Healing With Histamine Intolerance

Introduction and Guest Background 0:00

For the. Welcome back to this episode of the Reversing Marcel Activation and Histamine Intolerance Summit. I'm your host, Beth O'Hara of Marcel 360. So excited to have with us today, Doctor Beverly writer. And we are going to be talking all about histamine intolerance, which a lot of people with mast cell activation deal with. And we'll get into signs and symptoms and also some top tips. So I think this is one of our really important interviews of the summit to find out. Are you dealing with histamine intolerance and what do you do about it?

Let me tell you a little bit about Doctor Beverly and then we'll bring her on. She was a former biotech senior scientist with her PhD in microbiology and immunology, and then turned holistic mama after her daughter faced extensive histamine reactions. Now, she's a fierce advocate for spreading awareness about histamine and mast cell disorders, and she's published the book hives, headaches, Heartburn Heal Your Histamine Hangover. And I actually have a copy here. And, I love this book because it's just breaks things down.

Simple. Very easy to follow recipes and you can get through it easily in a weekend. So this is her book. And then she currently teaches nutrition at Bowman College. She's also known as the Histamine Whisperer, aka histamine Hangover. She's got a great Instagram channel and helps people calm their reactions from allergies to migraines. Welcome! Beverly is so good to have you with us. Thank you so much, Bassett. So, I'm so honored to be with you today. And speaking on histamine intolerance, letting so many people who get into these areas, it's really a labor of love.

And I know that was the case for you as well with your daughter. Can you just share with us a little bit more about how you got into working with histamine intolerance and, and the shift that you made in your career? Sure. I was, like you said, I was, PhD in, biotech research, working for more than ten years. And when I had my daughter, I was climbing the corporate ladder thinking I was a big wig. I know my immunology, but when she started having immune responses, all my training didn't help, and I felt humbled.

I felt I needed to know more, so I turned to a lot of different practitioners functional medicine, holistic and many traditional doctors to summarize a lot of information and a lot of experience. It turns out that she was having, reactions to many different foods, and it was worsened by stress. And when we figured it out, we removed these foods, improved her diet, reduced her stress, and a lot of these things combined helped her to feel better. But then I realized that I needed to know this stuff.

So I asked these practitioners, where can I go to learn more because my training hasn't helped me. Doctor. It was not that it was, not useful. It wasn't in many situations, but I needed to know this for myself and my daughter. And so, I went to Bowman College and got a diploma in nutrition industry consultant and opened my own practice for many years to help others having these type of reactions. And, now I come full circle and, I'm back teaching at Bowman College on histamine and many other, nutrition related, conditions, etc.

so that's my journey. And that's one of the things I love about your work is you're really about both educating practitioners and also helping people understand for themselves what's going on. And you have a real gift for breaking things down into language that people can wrap their heads around and understand and take action on. So why don't we start with just the basics? What is histamine intolerance? What are the symptoms? When should people start suspecting this?

What Histamine Intolerance Is 4:27

Yeah. Great question. It's good to start with the basics because when we think of histamine we envision allergic misery. That's been histamine is being equated with allergic reactions, but it's actually involved in so many more different things. Everything from it's a neurotransmitter. So mood, sleep, it's involved in digesting our food. It's involved in, immunity. So it's in good things too. We think of histamine as, as negative. It gets a bad rap, but it's actually vital. We wouldn't survive without histamine.

Even the most primitive animals have histamine, so it's quite essential. And because it is, it's used across so many different functions, it's actually histamine intolerance. So the symptoms have a wide variety of potential, signs and symptoms. And what are some of the most common symptoms that you see with histamine intolerance? I'm just thinking people are going to be thinking, well, how do I know? I don't know if I should look further into this. Yeah. Absolutely. So like I said, because histamine is involved in so many different systems, that could be really very and there are many unexplained symptoms, such as when you eat something, you can get an itchy tongue or, a cough or a runny nose or digestive issues, bloating, diarrhea, things like that.

Also sensitive skin rashes, eczema, things like that. After eating a certain food or drinking wine, especially red wine. And it's histamine is also found all over the body. So it can pop up in these different areas. Like I said, the skin, the digestive system, the mouth. But there are, certain patterns and of symptoms. And I think a big clue is someone is quite allergic or feels like they have allergies to a lot of different things. They can't explain, why they're allergic to so many things and only sometimes allergic to certain things.

That's a clue. Also, a lot of inflammation of the body is a clue. Foods that, there are typical foods that are involved in increasing histamine. So that would be a clue if those are the foods that people feel worse afterwards. And to back up, I didn't ask your question about what is histamine intolerance. I think I skipped straight to symptoms because, I love one. No. First, do I have this? So, maybe I can explain what it. Is it histamine intolerance? It's it's kind of a misleading term. It's not really an intolerance, per se, but it's, it's actually a buildup of histamine above your body's ability to get rid of it or excrete it.

So there's really two parts to it. You have histamine coming into the body, say, from your foods and your drinks and other, sources, and we'll talk about those. And then there's also too little going out or being processed or excreted. So you have this if you had, elevated histamine coming into the body and less histamine getting excreted, you have this build up above a certain threshold. And once you reach this threshold, it overflows and you start to react. You could think of it as a sink analogy.

And I think, I think, you use this analogy to I might even got it from you originally, where if you think about the histamine coming into the body, it's like the faucet is turned on, how much histamine is coming into the body, and the histamine going out is a little bit like the drain. It's, draining or emptying that sink full of histamine. And if that drain is clogged for many reasons, there's a there's a variety of reasons. It could be clogged. Then that sink overflows. And that's where you get a reaction.

It's also I wanted to point out the important is it's it's different than a food allergy. A food allergy is a very specific reaction, for example, toward peanuts when someone ate even a trace amount of peanut, if they have a peanut allergy, then they get almost immediate reaction to that specific allergen at a small amount, and it's immune mediated, mast cells will release and other cells will release histamine. So the histamine is also involved. However, histamine intolerance is not necessarily an allergic mediated, condition.

We call it a hypersensitivity. And it's like I said a build up. So it's not a specific tiny little amount of the allergen. You could have red wine, you could have another histamine food respond to it, and then suddenly you have your threshold. And it may not be right away. It could be within a few hours. It could be the next day. So those are some of the differences. But you can have food allergies as well as histamine intolerance. And those two can be, can actually worsen each other. So yeah. So you bring up some great points.

So many people are like, well, I did IG and IG food panel and these foods didn't show up, so why not? But that's what you're talking about. There are different ways that we can have reactions to foods. We've got this immune mediated, which could be IG, a true food allergy, or IG people often call food sensitivities. But this histamine intolerance we're talking about too much histamine. And and then the IG degrading enzymes are overloaded. And that's that clog in the drain. There. So I'm really glad you bring up these differences in these kinds of food reactions, because I think it's much easier to find out as long as you have good quality testing.

And there's that's its own challenge. We don't it's off topic for us. But so I have good quality testing. It's easier to find out with those examples.

Symptoms and How It Differs from Food Allergy 10:48

It can be more tricky for people to track down these histamine intolerances. And one of the other clues I often think about is that nighttime waking between about two and 4 a.m., you talked about histamine being a neurotransmitter, and I'll find that people tend to get that waking when the histamine is getting cleared at that period of time. And it's interesting, as in Chinese medicine, that's the liver clearing time. So and then anxiety depression but so many symptoms are very similar with mast cell activation syndrome.

Can you get into for for our listeners, the difference between mass activation syndrome and histamine types, because there's so much overlap in our population where people have both, but they are different conditions. Mast cell activation syndrome is mast cells actually store histamine and release it when they're triggered. And they also are triggered by histamine. So it can be a little bit of a vicious, cycle. And when mast cells are super sensitive, they will be more easily triggered by histamine.

And we have mast cells in a lot of the areas in our body where we come into contact with potential, invader or something harmful, such as the entire digestive tract and also the, the mouth and the nose and the eyes. So these are areas that are typically areas where we get the symptoms of, too much histamine or even a massive activation syndrome that, like you are getting to histamine, is more this spectrum of histamine tolerance and very mild to moderate. Or is it mast cell activation syndrome seems to be more moderate and above, because those mast cells are there and they can continue to react, for a longer time, react to more things, have other mediators besides histamine.

So they can they can release histamine, but then a number of other mediators of the histamine symptoms that overlap with is doing a tolerance, but all these other symptoms of the other mediators. So the histamine intolerance seems to be a little bit more it's I would say in my opinion much more common and, easier to reverse or at least, to deal with. And then there is people like me that have both. And then that's, that's an even more significant version. If, if you've got the mast cell involvement and the histamine intolerance and like you were saying, the histamine intolerance, that excess histamine is going to keep triggering this mast cells, this mast cells are going to release more histamine.

And you get those spirals down. What causes histamine intolerance. Let's go there next. What are some of the most common causes? Sure. Hum. So there's a actually a strict definition of a cause, but these are causes and contributors that all worsen the histamine intolerance. So I'll start by saying that, the first one is genetics. Your, your genes, especially genes for these enzymes that help clear histamine. Dao is one that you mentioned immune oxidase H and T is another one. But genes are not your destiny.

You didn't because you were born with these genes. Doesn't mean you are going to, have any guarantee of having histamine chance. There are many things you can do to regulate these genes. It just gives you a, predisposition or a little bit of more of a risk. So that's good news. Other ones I think on is diet what we eat. And I think people when they have histamine intolerance, when they hear histamine intolerance, they focus on things like, oh, avocado has histamine or can, release histamines. I better avoid that.

So I like to shift that and think about the artificial and the processed foods that are inflammatory in general and raise that histamine in the body because anything inflammatory is or inflammation means histamine. So those processed foods, those artificial foods, artificial sugars or sweeteners, all these things are affecting us on a deeper level. And then that, that is more easily triggered by histamine. So when the avocado or the other, whole nutritious food comes along, then the scale tips over.

But it was really the processed foods, those that standard American diet, those inflammatory, artificial, foods that are causing that are the bigger problem. So I want to make that, we make that point and I have a list in my book, a lot of the typical foods, there are many lists. So we can talk about that afterwards. And almost all of them differ slightly. And I've heard this question is why these lists all differ so much because it was usually based on, one person or a few people's reactions. And each person is unique.

Just talking more about the foods, I would say the top foods that are the histamine either contain is to me to release histamine. Don't change. Those ones are the ones to focus on the ones that are on some lists and not others. Those ones, I think would come last to to if to eliminate or to at least, avoid short term. Okay. So but I just want to really encourage people to use your list or Janice teenage she has really good research. Friend who is no longer with us. She has been a constant website.

Healing histamine is really good. We have a well researched list. But what I've also noticed is that many lists copied mistakes and omissions, and so we just want people to make sure they're getting good info and use one of those lists. Yes. Thank you. Those are all very reliable sources. And I will say that my list, it's for more mild histamine intolerance, but then it includes some whole foods. It actually emphasizes eliminating the unhealthy foods versus the healthy foods that are providing nutrients to help you overcome the histamine intolerance long term.

So the other causes and contributors,

MCAS Overlap and Common Causes 17:00

a huge one is your digestive system health or what we called gut health. So some bacteria in your stomach actually make histamine and some can degrade histamine. And so we have a nice balance. Normally not too many making histamine and more degrading. Used to mean. But when we have an imbalance due to many reasons, processed foods, maybe antibiotics, things like that. We know artificial sweeteners also imbalance this microbiome or microbiota. So your gut health is really important and how to balance that.

We can talk about later. But really focusing on digestion, a good strong digestion would really, really help prevent and even help reverse this. And as we age, our digestion actually weakens. We don't have as much hydrochloric acid or other enzymes to help digest our food. Those food, that food that's not digested are being absorbed in feeding us, then feeds bacteria and other microbes that then can overgrow and cause bloating and, issues with, I don't want to get into you might know Sibo and tea for a little bit, but I we won't get into that.

But they're, just cause histamine release, histamine production as well as inflammation and even intestinal permeability, which could be another problem. So gut health is big, stress is another factor. And stress plays into that digestion. Because when we're stressed and in what we call a sympathetic mode of fight and flight, the energy, the blood goes to our muscles because we're stressed and not to with digesting our food and our nutrients. So stress is a big factor, and our mast cells actually have receptors to sense stress.

And if something called our crunch receptors and these receptors, can sense when, when we're, terrified, when we're upset, when, we're just under duress and then they become more reactive. So that's, we can't hide our stress. I can't, you know, grin and pretend we're not stressed. I'm not cells. We'll see it. Now, we've talked a lot about that on the summit, that there's mast cells all along, those nerve sheaths, the nerve endings. And they they literally sense every thought we have to find just incredible.

And looking for that safety. Are we safe right now? And let's talk about nutrients. I know this is one of your big areas, but so many people that we see and in this community have gotten down to low foods. And I love how you talking about keeping the nutrient dense foods in. And I talk a lot about let's not just keep whittling down, let's look at replacements instead of reducing and reducing, but so many people, when they get to us, have already limited diets and they're low in nutrients. So I know that can be a trigger too.

And anything you want to add there on that side. Sure. When we have good digestion and back to the top, back to the gut, we have good digestion. We can extract or we can absorb those nutrients from our foods. But when we don't have good digestion or an imbalanced microbiota in our gut, then we're not absorbing those nutrients. And that's when those nutrient deficiencies can occur. And we need nutrients to to not react, to nourish our enzymes, to produce the de enzyme, the agent and other enzymes, including methylation and other methylation enzymes like H and empty are other ones.

So when we are digesting well and absorbing well, we get enough fighter and B2 vitamin B6, magnesium, copper, all a lot of different nutrients that are all needed to to produce these enzymes and to, keep that clog of that sink open so that we can actually degrade, histamine. I actually have a list in my book of nutrients that are necessary, and I am going to take a peek to see if I've missed any, if you don't mind, because vitamin C is a great one. It's a actually, it's a natural antihistamine. It binds to histamine directly, and it's also required for diet production.

There's also vitamin D3 basically balances the immune system overall it's it's a steroid hormone critical for immune regulation. I just want to show people that, there's a whole checklist here in this book. So if you picked up Beverly's book, we're on page 21. And it just is just such a wonderful resource with what the nutrient is, what it's used for, how you can take it, and then what kind of foods that it's and, and other tips. So this I just love this this resource. Thank you so much. And then I have some foods and some herbs and spices.

And at the end and the very last one on page 24 is the Dow enzyme is actually a supplement. That's a Dow enzyme that you can take just before you eat. So it should be 15 to 20 minutes before you eat. You can take a supplement that will help support your own Dow enzymes. So if you don't have enough, then taking a supplement could help. It's, short lived. So do take it just before. And I think you know a little bit more about the Dow enzyme than I do. Yeah, I can add a little bit here. It's been a game changer for me.

And I started taking it back with the old formulas that had talc and shellac and all these things in there that we didn't really want to take, but there weren't other options. That's all been reformulated, fortunately, and I was able to work with a distributor for Dow for North America to develop a sensitive formula called Histamine Digest 360, and it has none of the triggering, inactive ingredients. And if little fairy dusting of that B6, just a little one milligram that activates Dow, we put that in there because so many people that we work with in the mass of population have been restricted in their foods.

They have these nutrient imbalances. And if you don't have B6, DHA or won't turn on to work. So we'll link to that over at the Summit Resources page at mass three 60.com/summit. If anybody wants to take a look at it, anything else on triggers that you want to make sure that we cover? I know you talked about CBO and CFO, and any time we have that gut inflammation that's going to affect our ability, this is tied in with the Dow. So anything that causes inflammation in the intestines makes it much more challenging for the gut to make Dow.

Yeah. I will say alcohol is a big one. I know that comes as bad news to a lot of people. And there are certain alcohols now called types if you absolutely have to have the alcohol, some are better than others. And I won't go into that just yet, but, I can have the answer questions. A big one I've noticed, being in California with the forest fires is the environment really affects, how we react when we have that forest fire smoke. It tends to really up the, our histamine sink, really fill the histamine sink.

I start getting, headaches and, even moodiness. It it really has an effect. Cigarets. Another one, harsh chemicals and, Doctor Ola Johansson, a researcher in Sweden who I met at a environmental conference, has been doing some research on EMF and histamine and believes that there is a direct link he took. He looked at the skin of students that were studying in front of a computer, getting that EMF exposure versus reading a hardcopy book, and found differences in the skin, mast cells and the amount of histamine.

So that's something that was really interesting. So EMF might have, a positive role to play in a positive role. And we have a lot of research on EMS triggering mast cells. So if it's true in those mast cells we know we're getting some histamine release there. Absolutely, absolutely. Also there's a big thing and I, I haven't spoken about yet. Certain medications are are a huge trigger of of histamine. So in my strict definition, I'm going outside of the histamine intolerance definition necessarily.

This is actually being released from mast cells.

Nutrients, DAO, and Trigger Foods 26:00

And the mast cells are where it's come from and where that definition actually delineated between your of intolerance and NASL reactivity, which I'm using, is a big umbrella term. It's a little bit gray. So I will say that the overall effect of too much histamine, the end result is from medications too. It's a big one and some of them do inhibit Dao directly. There's a there's a few different ways they inhibit they can cause too much histamine. Some directly inhibit Dao directly and empty. They act on the mast cell, and things like that.

Another one is taking the wrong supplement. I've seen in many, many clients that, they're trying to do the right thing. They're trying to feel better, support their bodies, and they're taking what we've all been told to take probiotics or, some other supplements, but there are probiotics that, absolutely the wrong ones to take because they do contain the strains that produce the histamine. So it's actually adding fuel to the fire where you're you're repopulating your gut with good bacteria, but that good bacteria is also producing histamine.

So now your, bigger problem. But there are supplements that are histamine sensitive or histamine negative and ones that actually reduce the histamine. So just be aware of that. That's such a great point to in addition to probiotics a lot of killing protocols have clove in them. That's histamine liberating or cinnamon that's histamine liberating. And that's okay for some people have mild or histamine intolerance. But I've seen that really trigger people. Or high dose niacin that people get. Is that histamine response after you chew up all your methyl groups and your H&M t can't doesn't have the cofactors for methylation.

And, I see, people doing these meal replacements that have a lot of like strawberry, pineapple and spinach powder in them, or people doing the spinach smoothies sometimes because they were put on green smoothies. And, and we have a whole other talk just on oxalates. But that's I think is spinach should be a condiment, not a main course. Absolutely. Yeah. Spinach and does contain a lot of oxalates, which is a big trigger to me, the main trigger for some people, and unfortunately they're in a lot of healthy foods, but everything in moderation.

It's not necessarily that you can't have any. And also the replacement that you talked about. So replace it with the dinosaur kale or arugula, which is a nice antihistamine food. So there are direct replacements that are, that are pretty easy. So before we move on to one of your other specialty areas, which is headaches and migraine, anything else on the triggers you want to make sure we hit on? Also hormones, hormonal imbalances, especially women who are in perimenopause are getting toward the age of menopause.

Now, cells have estrogen and progesterone receptors and are sensitive to changes. So it's kind of like the the perfect storm for some women. And but the good news is it doesn't have to be. But we have the the weakened digestion and the hormonal fluctuations and some other changes. And so really the women, midlife women seem to be commonly seen for histamine intolerance. So does hormone imbalances. There are some, some things to do to, immune responses. So any inflammation, just like surgeries, injuries, infections that can all contribute as well.

And how much just depends on the person, the amount a person of histamine a person can tolerate. It's very specific or individual to the person like you. I have histamine intolerance too. I only know this after my daughter was, was ill and I actually measured the dog genes and the genes, lots of SNPs or specific single call nucleotide and single nucleotide polymorphisms, little changes in the genes. And I have those. So, I have it too. So knowing this, I've had to make some changes and, and try to avoid any inflammation.

That's not necessary. Oh I did want to touch on you were talking about hormones. So that made me also think about just toxin load in general. And there's so many enzymes that break down histamine we don't often talk about. One of them is up to one H1 in the glucagon addition pathway. And that's our primary pathway for a lot of chemicals for our steroidal hormones like estrogen and progesterone and mold toxins. So this is where we get a lot of histamine intolerance with mold toxicity as well. And put so much load just across the board on all of these enzymes.

And it's hard to break that down. Let's talk about one of your areas which is headaches and migraines. Can you share how histamine has a role in headaches and migraines? I'm really versed in migraines in terms of being triggered hormonally and being triggered structurally from issues here. But I really want to dive into what you know about this on the histamine side. Sure. And I absolutely agree that the liver health, those detox pathways, including the brain addition to deal with the toxins, is absolutely essential.

I meant to mention that under the, the environment. So what's coming in from the environment? Chemicals, harsh cleaners. Mold is a big one to, like you said. Absolutely. Thank you for, for filling that in. As for my migraines, well, histamine, that's really what my biggest symptom is, is the neurological, inflammation of migraines. So the histamine research began over a century ago. And believe it or not, over a hundred years ago, we started, scientists started working on histamine, and we, we knew a lot, but it wasn't for, about 20 years before it was really linked to headaches.

But we've known it's been linked to headaches for a long time. In fact, I don't know who the volunteers were, but, researchers gave, a group of people, histamine and it induced headache. And there were a lot of variability between the people. There was a group that it didn't induce much of a headache. And then some people were very sensitive. And we also know that migraine. So people that do get migraines are more susceptible to histamine induced headache. So this research has been done many years ago, but it didn't go very far because histamine was really pigeonholed into allergy and migraines, or neurological.

And that connection wasn't made. So there's definitely a link between migraines, neurogenic inflammation and mass. So the granulation is not a histamine brain. It's a lot of and for good reason. It helps us think and remember and sleep. There's a lot of things. So neurotransmitter there's also mast cells in the brain. And we're just learning about how this is interplay to create a migraine. But I do know for in my that for me personally that when I eat histamine foods the migraine is is the first one of the first things to occur.

Let's transition to some of the top tips people want to know. Okay, I think I have histamine intolerance I know, I just mean intolerance. How do you help people determine what are your favorite ways to help people determine if they have histamine intolerance or not? And then once they know they do have it, what are your starting points? Great question. Yeah, that's a that's a really common one. Is that how would I know. There's a lot of frustration and confusion with how to know. And many years can go by before even a person suspects.

But here are some steps, that I take that would, give you a really good it was really a strong suggestion that you have it. So number one would be, is if you look at your signs and symptoms, and if you line them up with things that can typically occur, then that's a clue and triggers what makes sense. At first there will be patterns at first, but when you look in terms of, to be intolerance, maybe you can actually connect the dots. And that's what happened for me. I didn't realize migraines could be connected with motion sickness.

Motion sickness is a histamine thing. In fact, there's even a book book called Pigs Don't Get Seasick. Oh, sorry. My cat was enjoying the seminar. You can join us, and we have something to say. Yeah, well, it means an antihistamine. Use motion sickness. Absolutely. And pigs don't get seasick because they have high levels of doubt. Yeah, and that's why that's used for pig kidney is the main source for Dao.

Environmental Triggers, Medications, and Hormones 35:00

Yeah. So, seasickness. So when your signs and symptoms and triggers don't make sense, they may start to. When you read about this to me, intolerance. So that would be the first thing. And the second thing is, look at a food list if, like when the book or, Jane Austen areas or ones that are on the histamine intolerance Facebook site with Yasmin is, group rest in peace. And if those foods tend to sound like the foods that typically trigger you or cause, more symptoms, then that's another clue. After that, then we can think about, have you ever taken antihistamines and do you feel better after taking those antihistamines?

It could be an antihistamine food. If you don't like taking the medication, like, possibly a regular. Like I mentioned, moringa is another plant that can comes up powder as well. There are many different antihistamine foods and supplements and, if that helps you, that's another clip. And so another clue might be a low histamine diet. Short term if you want to eliminate that, the very top histamine containing foods and histamine releasing foods and processed foods as well on top of it, then if that helps you, that's another clue.

So those are four. And then the fifth thing would be to take a diet supplement. And if that does supplement also helps you, that's a pretty definite clue because, the supplement helps. That's a direct, intervention and or direct lowering, that histamine. And I'm going to share just quickly that people sometimes need to get up to because their load is so high. Anywhere from 2 to 4 capsules for each meal for a couple weeks just to get that low down. Don't expect to take once one capsule once and then have a big response.

You may have to give it some time. I do to think about another potential clue. It's a tricky one, but some women feel so much better during pregnancy. Yes, absolutely. Because this. The reason for this is that the placenta actually produces doubt. And so some women feel so much better when they're pregnant. But I don't recommend that as a solution necessarily. I think that comes with other issues. And some people have mass activation get triggered during pregnancy. So it's not definitive black or white.

But if you did feel substantially better or in pregnancy, you might consider histamine intolerance and then comes back after you deliver. Exactly. Personally, I felt so much worse and I felt terrible because I not only have Dow, SNPs, but also H MT and other things. So it wasn't a clue for me, but it can be a clue for some people if it's just, the Dow enzyme. So that's a great, it's a great suggestion. Other clues would be there's a certain profile, a person and I would it's not necessarily saying a person has to be a middle aged female that has some allergies or allergy like symptoms or inflammation.

And it's a standard American diet that that's a general, profile that would actually make me think, This person might be have a little high. Their history might be a little too high. So it's a great representation of things to look for. And when they do, low histamine trial, I usually have people do about six weeks. And in my own population, just because they have such massive loads to give time for that to come down. And then if they think if they had a dramatic change, that's pretty clear. If they're not sure, then they can reintroduce for three days some higher histamine, as long as they don't have anaphylaxis or problems with that, because we don't want to trigger anything like that, but they can safely do it.

That's how we do it. In our super sensitive population. How do you do the, histamine elimination? Very similar. It's it also depends on the person. If I know that they are a lifelong sufferer, the long maybe some other family members that have it and a lot of symptoms that are quite more severe than I would go longer and, but also taper with how many foods. So I find that a lot of people seem to have a little food fear. They're a little afraid of foods when they have the histamine intolerance or food reactivity of any sort, they become afraid and start to limit their foods more and more.

And I really want to help people to expand their foods and not only eat, a small number of foods. So we start with only the top histamine triggers. The aged foods, the cultured, the fermented, and also adding in the process. I mean, adding out, eliminating the processed, the inflammatory foods that I really think the artificial due to the bigger triggers. And then it is that is for at least a week. If there's no improvement, then we go to the next level and maybe, limit a few other things. But generally what I say when, because it's an additive effect of build up or accumulation.

That first week people tend to drop and feel better. That's a really moment in that first week. I know it's a little soon, but if a person really does, eliminate these things a week, maybe even two weeks,

Histamine, Headaches, and Migraines 40:30

but we do go, two months in three months with the top, top ones. And then at the end, something that isn't a big trigger. We don't do alcohol, but alcohol affects so many different things on the level of liver to, thyroid to histamine, we do something that is, that they may want to add back in. That is a whole food. But if they're reacting, that's a, that's a clue. That was histamine. Maybe like strawberries. That was my first one. That was my big goal is to get the strawberries back in. Yeah I my daughter wants eight strawberries in the supermarket.

She's going to taste one. So she picked one up and she snuck a strawberry. And she turned around and she had all this red around her lips from the strawberry. But she also had like a particularly tongue, not swelling, like an anaphylaxis swelling. But she was itchy. Yeah. And she was coughing and phlegm itching. And so it was a it was a limited reaction. So she can't sneak strawberries. Oh, I've gotten the strawberries back and I'm so, so thrilled because I had such severe histamine intolerance.

And I unknowingly made my load super high by trying to do the best for my health. And about 20 years ago, the first thing I was getting into was the worsening price movement, which I love. And I love their philosophy, and it's all about going back to our traditional foods. And, but I was doing all I was making all my own kefir is making all my fermented veggies. I was making kombucha, I was making sourdough breads, and I was eating a lot of grass fed beef. And, my, it was itching head to toe. I used to actually keep a flashlight next to my bed.

And I'm going to share this because I know people can relate to it. I would itch so badly at night. I thought when I got that histamine dumping, which normally wakes people up, I would be itching so bad. I thought I had bedbugs and I'd have to jump out, use a flashlight, check the bed to feel comfortable enough to go back to sleep. But that's all gone now, and I can even have, I just had some oyster mushrooms today, which was a big win for me. So I just want to share some hope for people to get they can get these foods back, and we don't necessarily have to have this life long.

Or we may be, well, I do still take my Dao enzymes and we may have to support some of the pathways, but yeah, that's great. The nighttime waking is a big one. And I'm noticing I don't see myself very well because I'm high, iconic, small, but, my hair brushed my face and I ate, and I think I have red around my mouth now, which is, you know, you don't like red, but the redness in the skin is also another sign when you when you itch or, any itchiness is a histamine thinks this causes that itchiness.

So, so you had asked, about tips to feel better. The number one thing I would say is take a supplement vacation for just a short time. And the supplements that you don't that aren't doctor recommended are a trend or, a common denominator I see with a lot of clients

How to Identify Histamine Intolerance 43:30

is they're taking a lot of different supplements to try to feel better, and it's a nice thing to be able to just take a break from the ones that you can and see if you feel better, because there's a lot of additives, there's a lot of ingredients that can cause, histamine intolerance and increase your histamine, especially probiotics. And, you may feel better. So that's that would be the number one easy thing. The thing would be when you have the faucet on the sink, turn the faucet down. You don't have to turn it off completely with and misrepresents the histamine foods that you're, consuming.

Just turn it down with the top histamine, offenders. And, I think we went a lot over a lot of those and add in a little antihistamine foods, such as, I had a little stuck on arugula. I realize one of my big ones, I. Well, even all the cruciferous veggies have to think about quercetin rich foods. So onions. One of my favorites is garlic chives, because they're one of the highest quercetin foods, sometimes called Chinese chives. Apples. Yeah, absolutely. Those are those are good. And I can click in my book again and have a look at.

So there are also, nettle, holy basil, turmeric for some people. Garlic camomile watercress is a great one. Broccoli sprouts. There's so many. What do you think? What do you know about mango? I get this question a lot. And I know mango has some antihistamine properties. And then people come to me and they're like, why do you allow mango on your list? These other lists say, no mango, but I don't think mangoes are histamine. Liberator. Have you seen anything on this? I've seen list that I do include it.

And me personally, I like to try everything before I recommend it. Me personally, if a mango is overripe, it's too sweet. It's too soft. Yeah, it could be a little bit more irritating. It's got high, higher sugar content when it's really, really ripe and soft and squishy and may be seen with all of the soft fruits. But yes, exactly. They get this to me when they get over. Right. Exactly. And so but if you were to eat mango where it is, not imported and kept for weeks and, it's, it's a good seasonal source.

I don't see a problem with mango. It just. I think it's out by an individual, and each person needs their own list, ultimately based off a reliable list. But then they'll have their own foods that may trigger them in certain and certain times. For example, I have people that react to tomatoes in the winter because tomatoes is not a winter winter fruit because that fruit, but not in the summer they can eat tomatoes, in the summer they can be in the winter. So it's seasonal too. Let's listen to it.

Great, because I also, I thought I was reacting to carrots when I was. I know at one point I was down to ten foods. I was so still limited because I was reacting to everything and I didn't know how to swap. I just was making the mistake or whittling, which I was good learning for me. But I was reacting to carrots in the winter. And then I learned that the carrots are in long storage if you get the ones in the bins or the bags, but to buy them with the tops on them so you can see how fresh they are.

And when I did that I was fine with carrots. Same with apples or turnips if I'm out of season. They've sat in those bins for too long so they will gain some histamine. And it's not their naturally highest mean food. It's just anything sits for four months. It's going to have some histamine development. Absolutely. But that's a great point that I haven't mentioned. So thank you for prompting me that time is the, enemy of histamine intolerance. So what I mean by that is if something is picked and kept for a long time and not kept well, especially in the cold, then it can increase in histamine.

So leftovers for example. So if you have fish you don't eat it that night. You cook it on that night. It's not going to be your friend the next day. Fish can contain a lot of histamine and, get above your threshold and cause a spillover. Also, if you have me, we've not cooked that sitting in the fridge. Put that meat in the in the freezer for everything. That's not, that can go bad. Things like meat, fish in the freezer. And then when you saw it, cook it right away,

Elimination Diet, Reintroduction, and Food Swaps 48:00

maybe in a pressure cooker, because it's faster. You can cook even from frozen with the, the correct timing and recipe. So really time and bacteria growth and temperature are three key things to look at. So how you prepare food is is going to be important to vitamin C is lost really fast. If you take a cucumber and chop it up, that vitamin C starts to decline. And so if you go with a processed food or even a precut food for a long time, that vitamin C is then much lower. In. Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine.

So you may not react to a cucumber fresh cut. But cucumbers not histamine food generally anyway. But then another food. Let's say strawberries already cut up or sitting out or not seasonal. Or not organic, then doesn't have as much vitamin C to counteract your reaction to histamine. So that sounded like a lot of words to say. Eat fresh, be fresh and and nutrient dense. I was thinking about raspberries. A lot of times people don't put raspberries on their list because they can be a little higher histamine, but they've got vitamin C and quercetin counteract it, and that's why I leave it on there.

So we have more variety. And that's your approach too, which I really like about your book and your work. This has been just a wonderful wealth of information. And you mentioned the food fears. I want to let people know we have actually a whole, interview on today's summit interviews on navigating food fears. So do check that out with Doctor Lauren LAX. On what you were talking about with the supplement break, there's great tips. And, Doctor Beverly's book hives, heartburn and, hives, headaches and heartburn.

Heal your histamine hangover. So check that out for the supplement tips. And then we have a lot also in our top eight mass

Resources and Where to Find Beverly Wright 50:00

Self-supporting supplements Masterclass, you might be interested in checking out. I just really want to thank you so much for your work in the world, what you bring for people, and to have that from your immunology background is, is quite invaluable. Can you please let people know where they can find you? Sure. Thank you. Basés. It's been a pleasure. Defining. I'm at, mania Instagram. At the histamine hangover. Is my handle a little bit on, on Facebook as well. And also, I do monitor help monitor the histamine intolerance Facebook site with Yasmeen and Beth.

Bethany's two and but I think the, the Instagram handle is the best at the histamine hangover. Thank you again so much for joining us. Okay. Thank you both for having me. I've been a pleasure for.