Histamine Haven

This book is here to help anyone suffering with histamine intolerance or mast cell activation.

Estimates vary widely in the research literature as to how many suffer from these conditions, ranging from 1%¹ up to 17%.² It is likely largely under-diagnosed due to restrictive diagnostic criteria.³

Many have never even heard of these conditions. Curious to know more?

Histamine intolerance occurs when the body has built up too much histamine, either because it produces too much, or has difficulty breaking it down.

Mast cells are best known for releasing histamine and other chemicals during an allergic reaction. Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is one type of mast cell activation disorder where mast cells are hyper-reactive, and release excessive amounts of chemical mediators. Unlike an allergic reaction, there are various triggers that stimulate the release of chemical mediators. These reactions are sometimes referred to as pseudo-allergies, or idiopathic allergies (unknown cause), because the antibodies involved in an allergic response aren't present.

Both conditions can result in a variety of seemingly unrelated symptoms that come and go, or even migrate in the body.

Increasingly, people are suffering from symptoms their doctors can't explain. Over time, more symptoms show up, and more and more prescriptions are offered. This list might include things like proton pump inhibitors for GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), asthma or nasal inhalers, antihistamines or EpiPens, cortisone creams, pain medications or anxiety medications.

Have any of these been suggested to you? Maybe you thought you'd be on them for a short while, and it turned into months or years or decades.

Often no diagnosis is offered that explains all the symptoms. In some cases, a diagnosis may fit your collection of symptoms, but there is no effective treatment. Why? Because your doctor was not taught about the histamine or mast cell connection.

Perhaps you have even done the rounds with specialists. An allergist, an ear-nose-throat specialist, a dermatologist, a gastroenterologist, a hematologist, a rheumatologist etc. Each doctor offers another prescription. Maybe those prescriptions help, but maybe they don't—or maybe they make things worse.

Perhaps you've tried the natural route, and nothing seems to help. You react differently to herbal remedies than anticipated, or they exacerbate symptoms. Your practitioner can't explain why and offers a new treatment. You keep trying things to little or no avail.

You may have lucked out and found a practitioner who understood histamine issues. You've been handed a low-histamine food list and left to figure out how to proceed on your own. You found some recipes online and are managing your symptoms, but you still wonder what is at the root of your issues. Could your histamine intolerance be mast cell activation syndrome?

All these situations are frustrating. We know— we've been through it too.

As nutrition professionals, we had to unlearn what we had been taught about how to use food for wellness. Some of that we learned the hard way by experiencing the effects in our own bodies—not fun! But we took those experiences, did the research to understand what happened, and learned the right way to manage histamine symptoms.

Somehow you found your way here, and boy are we glad you have! Maybe a friend or practitioner suggested you research histamine intolerance or mast cell activation syndrome. Maybe you were sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and took matters into your own hands. It doesn't matter how you got here—it just matters that you are finally here. You want to feel better.

There are good cookbooks out there that follow a low-histamine diet. They can help manage symptoms, but don't address the root of your histamine issues. They sure don't address the complexity of mast cell activation.

Sometimes it is hard to convince people that diet can make such a huge difference. We want to change that perception. We have both seen first-hand how powerful diet can be, in our own health, and in clients struggling with histamine intolerance or mast cell activation syndrome.

Increasingly we are seeing dietary protocols like the Autoimmune Protocol, the GAPS™ diet or a ketogenic diet gain in popularity, and profoundly impact people's lives for specific health conditions. Now the Histamine Haven Protocol exists for those with histamine intolerance and MCAS.

We intend this book as an all-in-one resource. The first section of the book is all about histamine: we took a deep dive into the research, then tried to make it accessible by explaining it in simpler terms.

Part 2 discusses a few things you can do to help yourself, including what questions to ask your doctor. This section is all about empowering you with lifestyle tools to help manage histamine symptoms.

Then we move into all things food. Everything you need to know to succeed in the kitchen, and keep histamine and mast cell triggers in foods low can be found here. We have lists of all the foods you can eat, plus cool tips like which foods are anti-histaminic, and how to draw out the flavors in simple foods, and what to do if there are other foods that you can't eat. We finish things off with tips for snacks, packed lunches, dining out and eating while travelling.

1. Maintz, Laura, and Natalija Novak. "Histamine and Histamine Intolerance." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition85, no. 5 (2007): 1185–96. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/85.5.1185. 

2. Molderings, Gerhard J., Britta Haenisch, Manuela Bogdanow, Rolf Fimmers, and Markus M. Nöthen. "Familial Occurrence of Systemic Mast Cell Activation Disease." PLoS ONE 8, no. 9 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076241. 

3. Afrin, Lawrence B., Mary B. Ackerley, Linda S. Bluestein, Joseph H. Brewer, Jill B. Brook, Ariana D. Buchanan, Jill R. Cuni, et al. "Diagnosis of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome: A Global ‘Consensus-2.'" Diagnosis 8, no. 2 (2020): 137–52. https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2020-0005.