Nature provides all kinds of natural antihistamine support. This can be fantastic news for people who are looking for natural ways to address Histamine Intolerance. Studies have shown that nature, once again provides those remedies.

• Do you feel like you’ve tried everything from antihistamines to a low-histamine diet? 
• Do you get symptoms of histamine intolerance when you eat high histamine foods, such as fermented foods?
• Have you noticed that gut-healthy foods like yogurt and sauerkraut leave you feeling worse?
• Do you experience symptoms such as hives and itchy skin (urticaria), bloating, sneezing, and runny nose?
• Histamine intolerance is not well understood in the medical field, often leaving doctors and patients with more questions than answers. And while histamine intolerance may feel a lot like food allergies or food intolerance, it is much different.

Let’s take a look at some of the most widely used vitamins, minerals, enzymes and how they might be worth considering when you struggle with histamine intolerance.

DAO™

DAO is the enzyme responsible for breaking down histamine in the digestive tract from food, drink, and the microbiome. If histamine is left unmetabolized, it can build up and absorb through the gut lining. When absorbed systemically, it can become activated via various histamine receptors throughout the body, causing a release of histamine and uncomfortable symptoms.

Certain foods and drinks contain high levels of histamine. Examples include fermented foods, aged cheeses, wine, kombucha, and other fermented or aged foods and drinks. A normal person’s microbiome contains some bacteria that naturally produce histamine. However, if these bacteria become imbalanced, they can contribute to excess histamine in the system and potential GI issues.^† In addition to excess histamine, reduced DAO can also contribute to difficulty metabolizing histamine. DAO may be reduced for a number of reasons, including medications that act like intestinal DAO blockers, genetic polymorphisms that affect DAO activity, and reduced nutrient cofactors that are required for DAO and other histamine pathway enzymes to work efficiently.

Quercetin†

Quercetin is a biologically active flavonoid antioxidant that is widely distributed in plants including oak trees, onions and tea. Quercetin has strong antioxidant activity and has been shown to support immune health by mediating the release of inflammatory compounds including leukotrienes and prostaglandins. Quercetin is known for its ability to stabilize mast cells, diminishing the release of histamine, the compound known to cause hypersensitivity reactions during seasonal changes.

Stinging Nettles Leaf†

Urtica dioica, commonly known as stinging nettles, is a plant that has been shown to balance immune response, specifically in the airways and nasal passages. Studies have shown that the extract of stinging nettles leaf balances a variety of inflammatory activities that affect respiratory health. Stinging nettles leaf controls mast-cell degranulation, prostaglandin formation, and histamine action all contributing to a balanced inflammatory response.

Bromelain†

Bromelain is a plant enzyme naturally found on the stem and fruit of the pineapple plant. Bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme that aids in in the breakdown of large protein complexes, including antigenic compounds, and has been shown to enhance the absorption of quercetin. Bromelain has been shown to reduce circulating allergenic protein complexes associated with hyper-immune sensitivity and seasonal discomfort.

N-Acetyl Cysteine†

N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is an amino acid precursor to one of the most important antioxidants in the body, glutathione.  Both glutathione and NAC help reduce the viscosity of the mucus allowing for clearing of the airways and improved respiratory health.

Vitamin C†

Vitamin C is extremely important in the production of DAO and mast cell modulation. In addition, it is critical for a healthy immune system.Vitamin C cannot be synthesized by humans and is therefore an essential nutrient that must be consumed in the diet. Among its numerous health-promoting properties, vitamin C is an essential vitamin that supports the immune system and is also a potent antioxidant. When the body is under a significant amount of stress, both emotional and environmental, vitamin C is excreted rapidly. Vitamin C has many immune boosting properties, but is distinctively beneficial for individuals with seasonal discomfort because of its ability to deactivate histamine

Directions

Loading Dose: 2 capsules three times per day for 7-10 days or as recommended by your health care professional. Maintenance: 2 or more capsules per day or as recommended by your health care professional.

Does Not Contain

Wheat, gluten, soy, animal or dairy products, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners or preservatives.

Probiotics-

Histamine intolerance is exacerbated by poor gut health. (4) Your gut bacteria play essential roles in supporting healthy inflammatory processes, digestion, and even histamine metabolism. You have probably heard that probiotics are a powerful tool for adding good bacteria back into your intestines. There is evidence that B. Longum aids in breaking down histamine and ammonia, as well as increasing levels of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid responsible for protecting the gut wall. another powerful probiotic is found in the lactobacillus species. L. Plantarum. This good bacteria has frequently been mentioned as one of the best strains of probiotic bacteria for combating histamine issues

Other Vitamin and Minerals That Help Improve DAO Enzyme Activity.

If you take a look at this illustration, you will notice that at the very top we have histamine, histamine is broken down by HNMT on the left and DAO on the right (Blue Circles)

In green letters you are going to see SAMe on the left and Iron, B6, B12, copper and vitamin C on the right. What this means is that if you are deficient in any of these vitamin cofactors, the DAO enzyme or HNMT enzyme won’t work properly, in turn, histamine will not be broken down and ultimately, you will experience excess histamine symptoms. As a Functional medicine practitioner, it becomes important to investigate why a person may have low levels of these vitamins and mineral.

So things I want you to consider, if you are woman, and you have a heavy menstrual cycle (hormone imbalances, fibroids, endometriosis,) there is a good change you are iron deficient or iron anemic. Get your iron and ferritin levels checked. We know that hormonal imbalances can intensify histamine intolerance.

Other considerations are things like hemorrhoids, Ulcers, H.pylori infection, use of proton pump inhibitors, use of birth control pills. These health problems and medications increase likelihood of B12, B6, and vitamin C deficiencies. If you have been pounding down zinc (more than 30-60mg per day) like many patients do when they have leaky gut issues, you might also be low in copper. So again these are all things your Functional Medicine Doctor should start considering.

Signs and symptoms of copper deficiency.

Boosting Your DAO Enzyme Levels- Here’s What You Need To Know…

It would be great if all you needed to do was take some DAO enzyme supplements and call it a day. Unfortunately, it’s a tad more complicated than that. Heres what you need to know.  Taking DAO supplements will increase your DAO levels in your digestive tract and enhance histamine breakdown from anything that’s eaten, but it will not stop the histamine that is being produced outside the GI tract.

This is why you need to address the other factors behind Histamine intolerance and MCAS. Taking DAO supplements like HistDAO and Natural D- Hist is a great place to start…. But if you are someone who tried these before and they “didn’t work”  keep in mind that there are many things filling up the histamine bucket.

Variety of Food Is Essential

Low histamine diets, while very helpful in the beginning stages of treatment, can cause problems down the road. Too restrictive for too long of a period of time and you will not be getting many of these critical vitamins and minerals needed for optimal immune response, and breakdown of histamine.

With this in mind, you can see why a variety in your diet is so important for aiding the relieve of your histamine intolerance symptoms. Too few foods, and you won’t have enough of these important nutrients that are intricately involved in the management of immune responses and the production, breakdown and metabolism of histamine.

It’s All So Confusing, Where Do I Start?

There are many vitamins and supplements that can help those suffering with histamine intolerance and it can be confusing on knowing where to start. This is why I put together the histamine support pack. You can learn more about why I chose these supplements and decided to offer them in a support protocol. Not only will you save money with the support pack, the histamine support pack was deliberately and carefully designed to address several key areas of histamine intolerance.

Earlier this week I did a post on Histamine intolerance and SIBO  I also then did a video covering other important concepts related to histamine intolerance and gut health.

People Who Read this Article Also Recommend.

1. How To Get Started on a Low Histamine Diet – Part I
2. How to Get Started on a Low Histamine Diet-Part II
3. Supplements to help support Histamine Intolerances 
4. Stress? How and Why Stress Effects those with Histamine Intolerance
5. Histamine Intolerance and Gut Health
6. Common Causes of Histamine Intolerance
7. Histamine Intolerance-How it Makes You Sick
8. Estrogen Dominance and Histamine Intolerance- Hormonal imbalances that trigger Histamine/MCAS symptoms
9. Why Adrenal Cortisol Testing is so Important for GI Problems
10. Natural Ways to Increase DAO enzyme activity to help break down ingested histamine