Do you struggle with symptoms like coughing, sneezing, hives, headaches or digestive issues that seemingly appear out of nowhere? If so, you’re not alone. You may be suffering from histamine intolerance.
Histamine intolerance is a growing concern for many people. However, the good news is there are natural ways to support your body and alleviate the symptoms.
In this article, we’ll explore some natural strategies for managing histamine levels.
Your body produces histamine as part of its immune response, helping to fight off infections and heal injuries. It’s a chemical designed to dilate your blood vessels, constrict your airways and encourage mucus creation. In all, it creates inflammation as a short-term way of dealing with any threats to your body. Since it also plays a role in allergic responses, if you react to substances like pollen or dust, your body will be producing histamine.
So, as you can see, histamine does play a useful role in the body. However, once it’s served its purpose it should be broken down and removed, so its levels don’t remain too high.
Unfortunately, some people have difficulty breaking down histamine after it’s been produced. This is often related to a deficiency in an enzyme called diamine oxidase (DAO). Your body needs this enzyme to break down histamine efficiently. So, if you haven’t enough of this enzyme, histamine accumulates in the body after it’s released, causing unpleasant symptoms.
Certain foods naturally contain histamine, especially those that have been fermented or aged. If you’re lacking in DAO, histamine levels will remain high after such foods have been consumed.
So, although the term histamine intolerance makes it sound as though for some reason your body can’t tolerate histamine, it’s more a case of histamine levels being too high. Histamine intolerance isn’t an allergy, even though it produces similar symptoms. Because of this, it’s often also called histamine imbalance.
Your body has histamine receptors in many different areas. So, an excess of histamine can result in many varied symptoms which differ from person to person. They include:
As you can see, the symptoms of histamine intolerance can be very diverse.
Some people notice they experience an attack of histamine-related symptoms at night. This makes sense as your body naturally produces more histamine at night.
If this happens to you, you’ll experience night sweats, insomnia, itchy skin, heartburn and restlessness. Eating a meal late in the evening can exacerbate these symptoms if it comprises foods containing histamine.
Adopting a low-histamine diet means avoiding foods containing high levels of histamine. Although this is not a cure, you might find that avoiding high histamine foods, especially initially, can help your body to heal.
Some prescription medications can trigger the release of histamine or prevent it from being cleared from your body. So, it’s worth checking with your GP if you are on any medication and experiencing histamine intolerance symptoms.
Many foods that are rich in nutrients are also naturally low in histamine. These include:
It can be tricky to detect histamine intolerance, because of the range of symptoms it produces. It’s best to work with a practitioner who can analyse your food diary and detect any patterns.
Although avoiding foods which raise histamine levels can be useful to help determine whether high histamine levels are behind your symptoms, it’s not a long-term solution. This is because many high histamine foods are useful sources of nutrients.
Thinking about why histamine levels are high can help inform the steps to take to reduce them.
In conclusion, histamine intolerance can be challenging to navigate. However, incorporating natural strategies can help manage your symptoms. Our practitioners are dedicated to finding the causes of your health issues. To start your journey towards overcoming histamine intolerance, contact us today for a free 15-minute discovery call.
3 Histamine: A Mediator of Intestinal Disorders—A Review – PMC (nih.gov)
4 Ascorbic acid: its role in immune system and chronic inflammation diseases – PubMed (nih.gov)
5 Impact of oral vitamin C on histamine levels and seasickness – PubMed (nih.gov)
7 Specific change of histamine metabolism in acute magnesium-deficient young rats – PubMed (nih.gov)
8 Dietary copper deficiency increases the mast cell population of the rat – PubMed (nih.gov)
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