POIS Life Style > The Down Side

Lightheadedness/Dizziness + Chronic sinus congestion

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kurtosis:

--- Quote from: haidcat on October 22, 2012, 10:51:56 AM ---What is interesting for me, is that antihistamines and nasal steroid sprays don't even touch the nasal congestion/light headedness, which I thought would help if its allergies right?

Also, the ENT did a CT scan and found no anatomical problems at all.

If it is not anatomical, and omnaris(the strongest nasal spray), and antihistamines don't work on the dizziness/congestion, then what the heck is causing it??

I have a condition called LPR, where tiny amounts of acid go up into the throat and sinuses causing dizziness and chronic nasal congestion. I have a strong suspicion that POIS somehow makes my esophageal sphincters weaker and allows the acid to come through....

--- End quote ---

But do you believe the same applies to all POIS sufferers? When I get a sore throat it's generally because of the mucus coming from my nose. I can feel it. I could see it when I got an endoscopic exam of my sinuses. I remember getting acid reflux only twice in my life.

What kind of anti-histamines are you using? There's a useful table of them on wikipedia at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1_antagonist#Second-generation_and_third-generation_.28selective.2C_non-sedating.29

haidcat:
I mean I definitely have mucus in my nose, not just in my throat, I always have swollen sinuses, the question is if I have been using the strongest nasal steroid spray for over a month + allegra(this is the antihistamine I use) why hasn't the swelling died down?

kurtosis:

--- Quote from: haidcat on October 22, 2012, 03:02:24 PM ---I mean I definitely have mucus in my nose, not just in my throat, I always have swollen sinuses, the question is if I have been using the strongest nasal steroid spray for over a month + allegra(this is the antihistamine I use) why hasn't the swelling died down?

--- End quote ---

One possibility is that your body can't fully deactivate histamine which involves the methylation step (using SAMe as a methyl donor) and then the breaking down of the aldehyde by-product (similar to alcohol) by ALDH with the coenzyme NAD (Nicotinamide Adendine Dinucleotide - The NAD from NADH).
So the anti-histamine is blocking the binding of the histamine to the h1 receptors but the histamine is getting stored or, worse, hanging around as a toxic byproduct.

Also, it depends on the number of allergic reactions in your body. Anti-histamines don't know that you want to block the histamine reaction in your sinuses. Think of it as a first come first serve basis. I've sometimes found no effect from 1 anti-histamine while 2 have worked. I took 3 under doctor supervision once and it felt good. If the situation is chronic sometimes doctors prescribe a mast cell stabiliser such as ketitofen or Rynacrom as mega dose anti-histamine isn't deemed safe and doesn't deal with the problem as
1) it can only bind to histamine receptors on target cells but if it arrives into your blood stream and there's already histamine at most cells it's supposed to bind to... what can it do. Wait for the existing histamine to be deactivated.
2) it doesn't stop all that histamine getting produced.

Quercetin is a natural mast cell stabiliser. It is in ginkgo but you'd have to take big doses of ginkgo to get enough. Quercetin can be bought as a separate supplement. It's surprisingly effective See http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033805

People with urticaria often use a combination of mast cell stabilisers and a low histamine diet. See
http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/lowhistamine.htm
it's very extreme but if you eat the stuff on the high-histamine list and feel your sinuses becoming worse then you know some things to avoid.

The allergist I went to noticed that I was scratching a lot during the first consultation and asked me to keep a log of allergic type reactions during the day. Anything I might think of. It turned out I scratched my way through the day and got a sinus headache every 3rd day. It was so common I'd stopped thinking about how annoying this all was.
Every few minutes I'd scratch eyebrows, my face, my arms, legs, butt, etc. That's ignoring stomach issues and any evidence of too much histamine in my brain which newer anti-histamines don't act on as it causes drowsiness (to be more specific, they don't cross the blood brain barrier). So it's not just my sinuses that are showing signs of allergy, it's everywhere. That's why I explained in an earlier post that she though it was really unlikely it was just one thing I was allergic to.

Another reason to repeat my suggestion of niacinamide and bi-weekly methionine. Sure, these are not as fast working as some pharmaceuticals but methionine helps methylation (part of deactivation) of histamine and niacinamide helps stabilise mast cells. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/drp/2011/379173/

And if that's not working fast enough there's always the more expensive combination of NADH, SAMe and some quercetin.

Although NADH should increase ATP which will lead to more SAMe being produced from cheapo l-methionine. NADH and D-Ribose should increase methylation even further without taking any supplementary SAMe (unless there's a problem in synthesising SAMe) That's why I didn't buy SAMe myself. The other reason is that SAMe is prescription only in my country and doctors are really skeptical of it. In some countries it's commonly prescribed for inflammation and even depression. This all goes back to the undermethylation theory.

Anyway, I hope you found some of this useful.

kurtosis:
Information on quercetin and it's anti-histamine and mast cell stabilising properties is here
http://www.bioxtract.com/plant-based-actives/quercetin/index.html

As I said before though, niacinamide stabilises mast cells, should reduce mean levels of histamine and improves aldehyde clearance by supporting a reaction with ALDH. There are lots of reasons for the POIS sufferer to consider taking niacinamide if you're not taking NADH or supplementary b3 already.

nomore2013:
they say Quercetin with Bromelain is even better then Quercetin alonel, for regulating histamine.

bromelain comes from pineapple, and pineapple is listed under the foods to avoid, under a low-histamine diet.

http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/histamine/articles/histamine.html
http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/lowhistamine.htm
http://www.allergyuk.org/common-food-intolerances/histamine-intolerance
http://www.histamineintolerance.org.uk/about/the-food-diary/the-food-list

what do you think?

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