• You regularly experience gastrointestinal complaints, such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain or bloating, after certain foods.
• After eating or drinking, you also notice symptoms such as facial flushing or warmth, itching, headache, a runny nose, dizziness or palpitations.
• You suspect your symptoms occur more often after products that contain a lot of histamine or can release histamine.
• Your symptoms occur in episodes and you want to investigate how high the histamine level in your stool is after consuming histamine-rich foods beforehand.
• You want to use the histamine level in stool as additional information when investigating your symptoms further.

These symptoms are not specific to histamine and can have many different causes. The test is therefore intended as an additional investigation. The result only becomes meaningful when considered together with your symptoms, diet, medication use and any other test results.

If the histamine level remains elevated after the provocation, this may indicate that histamine is being processed or broken down less efficiently. This may be relevant if your symptoms occur specifically after histamine-rich or histamine-increasing foods.

DAO is one of the enzymes that helps break down histamine in the intestine. This test does not measure DAO itself and therefore cannot diagnose a DAO deficiency. An elevated histamine level after correct provocation can, however, be a reason to investigate the relationship between histamine, diet and your symptoms more specifically.

Histamine

Histamine is a substance that occurs naturally in the body. Among other things, it plays a role in immune responses, stomach acid production and signal transmission in the nervous system. Histamine is also present in various foods and can develop in larger amounts during ripening, fermentation or storage.

Normally, histamine from food is broken down again in the intestine. DAO plays an important role in this process. The idea behind this test is therefore not only that histamine-rich food temporarily raises the amount of histamine, but especially that we then look in the subsequent stool to see whether that amount has fallen sufficiently again.

For this test, a provocation with histamine-increasing foods is deliberately carried out first. This challenges the body’s histamine breakdown. The aim is not merely to raise histamine, but above all to assess in the subsequent stool whether the amount has fallen sufficiently again.

The stool sample is then preferably collected the following day, especially when your recognisable symptoms have increased. We then measure how much histamine is still present. An elevated value after a proper provocation makes the result more informative than a single measurement without preparation.

If the histamine level remains elevated after this provocation, this may fit with less efficient processing or breakdown of histamine. This is not proof of one specific cause, but it can provide an additional indication that histamine plays a role in your symptoms. If the provocation was not carried out properly beforehand or the sample is collected at an unsuitable time, the result may instead be low and potentially give a distorted picture.

1. You order the histamine intolerance test and receive the required collection materials with clear instructions.
2. You follow the preparation instructions. On the evening before sample collection, you consume the indicated histamine-increasing foods and preferably collect the sample the next day when your recognisable symptoms have increased.
3. You collect a small stool sample at home using the supplied collection materials.
4. You package and send the sample to the laboratory according to the enclosed instructions.
5. In the laboratory, the amount of histamine in the sample is measured. You then receive the laboratory result.

The report shows the measured histamine level and the corresponding reference values. An elevated value after correct provocation can be a relevant indication that histamine is involved in your symptoms or is being processed less efficiently. The result can therefore help move from a general suspicion to a more targeted next step.

When interpreting the result, you should also consider the preparation, the timing of sample collection and your symptoms. If the result is elevated and this fits your symptom pattern, it may be useful to look more specifically at histamine-rich foods for a limited period. By then reintroducing products step by step, you and a professional can better assess which foods you do and do not tolerate.