Inflammatory pain is a component of psoriatic arthritis, and participating in physical activity, such as yoga, is a way to reduce inflammation and manage chronic pain if a patient is experiencing it.
Modern medicine – Dermatology Times
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Histamine-dopamine interaction linked to addiction, compulsive behaviour
Research tells us histamine is linked to a number of compulsive behaviours that depend on dopamine reward. That’s alcoholism, drug abuse, and although it’s not mentioned in the studies I’ve read, possibly gambling. References always at the bottom of post.
According to the UN world drug report, over 200 million people use illegal drugs yearly, and 200 thousand of them will die from it. An additional estimated 18 million suffer from alcohol addiction.
Histamine is involved in a number of brain functions like arousal, sleep regulation, body temperature, pain perception and appetite. Histamine can contribute to, or cause symptoms of, depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.
Histamine receptors are found in the brain, heart, stomach, breasts, and all over the body. Receptors allow histamine to “bind” to that area. It’s this binding that allows the body to maintain a number of needed functions, but it’s also what causes symptoms.
There are four histamine receptors we know of. Activating the H3 receptor regulates the release of histamine (this is good) but it also inhibits the release of neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, glutamate, GABA (the chill out chemical), noradrenaline and dopamine.
Researchers have long known that the abuse of drugs or alcohol can affect brain dopamine levels, and there’s now a growing understanding that histamine plays a role in addiction.
A number of studies have shown that the brain histamine content of rats that liked to drink alcohol was higher compared to controls. Alcohol consumption of these rats was reduced by giving them a medication that blocks the H3 receptor.
Studies also tell us that both cocaine and methamphetamines (MDMA is one of the latter) significantly raised brain histamine levels in animals, especially in the amygdala.
Though I’ve long known of this link, I was surprised to read today that women have higher brain histamine levels, which is actually not that surprising given that one of histamine’s roles is to regulate the stress response.
Other scientists have discovered that histamine is involved in appetite and food anticipation responses, as well as in how we consume food. Which would be why histamine can control appetite in times of stress, or adaptive anorexia as the researchers call it, which leads us to the finding that anorexia patients have also been found to have higher brain histamine levels.
This doesn’t mean that high histamine levels make you crave alcohol and drugs. It’s not that clear cut despite all the latest findings.
I’ve certainly noticed in the past that once I eat higher histamine for a few days I feel like I’m on a high of sorts and I wanted it to continue, by ingesting more histamine. That no longer happens thankfully. It was difficult putting myself back together physically and emotionally after a three week histamine bender.
But it’s not just that. Before sorting out my diet, my appetite knew no bounds, and I put on an incredible amount of weight because I just couldn’t stop myself. The hunger was so awful that I would wake up a number of times and head to the fridge to gorge myself. I’ve even woken up to find food in bed with me (but that’s probably more to do with the Ambien I was prescribed for years before understanding the role of histamine in my psych misdiagnoses).
Even worse is that while not an alcoholic, I did grow up in a resort town (think something like Cancun) where my friends and I began ingesting copious amounts of alcohol nightly for the three months of summer vacation and then every weekend till I became a journalist. Unfortunately covering war zones makes for heavy drinkers but I finally cut alcohol down to a reasonable amount once I left journalism and buckled down to get healthy.
Once my moods stabilised thanks to the diet changes and presumably less histamine driving my compulsive reward seeking behaviour in alcohol, it seemed that the perpetual hangover was no longer worth it.
So how do we get a boost from the feel good brain chemical dopamine without engaging in addictive behavious?
Boosting dopamine naturally
Eat protein rich foods. I would go for grass fed and finished proteins if possible to minimise inflammation
DHA rich frozen at sea or fresh salmon or a good vegan DHA/EPA supplement
Oregano
Magnesium can help increase dopamine
Folate rich foods (like greens) are needed to produce dopamine
Blueberries
Almonds
Eggs: uncooked egg white is considered high histamine, some who can’t tolerate chicken eggs do well with duck (please check with your doctor)
Lifestyle
Meditation, exercise, massage and stress relief all work wonders
Avoid
Alcohol
Caffeine
Processed sugar
It’s finally here! Man Food – a high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredient filled book geared towards guys, women who love to work out, yoga like they mean it, or just load up on healing nutrients. Features my personal shopping list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but feature a plethora of the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a four page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
—-REFERENCES—-
Ellenbroek, B. A. “Histamine H3receptors, the complex interaction with dopamine and its implications for addiction.” British Journal of Pharmacology 170.1 (2013): 46-57. Web.
“Histamine Affects Alcohol-related Behavior.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 June 2009. Web. 16 June 2017.
White, T. “Histamine in the Brain.” Histamine and Anti-Histaminics (1966): 789-96. Web.
Ito, Chihiro, Kenji Onodera, Eiko Sakurai, Mitsumoto Sato, and Takehiko Watanabe. “Effect of Cocaine on the Histaminergic Neuron System in the Rat Brain.” Journal of Neurochemistry 69.2 (2002): 875-78. Web.
“Histamine and motivation (PDF Download Available).” N.p., n.d. Web. 16 June 2017.
Jabr, Ferris. “How the Brain Gets Addicted to Gambling.” Scientific American. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 June 2017.
“54 Natural Supplements, Agonists and Drugs to Increase Dopamine (and 12 things to AVOID).” Selfhacked. N.p., 31 May 2017. Web. 16 June 2017.
Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery
AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota Main Category: Eczema / Psoriasis
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 14 May 2012 – 0:00 PST Current ratings for:
Psoriasis Linked To Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease By Mechanistic Discovery 
The link between psoriasis and cardiovascular events has been observed for years, however the mechanics were unknown. For the first time, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers have discovered preclinical evidence demonstrating that the inflammatory skin disease leads to cardiovascular disease. Further, the research demonstrated that aggressive reversal of psoriasis reduces the cardiovascular risk as well. Psoriasis is a chronic disease of the immune system that appears as raised, inflamed, scaly red patches of skin and is often associated with intense itch. In the United States, it affects between two and a half to six million patients. http://www.eczemablog.net/
Published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, the study used a new, innovative mouse model to demonstrate a causal connection between the skin disease and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Ward and her research team demonstrated that mice engineered to overexpress a protein called Tie-2 in the skin, develop a skin condition similar to human psoriasis. Using this model, they showed that persistent, chronic inflammation confined to the skin can result in inflammation in large arteries, such as the aorta.
“This discovery is paradigm shifting. There has been a link between the two diseases but to date we had not been able to show cause. Epidemiologic evidence from thousands of patients was convincing that psoriasis patients had a much greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease and dying from it,” says Nicole Ward, PhD, senior author of the study, assistant professor of dermatology and neurosciences at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and scientist with the Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
There is a known increased risk of heart, cerebrovascular, and peripheral artery diseases, as well as risk of death, in individuals suffering from a variety of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), colitis, gum disease, lupus, and psoriasis. Many researchers showed, statistically, that having psoriasis leads to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and heart complications, however it was unclear why this occurs and it was challenging to separate out the significance of other lifestyle factors and their contributions to this risk, she adds.
Based on published clinical reports demonstrating psoriasis patients had increased risk of developing and dying of heart attack and stroke, Dr. Ward and her team set-out to investigate whether their mouse model of psoriasis would also show cardiac complications, mimicking these seen in human disease. They teamed up with experts in the role of inflammation in vessel injury – Yunmei Wang, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Daniel I. Simon, MD the Herman K. Hellerstein Professor of Cardiovascular Research at the School of Medicine, and chief, Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
“We believed that chronic inflammation over a large area of the body may be the reason for an increased risk of cardiovascular complications in skin disease patients; however, until now we had no way to model and definitively prove this,” says Dr. Wang.
Dr. Ward and her team measured blood clot formation in the psoriasis mouse model and normal mice, revealing that time was greatly shortened in the diseased mice. This shortened time to vessel blockage is akin to a greater risk for blood vessel blockage in humans that leads to stroke or heart attack. Further examination revealed that mice with the skin disease also exhibited inflammation of the vessel wall similar to that observed with atherosclerotic lesions or plaques.
Importantly, and highly meaningful for patients with psoriasis, Dr. Ward’s work was able to demonstrate that upon reversal of the skin disease, the cardiovascular inflammation and blood clot formation were also decreased.
“Our observations of improved vessel wall inflammation and decreased clot formation following skin-specific repression of disease provide further evidence that skin inflammation promotes vascular inflammation and thrombosis and strongly suggests that aggressive treatment of skin disease may block pathways that produce cardiovascular disease in psoriasis patients,” says Dr. Ward.
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click ‘references’ tab above for source.Visit our eczema / psoriasis section for the latest news on this subject. Dr. Ward presented these findings at the 2012 Society for Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting in Raleigh, NC.
This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Psoriasis Foundation, and the Murdough Family Center for Psoriasis.
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Eczema Blog
Paraffin in skin creams linked to fire deaths
You may have read in the news this week (19 March 2017) about the link between people using paraffin based skin creams and dozens of fire deaths across England. People living with conditions such as eczema and psoriasis who use paraffin based creams and emollients may be at risk of setting themselves on fire.
It is worth emphasising that the use of the creams themselves for the treatment of skin conditions are not dangerous. The only becomes dangerous when mixed with other factors. An example of one of the deaths is Philip Hoe who died after accidentally setting himself on fire at Doncaster Royal Infirmary in 2006 when sparks from a cigarette reacted with the emollient cream he was covered in.
The Me
dicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have issued warnings in the past, but only asked that a flammability warning should be on the packaging if a cream contained more than 50% paraffin. However, in light of the risks and because there have been 37 deaths linked with paraffin based creams since 2010, MHRA is now urging manufacturers to add a warning to the packaging of skin creams containing any level of paraffin.
More information on fire deaths related to the use of paraffin based creams.
Oxalic Acid Inflammation linked to Histamine, Thyroid Dysfunction & Hashimoto’s
I’ve spoken quite a bit about my experiences dealing with and the link between oxalic acid (found in some of the planet’s healthiest foods) and histamine related inflammation. Today it’s time to examine how a build up of oxalic acid found in low histamine foods like almonds, chard, potatoes, brown rice, millet and others, can not only exacerbate histamine inflammation, but also cause or contribute to thyroid dysfunction and Hashimoto’s. Both conditions are a huge and unfortunately seemingly quite common issue in our histamine intolerance and mast cell activation community.
Today’s post comes to you via something that popped up in my Facebook feed from the Thyroid Pharmacist Dr. Izabella Wentz. She began looking into the link when she noticed a number of her thyroid patients experiencing oxalic acid symptoms.
I’ve posted a great deal about the effects of oxalic acid found in plant foods: burning urination (in my case feeling like I’m peeing razor blades), needing to pee a lot, general symptoms of interstitial cystitis, pain during intercourse, kidney stones (I didn’t have stones though) and other troubles, and a general increase in histamine type inflammation.
The easiest way to explain how it works inflammation-wise is to use the bucket analogy: our body is a giant bucket and there’s only so much we can put in it before we spill over into symptoms. For example, if we’re exposed to pet dander, stress, intense exercise, heat or high histamine foods one by one, we may not spill over. Do them all in a day, or a week, and you may experience some uncomfortable inflammation symptoms. But it gets more annoying – let’s say you have too many salicylate rich foods, or histamine foods all at once, you may temporarily experience an inflammatory response (which is nearly identical to, or may actually be histamine related), even if you wouldn’t normally react to salicylate rich or oxalic acid foods. You can read more about all this in my post the Inflammation Bucket and Reacting to Everything? This May Be Why.
Dr. Wentz shared a study that found nearly eighty percent of adults autopsied had oxalate crystals in their thyroid glands. The older they were when they passed, the more likely the find became. A link to Hashimoto’s was made when it was realised that those with this autoimmune condition had a lower incidence of oxalate crystals, especially in their inflamed thyroid gland areas. The study authors concluded that oxalates could play a role in the disorder by causing inflammation that triggers the autoimmune response, resulting in the destruction of both the oxalate crystals and thyroid tissue.
According to Dr. Wentz, oxalate sensitivity should be suspected if you have these symptoms and a thyroid condition like Hashimoto’s or Graves.
Joint pain
General body pain
Burning urination
Burning stools
Symptoms of intestinal permeability (leaky gut)
Depression
Kidney stones
Your doctor can order a test for oxalate build up here.
I wasn’t living in a country where we could get any kind of oxalate testing so I just went ahead and did a modified low histamine diet combined with a low oxalate diet. You can read how I did it and find my food list for that particular adventure in my post The Low Oxalate Low Histamine Diet: The Missing Link?. Many of my more recent recipes like in the Man Food book are low oxalate and I have the Low Oxalate Cookbook which was my first foray into that world.
The best resource to find more information on the Hashimoto’s oxalate link seems to be Dr. Wentz’s website (that I’m aware of).
It’s finally here! Man Food – a high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredient filled book geared towards guys, women who love to work out, yoga like they mean it, or just load up on healing nutrients. Features my personal shopping list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but feature a plethora of the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a four page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes
AAAAI: Study Shows Peanut in House Dust Linked to Peanut Allergies, Especially for Children Prone to Eczema
Milwaukee, WI (PRWEB) November 18, 2014
According to a new study, led by King’s College in London, infants who have impaired skin barriers and are exposed to peanut proteins – which can be found in household dust – are more likely to develop sensitivities to peanuts.
The article was published on November 18 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), an official journal of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).
“Our findings point to a biological plausibility that environmental peanut exposure might be sensitizing children through an impaired skin barrier,” first author Helen Brough, MA (Hons), MSc, MBBS, FRCPCH, explained in the study.
The study examined the amount of peanut proteins which 359 infants, from a high-risk cohort, were exposed to by vacuuming and analyzing household dust found on the living room floor. Peanut-based food can leave peanut proteins behind in household dust, even after regular cleaning.
The children, aged 3-15 months, were considered to be at a high risk of developing peanut allergy because they were either allergic to cow’s milk or egg and/or prone to eczema. In this study, researchers found that exposure to dust with peanut proteins doubled the risk of peanut allergy. Children with a history of eczema were at greater risk.
“The effect of peanut dust exposure on peanut sensitization is augmented in children with a history of atopic dermatitis (eczema) and even further in children with a history of severe eczema,” according to senior author Gideon Lack, MD.
The study calls for further research to examine what’s being coined as dual-allergen-exposure theory, that is, testing the idea that while exposure to allergens through the skin can create sensitivities, perhaps consumption of these food proteins early in life can build a tolerance in the body. Regardless, reducing the environmental exposure to food allergens could be explored to prevent the development of food sensitization and food allergies.
“It may be that the timing and balance of skin and oral exposure to a particular food, early in life, especially for atopic children, could determine whether a child develops an allergy or tolerance to that food,” collaborating author Scott Sicherer, MD, FAAAAI, from Jaffe Food Allergy Institute & Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai explained.
More information on food allergies and eczema is available at the AAAAI website. The full study was performed in collaboration with the NIH/NIAID funded Consortium for Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) and can be accessed through the JACI.
The AAAAI represents allergists, asthma specialists, clinical immunologists, allied health professionals and others with a special interest in the research and treatment of allergic and immunologic diseases. Established in 1943, the AAAAI has more than 6,800 members in the United States, Canada and 72 other countries. The AAAAI’s Find an Allergist/Immunologist service is a trusted resource to help you find a specialist close to home.
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