Gearing Up For Allergy Season

by Shannon Dahlia, FDN-P

I know it’s only February, so spring allergies aren’t yet on your radar. If the pollen count tends to do a number on you, though, getting ahead of it now may be the best approach for making the spring more enjoyable for you.

Histamines are chemicals produced by your immune system to help eliminate invaders your body deems as toxic. When the body senses that it’s been invaded by a foreign substance that it doesn’t want, mast cells in the lungs, skin, nose, mouth, gut, and/or blood release histamines. Histamines will boost blood flow to the area of the body in which they’re released, which increases inflammation and triggers more immune activity to neutralize the threat. The histamines then dock onto receptors, and this is when you feel their effects; runny nose, itchy throat or eyes, cough, etc. High histamines can also contribute to many symptoms that you may not correlate with allergy symptoms, like dizziness, brain fog, and migraines.

Your body produces an enzyme, called diamine oxidase (or DAO) that degrades histamine. It’s counterbalancing effect on histamine prevents those histamine levels from getting too high and creating those familiar allergy symptoms. It’s when there isn’t enough DAO being produced to neutralize the production of histamine that things get uncomfortable.

When this happens, histamine becomes elevated and we typically reach for the antihistamine medications to ease our symptoms. Having these available over the counter is really convenient and can make life so much more comfortable during allergy season. However, antihistamines don’t decrease histamines in the body; they simply prevent those histamines from docking onto receptors, so we don’t ever feel their effects. Although they don’t dock, the histamines do remain in the body and can continue to build up over time. This is why, if you rely on antihistamines on a daily basis, it can be difficult getting off of them. You’re likely to experience a rebound, in which all the histamine that’s built up is finally able to dock onto receptors and you’ll experience the symptoms of all of those histamines at once.

Instead of focusing on eliminating the symptoms of elevated histamines, it may be more helpful in the long term to take a more proactive approach by increasing the body’s natural histamine degrader; the DAO enzyme.

Your body produces DAO in your gut. The wall of your intestines is lined with finger-like projections, known as the brush border. These “bristles” greatly increase the surface area of your intestines, which enhances your ability to absorb nutrients from the food that passes through. It’s in the valleys at the base of the brush border, between each individual bristle, that the body produces DAO. Over time, from inflammation in the gut due to stress, poor diet, medications, alcohol, microbiome imbalances, etc, the brush border can get worn down. The bristles essentially get worn away and the surface of the intestinal wall becomes smoother.

Without those valleys between the bristles, the body can’t produce DAO, and the balance between histamine and DAO gets thrown off. Histamine goes unchecked, it remains higher in the body, and now it doesn’t take as much to trigger a histamine attack. This is a common reason why more allergies tend to develop, or worsen, as we age. It’s not a result of age; it’s a result of inflammation in the gut.

Healing the gut and recovering healthier DAO production is absolutely possible, but it may require the guidance of a practitioner to help you uncover exactly what’s going on in your gut so you know how to address it effectively. Generally speaking, though, cleaning up the diet by eating nutrient dense foods as they’re found in nature, avoiding highly processed foods made in factories, eliminating alcohol, etc, is a big piece of the puzzle.

In addition to having a healthy intestinal wall, there are a variety of nutrients required for creating DAO. These include copper, vitamin C, iron, vitamins B6 and B12. This is another nod to the importance of a well rounded diet. If you’re regularly consuming a variety of vegetables and proteins from animal sources, you’ll be getting these nutrients.

Replenishing gut health can take some time. If you start now by really focusing on cleaning up the diet, supporting healthy digestion, and diminishing your stress load, it may make an impact on your experience of allergy season this spring. In the meantime, there are some other things you can do to diminish the impact of the increase in histamines, too:

Taking a supplement that includes DAO enzyme
Supplemental DAO will degrade histamines in the gut that enter from food sources, but they won’t necessarily help degrade histamines made in the body from the exposure to environmental allergens. This may still be helpful, however, as it diminishes your body’s overall histamine load.

Decrease consumption of high histamine foods or DAO blocking foods
Speaking of histamines from food, there are foods that contain high levels of histamines, and these alone can set off a histamine reaction in your body. As mentioned, they also contribute to your body’s overall histamine load, and it’s when that histamine bucket overflows that symptoms become unmanageable. Foods that are high in histamine include fermented foods, aged cheeses, alcohol, avocados, citrus foods (not high in histamine, but they trigger a histamine response), dried fruits, processed meats, and legumes. Foods that block DAO production should also be avoided, and these include alcohol, black and maté teas, and energy drinks.

Include natural antihistamines in the diet
Foods and nutrients that naturally stabilize mast cells (which diminishes histamine release in the body) include the herb stinging nettles, quercetin (most notably rich in apples, but also onions, parsley and sage), bromelian (found in pineapple and payaya), and turmeric. These are likely most impactful when you consume them regularly before allergy season begins. Now is a great time to begin incorporating them!

Thymus gland supplement
Another supplemental option is desiccated thymus gland. It’s been said that consuming thymus organ (from healthfully raised animals) provides your own body with the nutrients needed for boosting the health of your thymus gland. The thymus plays a very important role in immune system function and controlling allergy responses. Anecdotal evidence supports the use of thymus gland supplements for diminishing allergies.

If you’re a long time environmental allergy sufferer, or even if allergies are something you’ve only recently begun to struggle with, knowing what’s actually going in your body can help you make informed decisions about how to manage this issue. Of course, how you choose to support your body is always up to you and your doctor. I hope that being armed with this information empowers you to take control of your health and enables you to enjoy the beauty of spring without the pollen count dragging you down.