Histamine Helpers and Hinderers - get your hormones back on track

There are certain foods and nutrients that can help support our bodies release of histamine and help to stabilise it and excrete the excess, more on that in a minute.

Lets look at Histamine Hinderers first.

Hormones, pesticides, medications, chemicals and even changes in temperature, pressure and altitude can cause our mast cells (a type of our immune cells) to release histamine.

Friendly bacteria colonise our gut to provide a barrier of defence against bad bacteria or viruses. However, when there is an overgrowth of bad bacteria, this can lead to increased histamine production. It is well known that 70% of our immune cells are located in our gut and fascinatingly our gut bacteria interacts with our immune system and is able to boost, stimulate or calm it. As histamine is produced by specific immune cells, a more balanced gut environment and immune response, may be beneficial for those suffering with histamine intolerance. While some bacteria may be beneficial to those with histamine intolerance, some have the ability to produce histamine themselves.

Stress hormones can cause mast cells to degranulate, thereby releasing histamine and other inflammatory agents into our bloodstream.

Oestrogen can actually stimulate mast cells to make histamine, while at the same time reducing diamine oxidase (DAO), the enzyme that helps break down histamine. The presence of histamine then promotes the release of luteinising hormones. And the luteinising hormone causes a gradual increase in estrogen.

So if you are looking for long-term relief from Hayfever, Hives, or any of the other symptoms previously mentioned it is essential we address the state of your gut health and to keep those hormones in their natural balance.

Foods that contain histamine, trigger a histamine response or block its breakdown include alcohol, tomato and tomato-based products, berries, dried fruits, processed foods and additives, chocolate, dairy, fermented foods.

Now I am not saying in order to get your symptoms under control you need to cut these foods out for good ( there are so good’uns in there!) and I certainly wouldn’t advocate a long-term elimination diet as this can cause a whole host of other issues but four week elimination period may be a good place to start (please don’t try this without supervision as you don’t want to be missing out on key nutrients or making yourself worse rather than better).

Now for the good stuff. Foods that support histamine response and may improve symptoms include Vitamin C containing foods (citrus fruits, sweet potatoes, red peppers) which help to stabilise the mast cells and reduce histamine release, a compound found in apples and red onions known as quercitin which is a naturally ant-histamine, nettles (can be drunk as a tea, made in to a pesto, as a substitute for spinach) as an anti-inflammatory, local honey to help build up a tolerance to the pollen in your local area, Bromelain (a compound found in pineapples) is also a natural anti-histamine, are just some foods that help support our histamine response as well as foods that contain Copper (shiitake muchsrooms, tofu, sweet potatoes, sesame seeds, cashews, chickpeas, salmon) and B6 (salmon, eggs, carrots, spinach, sweet potato, chickpeas - see a theme here!) as well as vitamin c which helps support the DAO enzyme which breaks down histamine.

Long story short, load up on a colourful variety of vegetables and fruit, omega 3 sources ( oily fish, sesame, chia, pumpkin and flax seeds), keep adequately hydrated and avoid heavily processed foods and sugar. An elimination diet might prove useful but this should be advised on an individual basis and carefully supervised by a nutritional practitioner.