Histamine-containing foods can contribute to high histamine levels in the body. For histamine-sensitive people, this can be a problem. Recent research suggests that high levels of this essential neurotransmitter are associated with anxiety or panic attacks. Other research has shown that schizophrenia symptoms can arise from a histamine imbalance influencing brain functioning. Emotional and mental health symptoms due to abnormally high histamine could be helped simply by reducing or avoiding the high risk, high histamine, foods, and choosing low histamine foods instead.
Springtime can be hellish for hay fever suffers as the body's immune
defenses go into overdrive and produce the irritating and disabling
symptoms of red, itchy, watering eyes, runny nose and sneezing. The
natural chemical histamine is largely responsible for this familiar
but unwanted response to high levels of pollens in the atmosphere.
Therefore it is often antihistamine medication and nasal sprays that
are used to gain some relief.
Histamine Restricted Diet
Research published in the Journal of Nutritional & Environmental
Medicine (Vol 11, no.4, 249-262) into the effects of a histamine
restricted diet on allergy symptoms of patients at Vancouver Hospital,
Canada, showed some unexpected but interesting ‘'food/mood'
findings.
Unlike an allergic reaction to a food, a food intolerance reaction
depends on the individual's sensitivity threshold as well as how
much of a problem food they consume. So, this study looked into the
effects
of a 4-week low-histamine diet that avoided histamine-containing
foods and histamine-releasing foods (see box) in order to reduce
the total load of histamine in the body.
The research was primarily aimed at studying the effect on allergic symptoms such as urticaria (hives), angiodema (swelling) and pruritus (itching). 61% of the people in the study reported a significant improvement to these symptoms but, according to Dr Janice Joneja of the Allergy Nutrition Clinic at Vancouver Hospital, there was also another ‘surprising
report of considerable improvement.
This unexpected finding was in the benefits experienced by all three
of the 44 people taking part in the study who had also suffered ‘panic-like
attacks’as well as their physical, symptoms. Prior to undertaking
the diet, they had suffered feelings of overwhelming anxiety, increased
heart rate, clammy skin, feelings of ‘'I have to get out of
here' or, in one case, even fainting.
After 4 weeks on the special diet all three of these research participants remained completely free from such symptoms as long as they followed the histamine-restricted diet. And these benefits were experienced despite the fact that they had suffered symptoms frequently (in one case daily) prior to starting the diet.
One possible explanation for the effect of histamine on feelings of anxiety is thought to be due to the vasodilation, or widening of blood vessels, that is associated with high histamine levels. This would lead to hypotension, or low blood pressure, which the body attempts to compensate for by increasing the heart rate, leading to feelings of anxiety.
Dr Joneja advises ‘until a more definitive randomised, controlled trial can be completed, others who suffer similarly may achieve at least some degree of relief by following the histamine-restricted diet. The foods eliminated from this type of diet can be easily replaced with others of equivalent nutrient value and … because the response will be observed quite quickly, a period of 4 weeks on the diet will be sufficient for an individual to determine whether dietary manipulation will help in the management of their symptoms’.
The small number of people involved means that these findings are not considered statistically significant. However, for the three people concerned there has been a 100% improvement in how they feel, apparently entirely due to a change in what they were eating.
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