Dr. Nicole Cain explains how histamine, the chemical behind allergies, can trigger panic attacks. Your body's allergy overload or inability to break down histamine may cause anxiety that feels like it's coming from your brain but actually starts in your body.
Chapters
Lets talk about histamine and mental health. Do you ever have allergies, itchy eyes, maybe a runny nose? Congestion, maybe post nasal drip? Perhaps your doctor has recommended antihistamines like Benadryl or Zyrtec. But what's interesting is maybe you noticed that that antihistamine actually made you feel kind of sleepy and calm. So here's something that you might not know about histamine. Histamine is an extremely excitatory neurotransmitter compared to adrenaline. You know adrenaline, that neurotransmitter that makes you fight flight, freeze, feel like you're in panic mode, or want to run away from the tiger? Yeah. That same chemical, histamine, that makes you have a runny nose and itchy eyes can also make you feel panicky and anxious. What this means is that sometimes panic and anxiety don't come from the brain, it can actually come from the body. Do you resonate with that where sometimes you feel like anxiety just hits you out of the blue? You weren't thinking anything, nothing happened. There's no real reason that you can think of, but suddenly you feel really, really panicky. It could be due to histamine. So what does this mean? Two things if you're dealing with allergy symptoms and anxiety. It either means that you have an abundance of things in your body causing overload of histamine, or you're not very good at detoxing histamine out. Want to know more? Check out the Holistic Wellness Collective. My link is in the bio.
