Episode 38 - A Diagnosis Gives Your Symptoms a Name

Getting a diagnosis can quiet the “what is happening?” panic, but it can also create a new question we all recognize: okay, now what? I share my own path from a mastocytosis-family diagnosis to learning that healing comes from patterns, support, and a bigger picture than a food list.  
• the relief of having a name for symptoms and the uncertainty that follows  
• my biopsy story, adult onset urticaria pigmentosa, and ruling out cancer  
• years of allergies, fragrance sensitivity, and symptoms that slowly changed  
• fatigue, caffeine reliance, and noticing anxiety-driven itching  
• alcohol and food reactions that made sense only in hindsight  
• why low histamine food lists help short term but can create food fear long term  
• the reality that histamine triggers differ from person to person  
• the link between histamine and hormones during perimenopause and menopause  
• lifestyle foundations that matter alongside diet: sleep, stress, movement, environment  
If you'd like to learn more about living well with histamine intolerance, visit my website at histaminehealthcoach.com. You'll find my low histamine diet starter plan, additional resources, and links to previous podcast episodes. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast, write a review, or better yet, share it with someone who may need to hear it.  

I’m currently looking for five women who are ready to stop just managing histamine intolerance and start living well with it over the next 12 weeks. This is for women who feel like their bodies dictate their lives — women who are tired of reacting, restricting, and second-guessing. Women looking for relief, steadier routines, and the kind of confidence that leads to actually living well with histamine intolerance. If that’s you, email me at teresa@histaminehealthcoach.com with the word READY, and I’ll personally follow up so we can talk about what support might look like for you.

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Email: teresa@histaminehealthcoach.com

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Transcript

Welcome And A Message Of Hope

Teresa Christensen 0:00

Hi, welcome to Histamine Health Coach. I'm Teresa Christensen, a functional medicine certified health coach who lives with histamine intolerance and understands how unpredictable life can feel when your body seems to react to everything. I've been through the food restrictions, the confusion, and the fear that come with symptoms no one can quite explain, and that others quite frankly don't seem to understand. Now, I help women calm their bodies, ease symptoms, and rebuild trust with food and themselves. This podcast is where I share what I've learned: real stories, practical strategies, and a reminder that healing begins when you understand your body and give it space to feel safe again. Hello, welcome back to Histamine Health Coach. I'm Teresa Christensen and I help women live well with histamine intolerance.

The Moment A Diagnosis Landed

Teresa Christensen 0:48

Today we're talking about what it means to get an official diagnosis. So years ago, I found myself sitting in a dermatologist's office trying to figure out the cause of a rash on my stomach and the raised hives on my legs. They removed one of the lesions from my right thigh and performed a biopsy. The diagnosis was adult onset urticaria pigmentosa, it's a mouthful, right? Which is part of the mastocytosis family. I was simply told the cause was too much histamine in my body. At that time, they said it

Mastocytosis Fears And Relief

Teresa Christensen 1:22

could affect the liver, kidneys, or skin, so I was referred to an oncologist for a bone marrow biopsy to rule out cancer. Thankfully, the biopsy was negative and I never had a follow-up appointment. One of the benefits of having a diagnosis is that the oh my gosh, what is happening? feeling goes away. But that feeling is quickly replaced with, okay, now what? And honestly, that's where my journey slowed down. As I was growing up, I had some sort of allergic reaction almost every day. The pediatrician once told me I had the worst allergies he'd ever seen. There was always a runny nose, congestion, or difficulty breathing. My parents were told that I was allergic

Allergies Since Childhood Add Up

Teresa Christensen 2:07

to cats, dogs, basically anything with fur, along with trees, grass, or anything that grows outside. So my diagnosis didn't seem to change my life in a profound way, but it did allow me to make sense of what had been happening for years. Eventually I began noticing symptoms that weren't related to the cat, dog, or hay fever situation. It was in the mid-90s when I realized that scented candles and bath products didn't work for me. This was the era when shopping malls were taken over by Yankee Candle and Bath and Body Works, so there was no escaping the artificial fragrances causing my headaches and chemicals that were making me itch. My diagnosis came around the same time in my life that I was putting on weight. As long as I can remember, I was skinny. The she needs to eat a cheeseburger kind of skinny. The funny thing is I did eat cheeseburgers. I ate whatever I wanted, and then all of a sudden I couldn't. So I found myself in and out of weight loss clinics trying to take the weight off permanently. I could lose weight, but it always came right back on. Looking back, I now know inflammation was likely playing a role in that story. There was even a revelation that my anxiety was making me itch. One day I noticed I was scratching the inside of my wrist just moments before the television show I was working on would go on the air, and I realized this was an ongoing

Fragrance Sensitivity And Weight Changes

Teresa Christensen 3:38

nervous habit. The spots in my urticaria seemed to be spreading, and I became more aware that other people were noticing them as well. Then came the fatigue. The fatigue started in the late 90s. My morning routine was I began every day with an over-the-counter migraine medication and a Diet Mountain Dew. I'm a Southern girl at heart and they're loaded with caffeine, but I love them. That combination ruled my life until one day when I was showering, and I could feel my heart racing and an overwhelming need to vomit. I was so overcaffeinated, yet I was still dozing off at stoplights, and sometimes even when I was driving, unfortunately. As far as food and alcohol were concerned, I didn't begin making those connections until after moving to Chicago. I drank a fair amount of alcohol in college and throughout the years, and I know I always seemed to be more affected by the alcohol around the time I was expecting my period. Wine wasn't something I was ever interested in. There was something about the smell that would turn me off. It fits along the line of scents that

Fatigue, Caffeine, And Anxiety Itching

Teresa Christensen 4:50

would put me off and give me a headache. I love a nice cold beer, but it makes my stomach hurt, so I avoid that as much as possible. I now just have a drink around the holidays or special occasions, but I know what the consequences will be. Food, on the other hand, didn't seem to be a big problem, although I now believe I ignored some fairly obvious reactions for years. A co-worker once shared his wife's celiac diagnosis, hoping it might help me. I tried gluten-free, dairy free, low fat, low carb, just about anything I thought might reduce the bloating, calm the GI issues, or help me figure out whatever this was. I remember when we moved to Chicago and I found a new primary care physician. I wish I could find the list of symptoms I carried into that appointment. It was fairly long. I remember headaches, anxiety, restless legs, and GI issues being at the top of the list. And I never thought to connect any of these symptoms with histamine. Then I developed watery eyes that were burning the skin on my eyelids and on my face. I would routinely

Alcohol, Food Reactions, And Elimination Attempts

Teresa Christensen 6:00

wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning. And during one of those sleepless nights, I started Googling my eye symptoms. That's when I saw the word histamine. That search led me to my very first low histamine food list along with the list of symptoms associated with histamine intolerance, and suddenly everything seemed to fall into place. Or maybe not. The low histamine food list is pretty straightforward until you actually try to live it. When you're presented with a list of high histamine foods, it's natural to think you need to eliminate every single one of them. In the short term, that can be helpful because it reduces your overall histamine load. But long term, I think it's a mistake. Why? Because it creates food fear. If you're anything like me, you get stuck in the loop of I can't eat that, it's high in histamine.

Finding Histamine Online Then Food Fear

Teresa Christensen 6:55

The reality is we're all different. One high histamine food may cause a reaction in one person, but not in another. There's a very human side to learning how to eat with histamine intolerance. It's about discovering what works for your body, not simply following what works for someone else. As I continued learning, I also discovered the relationship between histamine and hormones. When I had my hysterectomy, the majority of my symptoms disappeared for a short time. But when my body entered my surgically induced menopause phase, many of them came flooding back. That's one reason many women notice their histamine symptoms changing during pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause, sometimes even around that time of the month. Today, as a functional medicine health coach, I now look at histamine through a very different lens than I did all those years ago. I believe in taking a

Hormones, Hysterectomy, And Symptom Swings

Teresa Christensen 7:55

holistic approach and recognizing the influence lifestyle factors have on helping women live well with histamine intolerance. You can follow every food list you find on the internet and still struggle with symptoms if you're not getting enough sleep, your exercise routine is stagnant, you're in a toxic work or home environment, your stress is out of control, or your body isn't getting the support it needs. Food matters, but food isn't the whole story. I've always tried to stay consistent with movement and exercise, but I've also struggled with chronic anxiety and spent years in a career filled with stress and unpredictable work hours that constantly disrupted my sleep. Looking back, I can see how all of these pieces fit together. What I wish someone had told

A Holistic Plan Beyond Food

Teresa Christensen 8:45

me years ago is this. While a diagnosis gives your symptoms a name, it doesn't teach you how to live with them. That's something you learn over time. You learn by becoming curious instead of fearful, by noticing patterns instead of chasing perfection, and supporting your body instead of fighting it. And perhaps most importantly, you learn that there is so much more to histamine intolerance than a food list. If you've been diagnosed with histamine intolerance or a mast cell condition, I want you to know you are not alone. Maybe you've spent years treating headaches, anxiety, digestive issues, skin reactions, or fatigue as completely separate problems. Or maybe you've recently been diagnosed and are wondering, okay, now what? I hope this episode reminds you that there are answers, guidance, and resources all leading to a path forward.

You Are Not Alone And Next Steps

Teresa Christensen 9:42

If you'd like to learn more about living well with histamine intolerance, visit my website at histaminehealthcoach.com. You'll find my low histamine diet starter plan, additional resources, and links to previous podcast episodes. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please follow the podcast, write a review, or better yet, share it with someone who may need to hear it. Until next time, stay curious, stay kind to yourself, and keep listening to your body. Have a great day.