Farley's symptoms were caused by eating fish that was not stored properly. This resulted in histamine toxicity, which led to a range of symptoms including flushing, low blood pressure, swelling, hives, abdominal cramps, and allergic reactions. What do you think actually caused Farley's symptoms? The cause of Farley's symptoms is due to the ingestion of improperly stored fish. This caused histamine toxicity, leading to symptoms such as vasodilation, flushing hypotension, increased capillary permeability, swelling hives, smooth muscle contraction, abdominal cramps, as well as allergic food symptoms.