What increases Histamine in the body?

Question

What increases histamine in the human body, and are there oral forms of intake to stimulate this increase?

Answer 1

The immune system is a collection of disease-fighting cells found throughout the blood, lymph, tissues, and organs of the body. Think about the immune system as the security at a concert. It is made of cells that scope out problems and things that "shouldn't be in the concert." When they see something that doesn't belong, they call in special forces to help back them up.

Histamine is an important part of the immune system and the security forces, and it plays a big role in inflammation, allergies, and asthma. Histamine can lead to an increase in nasal and airway mucus production, flushing, swelling, increased heart rate, and increased gastric acid secretion. In part, the effects of histamine depend on the source. For example, histamine will be released when you eat something you’re allergic to (this can cause itching, shortness of breath, wheezing, and can even lead to anaphylaxis), or can be released when you get a splinter in your thumb (causing redness, swelling, and tenderness at the site of the splinter).

Oral forms of intake that would increase histamine release depends on what the person is allergic to. For example, a person who is allergic to peanuts and ingests the nuts can have widespread histamine release leading to shortness of breath, itching, and difficulty breathing. However, if you are not allergic to peanuts and you ingest the nuts, you likely do not release any histamine when you eat it.