Anyone who has ever suffered from seasonal allergies is familiar with histamines and how a certain group can cause difficulty in the upper respiratory tract. There are literally dozens of antihistamines on the market, both by prescription and OTC formulations, so this is something most people are familiar with.
However, when it comes to histamines and how they affect the body in other ways, many of us aren’t aware that histamines can be the underlying cause of various issues in the digestive system. In fact, histamines are a leading cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and that’s why it is important to understand just what they are and what you can do about them to alleviate the symptoms.
What Exactly Is Histamine Intolerance?
Perhaps it’s best to discuss exactly what histamines are. In short, they are chemicals produced by the body as a defense mechanism against something we’ve come in contact with that the body perceives as an enemy. It will automatically begin producing histamines that can also have an adverse reaction in the body. One of the ways least understood by the majority of people is how histamines affect the gut.
When your body goes into defense mode and begins producing millions of histamines to fight what they see as enemies within your gut, your body will react and the outcome is often Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In other words, while you are probably eating something that doesn’t agree with you, your body is equally intolerant of the histamines produced to neutralize what you’ve ingested. Now you have a double whammy to deal with. Not only are those allergens causing issues with your digestion but your intolerance to histamines is adding to the problem. At this point, the quickest remedy would be a histamine-blocking supplement that goes immediately to work.
Common Remedies for Histamine Intolerance
Let’s reiterate this one more time. Histamines are produced by the body to block the effect of allergens, which compounds the issues arising from allergic reactions. With this in mind, it is important to understand various ways in which you can block the problems caused by histamines so that when it comes to the gut, the best remedy would be probiotics for histamine intolerance.
While we are often advised to eat yogurt as a source of probiotics, yogurt will not contain enough or all the right kinds of probiotics necessary to counteract histamine intolerance. It is far better to take a supplement that contains enough and the right kinds of probiotics to go immediately to work, relieving the symptoms such as those being suffered in a bout of IBS.
Beyond Rapid Relief
If you often suffer from gut distress, you should keep a bottle of probiotic histamine blockers on hand. However, you should also look at foods commonly known to trigger the production of histamines. These would include, but are not limited to:
- Fermented foods such as sauerkraut and yogurt
- Alcohol
- Dried fruits
- Spinach
- Eggplant
- Avocados
- Most shellfish
It’s interesting to note that yogurt is among those food items which should not be eaten if you have histamine intolerance. Yogurt is a known probiotic, but it is also a dairy product that will almost always cause the production of histamines in the body of anyone suffering from dairy intolerance.
Remember, histamines are produced by the body as your own personal army against substances recognized as enemies. However, the body can also be intolerant to histamines, which compounds your distress. The best solution is histamine blockers, so if you often suffer from IBS, this is the place to start.
