Will eating too much barbecue cause skin allergies? This is the culprit! Doctors warn: Avoid these five high-histamine foods

Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue is a time for family and friends to get together and enjoy delicious food. However, for patients with gynecological problems, this period may become a peak period of allergies. Weight loss specialist and family medicine physician Yang Zhiwen shared that she once met a female patient who was about 30 years old. She would suffer from allergies every Mid-Autumn Festival and even went to the emergency room due to severe skin itching. It was not until a blood test that it was discovered that the cause of the allergy was related to excessive estrogen!

The patient reported that if they frequently attended dinner parties, they would experience allergic symptoms such as skin itching. During the Mid-Autumn Festival last year (2023), she was forced to go to the emergency room due to a severe allergic reaction after barbecue. She then went to the dermatology department for an allergy test which confirmed that she was allergic to shrimp, crabs and dust mites. She immediately adjusted her diet and washed her bed sheets regularly in the hope of improving her allergy. However, she did not expect that her allergies would recur as long as the number of gatherings increased. As the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, I didn’t want to spend the holiday in the hospital due to allergies, so I decided to find out the cause thoroughly.

People with histamine intolerance may experience allergic reactions when eating barbecue ingredients

Through inquiring about the patient's medical history, Dr. Yang Zhiwen, a weight loss specialist and family medicine doctor at the Churi Clinic, learned that the patient suffered from chocolate cysts. Because the ratio of estrogen and progesterone in the body was unbalanced, the activity of the DAO enzyme (diamine oxidase) that breaks down histamine was inhibited, resulting in poor histamine metabolism and causing "histamine intolerance". In other words, when patients with gynecological diseases consume a large amount of high-histamine foods in a short period of time, it is easy to cause allergic reactions. Some barbecue ingredients for the Mid-Autumn Festival contain high concentrations of histamine, which is why patients' allergies will worsen during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Blood test results also confirmed that the ratio of estrogen to progesterone in the patient's body was only 12.5 (standard value 50-250), and the DAO enzyme was only 12 U/L (standard value>30 U/L), which was significantly low.

Shellfish and mackerel are also high-histamine foods.

Top 5 foods high in histamine

Dr. Yang Zhiwen sorted out the five most common high-histamine ingredients for Mid-Autumn barbecue:

1. Processed meat: sausage, bacon.

2. Citrus fruits: grapefruit, orange.

3. Fermented foods: cheese, cheese, kimchi.

4. Alcohol: red wine, white wine, beer, champagne.

5. Seafood: shellfish, mackerel.

Dr. Yang Zhiwen reminds gynecological patients that in addition to avoiding eating large amounts of high-histamine foods, the most fundamental solution is to maintain the balance of estrogen in the body. Obesity, long-term constipation, abnormal liver function metabolism, and exposure to environmental hormones are the four main reasons for increased estrogen. Only by improving your physical condition from the source can you truly solve the "pseudo-allergy" caused by histamine.