Send us a text with a question or thought on this episode
Dr. Zac Spiritos shares key insights about gastroenterology red flags and specialized dietary approaches for digestive disorders. We explore the concerning situation when doctors label symptoms as “just IBS” without proper explanation and the important distinctions between histamine intolerance and mast cell activation syndrome.
• Watch for doctors who label everything as IBS without explaining what it means or why their treatments would work for your specific case
• Histamine intolerance (lacking an enzyme that breaks down histamine) is different from mast cell activation syndrome
• Low histamine diets work well for histamine intolerance but need professional guidance to avoid becoming too restrictive.
Send your questions to contact@endobattery.com or through the link in the episode description for future Quick Connect episodes.
Website endobattery.com
0:00
Should we be on alert for certain red flags when visiting a GI doctor? What's the deal with a low histamine diet Fad or fact? Dr Zach Spiritos lends us his expertise as a neurogastroenterologist whose curiosity and compassion drive his mission to help those with the most complex conditions. This episode is sure to leave you more informed to advocate for your care. Let's get connected. Life moves fast and so should the answers to your biggest questions. Welcome to EndoBattery's Quick Connect, your direct line to expert insights Short, powerful and right to the point. You send in the questions, I bring in the experts and in just five minutes you get the knowledge you need. No long episodes, no extra time needed, and just remember expert opinions shared here are for general information and not for personalized medical advice. Always consult your provider for your case-specific guidance. Got a question? Send it in and let's quickly get you the answers. I'm your host, alana, and it's time to connect. What are some red flags as a GI, if someone's seeing a GI?
Speaker 2:
1:17
Yeah. So I think it's. You know, if you've had, you know all the testing done. So if you had testing and it describes what's going on, great. If, however, you have testing and then everything is normal, quote, unquote, normal or non-diagnostic and they say, hey, it's IBS. And they can't tell you what IBS is right, because, besides saying it's an illness, it's just IBS. Manage your stress, perhaps, meditate sometimes, and those recommendations aren't misguided, but everybody's IBS is very unique to that. So if they're not able to describe IBS to you and give you a rundown of why their interventions will work for you, then it's perhaps time to either probe them more or find somebody else.
Speaker 1:
2:01
That's a good response. Right there. They can't explain why they're doing what they're doing. Is there much evidence for the low histamine diet or is there another approach you would consider first?
Speaker 2:
2:11
So I presume this question is about mast cell activation syndrome.
Speaker 1:
2:14
I think so, yep so.
Speaker 2:
2:16
I tend to use low histamine diet in histamine intolerance, which is categorically different than mast cell activation syndrome. So histamine intolerance is where the thought is that you're lacking this very key enzyme that changes histamine to a more tolerable compound called histidine in your body, and those folks generally have flushing, tachycardia, rashes, bloating after eating something high in histamine, and a low histamine diet is very important for that. And it's important to work with someone who knows how to counsel about a low histamine diet, because at first glance it's incredibly daunting to take on this diet and you're like I'm just gonna eat I don't know green beans and water, like it. Just it seems incredibly restrictive. Not hating on green beans, I love green beans.
Speaker 2:
3:06
For MCAS it is part of the treatment process, but I tend to lean less on the diet because you do sometimes need most of the time. You do need therapeutics as well, like medications to help calm down those mast cells, because if you think about what's causing mast cells, it's an overactive mast cell and a low histamine diet just reduces your histamine load and histamine is one of the byproducts of mast cell degranulation, or one of the byproducts of mast cell degranulation, or one of the chemicals that mast cells elicit, and so lowering your histamine diet reduces your histamine burden but doesn't calm down those mast cells which sometimes needs medications, or at least understanding triggers and trying to avoid them to the best of your possibly.
Speaker 1:
3:42
How do find the triggers, like the food and drink triggers for mast cell activation?
Speaker 2:
3:49
It's a good question and so a lot of it's just history, right. And so the good news about mast cells it responds pretty quickly to what you're eating. So if you eat something that doesn't agree with you in IBS you'll pay for that in 10 hours. So it's a little bit more challenging to identify those triggers. But in mast cell your body will tell you pretty quickly if you ate something it didn't like, and so it's a pretty strict symptom diary. But that also involves everything else that can really kick off MCAS Temperature changes, kind of how your mental health is, sleep medications that you take, yeah. So a very strict symptom diary is very important into the management of mast cell activations.
Speaker 1:
4:29
That's a wrap for this quick connect. I hope today's insights helped you move forward with more clarity and confidence. Do you have more questions? Keep them coming, send them in and I'll bring you the expert answers. You can send them in by using the link in the top of the description of this podcast episode or by emailing contact at endobatterycom or visiting the endobatterycom contact page. Until next time, keep feeling empowered through knowledge.