While there is no solid evidence to prove the connection between histamine and mental disorders, symptoms like hyperactivity, obsessive-compulsive behavior, panic, anxiety, and depression are often observed among those who suffer from histamine imbalance.
These results suggest that histamine plays an important role in neuroinflammation-related diseases, including depression, via microglia. Interestingly, mast cells, which can promote inflammation and allergic reactions via the release of histamine, are also present in the brain.
Surprisingly, the histamine response in your brain that can have such a profound effect on your mood, ability to concentrate, and overall brain function. Today, you're going to discover the link that living with high histamine has with your sleep troubles, emotional imbalances and stress responses.
Histamine is released during goal-directed actions and results in an increase in behavioral and vegetative arousal and a decrease in the drive to consume, which allows the optimal progression of a motivated behavior.
Histamine and stress are able to cause significant mood disorders due to the role of histamine in the brain. The presence of H3 histamine receptors in the brain explains the high occurrence of mood disorders in those who are histamine intolerant.
Histamine may contribute to brain diseases or disorders
Whether from neurons or mast cells, histamine may participate in these processes by contributing to vascular changes, alterations in the blood—brain barrier, changes in immune function or even cell death.
Levels of histamine in the brain can increase as a result of an overactive immune system and mast cell response as well as the intake of foods that contain histamine. Mast cell disorders and histamine intolerance are both known to cause brain fog [21, 15].
Brain histamine is involved in a wide range of physiological functions such as regulation of the sleep-wake cycle, arousal, cognition, and memory mainly through interactions with histamine H1 receptors (H1Rs).
Too much histamine frequently causes anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia. There are many potential underlying causes for too much histamine and there is no universal treatment that works for everything.
How is histamine broken down? In the CNS (Central Nervous System) histamine is broken down by HMT (Histamine Methyltransferase) enzyme. This means that impaired methylation can contribute to high histamine levels. In some cases, methylated B vitamins and supplements such as DMG and TMG can help reduce histamine levels.
Histamine intolerance (HIT) is assumed to be due to a deficiency of the gastrointestinal (GI) enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO) and, therefore, the food component histamine not being degraded and/or absorbed properly within the GI tract.
There is currently no cure for histamine intolerance. The key to success is for the patient to learn to adjust to a low-histamine diet and manage the condition(s) until it either goes away, or for life. The patient needs to avoid stress.
For these people, histamine builds up in the body and is not broken down correctly. This can trigger an immune system response resulting in symptoms such as diarrhea, shortness of breath, headaches, or skin irritation.
Histamine also affects other mood-altering neurotransmitters such as GABA, dopamine, and serotonin. An excessive amount of these chemical compounds will increase the amount of anxious and/or depressive feelings.
These include: Flushing, difficulty regulating body temperature, sudden excessive sweating. Hives, rashes, swelling, itchy skin, eczema. Racing heart, palpitations, arrhythmia.
"We found that the histamine in the brain was triggered by the inflammatory response and directly inhibited the release of serotonin, by attaching to inhibitory receptors on the serotonin neurons. These inhibitory receptors are also present on human serotonin neurons.
During acute inflammation, extracellular serotonin levels are decreased as a function of increased brain histamine.
Doxepin hydrochloride and amitriptyline hydrochloride may be the most potent antihistamines known, and the antihistaminic potencies of these and the other tricyclic antidepressant drugs may relate directly to their ability to cause sedation and drowsiness in patients.
When you're all stressed out, your body releases hormones and other chemicals, including histamine, the powerful chemical that leads to allergy symptoms. While stress doesn't actually cause allergies, it can make an allergic reaction worse by increasing the histamine in your bloodstream.
Allergens Cause Biochemically Based Fatigue
In addition to immunoglobulin E, the immune system releases a substance called histamine. When both of these substances produce an inflammatory reaction in the body, you may experience a sense of tiredness alongside other, more obvious allergic symptoms.
Histamine is an endogenous biogenic amine classically associated with peripheral allergic and inflammatory reactions but it can regulate both brain inflammation1 and neurogenesis2,3.
MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome) You often hear histamine intolerance and mast cell activation syndrome or MCAS used together or even interchangeably.
Magnesium is also needed to make the enzyme, DAO, which mops up histamine when it's been released, if you can't make DAO, histamine levels in the blood increase 16. Histamine release from immune cells causes many of the symptoms of allergic responses to, for example, pollen and insect bites.