Episode 313: Natural Allergy Support
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
When Rachel, our Lead Practitioner, works with her clients in the Functional C.A.R.E. Method™ 1:1 services, she goes “inflammation hunting” to figure out the root cause of the clients' ailments. Seasonal allergies are no different. Where there is a time and place for antihistamines like Claritin and Zyrtec, we want to get to the bottom of why you’re suffering from seasonal allergies in the first place.
In this episode:
Root cause behind seasonal allergies and histamine issues [8:24]
How nutrition impacts seasonal allergies [10:44]
Is a low histamine diet helpful or harmful? [23:14]
Supplements we recommend for seasonal allergies [25:35]
How focusing on your gut health can decrease seasonal allergies [28:54]
Ways to support your body with detoxification and drainage in allergy season [35:57]
Resources mentioned:
Funk’tional Nutrition Collective
Functional C.A.R.E. Method™ 1:1 Services
Ned Natural Remedies (get 15% off your order with code FUNK)
Qualia (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase!)
Learn more about Immune Support & Functional Nutrition
Related episodes:
191: The Histamine & Hormone Link with Rachel Mistry, MS, RDN
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Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
I'm Erin Holt, and this is the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast, where we lean into intuitive, functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions, and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience, and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet culture and the conventional healthcare model. They're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be, either. We've got some work to do, and that's why creating a new model is my life's work. I believe in the ripple effect.
Erin Holt [00:00:39]:
So I founded the Funk'tional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same. This show is for you. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review, and share, because you never know whose life you might change. And, of course, keep coming back for more. Hey, friends, we're back. It's Erin and Rachel. Rachel, what's your last name these days? What are we calling you?
Rachel Mistry [00:01:19]:
Heinz. But my license is still under Mistry. I need to change it.
Erin Holt [00:01:26]:
Rachel got married two years ago, two and a half years ago. And so making the big name change. In some circles, my last name is still Jowett legally, so not exactly fully street legal as a Holt, but that's my stage name is Erin Holt. Anyway, we're not here to talk about last names. We're here to talk about allergies. So Rachel had an idea to do a whole podcast dedicated to seasonal allergy support, because a lot of the clients that come into the practice struggle with seasonal allergies, and we wanted to create a resource for everyone to have. Actually, so we drove down to Florida, as you know, Rachel, and we stop at my sister in law's house in Maryland on our way to break up the trip.
Erin Holt [00:02:08]:
When we go, and whenever we do in April, they're, like, in full bloom. So we get, like, whacked with pollen, and then we go down to Florida, and then there's, like, a whole other set of pollen down there, and I've gotten allergies maybe twice in my life. Like, it's not my thing. Scott got them so bad, he was sick for two weeks while we were in Florida, and he ended up with a sinus infection, and, like, he was like, not okay. So people are, like, when they struggle with allergies, like, people struggle with allergies. Are you an allergy girl?
Rachel Mistry [00:02:41]:
I'm an allergy girl, and so is Taylor, my husband. We have, like, a bunch of trees in our neighborhood, too, and we walk the dogs a ton, and we'll be walking around, and Taylor's just like, look at all that pollen. We need to wash their feet before we go inside.
Erin Holt [00:02:54]:
My gosh. Pollenxiety. So, anyway, that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna try to help the people. If you struggle with allergies personally, you've got some tricks up your sleeve, I suspect.
Rachel Mistry [00:03:08]:
Oh, definitely. And, like, the good news with all of this is there's so many different natural ways that we can support your immune system, reduce allergic reactions. I realize I feel like it's been allergy season in California since early April. It usually goes until June, but I also realize some parts of the country are still defrosting a little bit. I know it's a little cooler by you, so a little bit. A little bit. So, hopefully, we can get ahead of this for some people and then provide support to others who might be suffering. So the approach that I like to take in practice, I know we stand really firm in our belief that our bodies have this awesome ability to heal, and our bodies are always trying to heal themselves.
Rachel Mistry [00:03:49]:
Our goal is really to identify those stressors or identify that inflammation that's getting in the way of that. So, as I like to say, we like to go inflammation hunting.
Erin Holt [00:04:00]:
Okay, so that's a big. That's a big job, trying to figure out where the inflammation is. So when it comes to allergies, where do we start with this whole conversation?
Rachel Mistry [00:04:10]:
I think it's really important to get an understanding of what histamines are before we dive too much into allergies. They're very much connected. So, histamine is a compound. It's found in plants, it's found in food, it's also found in bacteria. And histamine is also stored in our immune cells and mast cells in our bodies. And histamine gets released when we're exposed to an allergen or a pathogen or a foreign invader. So an example of this is you get exposed to a lot of pollen. For some people, this might trigger an immune response.
Rachel Mistry [00:04:44]:
That immune response is the release of histamine, and that's essentially what's causing those allergy symptoms that you experience. I should also clarify allergies and histamines. And what we're chatting about today is different than histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance can be a little bit more intense and severe, and it can be present all year round. It might get worse during allergy season, but with allergies, we can think about watery eyes, scratchy throat, runny nose, sometimes hives. People with histamine intolerance might also get headaches, migraines, GERD, PMDD, estrogen excess. I just wanted to make sure that I clarify the difference between those two.
Erin Holt [00:05:26]:
Yeah, today's conversation is definitely more. I think we've talked about histamine intolerance on the show before. Today's definitely more around seasonal allergies, and if you struggle with seasonal allergies, what can you do? But of course, we have to talk about histamine as part of that whole shebang.
Rachel Mistry [00:05:41]:
Yes. So with that being said, some of the strategies we're going to chat about today will definitely help people who have allergies and will also probably help those who have histamine intolerance. So it's kind of like a double whammy.
Erin Holt [00:05:54]:
What about antihistamines, like medications that you can get over the counter, like a claritin or a zyrtec? Do you use those yourself personally, or do you recommend?
Rachel Mistry [00:06:05]:
I should clarify, I don't think there's any shame in taking them if you need to, but I think it's also really important to understand how they work. So when we take an over the counter antihistamine, basically what it's going to do, it's going to block the production and the release of histamines. So if you're already having an allergy response to something, then it's really not going to give you a lot of symptom relief. It's just going to prevent more histamines from being released. I, at one point in time, I used to do deal with really bad allergies before I figured out my diet and cleaned up my gut, and I was taking like, seven or eight zyrtec a day. It was pretty intense. It was prescribed or it was recommended by my PCP, but I think there's nothing.
Erin Holt [00:06:45]:
The only thing that would keep your symptoms at bay. So you'd have to take them, like, prophylactically.
Rachel Mistry [00:06:49]:
You mean like pretty much like multiple times a day? Like two, two to three. Two to three times a day. And I also took flonase, and I had a prescription, like topical cream and eye drops. It was a whole mess. And what I see the most in practice and what I also experienced with taking these antihistamines is they can cause constipation because they kind of dry things up. Some people get dry eyes. We also know that when you're taking, taking them consistently, it can contribute to an increase in appetite, which can lead to, ultimately, weight gain. And we also know that it can deplete DAO, which is an enzyme in our gut that actually helps our body break down histamines.
Rachel Mistry [00:07:30]:
So I no longer take them during allergy season, but we do. I'm allergic to cats. Like, a real, a real allergy to cats. So when I go over to my friend's house, I will take an antihistamine before we go to my friend's house, and then I do fine. But if I forget, I can really, really tell.
Erin Holt [00:07:45]:
So, yeah, so for DAO or DAO, I never know how to say that. I always say.
Rachel Mistry [00:07:54]:
But.
Erin Holt [00:07:55]:
So that is an enzyme that helps us break down the histamine in food. So if you're consistent, if you take taking claritin or zyrtec or another type of antihistamine, often, regularly, could that potentially make you more reactive to high histamine foods?
Rachel Mistry [00:08:10]:
Definitely. Like, high foods and foods in general. I had a lot of sensitivity to higher histamine foods when I was weaning off of and tapering off of all of those antihistamines as well.
Erin Holt [00:08:24]:
Oh, interesting. Okay, so let's, you know, we're kind of obsessed with root cause. That's what we do. What would you consider to be the root causes of seasonal allergies and histamine issues? Obviously, there's not going to be just one. But where would you get started if you're working with somebody?
Rachel Mistry [00:08:41]:
So, really, foundationally, I would like to start by addressing somebody's gut. If we're thinking about, again, a root cause perspective. We know that gut imbalance may be having too much bad bacteria or not enough good bacteria alone can contribute to histamine issues. Adrenal dysfunction. So cortisol is one of the hormones produced by our adrenal glands. It's anti inflammatory. It reduces that inflammatory process in our bodies. So when we have low cortisol, you might have more allergic reactions.
Rachel Mistry [00:09:14]:
And the flip side of this is if you have really high cortisol, if you're under a lot of acute stress or a lot of acute inflammation, the more cortisol you have, the more histamines you're going to be releasing from your mast cells. So we want everyone to have healthy, normal, perfect adrenals. I mean, I realize there's no such thing, but supporting your adrenals can be really therapeutic. Estrogen dominance is kind of a tricky thing as well that can be associated with histamine issues. Basically, excess estrogen in our body can lead to the production of more histamines from the ovaries in the uterus. And then when we have more histamines in our body, this also stimulates the production of more estrogen. So this is the podcast we recorded. We recorded this, like, I think, two years ago.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:00]:
I don't remember the exact number.
Erin Holt [00:10:02]:
We'll link it up in the show.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:03]:
Notes, but it's kind of like a chicken or the egg scenario. It's a very feed forward cycle. And then one of the last bigger root causes that I think about as well would be impaired detoxification or, like, toxin exposure, whether that is like, maybe a mold exposure or environmental toxin. This can also stimulate the release of histamines in our body.
Erin Holt [00:10:26]:
So lots of different root causes, and probably they're all contributing. You know, it's not usually just like, oh, here's the one thing you had mentioned before, when you were talking about how this used to be, like, a really big problem for you. You said you kind of made, like, a comment before I dialed in my diet something to that effect. So I'm curious about hearing more about the nutrition side of things and how can food impact.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:49]:
For sure. And so, more than anything, we want to prioritize a really nutrient dense diet, right? With lots of antioxidants, lots of anti inflammatory foods, avocados, berries, fatty fish, nuts, and seeds. A really diverse diet will support a really diverse and healthy microbiome. At the same time, it's just as important to identify triggers or foods that might contribute to inflammation. So this can include things like food sensitivity. So, for me personally, I identified, I have a big issue with gluten and corn.
Erin Holt [00:11:21]:
I identify as being gluten intolerant.
Rachel Mistry [00:11:26]:
And then being really mindful of your intake of just, like, processed foods, because there's a lot of fillers and additives, added sugar, and then also just being mindful of alcohol. In general, this applies to a low inflammatory diet. But when we think about allergies, when we think about histamines, alcohol contains a lot of histamines in it. Because it's a histamine liberator, it is a burden to your liver. It creates a bunch of stress and inflammation in your body. Reducing or eliminating alcohol during allergy season can be really helpful for some that.
Erin Holt [00:12:00]:
Is in perfect alignment with what we're doing next week I think. I'm flying out to California. Cam and I are flying out to California to meet Rachel and Angela, and we're going to wine country, and we're going wine tasting. So we are going to liberate some histamines together. Yeah. Please bring all the enzymes, bring all the antihistamines. We'll live stream Rachel's histamine reaction. But I mean, I think it's like, it's not surprising because all roads lead back to nutrition.
Erin Holt [00:12:31]:
We have to speak to our body in a language that it understands. You know, if things are out of whack, there's usually a reason for it. And so when I say a language that it understands, it's whole foods, sunshine, water, hydration, rest. Like, the fundamentals we have to nurture and nourish and resource our physical body, because when we're more resourced, we're more resilient, whether that's to foods or histamines, whatever it might be, we're just overall more resilient. And so that's one of the big things that we try to get across in the Funk'tional Nutrition Collective. This really is. It's not just like, how do we spot treat allergies, or how do we spot treatment autoimmunity, or how do we spot treat this other thing? It's like, it really is a whole comprehensive approach. You know, one thing, I'm just going to speak into this real quickly, but one thing that we've been seeing a lot in our practice, we were just talking about this before we started recording.
Erin Holt [00:13:26]:
It's like, people right now, for whatever reason, feel so busy, and they're like, I'm too busy to do this. It's like, people are too busy to participate in their care. And that is something that Rachel and I really feel strongly about, of kind of like, rewriting that narrative of, like, we recognize that life is busy. And also, like, do not wait until your health becomes a crisis before you make the time. I've been there. It's awful. Don't do it. Do not wait until you walk into a doctor's office and he tells you, this is the thing
Erin Holt [00:13:58]:
I'm diagnosing you with. It could kill you. Like, let's not push ourselves so far past our capacity that we have to have something really, really, really, really scary wake us up. Let's make the time in our lives now. Let's build out the habits now. Let's reprioritize ourselves now and do it, you know, because we can help you now. It's harder for us to help you once it becomes, like, a crisis issue.
Erin Holt [00:14:24]:
That's where functional medicine has a little bit of a harder time. And so the Collective is built out with this in mind. We're currently open for enrollment. We'll only be open through the end of the month. And so come join us. We get it. We've lived it. We know how to do these things, and we're going to help you do it, too.
Erin Holt [00:17:22]:
Let me get off my soapbox. Other than eating a low inflammatory, immune supporting diet, are there specific foods that might help for seasonal allergies?
Rachel Mistry [00:17:33]:
Definitely. I am a sucker for nettle infusions. We bought a big glass carafe. I think it's like 60 or 70oz, and the center of it has, like, a metal mesh strainer. So basically, you put the nettle leaves in it, you steep a bunch of water, and then it gets more potent as the week goes on because all those leaves are kind of sitting in the water. Nettles can actually have, like, a natural antihistamine effect. They help to clear histamines from the body a little bit more effectively. You can have it hot, but I think it's very refreshing when you drink it cold.
Erin Holt [00:18:04]:
I prefer. Wait, do you keep yours, your carafe in the fridge, or do you just keep it on the counter?
Rachel Mistry [00:18:09]:
I keep it in the fridge. I should clarify. So I pour, like, almost boiling water over it, and then I let it come to room temp. So it's more like a light brown almost. Yeah, when it goes in the fridge, and then it comes out almost looking like swamp water. Taylor calls it my potion.
Erin Holt [00:18:27]:
It's definitely swampy. Yeah, I love it.
Rachel Mistry [00:18:30]:
I do too.
Erin Holt [00:18:31]:
Like, at first, maybe your first taste, you're like, oh, this is. Especially if you're used to drinking, like, I don't know, like, pink drinks or something at Starbucks. It's gonna be a little different than that. But I'm obsessed with nettle infusions, and I was, like, on Instagram and I did a video of them, and I referred to them as nettles. And somebody who's not from the US, I forget where they were from, but they, like, made fun of me. I mean, in good.
Erin Holt [00:18:55]:
Like, not a mean make fun. Like, they were just kind of like, it's so cute that you call it nettles. Like, what am I supposed to call it?
Rachel Mistry [00:19:00]:
Wait, what is it?
Erin Holt [00:19:02]:
I guess nettle. Oh, no S on the nettle.
Erin Holt [00:19:08]:
The other thing about nettles. Oh, there we go. I said it again. The other thing about nettle tea is that super high in mineral content, too. So it's like a great thing for adrenal health, great thing for your hormones, great thing for allergies. So love that. And it's so cheap. So cheap and easy to make.
Erin Holt [00:19:27]:
Yeah.
Rachel Mistry [00:19:28]:
I'm a big fan. I got this bag off of Amazon. I didn't look at the size of it. I was like, I'll just do this until I can get a better source, better quality of nettle. And it's massive. It's lasted me forever. It's way too much nettle, but it's great. I really like, I'll drink the nettle infusion with, like, fresh squeezed lemon.
Rachel Mistry [00:19:48]:
I really like that. Or what I'll tell some of my patients if they don't like the taste of it, maybe steep it alongside some more fruity tea leaves as well, just to, like, a raspberry nettle or other things like that can be really tasty. But, yeah, rich in minerals. Really cheap. Awesome. And you don't need to have allergies to benefit from nettle tea. Nettle infusions. Also pee sprouts.
Rachel Mistry [00:20:13]:
I get these at my farmer's market sometimes. You can get them at the grocery stores as well. Certain times of year. These are really high in D-A-O, DAO, diamine oxidase, that enzyme that breaks down histamine. And I'll also emphasize or encourage produce items that are rich in quercetin. So things like parsley and olive oil, blueberries, onions, apples. I feel like just use olive oil in your salads or snack on blueberries. It can be pretty easy to integrate some of these foods.
Erin Holt [00:20:43]:
Yeah. A parsley is like one of my go tos. Like, I freak out when we're out of parsley because I use it so much. I love parsley so, so much. You know what I love to do? You know tabbouleh?
Rachel Mistry [00:20:56]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:20:57]:
Ever eat tabbouleh? I, like, make a similar one. Like, I just chop up a bunch of parsley, but it's usually made with bulgur wheat, so I just use hemp seeds in place of that. So I'll do a ton of parsley. And you can just do it right in the food processor, too, if you don't want to chop up. Sometimes I'll do onions. I'm like, hit or miss on raw onions. I don't always love them, but that would be another great, great way to incorporate some quercetin and then chop up tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, and then I put hemp seeds instead of bulgur wheat. It's so good I love parsley so much.
Rachel Mistry [00:21:31]:
So anyway, there you go. And what else from, like, an herbal perspective or, like, spices? Ginger and garlic and turmeric. They can really stabilize your mast cells, so you're less likely to release that histamine when you're exposed to a trigger or an allergen. So, honestly, sometimes I'll just make a batch of ginger lemon shots. Like, I grind up ginger root, lemon juice, and coconut water, and then I strain it and keep it in the fridge. And sometimes I'll just, like, take shots of that.
Erin Holt [00:22:03]:
Hold on. Do you use a juicer or you just blend in the chunks of ginger and then strain it?
Rachel Mistry [00:22:09]:
Yeah, blend and then strain. Oh, I guess if you have a juicer, that would probably be easier.
Erin Holt [00:22:15]:
I threw all my juicers out.
Rachel Mistry [00:22:16]:
Yeah, there's too much to clean.
Erin Holt [00:22:18]:
Too much. Too much must. Too much fuss. Okay. But I didn't know that, so you could just. How, like, how much ginger do you use?
Rachel Mistry [00:22:24]:
I do like an equal part of a cup. If I'm doing a cup of ginger, I'm doing a cup of lemon juice and a cup of coconut water.
Erin Holt [00:22:35]:
So you take a cup of, like, ginger root? Yeah.
Rachel Mistry [00:22:38]:
And then, like, chop, remove the skin. Chop it up? Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:22:40]:
Do you throw in, like, the whole lemon, or do you just juice it? Okay. And then you strain it? Because I love to, but whenever I'm in the grocery store and there's, or, like, Whole Foods and there's the ginger shots, I always buy them, like, $5 a pop. So I feel like this would be such a easy way. And then how do you store it?
Rachel Mistry [00:22:56]:
I have, like, a big glass container from Weck. It's like a Weck jar, but any glass container would work. They're $2 for ginger shots at Trader Joe's.
Erin Holt [00:23:05]:
Oh, okay. Probably even cheaper when you make them by yourself.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:09]:
They are. They definitely are.
Erin Holt [00:23:10]:
I want to try that. Okay, so we're talking about food specific. What about a low histamine diet? So if somebody's dealing with seasonal allergies, do they have to go on a low histamine diet?
Rachel Mistry [00:23:21]:
Definitely not. And it's worth mentioning that some people do feel better on a low histamine diet. And the thought process is that this diet is reducing histamine heavy foods that can help you tolerate those histamines that you might be producing more of due to the environment. Basically, your body is having to clear less histamine. There's a doc, I think it's Stephen Cabral, where I first heard this analogy from. He talks about your histamine bucket.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:48]:
And basically, the bucket is a representation of how much histamine your body can tolerate. And when you have allergen exposures, when your gut is a mess, if you're exposed to toxins and you're eating high histamine foods, your bucket might be overflowing. And that's when you're more likely to experience allergies. So the thought process is that if you adhere to a low histamine diet, you're filling up your bucket a little bit more slowly. The approach that we like to take is, like, identify the source, and then how can we empty your bucket more effectively? How can we drain it? So what I have found is that a high histamine diet, it can be really stress inducing for a lot of people because it does involve eliminating a lot of foods that are aged, things like alcohol, cured meats, fermented foods, cultured foods, leftovers. So if I were to meal prep on Monday, the food that I'm eating on Tuesday would be higher in histamines than Monday. Wednesday would even be higher in histamine. So when you're truly following a low histamine diet, you're cooking everything fresh, you're freezing things right away.
Rachel Mistry [00:24:54]:
It's a lot of work. And then you're also eliminating foods that are really good for you and really delicious, like avocados, tomatoes, spinach, kimchi, sauerkraut, good things like that. So I don't feel like this diet addresses the root cause more than anything.
Erin Holt [00:25:12]:
I definitely want to get into, like, more of the deeper dive root cause. So I want to give people suggestions, like, here's a little bit of a resource, this podcast. Here's a toolkit for you to try some things if you're experiencing histamine or, excuse me, seasonal allergies. And then if these strategies are not really moving the needle for you, let's talk about what a deep dive looks like. But before we do that, can we talk about supplements? Because I have found that there are things that can be really helpful. So my daughter Hattie has struggled on and off with some, like, seasonal allergy stuff, and I found that supplements can be a big game changer. So, what are your favorite supplements for allergies?
Rachel Mistry [00:25:57]:
I use a lot of D-Hist in practice. It's like a natural antihistamine. It contains nettle, n-acetyl cysteine or NAC, bromelain, vitamin C, and quercetin. All of these ingredients stabilize your mast cells, or they help to, like, degrade and clear histamine from your body a little bit faster.
Erin Holt [00:26:14]:
And that's Ortho Molecular, right?
Rachel Mistry [00:26:16]:
Is it? I think so. Yeah, I think it is. And they also have a D-Hist Jr.
Erin Holt [00:26:22]:
Yes. I was just gonna say that. That's the one we've gotten for Hattie. And they're chewables, and she likes the way that they taste. I know sometimes it can be a little bit of a bristly bear getting kids to chew things. Yeah. Ortho Molecular D. It's so, it's the word, the letter d.
Erin Holt [00:26:37]:
D h I s t. In case somebody's just, you know, listening to this. Obviously. Obviously they're just listening to this. That's what, that's the one we're talking about. And then there's a D-Hist Jr. That's for kids. And I find that to be fantastic.
Erin Holt [00:26:52]:
That's like a really good one.
Rachel Mistry [00:26:55]:
Sometimes I'll just supplement with straight quercetin or straight nettle, and that goes well as well. And sometimes I will use supplemental DAO. Supplemental DAO. If somebody's having a lot of histamine reactions in the gut, and I'm very transparent with them, I'm like, hey, this is not a root cause solution. This is so that we can get you tolerating more foods while we're doing some of that deeper work. But if you feel like you're reacting to a bunch of the foods that you're eating, especially higher histamine foods, DAO can get you a little bit of symptom relief. And then I use a lot of adaptogens and practice because they can help to calm a really reactive immune system. They can also provide stress, anxiety, adrenal support.
Erin Holt [00:27:40]:
Do you have any faves in terms of histamine stuff?
Rachel Mistry [00:27:44]:
Astralagus or like, reishi can be really therapeutic as well.
Erin Holt [00:27:49]:
I'll add to this list that this is not like a, this is more of like a longer term play. So, like, the D-Hist and the quercetin can get you more of, like, immediate relief. I would say especially that D-Hist one. So this is not going to get you immediate relief. But certain probiotics, there's one from Seeking Health. It's called Probiotic Histamine X. And it's so specifically designed for this. But there's, you know, different ones on the market that just happens to be an affordable one that you can find easily.
Erin Holt [00:28:21]:
So it has different blends of bifido and lactobacillus that can be helpful to help degrade some of the histamines in the gut. And I have found people have success with that one. And then the n-acetylcysteine can be helpful as well, especially if there's a lot of mucus that can help kind of thin the mucus out as well. So in addition to everything that you just talked about. So those are some strategies that you can try in terms of food, diet, supplements, all that good stuff.
Erin Holt [00:28:54]:
Let's talk about how you would take a deeper dive in one to one practice if somebody was struggling with ongoing seasonal allergies. I'm going to assume you're going to do something with the gut.
Rachel Mistry [00:29:07]:
Yeah, definitely. Right. We think about 75, 80 plus percent of your immune system resides in your gut. And honestly, I've seen it time and time again that optimize somebody's gut health really influences your immune system in a positive way, whether it's, they're getting less infections, whether it's they're having less allergy responses. The logic behind this as well is we have a bunch of lymphatic tissue in our gut. It's called galt, and this lymphatic tissue, it communicates with the rest of your body. So if there's a lot of overwhelm, inflammation, imbalance in your gut, that can influence the lymphatic tissue in our sinuses, in our face, and the rest of our body. And so really, foundationally, some easy ways to support your gut.
Rachel Mistry [00:29:51]:
This does include identifying food sensitivities, like we mentioned, minimizing processed foods, and then really working to diversify your diet to support healthy levels of your good bacteria. But if we're going to do a deeper dive and do stool testing, you know, we would be looking for, what are your levels of some of those dysbiotic, maybe bad bacteria, because there are some strains like morganella, pseudomonas, klebsiella. These are like big, fancy names for bad bacteria, but basically they create a lot of inflammation and they produce a lot of histamines in the gut. And unfortunately, this production, this inflammation kind of response also disrupts our ability to produce that DAO enzyme in our brush border. I'm trying not to, like, get too complicated with this.
Erin Holt [00:30:40]:
We have practitioners that, like, light the complicated stuff, so it's okay to throw it out there, too. Our brush border, what's happening?
Rachel Mistry [00:30:52]:
So basically, we produce a lot of digestive enzymes at the level of our small intestine. A lot of these are referred to as brush border enzymes. One of those is DAO. And so if we have a lot of bad bacteria that can interfere with our production of these enzymes and DAO. So long story short, lots of bad bacteria can lead to more allergies and more reactions to foods.
Rachel Mistry [00:34:14]:
Low levels of our good bacteria. So our good bacteria, they help us degrade histamines and break them down. So I've been seeing a lot of low levels of good bacteria on stool testing in practice recently. You know, for some of my patients, it makes sense they have low levels of good bacteria because they've just had a lifetime of antibiotics, whether it was for acne or utis, ear infections in their childhood. And then some people were getting their stool test back, and they're like, I don't know the last time I took an antibiotic, it's been ten plus years probably, and we're still seeing low levels of beneficial bacteria. So then we're making some strategic nutrition and supplemental recommendations for these individuals. And then Secretory igA.
Rachel Mistry [00:34:52]:
I know that you've created a lot of content around this as well on the podcast, but Secretory Iga is basically like our digestive immune system. It's kind of a marker of, like, our first line of defense against pathogens. And if we have a low Secretory Iga, we're going to be more reactive to foods, to allergens, to pathogens. So that's, like, the biggie. When I think about gut health, stool testing and histamines and allergies, for sure.
Erin Holt [00:35:20]:
And I agree with all of that. I just had a client who had a stool test. I mean, she was just coming to optimize her health. There was no major malfunction, but she was like, my diet has been not okay. And the biggest thing that we saw on her stool test, there was no real opportunist, there was no negative pathogenic bacteria, but all of her beneficial species were super low. And I was like, this diet, like, we got to feed those creatures, you know, we got to those little buggers. So this is one of those situations where it's like, you don't need to be put on a big, huge, intensive gut protocol or like, immune rehab protocol. You just need to eat a more diverse diet.
Erin Holt [00:35:57]:
You know, that's what it boils down to. Last week on the show, I talked about estrogen detox. So we got into that conversation a little bit, but there are other things that need detox in draining drainage as well. Including histamine.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:11]:
Yes. So basically, we clear histamines through our drainage pathways. Our liver is the main organ that performs detoxification, and that's the process of taking a compound and converting it into a less toxic compound or a compound that can be more easily excreted from our body. And when we think about our drainage pathways, it's how are we emptying our body? How are we draining our body? The big ones that I think about are you're peeing, you're pooping, and you're sweating. And bile is involved in this as well. So bile is produced by our gallbladder. It's how we detoxify and move waste into our stool. I actually led a whole class on this in the Collective as well.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:54]:
So very foundationally, we think about, how can we give your liver some extra love? Right? This is your main detox organ, so limit your alcohol. This is coming up a bunch in our chat today.
Erin Holt [00:37:07]:
Very inappropriate timing for us. Bummer.
Rachel Mistry [00:37:12]:
We can detox this week to retox next week, limit your alcohol, hydrate, and then really, when we think about the different phases of liver detox, it's a really nutrient dependent process. So if you're not eating enough in general, if you're not prioritizing brightly colored fruits and vegetables, if you're not eating adequate protein and adequate sulfur in your diet, you're going to have a really hard time just performing these basic detoxification processes in general. So the good news here is there's some other things we can do to support detox and to support drainage. I like to think about castor oil packs, and I recommend these a lot in practice. So I know we've talked about this on our calls before, but basically, a castor oil pack will increase blood flow and lymphatic flow to your liver and your gallbladder. For some of my patients, they can really help with bloating. For some people, it can really help to produce a bowel movement as well.
Erin Holt [00:38:19]:
I feel like every time you come on the show, we end up coming back to detox and drainage. But you just mentioned that you taught a whole class on this in the Collective, and it's because you wanted a resource to share with all of your patients, because you have to have this conversation with so many people. We're just seeing it more and more and more and more. It is a conversation that Rachel has to have with, like, literally everybody. So it's. It is, you know, like, I'm not even joking when I say we keep having to talk about this because it's that important. So you'll probably keep hearing us talk about it, no matter what the topic. It's like it all comes back to, okay, we do have to support liver, we have to support drainage, we have to support detox, we have to support all of this.
Erin Holt [00:39:06]:
Lymphatic drainage is another thing that I think we could talk about, too. And I, you know, I'm pretty sure next week I'm going to release the episode from Sakina, who's the facial cupping expert. And I don't get sinus stuff too, too much. But I know some people with allergies really struggle with it in something else that can be super, super effective is doing lymphatic drainage on your face. Gua Sha facial cupping can be helpful even just like self massage, using your fingertips or using like, there's, you know, you can use a dry brush on your body, but there's also facial dry brushes that you can use. And that can be so helpful if you've got sinus stuff going on. So I wanted to, you know, give you a heads up that that will most likely be released next week. But I'll also link to a couple of other accounts on Instagram that can be helpful.
Erin Holt [00:40:00]:
My friend Lee is a local esthetician, and she does a lot of instructional videos on her instagram. And usually I just pull one of those up and, like, figure out how to do it based on her instagram. But I feel like that's not always so known about, you know, we'll, we'll pop pills and antihistamines for our sinus stuff, but you can actually do a lot with some of, like the facial drainage or facial massage and lymphatic drainage in the face.
Rachel Mistry [00:40:28]:
I feel like that's also really helpful even if you're just sick, like, working around your collarbone, clavicle area and like doing some of the cupping and the Gua sha can, can be really helpful for me even when I'm sick, too.
Erin Holt [00:40:39]:
I love that. I will be doing that when I'm flying, too post air travel quite a lot.
Rachel Mistry [00:40:51]:
And also, the way that I think about it is if we just keep your lymph moving regularly, regardless of if you're sick or if you have allergies, it's just going to be really supportive for your overall immune system because you're moving waste and basically immune cells through your lymph. I love to dry brush. We talked about rebounding on our favorite health tools podcast. My rebounder is still sitting next to me, and I haven't used it since that last conversation. It's good if you like it. It's just. I don't know. I don't pull it out.
Rachel Mistry [00:41:25]:
I don't use it. I see it every day. But it's a mini trampoline, so it can be a fun and easy way to incorporate movement. For a while, one of my friends and I, we were taking exercise classes on our rebounders. It was really fun. So if you have a rebounder, you can use it to get some relief, but no pressure, because we're not using it. Really simply, like, moving your body. If you have a desk job, don't be afraid to get up. Set a reminder for yourself.
Rachel Mistry [00:41:54]:
Get up every hour, hour and a half, and do a loop around the building. Or get a walking pad, which we've talked about. Or if you're sitting, also, make sure you're not wearing a bunch of tight fitting clothing all day long. A bunch of people in their Lululemon leggings and their compression tops, like, sitting all day long, that's, like, really not good for movement and just drainage of our lymphatic tissue either.
Erin Holt [00:42:17]:
I feel like we should do a whole show on that because nobody knows this. Like, people just don't understand. I will go to the gym in my leggings, and then I will strip them off as soon as I get home and put on, like, loose clothes. Because you're, like, squeezing all of your internal organs on top of it and, like, giving yourself pelvic floor dysfunction. It's not. They're not good. I want to give everyone an update, because you just mentioned that last. That last.
Erin Holt [00:42:43]:
The last podcast that we did about, like, home tools. Forget what we called it. And I shared with everybody. I came clean about the fact that I've owned a huge sauna for two years, and we haven't set it up. Well, Scott finally went to set it up yesterday and realized that it's actually too big to fit in our basement, which is where we were planning on putting it. And he was like, I've had so much guilt in my body when I realized it wasn't gonna fit, and then he's realized, he's like, I shouldn't feel this guilty. It's not my fault.
Erin Holt [00:43:15]:
And I was like, no, just, you can have that. You can have that guilt. So what he thought I should do is put it in my office. And so now we're moving the sauna into my office so the sauna will have a home. But I've been, like, saying this a lot lately because I've just. We've just been, like, zipping around. You know, we went down to Florida. We were, like, bebopping around, like, a lot on our schedule.
Erin Holt [00:43:35]:
And when that happens, I'm, like, a little bit of a sensitive Sally. And so I love to do it. I love to have things on my calendar, and also, it can really wear me out. And so I noticed that just, like, some immune stuff, like, my Raynaud's was, like, kind of, like, getting pretty active. There's just, like, immune stuff where I'm like, oh, my immune system's kind of cranky. And I'm like, I need to bring the sauna back. I'm like, we have to make this a priority.
Erin Holt [00:44:02]:
I'm like, I'm either going to go somewhere else and do the sauna, or we're going to bring it back because, like, I need to be regularly doing infrared sauna. So let's talk to the people about why that could be helpful for even seasonal allergies.
Rachel Mistry [00:44:15]:
Well, sweating is one of the main ways that we drain toxins from our body, including histamines, how we drain things from our body, mold, metals. Also heavy metals can be drained through our sweat. So sure, you can break a sweat with a workout. A sauna, you also get the infrared benefits, and honestly, you can also take a hot bath. Like, it doesn't have to be a sauna, but I think there's so many added benefits to using the sauna as well.
Erin Holt [00:44:44]:
If you have it, you should be using it.
Rachel Mistry [00:44:46]:
Yeah. Yeah, I did see that. I feel like I have the Therasage, which is the collapsible storage one. And I know that they have a lot of sales, especially as we approach Memorial Day weekend. So if you're in the market, check that out.
Erin Holt [00:45:03]:
Be on the lookout. You don't have to. It will fit in your house. That one will actually fit in your house. All right. Anything else? I feel like this is. This is a good conversation.
Erin Holt [00:45:11]:
I don't want to talk for too long because I want it to be a resource that people can actually use and listen to. Long story short, if you need help, you know, with your lifestyle stuff and habit building, join the Collective. We will get you eating well. We will get you doing all the lifestyle things. And there's a really supportive community. There's also the ability to ask practitioner questions if you need help, and then if you really feel like you need that one to one to support, because you might need a bit of a deeper dive then apply to work with Rachel, and she can see you in our one to one membership.
Rachel Mistry [00:45:43]:
Yeah. I was gonna say, a final thought is, like, our goal is to work with your body's natural immune system rather than, like, shutting off and blocking that response.
Erin Holt [00:45:56]:
And antihistamines would do that? Yeah. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. It's a good goal. I like it. All right, well, thank you, Rachel.
Rachel Mistry [00:46:06]:
Yeah, thank you.
Erin Holt [00:46:13]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.
