Histamine Health Coach

Episode 4 - Histamine Flares & Public Stares: When Your Skin Tells Your Story

• Teresa Christensen • Episode 4

Share episode

Send us a text

Navigating the emotional impact of visible histamine reactions can be just as challenging as managing the physical symptoms themselves. Today I share my personal experience with skin flushing at a chiropractor appointment and how comments from others can trigger feelings of embarrassment and self-consciousness.

• Living with urticaria pigmentosa for more than half my life but still feeling caught off-guard when someone notices my skin reactions
• How temperature changes can trigger mast cell activation, causing visible skin flushing and redness
• The uncomfortable experience of being treated like a "medical exhibit" by my allergist and his students
• Developing strategies to reframe these situations instead of avoiding appointments or social situations
• The importance of remembering that people's comments are usually observations, not judgments

Share your own experiences with visible histamine reactions by replying to this email. If you want more strategies for navigating histamine intolerance, head to histaminehealthcoach.com and sign up for my emails where I share tips you can actually use in daily life.


Speaker 1:

Hi, welcome to Histamine Health Coach, the podcast for women navigating histamine intolerance and looking for real answers. I'm Teresa Christensen and I know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to deal with food triggers, environmental sensitivities and unpredictable symptoms. But you don't have to figure it out alone. Each week, I'll share my personal journey and practical strategies to help you break free from fear and take control of your health. So let's get started. Hello, welcome back to Histamine Health Coach, where we navigate life with histamine intolerance and find ways to feel our best. I'm Teresa, your histamine health coach, and today I'm talking about skin Skin with chronic hives, skin that itches and skin that blushes. It's actually pretty predictable, but at times can feel very unpredictable. I've had urticaria pigmentosa for more than half my life, but it still throws me off when someone notices and makes a comment. So today we're going to navigate our reactions when someone else reacts. We're going to navigate our reactions when someone else reacts.

Speaker 1:

You know I have a bad back Not so bad that it's a big issue, but bad enough where I need to go to the chiropractor from time to time for a simple adjustment. I've had several appointments lately that, for one reason or another, I've had to cancel, and the doctor that I go to is only in this area on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it's a big deal if I cancel because I may not get another opportunity for a few days. Just this morning I was thinking about making an appointment and was wondering why I quit going regularly. Then I remembered the last time I went in for an adjustment. I had been wearing a jacket over my t-shirt and as I took off my jacket my skin began adjusting to the change in temperatures and my arms got flushed. No big deal for me, I'm used to it. But he noticed and mentioned how red my skin was and I was totally embarrassed. It was just an observation on his part, but I wanted to grab my jacket and just get the heck out of there. Looking back, I really shouldn't have made a difference, but sometimes you're not in the right frame of mind to just accept it and go on.

Speaker 1:

If you experience flushing hives or uncontrollable skin reactions, you know exactly what I mean and even though it's tempting, you know that not going back isn't the answer. Skin flushing is a common response for people with histamine intolerance, like many of us. Sudden changes activate our mast cells, triggering histamine release. And if your histamine goes straight to your skin like mine does. That means redness, itching or hives that seem to come out of nowhere. Add in the stress of being in yet another medical setting and suddenly your skin is reacting even more and people notice. But let's be honest, it's not just the reaction that's frustrating, it's the fact that it was noticed.

Speaker 1:

I've spent years explaining away my histamine intolerance. Sometimes I get a chance to forget about it, but then something happens like a casual comment and out of nowhere I'm reminded. Oh yeah, my body doesn't play by the same rules as everyone else's. It reminds me of my experience in my allergist office. His practice was in a teaching hospital. Me of my experience in my allergist office. His practice was in a teaching hospital, which meant it was always filled with students and every single visit he'd round up whoever was around and bring him into the exam room and say you might want to look at this, you may never see it again like I was some kind of medical exhibit.

Speaker 1:

Now don't get me wrong. I get it. Most doctors will go in their entire careers without seeing a case like mine and honestly we need more specialists in histamine intolerance. But at the same time it didn't feel educational, it felt excessive. But here's the thing Whether it's a curious doctor, a concerned chiropractor or a well-meaning stranger, moments like this are going to happen and the real challenge isn't avoiding them, it's how we handle them.

Speaker 1:

For me, I had to reframe the allergist situation. Yes, it was uncomfortable, but if it meant better trained doctors, maybe it was worth it. And the chiropractor? He wasn't making fun of me, he wasn't even being rude. He simply noticed something he had never seen before. For my part, instead of letting this moment make me disappear, I'm choosing to keep showing up A quick breathing exercise before my appointment, a reminder that he's a great doctor and a small attitude. Adjustment will go great with my spinal adjustment.

Speaker 1:

So now I want to hear from you what was your adjustment moment, the time when your skin did something you didn't predict or couldn't control and you suddenly wanted to disappear. How did you handle it? Or, better yet, how do you wish you had handled it? Let me know by replying to this email. I'd love to hear your story and if this episode resonated with you, share it with someone you might think needs to hear it. And if you want more strategies for navigating histamine intolerance, head to histaminehealthcoachcom and sign up for my emails. I share tips you can actually use in daily life. So that's it for today. Thank you so much for being here. See you next time. Bye-bye.