Histamine issues – a case study
In four sessions, this young man has gone from once or twice weekly bouts of life-limiting symptoms to … none. He had seen everyone – his GP, homeopath, acupuncturist, massage therapist and nutritionist. He had blood tests, gastroscopy and stool analysis. All came back normal.
His weekly symptoms were:
- loss of energy – “a slump” which meant he had to lie down for the rest of the day
- a leg tick
- frontal headache
- his gut “became a hostile environment” – it would churn and only vomiting made it feel better
He had a one-off history of fainting and rashes too. He knew stress made it worse (doesn’t it always?). His confidence, work life and private life were impacted. He never knew when this was going to happen – he had tried everything to correlate it to something he was eating or doing but there was no pattern.
I suspected Histamine was playing a part and sure enough that’s what my muscle testing showed. Histamine is a very important messenger in our bodies. It creates a signal to the body to bring swelling (fluid), ie, healing, to a problem – particularly invaders and allergic threats. But it’s also a neuro-transmitter – it plays a part in our central nervous system (hence the fainting, leg tick, headaches). When it’s done its job and it’s no longer needed, it degrades – mostly in the gut. We might have a lack of the enzyme needed to degrade it – or we might have gut issues which prevent its degradation. When there’s too much histamine around, that’s when we get symptoms. And the symptoms are wide-ranging and very often don’t have a pattern – it’s like a cup overflowing – it can happen at any time.
The solution is to test for and address:
- leaky gut and gut imbalance – treat and check for any underlying food intolerances
- co-factor nutrients that support degradation (usually B vits, zinc, copper, vitamin C or other specialist antioxidants)
- eat a low histamine diet
- Histamine Block or another ’emergency’ supplement for when high histamine foods can’t be avoided – or when symptoms begin to show
Within two months (after 3 sessions) this client was able to begin to relax and lead a normal life. When we last met (four months later), he was still episode-free.