Probiotics for Histamine Intolerance

Have you ever experienced unexplained headaches, nasal congestion or fatigue? How about digestive issues, nausea, and vomiting? These are just a few of the common symptoms that a person with histamine intolerance experiences. In this article, we will discuss how probiotics can aid people who are suffering from histamine intolerance. There are histamine degrading probiotics available out there to help them with this.

What is Histamine Intolerance?

Histamine is a chemical necessary for the proper functioning of your body’s immune, digestive and nervous systems. This chemical aids in transmitting messages from the body to the brain as well as in breaking down food in the stomach. Histamine is usually broken down in the body through the enzymes called DAO and HNMT. Histamine intolerance or HIT is generally related to histamine buildup in the body due to the impairment in either of these enzymes. More on histamine intolerance and its symptoms can found here.

What are Probiotics?

There are two kinds of bacteria living in your body: good and bad. Probiotics are the good bacteria which are considered beneficial to your body. Whenever good bacteria are lost due to the intake of antibiotics, probiotics aid in the replacement of these bacteria. The common types of probiotics are lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, both of which contain Saccharomyces boulardii, a yeast that fights diarrhoea and digestive problems.

Probiotics for Histamine Intolerance

You must be wondering how probiotics can help with histamine intolerance. Bacteria play a critical role in the levels of histamine in your body. When we intake food rich in histidine, there are bacteria species in the gut which can convert it into histamine. Probiotics, in fact, help in degrading histamine by providing a therapeutic effect in the immune system. There are certain types of probiotic strains that can treat a specific symptom.

Histamine Lowering Probiotics

If you are experiencing histamine intolerance, you would want to avoid probiotics that raise your histamine levels. Instead of making your condition better, it gets worse because the probiotics you purchased are making you sicker. Below are the specific histamine degrading probiotics you may want to try:

• Lactobacillus gasseri
• Lactobacillus rhamnosus
• Lactobacillus plantarum
• Lactobacillus salivarius
• Lactobacillus reuteri
• Bifidobacterium lactis
• Bifidobacterium infantis
• Bifidobacterium breve
• Bifidobacterium longum
• Bifidobacterium Bifidum

These histamine degrading probiotics contain unique strains that also have different effects on histamine and acid levels. For people with sensitive bodies, they may opt for Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum or Bifidobacterium infantis.

Histamine Increasing Probiotics

On the other side, there are also probiotics that work the opposite – instead of decreasing your histamine levels, they increase it. The following probiotics have shown to raise levels of histamine in your body:

• Lactobacillus casei
• Lactobacillus bulgaricus
• Lactobacillus delbrueckii
• Bacillus Coagulans SL5
• thermophilus

Choosing the Safest Low Histamine Probiotic Supplement

With the vast number of histamine degrading probiotics available in the market, it can be quite confusing to select the right one for you. You need to remember the following points before buying one:

Identify the right probiotic strain

Each probiotic supplement contains a specific strain. You need to understand that it is not really the genus (e.g. Lactobacillus, Bacillus) nor the species (rhamnosus, plantarum) that is important but its strain (e.g. GG, GR-1). For Lactobacillus rhamnosus, for example, there are a lot of strains available, all of which produce different effects on the body. That is why before buying any probiotic supplement, make sure the details of the strain are being made clear on the label or packaging.

Research well for its pros and cons

Before purchasing the probiotic, make sure to know if it is right for you. This means that you need to determine the possible side effects it brings to your body. Our body has certain compatibility issues that need to be addressed. If we take in something that is not compatible with our body, an allergy or other allergic reaction may occur. Instead of achieving the goal of treating the intolerance, our condition may be worsened.

Opt for proven and tested products/strains

Don’t purchase something just because the name sounds good or the packaging looks attractive. Of course, advertising is part of any marketing strategy, but you need to investigate if these probiotics have undergone human trials successfully, not just on theory. Some probiotics are not tested on humans but on organisms within a laboratory. Thus, what works for organisms other than a human may not totally work for a human.

Consider probiotics with single strains

If you are very passionate about your health, you may want to use probiotics that contain 10 to 30 strains. Instead of consuming probiotics with multiple strains, choose those with a single strain and rotate its usage once hypersensitivity is reduced.

Get the right dosage

Do not just consume a random amount of dosage from your probiotics. Take into consideration your tolerance. A good starting dosage would be one-tenth of the recommended dosage. From there, you could reduce or increase the dosage, depending on your tolerance. Consuming excessive dosage of probiotics might cause your body to react differently, and instead of giving relief to your intolerance, it will work the other way.

Consider the availability

Do not venture in brands that are very difficult to procure because they may also be difficult to return. In almost all products, after-sales is essential for a continued customer-supplier relationship. Thus, opt for well-known, established and clinically proven probiotics.

Due to our unique body designs and configurations, we all have different histamine levels in our bodies. This is also the reason why our body reacts differently to any food or probiotics that may trigger the increase or decrease of histamine levels. The main point we need to consider is to familiarize our body very well so that we will also know what it needs and the things that could harm it. Histamine intolerance may not be experienced by everybody, but we do not have to wait for it to happen to us. Thus, we must be careful about what goes inside of our bodies. If ever you have this condition, remember to identify what probiotics are best for you.

Are you suffering from symptoms of histamine intolerance? Click here to find out my low histamine food guide.