The Connection Between High Histamine Levels and Hypoglycemia

In this episode of the Histamine Well Podcast, Joanne explores the surprising link between high histamine levels and hypoglycemia. 

She details how elevated histamine can disrupt blood sugar regulation through various mechanisms, including overstimulation of insulin production, suppression of glucagon, and cortisol dysregulation. 

Joanne also offers practical advice on managing high histamine and blood sugar levels through diet, stress management, and lifestyle changes. 

Tune in to learn more about identifying and addressing histamine-related blood sugar crashes.

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Transcript

Joanne Kennedy: 0:00

Hi, it's Joanne. If you've been struggling with unexplained blood sugar crashes or symptoms like dizziness, lightheadedness, shakiness, sweating, a racing heart, blurred vision, headache, or trouble concentrating, stick around. High histamine levels could be the hidden culprit behind these confusing symptoms. Welcome to the Histamine Well Podcast. Designed for practitioners and patients alike. This is your trusted source for insights on histamine intolerance, methylation, gut health, women's hormones, and much more. I'm Joanne Kennedy. Your host, naturopath, author, and educator. Passionate about breaking down complex science into clear, accessible knowledge. Whether you are a health professional or navigating your personal wellness journey, the Histamine Well Podcast bridges the gap between cutting edge research and practical understanding to empower you with the tools to thrive. Hi everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today's episode is just a little short episode, but it's an important episode. It discusses the link between high histamine and hypoglycemia. This is something that I wasn't that aware of, especially regarding the research until I was asked to be a guest on a podcast for a girl in the us specializing in blood sugar imbalances. And when she asked me, I thought, oh gosh, you're gonna know more than me. I dunno. I'm gonna have to sort of look to see if there's any link. And lo and behold, there are several mechanisms in the research that explain how high histamine levels can contribute to hypoglycemia. That's what we're gonna talk about today. For those of you new to histamine, I'm just going to explain exactly what it is. Histamine is a biogenic, amine, and biogenic means that it's made from living organisms, including humans, animals and plants. And in the human body, histamine is involved in normal biological reactions, including responding to tissue injury and damage. So histamine widens capillaries. This allows immune cells to travel to the site of injury for repair. It's involved in the constriction of bronchial smooth muscle, so this is part of the normal physiology of breathing, including vasodilation, vasoconstriction. It constricts the uterus smooth muscle to allow for embryo implantation and labor. It stimulates gastric acid secretion. Gastric acids break down food in the stomach. It even stimulates the release of insulin. So this is important when it comes to what I'm gonna talk about with regards to hypoglycemia. It's also involved in estrogen production, so histamine stimulates the production of estrogen from the ovaries. It has lots of, lots of beneficial roles. But what can happen is that due to.. There's about 15 different conditions. Sibo, gluten intolerance, digestive enzyme insufficiency, mold, oxalates, helicobacter pylori, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, certain medications. If you have these issues, it can cause your histamine bucket in your body to become too high, and at the same time, the enzymes that break down the histamine can be compromised. So essentially that is what we call histamine intolerance, whereby you are actually have more histamine in your body, then you can break down. Now, if you're interested in learning more, you can check out my first episode, which is all about the science of histamine. And my second episode, which is all about the major causes of high histamine. Essentially, we need to understand that histamine, when it's really balanced and works as it should, it doesn't really disrupt your body. but when it does, it will disrupt multiple systems including your blood sugar regulation. Before we go any further, I want to speak directly to the practitioners and students listening. If you're intrigued by histamine and methylation and eager to expand your knowledge in this fascinating area, we offer the Histamine and Methylation online group coaching course. The only program of its kind. It covers everything you need to know about histamine and methylation, providing both the theory and guidance you need to treat these issues effectively in clinical practice. We cover sibo, hormonal imbalances, oxalates, M-T-H-F-R, the four pathways of methylation, including the folate pathway, methionine pathway, tetrahydro biopterin pathway, and the all important. Transation pathway and much more. The program is delivered by detailed online webinars and handouts for you to keep. And for eight weeks you'll meet with me for live coaching calls in a private community space with other practitioners from all over the world dealing with histamine and methylation issues in their patients every day. Together we learn so much. To learn more and apply, visit joanne kennedy naturopathy.com. So what exactly is hypoglycemia? Hypoglycemia is a condition where your blood sugar levels drop too low. Typically below 70 milligrams per deciliter. Symptoms can include shakiness, sweating, fatigue, confusion, and in more severe outcomes, it can cause seizures if left untreated. Now for most people, hypoglycemia is linked to diabetes or fasting for too long. But in individuals with high histamine, it can have an entirely different root cause, which is what we're going to talk about now. How exactly does high histamine cause low blood sugar? first of all, histamine can affect the hormones that regulate your blood sugar. For example, histamine can cause an overstimulation of insulin production. Histamine especially through this H2 receptor. There's several receptors that histamine work on. The H2 receptor when stimulated by histamine can trigger the pancreas to release too much insulin. And this can cause a blood sugar crash by pushing too much glucose out of the bloodstream into your cells. Histamine also plays a role with glucagon. Glucagon is a hormone that tells your liver to release stored glucose when blood sugar drops. Now histamine can suppress glucagon release, making it harder for your body to correct a low blood sugar episode. Histamine is also involved in cortisol dysregulation. Cortisol, which is often called your stress hormone, maintains stable blood sugar levels during fasting or stress. Chronic high histamine levels can interfere with cortisol production, which will compound this risk of hypoglycemia. Histamine also actually acts as a neurotransmitter in your brain. And when histamine levels are too high, it can disrupt the communication between your gut and your brain, which is what we call the gut brain axis. And this can delay your body's normal hormonal responses to low blood sugar, leaving you feeling shaky and confuse for much longer than you should. Histamine is also a pro-inflammatory molecule. When it's high chronic inflammation, which can reduce your cell sensitivity to insulin leading to erratic blood sugar levels. So you might experience spikes followed by sharp drops, known as reactive hypoglycemia. There are certain foods that are very high in histamine. Foods like aged cheeses, fermented products, or alcohol. These can all worsen hypoglycemia in sensitive individuals. These foods can overstimulate insulin release and suppress glucagon, which is create a sort of a double whammy effect on your blood sugar levels. Stress also plays a part. So stress is a major trigger for histamine release and it also influences blood sugar levels. Normally, stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol temporarily raise blood sugar to give you energy for fight or flight response. But if you're dealing with chronic stress and elevated histamine, this system can become dysregulated, which will leave you more prone to blood sugar crashes. There's quite a few mechanisms into how histamine is going to disrupt your blood sugar leading to hypoglycemia. This does sound all very overwhelming. What I suggest you do before you work out the root causes of why you have a histamine issue in the first place, you can stick to a low histamine diet. You'll be able to find a histamine food list. If there's an app called food intolerances, it's the one with a little strawberry. It's quite good. You can actually filter for histamine foods. Just avoid high histamine foods until you get your histamines under control. You need to work out those root causes to do that. You also need to make sure you eat balanced meals with protein, healthy fats, and low glycemic carbohydrates. This is gonna help keep your blood sugar stable now. If you can eat three meals a day, that's fantastic until you're full. But often people with dysregulated blood sugar are going to get crashes. So you're going to need to eat more frequent meals throughout the day. Potentially smaller meals throughout the day to avoid these blood sugar dips. I know a lot of you who have followed me, especially with my SIBO work. Understand that I'm not into snacking and having frequent meals. But if you have significant blood sugar drops, then this is something that you need to do until you get it corrected. Some other ways you can help your body clear histamine. Vitamin C is a mast cell stabilizer. It can reduce the amount of histamine being de granulated or released from his mast cells. Cetin also does that. Vitamin C is also a co-factor for an enzyme called histamine and methyl transferase. It detoxifies and breaks down histamine. You can try taking the DAO enzyme, which breaks down histamine. There's a supplement called seeking Health Histamine Digest. That is a DAO enzyme. You take it 15 minutes before meals will help you get your histamines down. For those of you sort of a bit confused if histamine is contributing to this, then potentially keeping a close eye on your blood sugar levels with a journal you can write, do a food journal. Just writing down the foods that you consume. And if you do have blood sugar crashes, that can be a really good idea to identify patterns. And stress management. This is really important. It's important for everybody, but particularly if you are having issues with cortisol and adrenaline and histamine.'cause histamine also stimulates adrenaline. You need to make sure you're incorporating really good stress management practices like daily, going for a long walk, meditation, yoga, deep breathing. You also need to prioritize sleep as poor sleep can increase both histamine levels and blood sugar instability. I hope that shed some light into this really interesting link between histamine and hypoglycemia. So if you ask someone who's having very reactive hypoglycemia and you're not really sure why, looking into histamine is something that you should definitely consider. We are here to help. I see patients globally online via Zoom. I've also got my e bundle, which is an ebook and video masterclass, all about the major causes of high histamine. And as I said, you can also refer to the first couple of episodes of this podcast to get more information. But remember, it's dietary changes. Stress management, getting enough sleep, making sure you're eating healthy fats, good amounts of protein. This can all really, really help stabilize your blood sugar. You know, the thing with high blood sugar, it is a threat to the body. And being hypoglycemic, it is a threat to the body. And so you get locked in this chicken and egg situation whereby the body's very stressed out by this blood sugar imbalance. And then the stress causes more blood sugar imbalance and causes more histamine to be released. Thank you for joining me. I hope you found this episode beneficial. Be sure to subscribe to the histamine well so you don't miss an episode. Leave a review and you can also share this episode with someone who could benefit. If you have any questions you'd like answered or have a topic you'd like me to discuss, please go to my website, joanne kennedy naturopathy.com, where you can provide us with that information. Until next time, take care and be well.