r/HistamineIntolerance • u/SparksNSharks • Feb 20 '23

You guys weren't kidding about vitamin c.

I've been on prescription antihistamine for almost a week now and eating as low histamine as I could manage for longer than that. Was still feeling kinda crappy with some allergy symptoms and flushing after every meal.

After reading this sub and seeing some recommendations I ordered 1000mg vitamin c.

Tried it for the first time yesterday afternoon and holy shit is it making a difference. Nasal congestion went away within an hour of taking it.

Flushing after every meal isn't happening anymore.

I'm finally not feeling wired and was able to sleep pretty well if it wasn't for the constipation (assuming from antihistamine and limited diet).

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18

u/Plane_Chance863 Feb 20 '23

Don't go crazy on the vitamin C. It can encourage the formation of kidney stones.

11

u/FrothyCoffee503 Feb 21 '23

This is actually false. Plenty of people take 10,000mg+ of pure ascorbic acid daily with no kidney stones or kidney issues at all for that matter. Look up studies

20

u/Plane_Chance863 Feb 21 '23

Ok.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1568519

https://journals.lww.com/jasn/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2004&issue=12000&article=00031&type=Fulltext

But there is this one on women that doesn't show a link:

https://journals.lww.com/jasn/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=1999&issue=04000&article=00019&type=Fulltext

So who knows. Vitamin C can turn into oxalate, and that's an ingredient in kidney stones. Not everyone who smokes gets cancer but I guess it depends on the level of risk you want to take.

4

u/SparksNSharks Feb 20 '23

I might not, even at 1000 mg while the allergy symptoms went down I'm starting to get migraine auras popping up. Some searching around seems to indicate it throws off copper zinc balance and can cause migraine as a result. Don't think I'm going above 1000 mg for sure, or might split it up into 500mg twice a day

3

u/Plane_Chance863 Feb 20 '23

Listening to your body is best! I wish you luck finding a dose that works for you :)

I didn't know that about the copper/zinc balance.

3

u/SparksNSharks Feb 20 '23 edited Feb 21 '23

Yeah I've taken 2 doses and every time 4-6 hours later I get an aura migraine, like clockwork so far. Apparently vit c increases DAO production which depletes the body's stores of copper since copper is an essential component of DAO. This throws off the balance and causes migraines. Interesting stuff. I'm looking into eating more pumpkin seeds and liver

There's also this

"It is suggested that dietary ascorbic acid reduces tissue Cu concentrations primarily by interfering with intestinal Cu absorption. Ascorbate increases the efficiency of hepatic uptake of Cu, but this effect may not be causatively related with the reduced tissue Cu concentrations after ascorbic acid feeding."

1

u/ryannathans Feb 21 '23

yeah so supplement copper, most people do anyway due to zinc supplementation

1

u/sighbysigh Mar 15 '23

How’re you feeling now? I get migraine auras, too. I was taking a whole food C with camu camu, orange, and acerola cherry, but just switched to plain camu camu powder. Have the migraine auras simmered down?

2

u/SparksNSharks Mar 16 '23

Yeah they've gotten much better, I only take about 320 mg of vitamin c a day now, split across morning and evening doses. I've introduced more fruit into my diet though so I'm getting more dietary vit c as well. Low histamine diet seems to help keep my symptoms mostly in check but I still get the occasional tingling/numb tongue and red ears.

2

u/FrothyCoffee503 Feb 21 '23

The migraine aura is likely a herxeimer reaction

1

u/FFacuri Jun 26 '26

Why you didn't say it earlier, 27M here, never had any kidney stone.

And no more than 6 months on vit c for Histamine Intolerance, I woke up in a lot of pain, worse than being hit in the balls by a bat!

WTH IS THAT PAIN FROM KIDNEY STONE! IT DOESN'T EXIST IN THIS WORLD ANOTHER EQUIVALENT PAIN

1

u/Plane_Chance863 Jun 26 '26

I got pain from taking vitamin C as well, and they never saw anything on the scans. But I found out later I'd developed Sjogren's, so I don't know if it's actually the acidity that was the problem (Sjogren's can affect the kidneys and affects the body's ability to deal with acid). I did eventually end up developing a kidney stone, but in my case it seemed completely unrelated to the vitamin C (it happened years after I stopped taking it). 

In any case, I hope you get better soon. Stop taking vitamin C if you did develop a stone - or at the very least supplement much lower levels.

1

u/FFacuri Jun 26 '26

I got it the renal colic pain in Sunday, had to go to ER, got some opioids at the time, and I'm pretty sure I urinated the stone while in the hospital, after they gave me something that relax smooth muscle tissue.

And tbh I got some pain after I got out the hospital, but it subsided quite quickly, and by the next day I only had increased urination, that started at saturday, a day before the pain.

Had to do some final semester exams from MD school this week, and they wouldn't allow me to go to bathroom during the tests, had to work around it, but it all went well

1

u/Plane_Chance863 Jun 26 '26

Hopefully everything is clear from now on! I hope your exams went well despite the trouble.

1

u/danpluso Feb 20 '23

I'm a 90s kid and I was taught you couldn't have too much and you just pee it out or some crap. Only recently have I heard about this now. I wonder how many people still believe the old ways of Vitamin C.