Month 1, Day 30

Eureka!  INH can actually induce arthritis!

But wait, let me back up...Last week I went to Public Health for my second visit and an INH refill.  My sweet nurse asked me a few questions, weighed me (I've happily lost 3 pounds) and then got me another bottle of INH.  When I told her that I think INH has caused me to have arthritis she was surprised.  "Really?  And you've never had it before?  Who told you that you had arthritis?"

Well, truth be told, I've self-diagnosed.  In the past, the only times I've felt these arthritic-like symptoms was when I drink wine or beer.  The next morning my hands and joints ache and are incredibly weak.  About my third week in to INH, my hands started aching in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.  But it didn't go away as the day progressed...my hands just ache all the time.

So I explained this to my sweet babushka nurse and she wanted to try B6 even though I get 1000% B6 in my multivitamin.  She teetered out and brought back a B6 that gave me 2000% in one pill.  "Try this without taking your multivitamin for a week and see if it helps.  If not, go ahead and start the multivitamin again."

It hasn't helped...not one bit. So I'm taking my multi again slightly early.  It hasn't been quite a week.  Only 5 days.  My hands feel exactly the same.

The good news it that I've made some connections:
1. INH can, in fact, induce arthritis.  There are studies in which it induced acute arthritis, and when the patient when off, the symptoms disappeared.  When started again, the symptoms reappeared. (Source 1), (Source 2)
2. Since my symptoms pre-INH usually appeared after wine/beer, two high-histamine liquids, and since INH inhibits histamine metabolism, it may be that my histamine intake is exceeding my metabolism of histamine, and adding to the arthritic feeling in my hands. In fact, histamine has been associated with arthritis - causing the joints to become "leaky" allowing the arthritic process to start. (Source)

So from here - I'm going to try an experiment. Remove all (or as many as possible - nearly impossible to remove every bit of histamine - See the Histamine Page for more info) histamine foods from my diet.  This really sucks because I really like a lot of them:
* Certain vegetables: tomato, spinach, eggplant, avocado, mushrooms and canned vegetables as well as commercially prepared salads
* Certain fruits: strawberries, bananas, papayas, kiwi, pineapple, mango, tangerines, grapefruits, red prunes, pea
* Red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar
* Soy sauce
* Sunflower seeds
* Chocolate/cocoa
* Coffee, black tea
* Some fruits: citrus, bananas, strawberries, red prunes, pears, kiwi, raspberries, papaya
* Peanuts, cashews, walnuts

Yep - I'm going to be hurtin' because I have tomatoes and avocados practically every day.  I eat bananas and cocoa all the time.  I love balsamic vinegar.  I include strawberries, kiwi and oranges in my diet frequently. I drink black tea in the form of chai daily.

This sucks - but it sucks worse to have my hands hurt.  It's worth a try for a few weeks to see what happens.
I'll keep you posted.