots of greens (mostly cooked), but never do the morning salad anymore because I don't find it necessary. I find now I can eat anything and be fine. I haven't had any hives or dermatographia in months. Sex drive has increased quite a bit too, back to a level I'm more comfortable with. On some days nowadays I will supplement with magnesium, NaCl, and KCl, but only when I am feeling dehydrated.
