Breakthrough for me!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2003 4:23 pm
As you know if you have followed my posts on the topic, I have been experimenting with antihistamines to control my stomach and bowel pains connected with my diet and, in some strange way, with my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome too. I fall into that category of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome patient who has lots of allergies, a touch of what looks like Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), problems with many foods and strange symptoms all over the body (rashes, aches in joints etc). My chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome started at about the same time I started waking in the wee hours of the morning with griping, grinding stomach pain. I started off using Maalox to quell this pain, but that didn't help at all really.
To cut a long story short, I eventually got control of my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and went into remission by: using Quercetin, avoiding wheat and a few other key foods, not sitting all day, avoiding stress, and taking nutritional supplements. (The rest of my protocol is at this page: https://www.ucpps.men/prostatitis-tips-things-that-help-and-hurt )
Anyway, fast forward to the present: although my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome is no longer a big issue (occasional twinges, mostly after dietary indiscretion, or too much sitting), I still had a tremendous problem with my diet. The list of foods I could not eat without repercussions had grown to encompass almost all foods. I was left eating a small range of items (mostly chicken and a few vegetables - hospital food!).
Bananas, potato and onions, to give an example of the effects I faced, would cause such severe colon bloating and pain that I could not sleep. Nuts caused throbbing headaches. Wheat caused total exhaustion and depression (as well as being the numero uno chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome trigger). Corn caused a rash to appear on my face. Cranberries and Raspberries caused terrible stomach pain that would wake me from sleep, and also burn my bladder/prostate area. I could go on like this for several paragraphs, but I'm sure you get the idea. The symptoms appeared all over my body. I commented to my wife that it was as if life itself had turned against me, that I was being "pushed off" the planet, and I felt I was holding on by my nails, like a man holding on to the edge of a cliff. I often felt pretty desperate, let me tell you.
I could not shake the feeling that somehow the chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and my allergies and food intolerances were connected. But how?
All during the early, terrible years of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome in the early 1990s, the only one time I'd had relief was when I took a drug that was a mixture of cortisone and an antihistamine. I had just a few tablets of this substance, but it gave me wonderful relief. For some reason I could not get more of this drug combo. A few years later, trying to replicate this relief, I took just plain cortisone (prednisolone), but to no avail. Maybe it was the antihistamine that helped and not the cortisone?, I reasoned. So I took the latest antihistamine (I forget the name), one that was supposed not to make you drowsy. No luck.
Fast forward to the present. I read about how people like Jill Osborne of the ICN had experienced a lot of success with hydroxyzine, and old-fashioned H1-receptor antagonist, first generation "hit you on the head" type antihistamine. It is supposed to work on nerves as well as histamine, and also alleviates anxiety. Not bad, I thought, I'll give it a whirl. It may help my food problems.
And, by the whiskers of Kurvi Tasch, it did! :laugh:
I have now experimented by eating almost all of my "forbidden" foods and had only mild or no reactions. I hasten to add that I am only taking 25mg of Vistaril (hydroxyzine) a day, about 25% of an adult dose. This is a miracle to me, my friends -- I cannot tell you how much this means to me. It's like a door has been opened to life again.
On the negative side, the hydroxyzine, taken at night, caused me to wake the third day with a sharp, urgent pain in my bladder prostate area!
Oh cursed fate! Just my luck, I thought. Finally I find something to release me from the pains of food allergy and intolerance, and it causes my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome to flare! How can this be? I did some fast thinking and came up with my "Allergy Theory of CPPS"©: viewtopic.php?t=385
I believe this effect of the old class of antihistamines has caused most men with chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome to avoid its use. I believe they all have this effect on us.
Thinking laterally , I reasoned that the way to counteract the antihistamine was to use a smooth muscle relaxant like Hytrin. Seems logical, and my urologist friends did not object. Hytrin has a number of good things going for it: viewtopic.php?t=237
It worked.
So that's where I am today. Yesterday I ate a whole lot of stuff that would have had me moaning with pain today, but I'm fine! I awoke this morning with very mild tightness in the bladder area from the antihistamine, but since I'm only taking 1mg of Hytrin at night I expect to be able to eliminate that too eventually as I increase the Hytrin dose.
I do not know if other antihistamines will work as effectively for me. I've learned that people can react differently to different things in unpredictable ways, for instance: although many men are helped hugely by quercetin, some aren't at all. So I cannot say if this regimen will help you, or whether any other antihistamines will help me. I already know that Claritin / Clarinex did nothing for my food problems, and nor did Seldane (Terfenadine) and some other antihistamines. So this area is a bit of a mystery -- probably some complex, genetically mediated chemistry at play here.
I am hoping, perhaps optimistically, that the blocking of all the histamine from my system may eventually lead to the cure of my CPPS. If it does, it means a large number of men may be able to access a total cure for the condition, using simple drugs.
If I fail to eradicate my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome completely, it still means I have discovered a novel way (antihistamines balanced with alpha blockers) of alleviating some of the pain, fatigue and distress that so often accompanies CPPS.
Õlé!
To cut a long story short, I eventually got control of my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and went into remission by: using Quercetin, avoiding wheat and a few other key foods, not sitting all day, avoiding stress, and taking nutritional supplements. (The rest of my protocol is at this page: https://www.ucpps.men/prostatitis-tips-things-that-help-and-hurt )
Anyway, fast forward to the present: although my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome is no longer a big issue (occasional twinges, mostly after dietary indiscretion, or too much sitting), I still had a tremendous problem with my diet. The list of foods I could not eat without repercussions had grown to encompass almost all foods. I was left eating a small range of items (mostly chicken and a few vegetables - hospital food!).
Bananas, potato and onions, to give an example of the effects I faced, would cause such severe colon bloating and pain that I could not sleep. Nuts caused throbbing headaches. Wheat caused total exhaustion and depression (as well as being the numero uno chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome trigger). Corn caused a rash to appear on my face. Cranberries and Raspberries caused terrible stomach pain that would wake me from sleep, and also burn my bladder/prostate area. I could go on like this for several paragraphs, but I'm sure you get the idea. The symptoms appeared all over my body. I commented to my wife that it was as if life itself had turned against me, that I was being "pushed off" the planet, and I felt I was holding on by my nails, like a man holding on to the edge of a cliff. I often felt pretty desperate, let me tell you.
I could not shake the feeling that somehow the chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome and my allergies and food intolerances were connected. But how?
All during the early, terrible years of chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome in the early 1990s, the only one time I'd had relief was when I took a drug that was a mixture of cortisone and an antihistamine. I had just a few tablets of this substance, but it gave me wonderful relief. For some reason I could not get more of this drug combo. A few years later, trying to replicate this relief, I took just plain cortisone (prednisolone), but to no avail. Maybe it was the antihistamine that helped and not the cortisone?, I reasoned. So I took the latest antihistamine (I forget the name), one that was supposed not to make you drowsy. No luck.
Fast forward to the present. I read about how people like Jill Osborne of the ICN had experienced a lot of success with hydroxyzine, and old-fashioned H1-receptor antagonist, first generation "hit you on the head" type antihistamine. It is supposed to work on nerves as well as histamine, and also alleviates anxiety. Not bad, I thought, I'll give it a whirl. It may help my food problems.
And, by the whiskers of Kurvi Tasch, it did! :laugh:
I have now experimented by eating almost all of my "forbidden" foods and had only mild or no reactions. I hasten to add that I am only taking 25mg of Vistaril (hydroxyzine) a day, about 25% of an adult dose. This is a miracle to me, my friends -- I cannot tell you how much this means to me. It's like a door has been opened to life again.
On the negative side, the hydroxyzine, taken at night, caused me to wake the third day with a sharp, urgent pain in my bladder prostate area!
Oh cursed fate! Just my luck, I thought. Finally I find something to release me from the pains of food allergy and intolerance, and it causes my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome to flare! How can this be? I did some fast thinking and came up with my "Allergy Theory of CPPS"©: viewtopic.php?t=385
I believe this effect of the old class of antihistamines has caused most men with chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome to avoid its use. I believe they all have this effect on us.
Thinking laterally , I reasoned that the way to counteract the antihistamine was to use a smooth muscle relaxant like Hytrin. Seems logical, and my urologist friends did not object. Hytrin has a number of good things going for it: viewtopic.php?t=237
It worked.
So that's where I am today. Yesterday I ate a whole lot of stuff that would have had me moaning with pain today, but I'm fine! I awoke this morning with very mild tightness in the bladder area from the antihistamine, but since I'm only taking 1mg of Hytrin at night I expect to be able to eliminate that too eventually as I increase the Hytrin dose.
I do not know if other antihistamines will work as effectively for me. I've learned that people can react differently to different things in unpredictable ways, for instance: although many men are helped hugely by quercetin, some aren't at all. So I cannot say if this regimen will help you, or whether any other antihistamines will help me. I already know that Claritin / Clarinex did nothing for my food problems, and nor did Seldane (Terfenadine) and some other antihistamines. So this area is a bit of a mystery -- probably some complex, genetically mediated chemistry at play here.
I am hoping, perhaps optimistically, that the blocking of all the histamine from my system may eventually lead to the cure of my CPPS. If it does, it means a large number of men may be able to access a total cure for the condition, using simple drugs.
If I fail to eradicate my chronic prostatitis / chronic pelvic pain syndrome completely, it still means I have discovered a novel way (antihistamines balanced with alpha blockers) of alleviating some of the pain, fatigue and distress that so often accompanies CPPS.
Õlé!