Did You Know Antihistamines Can Cause Weight Gain? Here’s a Better Approach to Control Histamine without Tipping the Scale

Dealing with histamine intolerance or histamine “overload” symptoms can be frustrating. And to make it even more frustrating, the conventional solution (antihistamine medications) may add to your problems (no pun intended).

Histamine is a compound the human body makes and it is not inherently bad as has several necessary purposes. Too much histamine in circulation (too much made, not “broken down” fast enough), however, can contribute to health problems and then the antihistamine medications are typically recommended, but in my experience most aren’t told about the possibility of unintentional weight gain.

What Is Histamine Intolerance?

Histamine’s main role is to support your immune system by helping your body get rid of perceived “invaders” or “offenders” it is exposed to. When excess (and frequent) levels of histamine lead to unpleasant symptoms, patients are commonly recommended by conventional medicine to take antihistamines for relief; this can be helpful for symptom management but taking the antihistamine doesn’t fix root issues or address the reason WHY there is excess histamine in the first place. Read more here in this blog about histamine intolerance and holistic strategies to help that don’t have the possible side effect of weight gain.

Symptoms of Histamine Intolerance

Too much histamine can affect all parts of your body and consequently can cause a variety of symptoms, including skin problems, red eyes, low blood pressure, fast heart rate, anxiety, hormonal issues, headaches, itchy skin, red face, congestion, watery eyes, digestive issues like bloating, nausea, diarrhea, painful menstrual periods, swelling, heart palpitations, sleep disturbances & other symptoms too.

How Histamine Itself Can Indirectly Affect Your Metabolism and Weight

It is not the histamine itself that can promote weight gain but the:

• Chronic inflammation from excess histamine
• Release of stress hormones
• Antihistamine medications used in conventional care

Chronic inflammation from excess histamine released can lead to an increase in corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which is a stress hormone. A 2017 review published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, CRH triggers your mast cells which leads to the release of more histamine = more inflammation when in excess and this can be a vicious cycle. Low grade inflammation is well documented to be a causative factor in excess weight gain.

Symptom Management Only Care For Excess Histamine: The Problems with This Approach

When western medicine perceives there is a histamine intolerance, it is commonplace for the patient to be prescribed antihistamines – which can help reduce symptoms. However, common prescription antihistamine medications may contribute to weight gain too. There are multiples studies done on this topics of antihistamines and weight gain. How does this happen? Simply put antihistamines can also interfere with the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates energy expenditure and appetite.

• Older, first-generation antihistamines:. Medications like Benadryl are more likely to cause weight gain due to their effects on appetite and sedation.
• Second-generation antihistamines: Medications like Zyrtec & Allegra are generally considered less likely to cause significant weight gain, although some studies have shown potential links

Suppressing the symptoms is great and all, and there is a time and place for medication but a super important question to ask is:

WHY Does the Patient have Excess Histamine Being Produced in the First Place?

I’ve seen so many patients walk around with the label of “seasonal allergies” before doing the work up to rule out or confirm other problems that all cause histamine intolerance symptoms. I will often send them to Allergy for formal evaluation and often times it comes back that the person does not have a seasonal allergy diagnosis despite having thought they did solely based off noticing symptoms changing with the seasons. It is so important to test and not guess or make assumptions.

These shown below are other underlying culprits of a histamine problem

The more of these that are present, the more that adds to up to increased histamine production and/or decreased ability to clear histamines quick enough:

• Having actual IgE Allergies (we can’t put everything though in this basket)
• Living in a home with clinically significant levels of indoor Mold from water damage
• Poor sleep and too much EMF/WIFI exposure
• NSAIDs and other medications
• H. Pylori infection in the gut
• Gut dysbiosis (as seen in a GIMAP test; certain bacteria in excess upset the mast cells more)
• Estrogen dominance (higher levels of estradiol relative to progesterone especially in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle around day 19-21) as Estrogen can stimulate mast cells to release more histamine, leading to increased histamine levels and estrogen can inhibit the enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO) which helps
• Under eating
• Chronic stress
• Heavy metal bioaccumlation (can be seen in urine testing)
• Alcohol consumption and/or excess amounts of histamine containing foods
• Low levels as seen in bloodwork of zinc, b6, copper, magnesium, vitamin D as these help clear histamine as they can be cofactors in making DAO
• Lyme disease

In my opinion, screening for, finding and then addressing the root cause(s) is a better approach versus symptom management alone suppression via a drug that is possibly “fixing one problem but causing another (weight gain).”

ROOT CAUSE Approach to Address Histamine Intolerance:

1) TEST DON’T GUESS! I cannot stress this enough. First, figure out objectively speaking from the list above if any of those culprits apply to you. And then address them.

2) Try evidenced based supplements for histamine intolerance like D-hist that provide a consistent supply of nutrients (which we need and of us are deficient in anyways) or nutraceuticals that help the body clear excess histamine and/or stabilize the mast cells.

3) Check the diet for excess consumption of high histamine containing foods

4) Improve sleep hygiene and get a EMF mitigator in your home – the one I use linked here is to help lessen my exposure to EMFs. Use code HEAL25 for 25% off and free shipping. It is the most studied brand and has numerous patents illustrating its efficacy

5) Get a quality water filter (not a brita or fridge filter – minimal filtration) to help decrease exposure to heavy metals that are highly prevalent in tap water. I only recommend reverse osmosis and distilled water to drink (and get minerals from other sources as its more important to avoid hazards). Chronic heavy metals consumption can trigger mast cells to release histamine. Check your zip code here to see what contaminants you are drinking daily and showering in (get a shower head filter too!)

6) Check your home for clinically significant levels of toxic indoor mold. Don’t be in “mold denial” as it’s a very common household problem. Find it and fix it if it’s there. Get an ERMI test kit #1 which is an at home dust kit and the main way that is medically recognized to check your home for mold. It’s simple, you collect the dust and send it back to their lab and if the score is 5 or higher, you got a problem.

7) Get a quality indoor air purifier to reduce airborne allergens, indoor air pollutants like VOCs and obesogens. Did you know toxic indoor air can upset mast cells to release more histamine and can contribute to weight gain too. I recommend this brand as it has some of the best specs on the market.

If you want one-on-one help navigating a histamine issue, schedule a consult package today!

Imagine all the money (and sanity) you could save in the long run as chronic usage of Allegra or Zyrtec is NOT cheap. Talk with your Doctor before stopping a medication, and in the same breath advocate for yourself for thorough care. Some will ultimately need and benefit from antihistamine medications – but in my professional experience, patients come off these all the time when they get to the root issues that keep triggering the histamine release. It’s not always “seasonal allergies;” test and not guess as there are so many other possible and likely culprits.

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