Top Tips to Reduce Histamine Intolerance you Need to Know:

In our last blog, we took a deep dive into histamine intolerance, a highly under-diagnosed condition, where your body has difficulty breaking down histamines – chemicals found naturally in the food and drink you eat, and the environment around you.

If you have histamine intolerance, your body can't eliminate the histamines you're breathing in and consuming quickly enough. This can lead to high levels building up and triggering a whole range of debilitating symptoms. Ranging from irritating (quite literally!) skin issues, like rashes and hives. To respiratory signs (f.e. a runny nose or congestion), problems with your gut, and even frustrating neurological side effects like migraines, and brain fog. The symptoms can be wide-ranging and have a really negative impact on your quality of life. And if you're entering mid-life, watch out, because 80% of those living with HIT are middle-aged or older!

If you think you might have histamine intolerance, don’t worry, there are lots of simple steps you can take to reduce your symptoms. From tweaking your diet to taking supplements which could help eliminate histamines more efficiently. You might already be taking some of these supplements – Hello vitamin C! Or it could be as easy as trying natural antihistamines like quercetin and stinging nettles (our Allergy Plus patch contains both!) to give your body a helping hand.

Here are our top tips to reduce histamine intolerance:

1. Limit these foods and drinks to keep your histamine intolerance symptoms in check:

Big fan of blue cheese or chorizo? Us too, but sadly both these goodies could be making your histamine intolerance symptoms worse.  Histamines are found in virtually any food that isn't absolutely fresh (ie an apple picked straight from the tree, or meat that's just been slaughtered). And the longer the food has been around for, the more histamines it's likely to contain.

So, deliberately aged foods such as ripened cheeses, dry-aged and cured meats, and fermented things like sauerkraut and kefir, all have sky-high levels of histamines.  Unfortunately alcoholic drinks like wine and beer also contain lots of histamines due to the brewing and fermentation process. Alcohol also inhibits DAO (an enzyme that helps your body break down histamines) activity and has a big impact on histamine intolerance symptoms. 

If you have these symptoms, it's worth limiting your exposure to this type of food and drink for a while and seeing if it makes a difference in how you feel. Symptoms of histamine intolerance generally start within about 2 hours and resolve within 24 hours after you've eaten or drunk something with high histamine levels. Try writing a food and symptom diary to track what your triggers are.

2. Tweak your diet:

It’s not just aged foods that could be causing histamine intolerance. Some fresh foods are chock full of histamines too, with tomatoes, avocados, spinach, and citrus fruits being some of the worst offenders. You’ll also need to limit these foods in your diet and see if this helps with symptoms. This helpful resource has a great list of some of the high histamine foods you might want to avoid.

And don't forget the leftovers! That delicious dinner you made might seem like a tempting lunch for tomorrow… But when you leave it in the fridge overnight the amount of histamines will rocket!

So what can you eat? Low histamine foods include fresh chicken and pork (remember – nothing cured or leftover), fruits like apples and pears and watermelon, veg including greens, carrots and courgette, and grains like quinoa, buckwheat and oats.

It's also worth eating food that has been frozen very quickly after it's been harvested or slaughtered. Freezing fresh foods slows microorganism metabolism and histamine production. In fact, histidine decarboxylase (HDC), the enzyme microorganisms use to create histamine, can be destroyed by freezing food for 1-2 weeks. You can try this on your leftovers as well as fresh foods.

3. Take the right supplements to support your body and prevent histamine intolerance:

Natural anti-histamines:

If you don't like the idea of regularly taking anti-histamine drugs, like cetirizine or loratadine, to help soothe your histamine intolerance symptoms (more on why this might not be such a great idea later in the blog), there are plenty of natural alternatives to try.

Quercetin is a natural mast cell (where histamines are released by your body) stabiliser, and helps to reduce the amount of histamine released by your body. It's excellent for minimising hives, itching, and respiratory symptoms. Stinging nettles are another natural antihistamine, that works by reducing histamine receptors, thus lessening your symptoms.

Our Allergy Plus patch contains both these ingredients AND the natural anti-inflammatories Bromelain (an enzyme found in pineapple!) and Curcumin, which will reduce histamine-related inflammation and help stabilise your mast cells.

Vitamin C:

This well-known antioxidant is great for combating inflammation (which can make your body's response to histamine worse) and also helps to lower histamine levels in your body by helping to break it down. Plus it supports a healthy immune system – making it less likely to overreact to histamines. Our super duper easy-to-use Vitamin C Plus patch is here.

Magnesium:

Is there anything magnesium can't do? This super supplement works by helping to prevent your mast cells from being over-activated and slowing excess histamine release. It also targets histamine intolerance side effects like migraines and will help you feel calm and balanced in the face of all these frustrating symptoms. Magnesium glycinate and malate are believed to be the most-effective forms to combat histamine intolerance, our Tri-Mag complex Patch contains both!

Omega-3:

Regularly taking Omega-3 is an excellent way to reduce overall inflammation in your body and calm your immune system. It's also ace for stabilising mast cells and helping to lower histamine release. These two actions will help to lower your immune system's response to histamines. Even better, Omega-3 can also help reduce some of the annoying symptoms of histamine intolerance, like brain fog and achey joints. Try the Omega-3 Plus patch here.

Glutathione: 

The 'master' antioxidant could help your body to clear histamine, by supporting liver function (where histamine is eliminated and broken down), reducing inflammation in your body, and helping you to regenerate antioxidants like vitamin C, to balance your immune system. Find our Glutathione Plus patch here.

You’ll find all of the above products in our Allergy category.

Probiotics:

A leaky gut can worsen histamine intolerance so probiotics are a must to help improve your gut health. Proceed with caution though! You'll need to avoid certain histamine-producing strains, such as Lactobacillus casei or bulgaricus. Instead, opt for Bifidobacterium infantis, longum, or Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG.

Looking for a shortcut to get all the supplements you need to target histamine intolerance? Shop our histamine intolerance bundle here.

Why not just take antihistamine drugs every day?

This might seem like the ideal solution to tackle histamine intolerance symptoms, but antihistamine drugs like loratadine and cetirizine can trigger a plethora of side effects. Ranging from annoying things like a dry mouth and sore throat, to more serious issues such as increased drowsiness which can make it unsafe to drive or operate machinery.

Some studies have also shown that repeatedly taking certain antihistamines might also increase your risk of developing dementia. So you might prefer to try natural antihistamines and some lifestyle changes to target HIT instead.

For more information on Histamine Intolerance checkout this article.