Histamine Intolerance - A Beginners Guide
What is histamine intolerance?
Food intolerances occur when your body struggles to digest certain foods or drinks, leading to potential irritation. An intolerance is not the same as an allergy, which can be more severe or even life threatening, but both are linked to food consumption and symptoms can often be similar.
Histamine intolerance is a fast-growing food intolerance. Clinical studies have shown that 1-3% of people have from some form of histamine intolerance, however, due to it's complexity, many experts believe the real number to be higher. Histamine is found in a wide range of food and drink including red wine, cheese, cured meats, some fish and a range of fruits and vegetables.
Unlike gluten or lactose intolerances, histamine intolerance is unique in that the human body naturally produces histamine. So how can your body be intolerant to something it naturally produces? For most people, histamine intolerance occurs when there is an imbalance between the diamine oxidase enzymes that help break down ingested histamine and the histamines in the body, quite often as a result of additional ingested histamines.
As your body naturally creates histamine and enzymes that help to break this down, it is often a combination of high histamine levels alongside other environmental factors that lead to a histamine intolerance. This means that it's a unique intolerance that's more complex than other food and drink intolerances.
Triggers of histamine intolerance
According to research papers, around 80% of cases of histamine intolerance are caused by a lack of DAO in the digestive system, the enzyme responsible for metabolising ingested histamine. This lack of DAO causes histamine to build up in the bloodstream. Our Aperitif supplements have been formulated to support people who don't have enough natural DAO in their digestive system.
Beyond this, there are a range of other factors that can influence histamine intolerance:
- Stress - fluctuations in stress hormones like cortisol can influence the body’s immune responses, and increase histamine production. This is why symptoms can sometimes occur only sporadically, and further complicate diagnosis
- Hormonal factors - studies have linked shifts in oestrogen levels with histamine metabolism, which leads to an increase in symptoms of histamine intolerance for those who are pregnant or going through menopause
- Gut health - histamine intolerance is largely dependent on a healthy gastrointestinal tract, meaning those with other gut-related issues can also develop histamine intolerance
- Medications - some medications, including over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen can block naturally occurring DAO activity in your body
- Allergies and immune conditions - people who have conditions such as Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) can often exhibit symptoms of histamine intolerance
Where do I go from here?
Histamine intolerance often displays differently for different people. Awareness of the condition is the first step, and Tolerance is here to help you simplify the rest of your journey.
The next step is to speak to a nutritional expert to find out more. You can also head over to our shop to purchase Aperitif, our own DAO food supplement.
Tolerance. Say yes, get tolerance.