High histamine levels are caused by consuming too many histamine-rich foods, reduced ability to break it down (DAO enzyme deficiency), gut dysbiosis, certain medications, allergies, or mast cell issues like MCAS, all leading to histamine buildup from diet, microbes, or overactive immune cells overwhelming the body's systems.
Stopping a histamine dump involves avoiding triggers such as high-histamine foods, reducing stress, and using antihistamine supplements or medications. Long-term management strategies include maintaining a low-histamine diet and improving gut health.
High histamine levels are often caused by a deficiency in the enzyme DAO, which helps to break down histamine.
Medical Conditions
Autoimmune disorders affect immune system function, which might lead to more histamine being released (11). Another condition causing elevated histamine levels is mastocytosis, rare disorder involving abnormal mast cell growth—the cells that make and store histamine (12).
Histamine intolerance occurs when you have a high level of histamine in your body. It can happen if your body can't break down histamine properly. It causes a variety of symptoms, including: Headaches or migraines.
People with mastocytosis have an increased risk of developing a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction. This is known as anaphylaxis. The increased risk of anaphylaxis is caused by the abnormally high number of mast cells and their potential to release large amounts of histamine into the blood.
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.
When your estrogen levels rise, you release more of your own histamine. Histamine then stimulates your ovaries to release more estrogen - thus setting off a vicious cycle. In addition, estrogen stops your DAO from working well. If you are intolerant to histamine, you will not tolerate your own estrogen very well.
The most common symptoms are rash, flushing, headache, and diarrhea. Less common symptoms include abdominal cramps, blurred vision, cold-like sensation, dizziness, nausea, sweating, and tachycardia. Severe reactions cause angioedema, tongue swelling, respiratory distress, cardiac arrest, and death.
Yes, magnesium helps regulate mast cell activity and can reduce histamine release. Does B12 stabilize mast cells? Yes, vitamin B12 supports nervous system health and may help stabilize mast cells, especially in MCAS patients with neurological symptoms.
Histamines Unleashed
First, it sends a chemical signal to "mast cells" in your skin, lungs, nose, mouth, gut, and blood.
Vitamin C. Vitamin C is a very common and well-known nutrient to strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation. Vitamin C is also required to produce the necessary enzymes for the process of histamine breakdown, making it a vital anti-histamine nutrient.
Under normal circumstances your GP should be able to make a diagnosis, or send you to the right medical department that could investigate further.
This article describes the eight best natural antihistamines and looks at the science behind them.
Many people believe they experience a “histamine dump.” This phenomenon usually happens at night when your body releases a sudden surge of histamine. A histamine dump can interrupt your sleep and cause headaches, flushing, itching, anxiety, and a racing heart.
To clear histamine, focus on a low-histamine diet (fresh, unprocessed foods), manage stress, get quality sleep, stay hydrated, and consider supplements like DAO or quercetin with medical guidance, as histamine is a natural body chemical, not something to "flush out" but rather to manage through diet and lifestyle to reduce overload.
So if you suffer from histamine intolerance, you should prefer calmer sports such as strength training, Pilates or yoga. Interesting fact: Cardio training releases histamine and other inflammation substances, but the effect only takes temporary (up to 72 hours).
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.
If you've regularly reached for antihistamines or H2 antagonists such as ZYRTEC® or Benadryl® to treat your symptoms of histamine intolerance, you could be doing your gut more harm. Antihistamines block stomach acid production which leads to low stomach acid levels. This can result in symptoms of acid reflux.
Dysbiosis, leaky gut, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can impair DAO production and lead to histamine buildup. Nutrient Deficiencies: DAO enzyme function depends on certain nutrients, particularly vitamin B6, copper, and vitamin C. Deficiencies in these nutrients can exacerbate histamine intolerance.
How do you treat histamine intolerance? Treatment for food intolerances usually involves avoiding foods or beverages that cause your symptoms. To test what you can safely eat, you stop eating any possible triggers for a few weeks. If you haven't had symptoms in that time, you start adding them back in one by one.
Cortisol, a stress hormone, does not directly trigger histamine release. However, stress may exacerbate allergic reactions, possibly through the impact of cortisol on the immune system. Therefore, while cortisol doesn't directly cause histamine release, it can potentially influence allergic responses.
Vitamin C: Vitamin C acts as a natural antihistamine and helps stabilize histamine levels in the body. It supports DAO production while reducing the overall histamine load. Fresh fruits and vegetables, such as oranges, kiwis, and bell peppers, are excellent sources of vitamin C.
Thus, histamine is an important regulator of sleep—wake cycles and probably contributes to the diurnal changes in other brain functions as well. Histamine also reduces seizure activity, another H1 receptor-mediated effect. H1 antagonists increase seizure onset and/or seizure duration in humans and animals.
In vitro tests on HT-29 intestinal cells showed that after 4 h of contact, the probiotic significantly increased the secretion of diamine oxidase (DAO), the key enzyme in degrading histamine, and reduced histamine levels in the culture medium.