Histamine intolerance affects your entire body. It may be the root cause of your migraines, headaches, allergies, sinus issues, digestion troubles, eczema, acne, and so on. It’s not surprising that histamine plays a critical role in your brain function as well. Histamine intolerance can compromise your cognition, concentration, mood, and overall brain function.
In this article, I will explain what histamine intolerance is and how it affects your brain. I will also offer some simple natural solutions for histamine intolerance and brain health issues.
What Is Histamine Intolerance
Histamine is responsible for a variety of important bodily functions, including communicating with your brain, fighting off allergens as part of your immune response, and promoting stomach acid release to aid digestion. While histamine is absolutely essential for your health, too much histamine is not healthy. Histamine intolerance means that you have too much histamine which can result in various symptoms and health issues, including brain health problems (1).
Histamine Intolerance and Your Brain
Your brain is a complex yet fascinating organ. When it receives signals from your environment, it doesn’t just process everything through the same channel. Your brain has four systems, called the aminergic system, which makes sure that everything gets processed through the correct channel.
One of the four aminergic systems is called the histaminergic system. You’ve guessed it right. The histaminergic system involves a histamine-mediated process to ensure healthy processing and function. Histamine helps your brain to achieve homeostasis or balance. It helps to regulate stimuli related to the following important brain-related activities (2):
- The sleep-wake cycle
- Stress response
- Pain perception
- Neurotransmitter regulation
- Satiety, taste perception, and feeding behaviors
- Addictive behaviors
- Memory formation
- Motivation and goal-setting behaviors
But how exactly histamine affects these things? Histamine in your brain can come from either mast cells or neurons. However, since there aren’t many mast cells in your brain, most of them come from histamine-releasing neurons in your hypothalamus. From there, histamine can travel to other areas and affect your entire brain. Histamine can attach to different receptors in a variety of other regions of your brain. This can lead to over-stimulation and histamine intolerance all over your brain (3, 4).
In other parts of your body, the diamine oxidase (DAO) enzyme is responsible for breaking down excess histamine. In your brain, however, the histamine N-methyltransferase (HNMT) enzyme is responsible for breaking down histamine. It first forms t-type methylhistamine, which gets broken down by monoamine oxidase B (MAOB) and aldehyde dehydrogenase. If histamine doesn’t get broken down properly, it can increase histamine intolerance and related symptoms (5).
Brain Symptoms of Histamine Intolerance
Now that you understand how histamine functions in your brain, let’s take a deeper look at how histamine intolerance may affect various brain-related functions and activities.
The Sleep-Wake Cycle
Did you know that over half of the over-the-counter medications that promote sleep contain a histamine blocker agent? This is not surprising. Histamine intolerance can increase your risk of sleeplessness, insomnia, and other sleeping disorders. Healthy histamine levels on the other hand promote healthy sleep and energy during the day (6).
Stress Response
One of the most well-known allergic and histamine reactions is itching, which is your body’s stress response to an allergen. When your body encounters an allergen, it will increase stress in your body to trigger histamine production and produce symptoms to signal a problem. Reducing histamine, however, may decrease this stress response and as a result, lower symptoms as well. This is the reason why allergy medications have anti-histamine effects (7).
Pain Perception
Histamine intolerance can increase inflammation, pain, and various symptoms in your body. However, your brain is responsible for how you perceive and interpret pain. If there is an imbalance in your brain due to histamine intolerance, you may end up perceiving pain stronger than under normal circumstances (8).
Neurotransmitter Regulation
Histamine is a neurotransmitter or chemical messenger, that affects the function of other neurotransmitters. Therefore, histamine plays a key role in neurotransmitter regulation. Histamine intolerance may increase the risk or amplify the symptoms of neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression, ADHD, and schizophrenia (9).
Satiety, Taste Perception, and Feeding Behaviors
Hunger is important for our survival. It triggers food-seeking behaviors to increase energy, help metabolic function, and support our health. However, histamine intolerance can interfere with our normal feeding cycle. It may increase your appetite and cravings for unhealthy foods. It may also alter your feeding behavior, and may increase binging, emotional eating, unhealthy snacking, and disordered eating habits (10).
Addictive behaviors
Histamine may play a role in addictive behaviors. Research studies on rats found that higher brain histamine levels may influence alcohol dependence. Blocking brain histamine receptors, however, helped recovery from alcohol addiction. While more research is needed, addressing histamine intolerance may play an important role in the treatment of alcohol addictions and possibly other addictive behaviors (11).
Memory Formation
While histamine intolerance can certainly compromise your memory and cognition, low histamine levels are also a problem. Higher brain histamine levels within the healthy range may help your memory and help to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (12).
Motivation and Goal-Setting Behaviors
If you have trouble staying motivated to achieve your goals, histamine may play a role in that. Histamine may help to increase goal-seeking behaviors and motivation. However, it is important that your histamine levels don’t end up too high since that can lead to fatigue and low-energy interfering with your ability to achieve these goals (13).
Solutions for Brain Health and Histamine Intolerance
If you want to improve your brain health, it is important that you address histamine intolerance. Here is what I recommend:
Follow an Anti-Inflammatory and Low-Histamine Diet
Following an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich, and nutrient-dense diet is important for your health. Reducing inflammation itself may help to reduce brain and mental health issues. Reducing histamine may help to decrease histamine-related symptoms.
Remove inflammatory foods, including refined sugar, refined oils, canned and processed meat, artificial ingredients, junk food, and highly processed foods. Avoid high-histamine foods, such as fermented food (e.g., sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented vegetables, kombucha, etc.), aged food (e.g., aged cheese, processed meat, canned fish, etc.), over-ripe fruits and vegetables, leftovers, and foods that are naturally high in histamine (e.g., avocadoes, eggplant, spinach, dried fruits, etc.). Avoid foods that may trigger histamine releases, such as tomatoes, most citrus, bananas, most nuts, and dairy. Avoid foods that may block the DAO enzyme, including black tea, green tea, alcohol, and energy drinks.
Eat a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, and low-histamine diet rich in greens, vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, healthy fats, and organic meat. Low-histamine foods include most fresh leafy greens and vegetables, non-citrus fruits, such as apples, pear, papaya, and grapes, fresh grass-fed meat, pasture-raised poultry and eggs, and wild-caught fish, olives, extra-virgin olive oil, ghee, coconut oil, leafy herbs, and herbal tea. My book, The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan includes an extensive list of foods that you can eat and should avoid on a low-histamine diet.
If you are new to a low-histamine diet, remember to have fun experimenting with new foods and recipes. I promise low-histamine meals can be delicious. I recommend all the low-histamine recipes in The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan and my new recipe book, Fifty One Low Histamine Air Fryer Recipes. They are all simple, easy to make, low-histamine, gluten-free, Paleo-friendly, and super healthy. Not to mention how delicious they are — your family will love them too.
Support Your Gut
Your gut health affects your entire body. Gut flora imbalance can trigger both histamine intolerance and migraines. Supporting your gut health is critical for your recovery. Along with a gut-friendly, low-histamine, anti-inflammatory diet, I recommend that you take a high-quality probiotics supplement, to support your gut microbiome balance.
Support Your Liver and Hormone Levels
Your liver is a major detoxifying organ that’s critical for your recovery from histamine intolerance. This is why I recommend Optimal Reset Liver Love, a powerful blend of botanical and mushroom extracts and N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) for optimal liver function, detoxification, hormonal health, and brain function (14).
Reduce Histamine Intolerance
I recommend HistoRelief. It is a synergistic blend of nutrients that provides natural support to balance your immune response. This blend features Tinofend®, a patented and clinically researched extract derived from the plant Tinospora cordifolia, which has a powerful ability to support immune regulation and immune response. As a result, it boosts your body’s ability to fight histamine-related symptoms. It includes quercetin, nettle leaf, vitamin C, and bicarbonate salt to help inhibit histamine release, support normal histamine metabolism, and improve immune health (15).
Reduce Your Histamine Bucket
If you are dealing with symptoms of histamine intolerance, reducing high-histamine foods is not enough. High stress, poor sleep, not moving your body, and high toxin exposure may add to your histamine load. Improving these areas of your lifestyle may help to reduce your histamine bucket and lower the risk of histamine-related issues.
Remove Toxins
Toxin overload can increase inflammation, histamine intolerance, and related brain or mental health issues. It’s critical that you lower your daily exposure to environmental toxins. Choose purified water over tap water. Use a high-quality air filtration system for better indoor air. Choose natural, organic, and homemade cleaning, personal hygiene, and beauty products instead of conventional brands loaded with chemicals. Choose glass, bamboo, wood, organic cotton, silicon, and other natural alternatives instead of plastic. Avoid BPA plastic completely. Choose organic food whenever possible and avoid overly processed packaged foods. If you must buy non-organic produce, follow the Dirty Dozen, Clean 15 list, and always wash and peel non-organic vegetables and fruits.
Reduce Your Stress Levels
Chronic stress may increase mast cell activation and histamine intolerance and histamine-related symptoms. To decrease your stress levels, I recommend practicing breathwork, meditation, positive affirmation, journaling, yoga, grounding, and time in nature for stress and anxiety reduction. Taking an Epsom salt bath is another great way to relax your muscles, calm your mind, and detoxify your body.
Get Enough Sleep Sleep
Inadequate and poor sleep may also trigger histamine and histamine-related issues. Improving your sleep is absolutely essential for your health. Your goal should be to sleep at least 7 to 9 hours a night. Lower your stress levels throughout the day but especially in the evening time to support sleep. Take a bath, read a good book, listen to some music, journal, try coloring, and spend time with your family. Avoid sugar, alcohol, and heavy food in the evening. Sleep on a supportive mattress with comfortable and supportive pillows and blankets, and quality, organic cotton sheets.
Move Your Body
A lack of movement may also increase the risk of histamine intolerance and related symptoms. Moving your body is a great way to reduce stress, improve detoxification, and improve your overall health. Move your body throughout the day. Stretch regularly. Take a stroll in the nearby park. Find creative ways to incorporate movement, such as an impromptu dance session, learning a new TikTok dance, playing with your kids or pets, taking the stairs, trying a treadmill desk, or practicing chair yoga. Exercise at least 20 to 30 minutes five days a week and move your body regularly. I recommend getting 10 to 15K steps in a day if you can. Add resistance and strength training to your routine.
Final Thoughts
Histamine intolerance affects your entire body. Your brain is not an exception. Histamine intolerance may lead to poor sleep, increased stress response, increased pain perception, compromised neurotransmitter regulation, unhealthy feeding behaviors, increased, addictive behaviors, poor memory, and low motivation.
The good news is that reducing histamine intolerance is simple. Follow my natural solutions for histamine intolerance and brain health issues to improve your brain health and overall well-being.
If you are dealing with symptoms of histamine intolerance and related symptoms, I invite you to schedule a consultation with us. We can help identify the root cause of your condition and recommend a personalized treatment plan to repair your body and regain your health and well-being. Schedule your consultation here. I also recommend that you check out my Histamine Online Program.
Sources:
1. Maintz L, Novak N, Histamine and histamine intolerance, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 85, Issue 5, May 2007, Pages 1185–1196. Link Here
2. Brown, R. E., Stevens, D. R., & Haas, H. L. (2001). The physiology of brain histamine. Progress in Neurobiology, 63(6), 637–672. Link Here
3. Shan L, et al. Interactions of the histamine and hypocretin systems in CNS disorders. Nat Rev Neurol . 2015;11(7):401–413. Link Here
4. Bolam, P., & Ellender, T. Histamine and the striatum. Neuropharmacology. Volume 106, July 2016, Pages 74-84. Link Here
5. Haas HL, et al. Histamine in the nervous system. Physiol Rev . 2008;88(3):1183–1241. Link Here
6. Naganuma F, et al. Histamine N-methyltransferase regulates aggression and the sleep-wake cycle. Sci Rep . 2017;7(1):15899. Link Here
7. Kim, H., et al. How stress triggers itch: a preliminary study of the mechanism of stress‐induced pruritus using fMRI. International Journal of DermatologyVolume 55, Issue 4. 2015. Link Here
8. Rosa AC, Fantozzi R. The role of histamine in neurogenic inflammation. Br J Pharmacol. 2013 Sep;170(1):38-45. doi: 10.1111/bph.12266. PMID: 23734637
9. Sadek, B., et al. Histamine H3 receptor as a potential target for cognitive symptoms in neuropsychiatric diseases. Behavioural Brain Research. Volume 312, 1 October 2016, Pages 415-430. Link Here
10. Provensi G., et al. (2016) Histamine and Appetite. Histamine and Appetite. In: Blandina P., Passani M. (eds) Histamine Receptors. The Receptors, vol 28. Humana Press, Cham. Link Here
11. Panula, P. Histamine, histamine H3 receptor, and alcohol use disorder. British Journal of Pharmacology. 2019. Link Here
12. Zlomuzica, A., et al. 2016. Neuronal histamine and cognitive symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropharmacology. 106, 135e145. Link Here
13. Loy, B. D., & O’Connor, P. J. (2016). The effect of histamine on changes in mental energy and fatigue after a single bout of exercise. Physiology & Behavior, 153, 7–18. Link Here
14. Rodriguez RR. Headache and liver disease: is their relationship more apparent than real? Dig Dis Sci. 2004 Jun;49(6):1016-8. PMID: 15309894
15. Histamine intolerance. Vickerstaff Health Services. Link Here
