Dr. Amy Nett: I think I probably need a little more information here, namely what carbohydrates. All carbohydrates? What about pure dextrose powder or basically pure glucose? Does it happen with fruit, starch, or just a subset of carbohydrates? I also would be curious if it’s immediate or a more delayed reaction.
What’s being described sounds a little bit more like a histamine intolerance. Would I count it as carbohydrate malabsorption? I would not. With carbohydrate malabsorption, I’m going to think more about symptoms of eating carbohydrates and then having maybe bloating or GI distress and then maybe seeing undigested carbohydrates in the stool. Again, the symptoms here sound a little bit more like a histamine intolerance, and I think I’d probably need a little bit more information before I have anything that might be useful to say about that.
Similarly, you’re asking how to treat that. I need to really know specifically. You might ask them to keep a food diary to figure out specifically what foods are triggering them and how delayed the reaction is, and then that will help inform us what type of treatment. If it’s a histamine reaction, you’re going to think more about DAO or maybe even an antihistamine, something like Quercenase, so let’s see if we can get a little more information on that one.