Did you know that there is a natural antihistamine alternative?
Dr. Janice Joneja is a Canadian dietician who has been working in the area of allergies and food intolerances. Her book Dealing with Food Allergies was one of the first books I bought when diagnosed with histamine intolerance.
Hypoxia
One known side-effect of histamine excess is that it interferes with the metabolization of oxygen and alkalinity inside and out of the mast cell. This imbalance results in a cascade of symptoms linked to reduced oxygen called hypoxia.
By adjusting the alkaline balance of the mast cell, the natural antihistamine not only rebalances the oxygen but stabilizes the mast cell. It does not interfere with histamine degradation.
Dr. Joneja believes that pharmaceutical antihistamines, while highly effective in a medical emergency, can have rebound effects if used daily as a preventive for histamine intolerance. She says:
“Antihistamines stop histamine activity by blocking their entrance. If this blockage is constant, the immune system sees this as a problem and senses that it must be producing inadequate levels of histamine. It, therefore, increases its production of histamine. Consequently, over the long term, there is even more histamine for the enzymes to break down, and the problem of histamine intolerance becomes even worse.”
Joneja recommends alkaline salts as a natural antihistamine to manage the symptoms of histamine intolerance and mast cell activation.
Natural Antihistamine
Here is Dr. Joneja’s recipe, which can be either made at home or purchased from most compounding chemists.
While baking soda is often used in detox baths, it is not commonly used with potassium bicarbonate. The inclusion of both in this recipe is essential.
To learn more about how to manage symptoms, check out my blog post, Easy Protein Swaps: That Lower Histamine Without Cutting Foods.
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