Histamine, what is it and how does it affect your health?

Maybe you or someone you know takes antihistamines; medication that blocks the action of a chemical called histamine. Many people have a “histamine problem” but don’t have allergies and do not take antihistamines. Histamine is a natural chemical produced by your body. It is essential for good health and a healthy immune response, but if your body is exposed to too much of it, health problems begin to appear. Histamine is most often associated with seasonal allergies, but it can cause many unwanted health issues you probably are not aware of.  In addition to the usual symptoms associated with seasonal allergies like runny nose, itchy eyes, postnasal drip and sneezing, excess histamine can cause the following:

• Digestion problems

• Menstrual problems

• Inflammation

• Migraines / headaches

• Tinnitus

• Car sickness

• Weight gain or difficulty losing weight

• Breast pain

• Fatigue

• Leaky gut

• Insomnia

• Difficulty concentrating / brain fog

• Nausea

• Hives

These are very common health problems and many people suffer with excess histamine. This problem has a name; histamine intolerance.

As a functional medicine doctor, I often find that histamine intolerance is causing the unwanted symptoms my patient is experiencing. Like I mentioned above, your body naturally makes histamine and it’s required for optimal health.

Where does histamine come from?

Histamine is produced form the amino acid histidine. Cells in your body that produce histamine include the immune cells called mast cells and basophils. It is also produced by cells of your digestive tract and your neurons (nerve cells). There are also foods that are high in histamine as well as foods that cause your cells to release excess histamine into your body.

What does histamine do?

Histamine has many different roles in your body.

It acts as a neurotransmitter in your nervous system. It plays a key role in motivation, memory, sleep-wake cycle and appetite. It is also involved in sexual performance.

In the digestive tract histamine simulates the secretion of stomach acid. Some medications for acid reflux block histamine action in the stomach and cause a reduction in acid production.

Histamine is also a vital component of the immune response. It causes the smooth muscle of your airways to contract and smooth muscle of your blood vessels to dilate. Excess histamine can cause tightness in the chest and difficulty breathing. The effect it has on blood vessels can lead to episodes of low blood pressure and dizziness. It also causes the smooth muscle of the uterus to contract and can contribute to the pain and discomfort of the menstrual cycle. Excess histamine has been associated with painful breast fibroids as well.

As you can see, histamine in healthy amounts is beneficial, but in excess causes health problems. This is the case with pretty much any chemical or process in the body. Balance is the key; and balance of bodily functions is what functional medicine is all about!

Why does someone develop histamine intolerance?

Excess histamine is normally neutralized by two enzymes in your body: DAO (diamine oxidase) and HNMT (histamine N-methyl transferase). If you are producing enough of these enzymes, then you will be able to neutralize histamine more effectively.

There may be several reasons you may have difficulty eliminating excess histamine:

• Leaky gut: having a leaky gut can lead to food sensitivities and food sensitivities can lead to leaky gut. This becomes a vicious circle! Histamine from foods is neutralized in the gut.

• Gut flora: you may have too many bacteria in your gut that actually produce histamine!

• Genetics: you have genes that lead to the production of the DAO and HNMT enzymes. If your genes are not doing what they should, you will have a build-up of histamine in your body. The good news is that lifestyle, diet and nutrients can help your genes to work better. We call this epigenetics. Epigenetics demonstrates that your genes will work well or badly depending on what they are exposed to or lacking in terms of nutrition. For more information on how your genes influence health, pick up the book called Dirty Genes by Dr. Ben Lynch.

• Methylation: methylation is a chemical process that occurs in your body and it has a lot to do with how your genes function. Methylation is essential for the neutralization of histamine.

• Neurotransmitters: your nerves make chemicals called neurotransmitters. One group of neurotransmitters are called catecholamines which include dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. Epinephrine acts powerfully against histamine. It is the same chemical found in an EpiPen used to treat allergic reactions.

• Adrenal glands: your adrenal glands produce cortisol (a steroid) and lots of epinephrine; both of which help mitigate excess histamine in the body.  Adrenal fatigue can contribute to histamine intolerance.

• Hormonal imbalance: excess estrogen can stimulate mast cells to make more histamine and estrogen can interfere with DAO enzyme function.

Many people suffering with histamine intolerance have more than one root cause contributing to their histamine problem and the factors listed above are some of the most common I encounter in practice.

Your health issues may be caused by excess histamine and antihistamines are not the solution. Supporting your body’s natural ability to remove excess histamine is the answer.

If you are looking for a functional medicine doctor in St. Charles, Frankfort or Geneva, please contact us today!

If you would like more information about nutrient testing, functional medicine or Dr. Sexton contact our Naperville office or go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com

Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information, you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations.

This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. Why? The FDA enforces its position that these words can only be used with drugs. This approach does not use drugs.