Histamine Intolerance - Part 1
All About Histamine
What does histamine do in the body?
It’s important to know all of the hats that histamine plays in your body so you can better understand why high histamine symptoms can be so unique to each person.
Histamine has three main jobs:
Digestion, including regulating digestive function and triggering the release of stomach acid
As a neurotransmitter, sending signals throughout the nervous system including the brain (a common symptom of high histamine is brain fog)
Revs up the immune system and increases blood flow to fight off invaders and bring in inflammation for healing
Due to these jobs, here are a few fun facts about antihistamine medication:
1. They can lower inflammation a bit
2. Many antacids are actually antihistamines
3. They can unintentionally affect your gut bacteria and gut lining due to the immune cells (MAST cells) that line the gut and release histamine.
Antihistamines have their place and they can be incredibly important during a major allergic attack. But, reliance on antihistamines may actually make your symptoms worse by damaging the gut lining. So, use them when you need them…but let’s see if we can reduce your need for them.
Why do you have high histamine???
In a nutshell, there are three reasons why your histamine levels can be high.
1. Your immune system is making tons of histamine. When fighting off an invader (including to things like pollen) your immune system produces tons of histamine.
2. You’re eating a lot of histamine. Many foods contain histamine and that can dramatically increase the histamine in your body.
3. Histamine isn’t breaking down properly in your intestines.
Think of your histamine level as a bucket that can fill up and drain out depending on the situation. There’s plenty of space in the bucket so normally you don’t really notice histamine at all. But, if your histamine bucket starts filling quickly and/or the drainage hole is blocked, then your bucket can overflow. This is when your body can get overwhelmed by histamine. This is when you start feeling symptoms - when your “bucket” overflows.
So, we need to manage two things – how much histamine is coming into your body and how much is draining out.
The first step is to manage the histamine coming in because it’s the easiest to control. It’s hard to stop the immune system from making histamine, so the focus is on food that contains or releases histamine.
The second step is to work on the underlying gut imbalance that’s making it hard for your body to excrete histamine as it builds up. This process can take some time, but once your histamine level is lower, you don’t have to manage it as much while you work on this step.
Histamine and DAO enzymes
The current understanding is that the major reason your histamine bucket doesn’t drain is because of a deficiency in the enzyme DAO (diamine oxidase). This is an enzyme that’s made in the intestinal mucosal and deficiencies are very common. This is such a new branch of science, this belief could change in the coming years.
Here are some reasons that you can become deficient in DAO:
It runs in your family – You may possess a genetic mutation that results in a diamine oxidase enzyme deficiency.
Medications – Both prescription and over-the-counter medications may contribute to reduced DAO enzyme levels. Antibiotics, antidepressants, and narcotics are common medications that block the production of DAO. NSAIDs, like Tylenol and Advil, reduces your overall metabolism of histamine.
Hormonal imbalances - Imbalances in estrogen and progesterone can impact many of your body’s normal functions, including histamine levels. This is why you can have more symptoms at different times of your cycle or symptoms can pop up during perimenopause and menopause.
Gastrointestinal disorders - Disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, Celiac disease, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) may all contribute to inflammation in your body causing similar symptoms as a histamine intolerance and impacts your body’s ability to produce proper amounts of the DAO enzyme.
Nutrient deficiencies - A B6, vitamin C, zinc, or copper deficiency, may put you at risk of a DAO deficiency.
Consuming DAO-blocking food - Some foods may inhibit the functioning of the DAO enzyme, or contribute to symptoms by overloading the body with more histamine than your enzymes can break down. You’ll find a list of those foods in Part 2.
Alcohol - Alcohol is a very potent inhibitor of the DAO enzyme, thus contributing to increased histamine symptoms, on top of being high in histamine itself. Yes, this is why you might flush or get sneezy when you drink wine.
Notice how many are changeable? This is why you can develop high histamine anytime and how it also disappears for a while. It’s a sneaky condition :)
How do I know if histamine is an issue?
Currently, there’s no test to determine if you have high histamine or Histamine Intolerance. There’s only one way to know for sure – follow a low histamine diet and see if it helps.
If it helps – great! You’ve figured out an underlying issue to many of your symptoms!
If it doesn’t help – great! You’ve ruled out a big possible cause and you can move on :).
I’ve found that for some, following a low histamine diet can be life-changing. Stubborn, weird, and debilitating symptoms can get under control and clients get their life back. For others, I have every reason to believe that histamine is contributing to their symptoms, but after weeks and weeks on a low histamine diet, there’s no change.
In 5 or 10 more years we will probably know a lot more about Histamine Intolerance and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I imagine there will be tests and other treatment protocols available. In the meantime, the protocol you’ll find in Part 2 can be really helpful in bringing your histamine level down and under control.
Since this is such a new thing, I’d love to know your results after following the protocol. Please email me and let me know! Did it work? Didn’t work? I’d love your feedback ❤️
Time to dive into Your Histamine Guide! Head over to Part 2 :)
Got any questions or comments? Comment below, jump to our private Facebook Group, or the Ask Lisa page :).