Tag: histamine

A bit about Histamines

Todays post is about histamine or histamines.

You’ve most likely heard of antihistamines. They’re medicines that tame the symptoms of an allergic reaction. But what are histamines?

Histamine is a biologically active substance found in a variety of living organisms. It is found throughout the animal kingdom and is present in many plants, bacteria and in insect venom.

Histamines are actually chemicals made by the body’s immune system. They serve as neurotransmitters, carrying chemical messages between nerve cells. Therefore they are also part of the body’s defence system. They assist the body to eliminate something that’s irritating it, such as an allergy trigger, or “allergen.”

Histamines start the process that hustles those allergens out of your body or off your skin. Once your immune system identifies the allergens as a threat, it responds. Such as sending histamines which cause you to sneeze, tear up, or itch.

How does this happen?

First, it sends a chemical signal to “mast cells” located in the skin, lungs, nose, mouth, gut, and blood. The message is, “Release histamines,” which are stored in the mast cells.

Once they leave the mast cells, histamines boost blood flow in the area of the body affected by the allergen. This causes inflammation, which allows white blood cells and blood plasma proteins, to leak from the bloodstream to the site of injury or infection. Once there they begin to fight the infection.

In an allergic reaction, the immune system gets caught in a viscous cycle. Immune system proteins called antibodies, which are bound to mast cells, bind to the antigens to remove them. In the process, the mast cells are stimulated to release more histamine. The result is histamine in excessive amounts creating the visible symptoms of a localised allergic reaction. These include a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, watery or itchy eyes and hives.

Contact reactions

Allergic contact dermatitis, or hives, is a common skin condition that causes an itchy and weeping rash. The rash is usually localised to the area in contact with the allergen. It lasts as long as contact continues and typically one to two weeks afterwards. Even if the contact was very short, a rash can actually develop two or more days after contact.

Nickel metal is the most common cause of allergic contact dermatitis. Other causes include plants, chemicals, creams and ointments.

Foods and Histamines

If you have a food allergy, histamines are in on that response process, too. When you accidentally eat or drink something you shouldn’t, they’ll work in your gut to trigger your allergic reaction.

The most common foods known to cause a reaction are – nuts, shellfish, food additives, eggs, strawberries, and wheat products

Some foods are also naturally high in histamines. These include aged and fermented foods and alcohol (especially red wine). 

(Sources –https://www.webmd.com,https://www.allergy.org.au,  https://www.britannica.com)

On a personal note

I recently suffered from a contact allergic reaction on my arm. I am still not exactly sure of the cause, though possibly plant or insect. The result was an incredibly itchy patch of hives, which persisted for 10 days. Alternating between liberal applications of Rosemary oil and Calamine lotion helped immensely.

Till the next post,

Live clean n prosperAs a 

The body’s defense system and allergies

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Today I thought I would write about the body’s defense system and how it reacts to toxins and allergies.

Scott and I try to eat unprocessed, real foods as much as possible. However, there are times when we are out and have a meal that is not ideal and this is normal in every day life. Moderation is the key.

The issue that I have, is that occasionally after eating some things, I end up with a runny nose for the next hour. Sometimes I wake up with sinus congestion.

Quite some years ago, I always had a runny nose. I would always be carrying tissues with me. I thought it was a hereditary thing, as my grandmother was the same. It was only after going on a low carb diet for a while, that I noticed the runny nose seemed to go away.

I did a bit of research into this and found out that this issue has a name ‘gustatory rhinorrhea’. It was also a relief to find out that this condition is not unusual.

 

So, what is ‘gustatory rhinorrhea’?

 

Quite simply it is a ‘runny nose while eating’. The most common explanations for this is a food allergy, the temperature of the foods or hay fever.  A common symptom of a food allergy is sinus complications. According to MedlinePlus.gov, if you have a food allergy, you can develop nasal congestion, a runny nose and excessive sneezing. The most common food allergies are to fish, nuts, peanuts, soy, wheat, eggs and milk. The runny nose is the result of irritation and inflammation in the sinus cavity from increased levels of histamine.

When you eat something you’re allergic to, your immune system malfunctions and fails to recognize the proteins in the food as safe. The body goes into defense mode, producing antibodies and histamine. These two agents are intended to protect the body from viruses, bacteria and infection. Too much histamine in the sinus cavity leads to a runny nose.

 

This leads to another part in the body’s’ defense mechanism, mucous.

 

The fluid around all your cells is called lymph fluid. It moves waste products through various lymph channels and nodes. Your lymph is more active at night while it orchestrates housecleaning.

When your lymph is clogged your body looks for alternative ways to get rid of trash. Plan B is making mucous out of it. Lots of mucous in the morning is a sure sign of a problem. Regular drainage during the day or after eating a meal, are other signs of trouble.

This is why when we contract a virus, like a cold or flu, we suffer primarily from a runny nose. The body is doing its utmost to get rid of the trash, by creating mucous.

Personally, through the process of elimination, I have found that usually most processed wheat products trigger this immune response. This was 1 of the contributing factors to change our way of eating.

I continue to find it fascinating, how our bodies heal themselves.

 

Till next time,

 

Live clean n prosper

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