Decoding Your PMS symptoms
Mastering the Estrogen-Histamine Connection
Are Your Menstrual Cycles More Like a Roller Coaster Ride?
For many women, their menstrual cycle can feel like a monthly roller coaster of symptoms. You might have noticed that at certain times of the month, you're more prone to headaches, skin flare-ups, moodiness, or even digestive issues. Ever wondered why? The answer could lie in a fascinating interplay between two key players in your body: estrogen and histamine.
The Dynamic Duo: Estrogen and Histamine
Let's start with estrogen, a hormone we're all familiar with. It's like the conductor of an orchestra, directing various functions in your body. But did you know that its levels rise and fall throughout your menstrual cycle? And here's where it gets interesting: when estrogen levels go up, they can influence another less-talked-about substance in your body – histamine.
Histamine is often the culprit behind those annoying allergy symptoms like sneezing or itching. But it's not just about allergies; histamine is also a key messenger in your body, involved in everything from digestion to brain function.
When Estrogen and Histamine Dance
Imagine estrogen and histamine in a dance. When estrogen levels rise, as in certain phases of your menstrual cycle, they can encourage mast cells (your body's histamine storage units) to release more histamine. This release can lead to an increase in those pesky symptoms you might experience.
Histamine levels fluctuate due to the influence of estrogen, which can increase histamine production, and progesterone, which helps suppress histamine release from mast cells. In the luteal phase after ovulation, progesterone levels rise, keeping histamine in check. However, in the late luteal phase before menstruation, progesterone drops while estrogen is still relatively high, leading to an imbalance that can trigger increased histamine release.
This premenstrual rise in histamine levels contributes to various PMS symptoms through its effects on vascular permeability, inflammation, and neurotransmitter modulation:
Mood Swings, Irritability, and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD): Histamine can influence neurotransmitter levels in the brain, potentially contributing to mood changes, irritability, and even symptoms of PMDD.
Breast Tenderness: Elevated histamine causes increased capillary permeability, allowing fluid to leak into breast tissue, leading to pain and discomfort.
Bloating and Digestive Issues: Histamine can affect gut motility, contributing to bloating, gas, and changes in bowel movements during the menstrual cycle.
Headaches and Migraines: As a known trigger for headaches and migraines in some individuals, the rise in histamine levels may exacerbate these symptoms around menstruation.
Fatigue, Sleep Disturbances, and Frequent Urination: Histamine plays a role in regulating sleep, and imbalances can lead to insomnia, daytime drowsiness, and frequent nighttime urination, especially during the 3 - 4 AM window when histamine levels tend to peak.
Water Retention and Swelling: Histamine's ability to increase capillary permeability allows fluid to accumulate in tissues, contributing to water retention and swelling during the premenstrual phase.
The Game Changer: Supporting Histamine Breakdown
Imagine if you could support your body's ability to break down histamine more effectively. This could be a game changer in making your menstrual cycle less symptomatic. How can you do this? It's about understanding how the body manages histamine and adjusting your lifestyle choices to support this.
Reduce high-histamine foods leading up to your cycle: Pay attention to your diet, especially during those phases of your menstrual cycle when you're more symptomatic. Reducing high-histamine foods can help reduce the excess histamine load. Minimize the following high-histamine foods: dairy, processed meats, fermented foods, bone broth, avocados, beer, and wine. I may have listed some of your favorite foods here (sorry), but a smoother cycle may be worth it. The challenging thing about high histamine foods is that they are often recommended for other gut healing or beneficial properties. This is where customized nutrition is important, as you may be able to tolerate some high-histamine foods more than others.
Minimize excess estrogen exposure: Xenoestrogens are synthetic compounds that can mimic or interfere with the body's natural estrogen hormones, potentially contributing to estrogen dominance and exacerbating histamine-related symptoms. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals are ubiquitous in our modern environment and can be found in various sources. The most potent xenoestrogens we are often exposed to are found in plastics, pesticides & personal care products. Focus on buying organic wherever possible, choose a glass or stainless steel water bottles over plastic, skip the receipt at check out &
clean up your personal beauty products and check their safety rating on the EWG Skindeep website.
Eat foods that help detox excess estrogen: Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale, are particularly effective in detoxifying excess estrogen. These vegetables contain compounds like indole-3-carbinol and sulforaphane, which aid in the liver's detoxification pathways, helping to metabolize and eliminate excess estrogen from the body. This can be especially beneficial if the main driver of these symptoms is estrogen dominance, where the liver is struggling to detox excess estrogen or other dynamics that impair its final excretion (constipation).
Heal the Gut Lining: When the brush border integrity of the gut lining is compromised, it can lead to decreased diamine oxidase (DAO) activity and, therefore, impaired histamine breakdown. Limit factors that degrade the gut lining (NSAIDS, antibiotics, oral hormonal birth control, pesticides) and focus on supporting the mucus lining with foods like okra, chia seeds, flax seeds, and cassava flour.
Support Excess Histamine Breakdown: Consider herbs and nutrients that aid histamine breakdown and mast cell stabilization: curcumin, turmeric, stinging nettle, lemon balm, vitamin C, and quercetin. Consider a daily herbal infusion with nettle and lemon balm sipper in between meals. Additionally, supplements containing diamine oxidase (DAO), the enzyme responsible for breaking down histamine, can be particularly helpful in breaking down excess histamine in the gut.
Listening to Your Body
Every woman's body is unique, and so is how it handles the estrogen-histamine dance. It's empowering to know that you can transform your monthly menstrual experience by supporting proper histamine breakdown. Remember, it's about finding what works for your unique body and embracing the journey towards a healthier, more balanced you.
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