It feels like an allergy, looks like an allergy, but it’s not an allergy! We’re talking about the histamine intolerances.
Histamine intolerances are often poorly understood in the medical world, with health professionals underdiagnosing and treating this potentially dangers health issue. While approximately only 1% of the population experience adverse reactions to “normal” levels of histamine in foods, the increased sensitivity to histamines is becoming more widespread and common.
Histamine is a chemical naturally found both in the body and in certain foods. However, problems arise when histamine levels fall out of balance or sync. The consequences are high, with the histamine chemical playing a crucial role in many body systems, like the immune system.
Understanding Histamine Intolerance
Histamine intolerances, essentially, are allergic reactions without the allergen. An intolerance toward “normal” levels of histamines in foods due to decreased activity of histamine-degrading enzymes, can trigger your immune system to release histamines during the inflammatory response.
There are foods that naturally contain histamine, or trigger the release of histamines in the body. The problems occur there are an influx and overload of histamines, and your body is unable to break them down. Histamine intolerances are caused by impaired enzyme activity, often categorized into one of four issues:
- Enzyme inhibitors (certain medicine or foods)
- Enzyme competitors (biogenic amines)
- Enzyme genetic defects
- Enzyme production problems (inflammatory bowel diseases or food deficiencies)
Histamine Intolerance Symptoms
Often known as a “pseudo-allergy,” histamine upsets flare-up in issues like rashes, trouble breathing and nasal congestion. However, histamine reactions can vary widely, including:
- Brain fog
- Digestive problems
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Eczema
- Hormone imbalances
- Low blood pressure
- Irritability
- Low sex drives
- Nausea
- Migraines
- Racing hearts
Foods and Histamine
While foods can vary in their histamine levels, their reaction in the body is often similar. Whether foods are high or low in histamine content they trigger the release of histamines in the body in similar ways.
High-Histamines Foods
- Canned foods
- Bone broth
- Alcohol
- Cheese
- Eggplants
- Mushrooms
- Nuts
- Shellfish
- Smoked meat products, like bacon
- Spinach
- Vinegar
- Bread and gluten-rich foods
Histamine-Releasing and Low Histamine Foods
- Tomatoes
- Avocados
- Bananas
- Citrus fruits
- Strawberries
Histamine Intolerance Cures, Solutions, and Reversal
If you struggle with a histamine intolerance or find that these foods induce allergenic symptoms, it’s important to take the following steps:
- Get professionally tested for histamine intolerance. Have a doctor run labs, looking for a high histamine/DAO ratio. This will uncover whether your body cannot process the amount of histamine-rich foods currently in your diet and your body’s low enzyme production to break them down.
- Uncover the root issue. Histamine intolerances may be a secondary reaction to other inflammatory problems. It’s important you be tested for other interrelated issues, like leaky gut syndrome, nutrient deficiencies and gluten intolerances.
- Follow an elimination diet. Eliminating problem foods is the gold standard for uncovering foods that trigger inflammation in the body. Simply eliminate or significantly reduce high-histamine foods or histamine-producing foods and reintroduce them after roughly 30-60 days to find out which ones are problem-causing.
- Focus on fresh foods. Bacterial growth in foods is often a matter of their freshness and nutrient-content. Try following a fresh, low-histamine diet that focuses on foods like fresh wild-caught salmon, fresh vegetables, gluten-free grains, herbal teas, and rice milk.
- Heal the gut. Ingested foods aren’t the only culprit for the body’s histamine overproduction, in fact, many histamine issues can be solved by gut bacteria imbalances. To combat leaky gut syndrome or candida overgrowth, incorporate more probiotics into your diet.
- Eat histamine-combatting foods. Certain foods have the ability to rid your body of excess histamines, like vitamin B6, vitamin C and copper. Incorporate foods high in these vitamins and nutrients to beat histamine intolerance.
