If you suffer from inflammatory symptoms—like fatigue, anxiety, depression, headaches, brain fog, food allergies and sensitivities or allergy symptoms like sneezing, runny nose, watery, red itchy eyes, rashes, and breathing difficulties such as wheezing, severe coughs, asthma, or hiccups—an over-active histamine response might lie at the root of your issues.
Histamine is a chemical compound released by mast cells, a type of white blood cell, into the bloodstream when the immune system is defending against a potential injury or allergen, such as pollen, mold, or certain foods.
Histamine supports your body’s natural response to pathogens—it creates inflammatory responses to signal and boost the immune system’s fighting response.
The release of histamine is a standard defense mechanism by your body that causes the contraction of smooth muscle and the dilation of capillaries. However, an exaggerated histamine response can bind to cell receptor sites, resulting in irritation and chronic inflammation.
Histamine Modulation
Histamine performs critical functions in the body, supporting neurotransmitter signals in the brain, contributing to HCI production in the gut, as well as in your skin and respiratory system.
Histamine levels are designed to be kept in balance by two enzymes that break down excess histamine and prevent allergic reactions. One of these enzymes resides in the lining of our intestines and is necessary to maintain balanced histamine levels in the gut. A damaged gut lining compromises the production and secretion of this enzyme, allowing histamine to build up and wreak havoc throughout the body.
The goal is to balance, not block, the histamine response. Ideally, you want to modulate histamine release, not eradicate it. Excess histamine can accumulate in your body and contribute to numerous overactive histamine responses, such as being allergic to and reacting to everything, including taste, touch, smell, and even non-hazardous substances like food or pollen. Symptoms occur when too much histamine builds up in the body because the body is unable to break it down.
Symptoms of an Exaggerated Histamine Response
Since histamine circulates throughout your bloodstream, excess levels can bind to cell receptor sites, affecting physiological function in your gut, neurotransmitter levels in your brain, and immune responses in your sinuses, lungs, skin, and entire cardiovascular system. Excess histamine can cause irritation and chronic inflammation of histamine receptor cells and impact the following:
- Immune system: Histamine functions as a vasodilator (dilates blood vessels). Histamine receptors are also found in immune support organs, including the sinuses, bone marrow, white blood cells, colon, liver, lung, small intestine, spleen, thymus, and tonsils. They can contribute to symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, watery, red, itchy eyes, rashes, breathing troubles such as wheezing, severe coughs, asthma, or hiccups.
- Stomach: Histamine supports the release of hydrochloric acid, which helps break down food. If your body is unable to do this properly, you’ll end up with symptoms such as gas, bloating, cramping, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal discomforts. Excess histamine in the gut can present as food allergies and sensitivities.
- Brain: Histamine acts as a neurotransmitter, helping to regulate essential brain functions, including alertness, attention, learning, memory, stress response, sleep-wake cycles, and sexual function. Histamine can cause the blood vessels in your brain to dilate, which, in healthy levels, stimulates the brain. Excess histamine in the brain presents as fatigue, anxiety, depression, headaches, lightheadedness, or brain fog. All of these symptoms are due to overactive histamine receptor cells, which trigger numerous immune system reactions.
- Connective tissue: Mast cells are a type of white blood cell that reside in the connective tissue of the body and secrete histamine as part of a local immune response when your body detects a foreign invader. When they have excess amounts of histamine in their system or release histamine too easily, it causes redness and inflammation. The highest concentrations of histamine are found in the intestinal mucosa, skin, and bronchial tissues, which explains why histamine symptoms are often present as inflammatory reactions in the skin, such as rashes, eczema, and itchy skin, or Respiratory issues like nasal congestion, sneezing, and other respiratory problems. Dilated blood vessels in the nasal passageways tend to cause sneezing and congestion.
All of these symptoms are caused by overactive histamine receptor cells, which trigger numerous immune system reactions.
To that end, research reveals that heightened histamine levels may be behind some of the chronic symptoms experienced by those diagnosed with complex chronic conditions like Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Food Sensitivities/Intolerance, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dysautonomia, Autoimmune Disorders, Immune Dysfunction, and mood-related issues.
Exaggerated Histamine Response and Mood
When histamine levels are out of balance, mood and behavioral problems can result. Research finds that those with high histamine levels often experience mood disorders such as hyperactivity, obsessive-compulsive behavior, panic, anxiety, and depression. Mast cells in the brain contain granules of histamine along with numerous mediators that are released in response to specific situations, particularly stress. The number of mast cells in the brain fluctuates in response to stress and various behavioral and endocrine states, suggesting that they can influence the neural systems underlying behavior.
As my friend, Dr Becky Campbell, explains in her article, “Can Histamine Intolerance Cause Anxiety? “Excess histamine can also be associated with the presence of panic attacks. Anxiety or feelings of panic make sense when one considers the progression of a reaction to excessive histamine. Histamine causes the vasodilation, or widening of blood vessels, throughout the body… There is less resistance to the heart moving the blood throughout the body because of the widened vessels, so to ensure a consistent blood supply to the newly widened vessels, your heart has to pump faster (tachycardia). Now, we are in a situation where your body has ensured that your heart needs to race to ensure the blood reaches the right place. You may also experience shortness of breath, dizziness, a pounding heart, flushing, and/or redness in the face. Because of the cumulative nature of more stress causing more histamine release, more stress and excessive histamine can also cause more panic attacks.”
What’s more, animal studies have suggested that histamine may be implicated in anxiety disorders. One study showed that mice without mast cells had greater anxiety-like behavior than mice with normal mast cells. Still, when mast cell activation was blocked, the researchers noticed an increase in anxiety-like behavior. It appeared that a mast cell deficiency caused a reduction in the levels of histamine in the mice’ brains, which led the researchers to suggest that central mast cells are involved in the modulation of anxiety-like behavior.
Essential Oils for Histamine Balance
Essential Oils are natural immune modulators and can be used to help balance and modulate histamine release, rather than eradicate or block it.
Many essential oils can act as natural antihistamines, helping to stabilize mast cells and relieve symptoms associated with heightened histamine levels. These essential oils are often derived from herbs that possess powerful antihistamine properties, and the essential oils concentrated from these herbs usually contain those same beneficial properties.
Because essential oils are gentle natural solutions, they can provide you with gentle relief, without disrupting your body’s natural balance. For example, essential oils of herbs like Rosemary tend to be detoxifying, gently assisting the liver in releasing toxicity that may be the underlying cause of histamine over-reactions or mast cell activation.
Essential oils with antihistamine properties are an ideal natural approach to mitigating the inflammatory response triggered by histamine, as they can easily permeate our nasal cavities to loosen mucus and promote drainage.
The essential oils in the Histamine Balance blend are uniquely suited to modulate excess histamine excretion, balancing histamine levels and helping to reset the immune response and reduce allergic reactions.
Individuals who suffer from histamine intolerance and mast cell activation often express concerns about essential oils derived from flowers or trees, as they can be cross-reactors for mast cell triggers.
Histamine Balance™ Blend
Histamine Balance™ blend contains a proprietary formulation of organic and/or wildcrafted essential oils of Blue Tansy, Roman Chamomile, Lavender, Manuka, and Spruce. Still, we find them to be non-triggering in most because of the many other ingredients, including Rosemary, Peppermint, Ravensara, and Vetiver, that work together to prevent histamine release. Blue Tansy, in particular, is known for neutralizing histamine and helping to control allergic reactions.
Blue Tansy (Tanacetum anuum): Known for neutralizing histamine and helping to control allergic reactions. Key constituents, such as sabinene and camphor, contribute to blue tansy’s anti-inflammatory properties, including its ability to counteract allergic discomfort by reducing histamine levels in the body. It helps enhance the properties of the other oils in the blend, allowing you to relax both your mind and body.
Lavender™ (Lavandula angustifolia): Known for its anti-histamine properties, Lavender helps reduce inflammation, stress, and tension, calms the mind, and enhances the other oils in this blend for optimal effectiveness. A study conducted in South Korea on animals showed that lavender inhibits the release of histamine and inflammatory proteins from mast cells. These results indicate that lavender oil inhibits immediate-type allergic reactions by inhibiting mast cell degranulation in both in vivo and in vitro settings. Additional research has found that the medicinal compounds in lavender oil, particularly its component linalool, help inhibit the production of histamine and suppress inflammatory responses in the airways.
Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium): This exceptional oil from New Zealand is known to quickly and effectively reduce histamine production, relax the nervous system, and support a reduction in systemic inflammation. A 2000 German study demonstrated that this powerful essential oil could effectively destroy a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, and yeast. This is important in terms of allergic reaction because these dangerous microbes can cause inflammation and also cause the immune response to overreact. Bees produce Manuka honey after they pollinate the flowers of the Manuka plant. Manuka essential oil shares many of the properties of the honey. Additional research from the United Kingdom found that Manuka honey inhibits mast cell degranulation.
Ravensara (Cinnamomum camphora): Known to reduce allergic reactions and fight inflammation. A 2016 study published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that inhalation of ravensara essential oil reduces allergic reactions and helps your body build resistance and modulate responses to allergenic substances. Ravensara is also an expectorant that helps strengthen the lungs and the respiratory system. Components of Ravensara, like limonene and methyl eugenol, help support the immune system by preventing bacterial and fungal infections. It inhibits the growth of fungus, including mold, and even kills their spores.
Roman Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis): A natural antihistamine, noted for its soothing effects and anti-inflammatory properties. A 2010 study published in Molecular Medicine Reports found it helps balance and inhibit excessive histamine responses. The study highlighted the benefit of topically applying Chamomile essential oil as its anti-inflammatory properties ”penetrate below the skin surface into the deeper skin layers” to calm inflammation and amplify healing.
Similar research suggests that the methanol extract of chamomile shows potent anti-allergic activity by inhibiting histamine release from mast cells.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis ct Camphor): Known for its histamine-lowering/mast cell-stabilizing properties, Rosemary naturally alleviates allergic responses, relieves stress, and stimulates the immune system. A small study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology suggested that rosemary essential oil can inhibit muscle contractions of the trachea caused by histamine.
Peppermint™ (Mentha piperita): Flavonoids contained in Peppermint were found to have a potent inhibitory effect on excessive histamine release from mast cells. The menthol constituent helps support the relief of throat infections, colds, and flu, as well as asthma, bronchitis, and sinusitis. Research on “the anti-inflammatory activity of L-menthol compared to mint oil in human monocytes in vitro: a novel perspective for its therapeutic use in inflammatory diseases,” found that menthol is an effective treatment for chronic inflammatory conditions like allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma. The Journal of Ethnopharmacology found that peppermint oil has an antispasmodic effect on the windpipe muscles and has “expectorant actions and is anti-congestive.”
Spruce (Tsuga canadensis): Derived from the leaves of the spruce tree, Spruce essential oil is high in camphene, a monoterpene known as a powerful mucolytic that is beneficial for inflammatory respiratory issues. It safeguards your respiratory tract from airborne viruses and pollution, which helps break up excessive mucus and congestion to support the treatment of colds, flu, and other respiratory infections. Camphene is also a powerful antioxidant, contributing to its therapeutic benefits. Spruce also contains high levels of the chemical components a-pinene and bornyl acetate, which give Spruce essential oil its anti-inflammatory, antihistamine, and analgesic properties. Spruce essential oil has a high content of esters, which contribute to its balancing and antispasmodic properties, making it a popular addition to saunas, hot baths, and massages.
Vetiver (Vetivera zizanioides): To help modulate a histamine response, root oils like vetiver help ground the body, thus anchoring the immune system and helping to balance excessive immune responses. Vetiver has been found to reduce and relieve inflammation, especially in the circulatory and nervous systems. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry showed that vetiver oil was high in antioxidants that possessed free radical scavenging benefits, which can help boost your immune system.
How to Use Histamine Balance™
Designed for aromatic and topical use. If using topically, we recommend starting by applying 1-2 drops to the bottom of the feet before bed, and then covering your feet with socks.
Slowly work up to applying 2-3 times daily to support histamine reactions in the gut, brain, and body.
Start by putting it behind your ears, on your sternum, or even under your nose to open airways and calm an itchy, rashy, allergic episode. It’s also great for mast cell-related GI upset or headaches.
- For allergic reactions, smell or apply 1-2 drops behind your ears, on the back of your neck, or on your sternum to open airways.
- For the gut and food intolerance support, apply in a clockwise direction around the belly button.
- For brain congestion, apply 1-2 drops at the base of the skull on the back of the head.
- For Aromatic Usage, hold the bottle under the nose for 3 or 4 breaths.
That said, if you get headaches or feel bad with any type of essential oil smell, you shouldn’t use essential oils.
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Resources:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8139217/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166432801002157?via%3Dihub
- https://drbeckycampbell.com/can-histamine-intolerance-cause-anxiety/
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0809479105
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24909715/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612440/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21651969/
