Holistic Allergy Relief: 9 Natural Ways to Support Improved Immune Regulation and Histamine Balance

Human Health

Holistic Allergy Relief: 9 Natural Ways to Support Improved Immune Regulation and Histamine Balance

Author: Emily Grochowski, Certified Functional & Integrative Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Seasonal allergies stealing the show? Excess histamine-related symptoms sapping your energy and vitality? 

Recently the World Health Organization reported that allergic type conditions are “one of the top three disorders to be prevented and controlled in the 21st century.”¹ Imbalanced immune regulation is related to many acute and chronic concerns — including hypersensitivity reactions like allergies — and may be the culprit for many allergic responses. 

Immune system imbalances that lead to excess histamine can be linked to hallmark allergic symptoms like hives, itching, congestion, and runny nose, as well as headaches and migraines, food sensitivities, brain fog, anxiety, and more. Read on to learn about the many dietary, lifestyle, and supplemental practices you can implement to support greater immune regulation and histamine level balance.

10 signs and symptoms of potentially imbalanced immunity and possible histamine excess

1. Headaches and migraines

2. Heartburn or indigestion

3. Food sensitivities

4. Abdominal bloating

5. Low blood pressure

6. Tinnitus

7. Anxiety

8. Insomnia

9. Racing heart

10. Brain fog
    
    

Here’s how to support greater immune regulation and balance

Without understanding and addressing the root causes driving your specific immune imbalance(s), conditions can worsen and become chronic. Fortunately, there are quite a few, practical, general strategies that may help manage hypersensitive responses and encourage greater immune regulation.

1. Sleep

Sleep is one of our body’s most accessible and potent immune regulation support strategies. Getting adequate rest and maintaining a regular sleep schedule is critical for healthy immune system and modulating inflammatory responses. Supplements like magnesium (especially glycinate and threonate forms),  l-theanine, and melatonin, along with most adaptogens — especially reishi and astragalus — can be helpful in improving your ability to fall and stay asleep. You can also greatly improve your sleep quality by committing to a regular, supportive bedtime routine (aka practicing good sleep hygiene). These practices might include going to sleep at the same time each night, avoiding screens before bed (but especially in bed), and sticking to a consistent wind-down activity like reading, coloring, journaling, or listening to calm music or passive meditation.

2. Stay hydrated

Dehydration is a major stressor to the body, reducing effectiveness and efficiency of immune responses. Staying hydrated with plenty of unsweetened and decaffeinated beverages is critical for immune balance. For extra support, choose drinks that are not only hydrating, but also include key vitamins, minerals, and bioactives like quercetin, rosmarinic acid, curcumin, and polyphenols known to support immune functionality. A great place to start? Warm herbal teas featuring stinging nettles, hibiscus, rosehip, peppermint, rosemary, and ginger.

3. Skip the alcohol

Did you know many common allergy symptoms can also be linked to overproduction or impairement of your histamine pathways? Limiting (or even better, avoiding ) alcohol is one of the most powerful ways you can improve your body’s histamine balance

Did you know several common allergy symptoms can also be linked to an overproduction, or breakdown of, your body's histamine production system — the system that affects your inflammatory responses? Limiting alcohol is one of the most powerful ways you can improve histamine overproduction.

Here are 3 reasons why:

1. Alcohol contains high levels of histamine, and can thus contribute to higher whole body histamine levels

2. Alcohol increases histamine production by activating various pro-inflammatory immune pathways

3. Alcohol diminishes your body’s pathways that break down histamine by depleting key nutrients and impairing key histamine digesting enzymes in the gut and liver

Where to start? Consider switching out your go-to alcohol choices for a tasty, sleep-supportive mocktail a few times per week, or better yet, try challenging yourself to a dry month. The benefits of reducing or avoiding alcohol go well beyond your immune response, with whole system benefits ranging from greater hormonal health, cognition, mood, and cardiometabolic wellness.

4. Manage your stress

Stress has  profound impacts on immune balance, with higher levels being major triggers for increased symptoms of histamine intolerance and allergies. But we get it — sometimes stress is impossible to avoid — so a more helpful way to view it can be thinking of ways to mitigate or relieve stress on a regular basis

This might include things like prioritizing gentle workouts (especially outside in nature or green spaces) and engaging in relaxing activities like restorative yoga, taking Epsom salt baths (especially good for supporting histamine balance), and listening to a funny podcast or relaxing music.

5. Keep a clean home environment

Using high-quality air and water filters in your home is another important factor in reducing the amount of waste your body has to deal with, which can further support immune regulation and histamine balance.

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America also recommends that you keep your home well ventilated by opening windows for fresh air, avoid decorating with rugs (allergens can get trapped in the fibers), and use a dehumidifier to lower chances of mold.²

6. Daily nutrition

Aim to eat a variety of fresh or frozen colorful produce, especially leafy greens and cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, and kale. These foods are particularly rich in many nutrients and other bioactives that support immune regulation and histamine breakdown.

More supportive picks for your plate:

• Lean, grass-fed, land animal proteins, wild seafood, and fiber rich plant proteins — especially foods like pumpkin seeds, chickpeas, sprouted lentils — can support immune factor generation and balanced blood sugar

• High-sulfur foods such as garlic and red onion can also support histamine balancing pathways

• Bioactive-rich foods including radicchio, mango, apples, capers (rinsed), celery, and sweet red peppers may also help decrease histamine levels 

• Unprocessed poly- and monounsaturated fat-rich food sources — like cold-pressed extra virgin olive and avocado oils, ground flax, chia, hemp seeds, and fatty fish — can help boost the immune system’s anti-inflammatory responses

What to limit 

• In addition to alcohol, limiting/avoiding smoked, canned, cured, and aged foods like salami, smoked fish, and parmesan cheese can often be helpful, as they are naturally higher in histamine and may contribute to symptoms

• Sugar, dried fruits, and highly refined processed foods (especially carbohydrate-dense items) can lead to spikes in blood sugar, which can increase inflammatory responses, especially histamine reactions
  

7. Supplements

While a food-first approach is foundational to all aspects of health, another excellent way to further support immune regulation and your body’s histamine balance is to take a high-quality multivitamin to provide critical micronutrients like B-complex vitamins and vitamin C, as well as minerals like selenium, zinc, magnesium, copper, and more that are required for histamine management. 

8. Gut Health

Probiotic-rich foods like yogurts, kimchi, and kombucha are often higher in histamines and thus may not be ideal for people suffering from allergies and other symptoms of histamine intolerance or overload. A better strategy for many with these concerns is instead to focus on prebiotic-rich, foods that support histamine breakdown. Think: beets, radishes, carrots, and jicama, along with artichokes, asparagus, dandelion greens, blueberries, kiwis, and cranberries.

9. Detoxification 

Provide your detoxification systems with adequate fiber for a more complete, balanced eliminations. 

Some great detoxification support foods and bioactives to look out for: 

• Sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts, spirulina

• Curcumin from turmeric 

• Dandelion root

• Burdock root

• Silymarin from milk seed thistle

• Supplemental amino acids like glycine and methionine

• Compounds such as glutathione and N-acetyl cysteine/NAC

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Emily Grochowski (MSN, RDN, CD (WA), CLT, CFIN) is a Certified Functional & Integrative Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from UW-Madison and Master of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University. She practices evidence-based, personalized, holistic medical nutrition therapy at the Institute of Complementary Medicine.

Sources:

1 Wang, J., Zhou, Y., Zhang, H., & others. (2023). Pathogenesis of allergic diseases and implications for therapeutic interventions. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 8(138). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41392-023-01344-4

2  Päivi M. Salo, et al. (2008). Exposure to multiple indoor allergens in US homes and relationship to asthma. JACI. https://aafa.org/allergies/prevent-allergies/control-indoor-allergens/ 

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