Ask a Rebel Med NW Doctor Series: How does having a COMT genetic snp affect histamine intolerance?

Hi, Dr. Andrew Simon here. I'm here to answer one of our very first questions as part of our newsletter and our new Ask a Doctor feature. And so the question was, how does having a cumt genetic SNP affect histamine intolerance? This really plays a role when you ever hear about someone talking about methylation or if are they methylating well or not. And so when we use things like methyl B12 or methylfolate, you know, we use these tools to aid some of the genetic deficiencies that can exist in our body. So why would I want to methylate better, so to speak, with our catecholamine O methyltransferase gene? Well, the important part of that gene is it can play a role in our ability to degrade those catecholamines, which also affects how we degrade histamine. And so this is the connection. If we methylate better, we can improve our ability to have a better response to histamine. And we also have a better response to metabolism of other compounds and, and hormones in our body, such as estrogen or even histamine itself. And in some individuals, when they are high stress, they don't know how to relax. They have higher levels of those circulating catecholamines, dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. And so then we have a hard time breaking those things down. Therefore, we need more methylation. And so when we use these methylated B vitamins or we lower our stress or we try to balance our hormones so we don't have to worry about some excess estrogen in our body, which also helps or also alters our ability to degrade histamine. You know, we get this compounding effect, this total load effect. So by working with one of our naturopathic physicians at our office or our acupuncture team, we create a holistic plan of action around supporting your ability to improve your histamine intolerance and start to improve your conditions you may have been diagnosed with, such as migraines, fibromyalgia, mast cell activation disorders, or maybe even sibo.