Emptying the histamine bucket 🪣, the body-gut instinct, and Ayurvedic bowls for Winter 🍜

Yet more lessons from the body... and the nourishing bowls + choices that are bringing things back into natural balance.

Down, down, down the rabbit hole of online research. Where all is contradictory. Particularly when it comes to our health.

An example – googling ‘eczema and humidity’. One site tells me that dry air can trigger eczema and to invest in a humidifier. The other informs me that humid air can trigger eczema and to invest in a dehumidifier.

Humidity between 40-60% is ideal (apparently). Who has the time or means to regulate their home environment like that? I have one dehumidifier at home, and it is moved from room to room, as and when, or beside the washing line to speed the drying of wet clothes. Some rooms feel damp + cold, while others feel warm + dry. It changes every day. We’ll never reach equilibrium… the weather isn’t static… nor are we.

Something I never once thought about when living inland in Kent… and now consider every day, through the Devon damp, on the river, by the sea (even as I love the mist… love the moisture… love the water)… even when the health experts are wagging fingers and saying ‘bad, bad, bad,’ I feel in my gut, that it really isn’t. That it’s just different. And that it will take time for my body to respond + adjust accordingly.

These past few weeks, my journey with histamine intolerance has been unfolding.

What is histamine intolerance?

It’s a condition in which the body is unable to break down histamine properly, leading to an accumulation of histamine in the body. Histamine is typically broken down by two main enzymes: diamine oxidase (DAO) and histamine-N-methyltransferase (HNMT). If the activity of these enzymes is impaired or if there is an overproduction of histamine, it can lead to histamine buildup and symptoms of histamine intolerance.

If we imagine the body as a bucket, and we take into consideration all the things that might add more histamine into that bucket – from pollen and dust mites, to household pets, nightshades, alcohol, stress, and environmental conditions (e.g. mould/spores; damp; pollution), to VOCs (volatile organic compounds, which emit scent, from essential oils to synthetic home-fragrance plug-ins) and microplastics, we begin to get a sense of how easy it is to fill that bucket.

The body naturally releases histamines as part of the immune system's reaction to allergens, infections, or injury. This happens quickly and powerfully if you have a Type 1 Sensitivity (i.e. an allergy) – and the body will respond in moments with itchiness, swelling, redness, runny nose, watery eyes, etc.

And if you have a chronic autoimmune condition – such as asthma, eczema, urticaria (hives), or hay fever – you are going to be more prone to filling that bucket faster, because those conditions mean that your body likely releases histamine more frequently, or for longer periods of time. So, it’s not uncommon for levels to build up enough to trigger other associated responses (e.g. those with asthma are more likely to have eczema, and vice versa).

Now, if the body’s functioning normally, it will have no problem breaking down an excess of histamines, so that bucket of yours will never reach the rim. Histamines will be produced, broken down, and all will be calm.

But if histamines are made more rapidly then the body can break them down (i.e. the triggers are so intense or numerous, that the body is overwhelmed)

or if the body doesn’t make the right amount of the enzymes to break them down in the first place

or if there are other factors at play that limit its capacity to break down histamine (ranging from the side effects of certain medications to gut dysbiosis)

well, then that bucket/body is going to need a helping hand.

There’s a long list of HI symptoms, which range from migraines and nausea, to diarrhoea and and palpitations, which don’t (thankfully) apply to me. Out of the list of 10 common symptoms, one applies to me quite frequently, and 2-3 very occasionally.

Which makes me think that it’s not a chronic, systemic issue… it’s an acute + temporary imbalance… and that this is actually all really hopeful.

My bucket, however full it has become, can also be emptied. And once emptied (as far as is realistic + possible), it will mean that even when I do produce histamines or encounter allergens or triggers, the resultant histamine won’t tip things into over-flow mode.

And so… that’s where I am at, right now.

Not panicking or overreacting or trying to wade in too quickly and change/fix everything.

Simply, trying to work out how to give my body the help it needs.

And… as I always do… I go with my gut… which tells me (among other things)…

… that inflammation in the body can be treated in lots of ways, not least of all with increased rest, love & laughter, de-stressing practices such as meditation, fresh air and gentle exercise, joy & awe, faith & happiness, good sleep & good books, and many other choices that are restorative + life-affirming…