I'm seeing big improvements in the past 35 days. Sharing what's worked for me.
Just a warning, this is long!
My primary LC symptoms have been MCAS and brain fog, which came out of nowhere. I’ve never even had seasonal allergies that bothered me before Since LC, I have to take daily h1 and h2 blockers *or else*.
It took several months to figure out that I had long-COVID, and then my doctor confirmed. When I went looking for solutions, of course there wasn’t a lot of definitive info out there, as it’s still being researched. One thing I kept asking myself, “WHAT is this causing to happen in my body??” I’ve had other chronic health issues before, but I always understood the organ, the process, the mechanism by which the issue was occurring. MCAS is so strange, allergies feel abstract, and I couldn’t comprehend where in my body things were going wrong, or how. It didn’t help that brain fog due to excess histamine was my #1 most debilitating symptom. In the beginning, I’d lose myself for weeks at a time, feeling like I had Alzheimer’s. I would sleep a full night, wake up and eat breakfast, and then immediately fall back to sleep for half the day. I didn’t know at the time that histamine overload and mast cell degranulation were causing this.
I stabilized my MCAS symptoms completely in one month, about 6-7 months into LC. I went from being totally non-functional, bad allergy symptoms all day every day, and having an angry, painful, inflamed rash across my whole neck and chest . . . to being NORMAL (so long as I took all my supplements religiously and ate low-histamine). In one month, my rash was gone, my brain fog was almost gone, and my allergy symptoms were under control. That being said, I still couldn’t work out really hard, skip meals, or endure a lot of stress, because the stress would trigger my mast cells. I would end up with too much histamine again. So I was stable, but had a lot to manage to stay that way.
I learned how to stabilize by watching all the MCAS videos by Dr. Paul Anderson on YouTube, where he explains what’s happening and what supports these systems need to function again. He has an MCAS playlist. I watched every video and wrote down as much as I could, then I organized my notes to help me solidify my understanding. I’m not affiliated in any way, I just recommend him because without this information, I would still be lost and horribly sick, a year later. I have a GP, but he’s not an LC specialist. My understanding is that a lot of LC specialists don’t have many definitive answers either. Through tests with my doctor, I also found out I had low B12 and low ferrous iron.
STABILIZING MCAS
Here are the supplements/meds I *initially* took to stabilize MCAS in a month. These carried me until the 1-year mark with long-COVID:
· Allegra – 1 24-hour pill 1st thing in a.m. on empty stomach
· Quercetin – 500mg, twice daily
· Famotidine – 20 mg, twice daily
· Ferrous Iron – 65 mg, once daily
· Glycine – 3,000 mg, at night
· L-theanine – 200 mg, twice daily
· Magtein – 6,000 mg, at night
· Zinc & Copper – 15mg zinc / 1 mg copper, 1 cap in morning
· P-5-P (active B6) – 100 mg, in morning
· Vitamin C – 3,500 mg daily (high dose makes a huge positive difference for me with histamine overload. Somehow it keeps the histamine processing out. I forgot it a few times, and never will again)
· Vitamin D & K2 – 5,000 IU Vit D / 90 mcg K2, 1 tablet every other day
· Omega 3 Fish Oil – 2,000 mg, twice daily
· Riboflavin (B2) – 25 mg, in morning
· Niacinamide (B3) – 500 mg daily in p.m.
· Benfotiamine (active B1) – 100 mg, in morning
· Alpha Lipoic Acid – 600 mg, in morning
· HistaminX probiotics – 1 cap daily in morning
· Methylfolate & methyl B12 – 1 dissolvable tablet daily in a.m.
· Pantothenic Acid (B5) – 4,000 mg daily (high dose here makes a huge positive difference as well. Also forgot this a couple of times, and never will again)
· Rutin – 450 mg, in morning
I was on this routine for 6 months. When I hit my 1-year LC mark, I started to have vascular symptoms (chilblains type stuff), neuropathy, and heart palpitations. I realized that the low-histamine diet was causing malnutrition. Especially because some days I would just eat potato chips and that’s all, LOL. I was so SICK of having to think about what foods I couldn’t eat, so I was eating only a few foods.
Around this time, I also realized that I had a bad yeast infection and likely have a permeable gut + imbalanced microbiome (have had the signs for a long time). I’ve had candida issues before, so I knew exactly what to do: I mapped out a hybrid anti-candida + low-histamine diet, and I went back over all my supplements to see if I needed to add or remove anything.
UPDATED PLAN AS OF 3/16/26
My food plan now is that I eat two larger meals per day. All my food is divvied and frozen, as soon as I get home from the grocery store. Each meal, I have a large portion of various roasted veggies (at least 6 types per meal), healthy fats, and some kind of ground meat. I have texture issues with meat, so ground is the only kind I can stomach daily.
Here’s my anti-candida + low-histamine foods list:
MEATS:
• Ground chicken
• Ground turkey
• Ground beef
• Ground lamb
• Ground bison
(I cook these in the air fryer now, so I don't have to thaw them first, which means lower histamine. The air fryer cooks meat from frozen)
FROZEN VEGGIES:
• Carrots
• Okra
• Green beans
• Cauliflower
• Asparagus
• Artichoke hearts
• Brussels sprouts
---
FRESH VEGGIES (TO PREP & FREEZE)
• Zucchini
• Shallots
• Rutabaga
• Ginger root
• Canned grilled Chikadiki green olives (TJ's) – These are preserved in olive oil (not vinegar), and I don’t seem to react to them
FRUITS
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Acai berries
FATS
• Olive oil
• Avocado oil
• Ghee
GRAINS
• Buckwheat crackers (always soaked/dipped in olive oil before eating, to add fat and help my body process)
TEAS
• Marshmallow root
• Ginger root tea
• Rooibos tea
UPDATED SUPPLEMENTS
· Allegra – 1 24-hour pill 1st thing in a.m. on empty stomach
· Quercetin – 500mg, twice daily
· Famotidine – 20 mg, twice daily
· Glycine – 3,000 mg, at night
· L-theanine – 200 mg, twice daily
· Magtein – 6,000 mg, at night
· Vitamin C – 3,500 mg daily
· Vitamin D & K2 – 5,000 IU Vit D / 90 mcg K2, 1 tablet every other day
· Omega 3 Fish Oil – 2,000 mg, twice daily
· Riboflavin (B2) – 25 mg, in morning
· Niacinamide (B3) – 500 mg daily in p.m.
· Benfotiamine (active B1) – 100 mg, in morning
· Alpha Lipoic Acid – 600 mg, in morning
· HistaminX probiotics – 1 cap daily in morning
· Pantothenic Acid (B5) – 4,000 mg daily
· Rutin – 450 mg, in morning
----- ADDED -----
· Luteolin / PEA – Luteolin 100 mg / PEA 1300 mg, in morning
· Iron Bisglycinate (Active iron, easier to absorb than ferrous iron. I do feel much less wilty inside, since a few weeks after starting this)
· Zinc Carnosine (excellent for gut repair; should be taken on an empty stomach)
· Glutamine & P-5-P
Glutamine & P-5-P, as a combo, need their own paragraph. Glutamine is a huge help for rebuilding the gut, because it’s the main fuel source for intestinal cells (enterocytes). It promotes rapid repair and regeneration of the gut lining. But what I didn’t expect it to do was give me my old brain back. I’d also been dealing with pretty severe depression and suicidal ideation from general overwhelm and hopelessness. Glutamine is an amino acid, so it doesn’t have to build up in the system (like iron or vitamin D) to see results. It starts working within a couple hours of taking it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The body converts glutamine either to glutaMATE (which causes anxiety) or to GABA (which is a calming chemical). In order to help it convert to GABA instead of glutamate, you want to always take P-5-P (active B6) FIRST, right before taking the glutamine. I always take my P-5-P + glutamine on an empty stomach as well, just so they're not competing with food.
RESULTS SO FAR
I’ve been on this updated food/supplement plan for 35 days. I’ve seen huge improvements, even though I’ve also been detoxing. The first week of detox was the worst, but then it’s been steadily better. I’ve had two days in this time where I felt better than I did even before long-COVID (because I’m getting nutrients consistently, and I’m eating extremely clean). My brain was fantastic, my energy was high, I was super productive, happy, creative. Even in such a short time, my digestion is the best it’s *ever* been, eating this way.
What’s gone in 35 days:
· Depression
· Suicidal ideation
· Heart palpitations
· Vascular symptoms
· Neuropathy (zapping / shock feeling in my nerves)
· Inability to get myself to do basic tasks because everything felt like too much
· Wilty feeling from low iron
· Digestive upset, including gas, bloating, and pain
What’s improved:
· My mood is consistently positive, and I handle stress much better (thank the GABA gods). The first time I noticed was when I was feeling anxious, and my inner voice said, “You could just *not* be anxious.” It was like my brain went, “Oh, yeah, that sounds like a better option.” The anxiety just goes away when I decide I don’t want it?!
· Hair and nails are now growing strong and fast
· My facial skin broke out during detox, but it’s healing now and is starting to look healthy and glowy
· Brain fog is only once a week maybe now, when I’ve eaten something that sat out longer than I realized. But this is so much better than all day every day, or even every few days. The brain fog is mostly mild now, and I can usually function through (including writing or creative projects).
· The first couple weeks of the detox, the skin on my chest and backs of my hands was extremely dry, and my mast cells were acting up there. But they’ve since settled down a lot. My mast cells are less reactive now than they were during the detox and before.
What’s left to do:
· Continue healing my gut and rebalancing microbiome (to fully address permeable gut, candida, and resolve allergies/MCAS). I’m still religiously taking all the supplements, and I will be on this food plan for 6-12 months at least.
· Stay on this diet long-term, by choice. I don’t want gut issues again, and I like what I’m eating. Eventually, I will reintroduce foods and eat more of a Mediterranean diet.
· Antivirals eventually (working with my doctor to address remaining spike proteins)
I *think* this is everything. There could be more I’m forgetting. It’s been a hell of a thing having long-COVID, but I’ve learned a lot, and I am doing everything I can to come out healthier on the other side. I hope this helps someone!