Can Ayurveda Help with Histamine Intolerance? Understanding the Pitta Connection | Ep. 123

Hi there. Welcome to the Holistic Inner Balance. I'm Dr. Nicole.

And I'm Hadlee of Happy Healthy with Hadlee.

Today we're going to take a really unique approach to a specific chemical that could also be a hormone and a neurotransmitter that affects our emotions and our physical symptoms. So if you ever feel like you get stuffy eyes, itchy eyes, watery nose, all sorts of these annoying allergy feelings, you might be interested to know that that same chemical can also cause you to have difficulty sleeping and maybe even a little bit of anxiety and panic. And the chemical that we're going to be talking about today is histamine. And Hadlee is going to bring to the conversation a perspective that I haven't actually heard anywhere else on podcasts before. And so I think you're going to really like it. It's about histamine and what the perspective of Ayurveda has to say. And so I'm really excited about this conversation. So let's dig in and we're going to start by just talking a little bit about what histamine is. And then, Hadlee, I would love to kind of have you introduce us to how Ayurveda sees histamine. Does that sound all right?

That sounds great.

So histamine is, as we just touched on in the beginning, it's a chemical that can be made in your endocrine system and it helps pathways happen. So it's sort of like driving your car from point A to point B. Histamine is one of those chemicals that your endocrine system uses. And histamine can also be released in the brain as a neurotransmitter. And so in both of those roles, it's a little bit of a nuance. We talk about the 9 types of anxiety. And so when histamine's involved, it could be endocrine anxiety or hormone anxiety. It could be nervous system anxiety if it's in the brain and nervous system, or it could even be a form of anxiety caused by the immune system, immune system anxiety. So we're gonna get to the bottom of it because remember, your symptoms are opportunities to figure out what's happening so that you can actually heal that. And Ayurveda has a lot of really cool ways to get into the detailed nuance of that. So, Hadlee, I'd love for you to take it from here. Tell us what you got, girl.

Totally. So, yeah, when you think about all of the symptoms of histamine intolerance and okay, so in Ayurveda, the ancient rishis, the ancient wise people of Ayurveda who created Ayurveda, they didn't have a term for histamine intolerance, right? They didn't have this specific diagnosis, but they had the doshas and they looked at everything kind of from a lens of the elements. And so when you look at pretty much all of the symptoms of histamine intolerance, as well as when you look at the foods that cause histamine, that can aggravate histamine intolerance, that have histamines in them, it all pretty much, not 100%, but almost all of it goes back to the Pitta dosha, which is that fire element. So if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, You know that I have a lot of Pitta in my constitution, and I have had a lot of experiences with different levels of histamine intolerance. And so I've had to do a lot of research on this for myself, and I'm like, oh, every single thing that is required of me to kind of get this under control is basically just balancing Pitta. So that's the really cool thing, is that Ayurveda maps onto histamine Like, pretty much exactly. There's one thing that sticks out to me a lot, which is the— this is the only one that has really stuck out to me this much, but that avocados have histamine in them because avocados are balancing typically for Pitta. But that's the only food that I really look at and is directly opposing to Pitta. But all of the other foods, all of the other things, I'm like, oh, that's Pitta. aggravating, Pitta aggravating, Pitta aggravating. And then all of the symptoms are like, oh, yeah, all of that is heat in the body, that it's Pitta. So it's really cool how it maps on so perfectly.

So when you talk about Ayurveda, for those who are just coming into this podcast for the first time, can you introduce us just really briefly to what Ayurveda is and the doshas? And then, of course, we'll have links in the bio so you guys can learn more. We have tons of content on it. But just like a quick snap so that you don't have to stop listening, go learn about that, and then come back.

Right. Yes. So Ayurveda is an ancient Indian health science. It means the science of life, and it's at least 5,000 years old. Like, we don't know exactly how long it's been around, but over those 5,000 years, they've iterated on learning, like, how the human body works, essentially, and the mind and the spirit. Basically, it's, it's a very holistic health system. And in that health system, There are 3 different mind-body types, and those are based on the elements. And so we've got vata, pitta, and kapha, and those are broken down into the elements. So, or rather, the elements are broken down into the doshas. So if you think about someone who has a lot of air and ether in their constitution, that's going to be someone who tends to be more creative, maybe a little bit spacey when they're out of balance. Someone who has a little bit more— you think of someone where you say, oh, they're airy-fairy, or they move around a lot. This is all Vata things. Someone that has a lot of air and ether in their body might be someone who is really, really tiny or really, really tall and lanky, not a whole lot of mass to them. They've got air. Whereas When we go into the other doshas, those are more dense. So we get a little bit more dense with pitta, which is the fire and a little bit of water, but fire mostly. And so pitta is the kind of person who tends to be a little bit more Type A, might have more ambition, really good at getting stuff done. Physically, they might have just like a more medium mesomorphic body type. If you know about like endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph, gonna be just like a medium build. I'm like, I have a lot of pits in my constitution. My height is exactly average. I am, you know, just medium build. And then kapha types are going to be that the water and earth elements. And so they're gonna have a more, just more density overall in their body type. And then also they're going to be the kind of person that I always look at kapha types as like the teddy bear, the person that you want them to give you a hug. They just are like super welcoming, warm, loving, nourishing, nurturing. That's like a really brief breakdown of it. We have way more, but that's kind of the gist of it. Did I do a good enough job describing that?

That was great. Yeah, that was wonderful. And we're going to be, as you said, zeroing in on the pitta. Because pittas tend to be more associated with histamine.

Yes. Yeah. So someone who has a more pitta constitution tends to be more sensitive to histamine. And it's really cool. Like, now people, we're figuring out lots of different, like, how genetics work and all of the things. But what Ayurvedic practitioners had back in the day was the doshas. They were like, oh, this is what your mind-body type is, and here's how we can balance it. And so we can work with both the modalities of modern science as well as these ancient healing modalities. And I always say that when both of these things come together and say, like, yes, this is true, then I'm like, yeah, that's got to be the most true thing.

Yes, absolutely. And so what I'm wondering is, how does it begin for people? Walk us through the process. So are people coming out the womb in a pitta state? Do they become pitta imbalanced, or did they get a histamine imbalance and then become pitta? Kind of walk us through it.

Oh, such a good question. Yeah. Okay. So we are all born with all 3 of the doshas, but in different proportions. So I always think of it like a pie, like a, like a pie graph, or, or like a piece of pie. Like the biggest slice of pie is the, your most prominent dosha. And everyone has different ratios, different amounts of each one. So my prominent dosha is pitta. So that's my biggest slice of pie. My second biggest slice of pie is kapha, and then my third slice of pie is like my smallest one is vata. So I don't have as much vata, but I do have some vata. Like if you look at my hands, my hands are very, very vata. I have like long skinny fingers, really, really tiny wrists. So like we all have all of the things. We don't have imbalances when we're born though. So we have different propensities. We have like, oh, I was born with this type of bone structure, right? Some people have wider, broader, taller, bigger bone structure. That's typically more of that kapha, right? The earth and water. Some people have more of the smaller, like small, teeny tiny, like small bones, that's going to be more vata. And then the medium build is more of the more pitta. But also, when we look at the different doshas, we're going to have more of a propensity to get out of balance in whatever dosha is our most prominent. You can go out of balance in any of the doshas. So like, You can have, let's say, you can have histamine intolerance even if you weren't born with Pitta as your most prominent dosha. There are lots of different factors that contribute to imbalances. Same with a lot of times people think that Kapha is the one that has an easier time gaining weight and the other ones don't really gain weight, the other doshas. But that's not true at all. People will have vata constitutions but still very much be able to gain weight. Same with if you have a vata constitution, people think of anxiety as being a very vata thing, but anyone can have a vata imbalance that contributes to anxiety. And also, the different types of anxiety do have a little bit of a different flair of each dosha as well, which we have a whole— Episode on too. So you come in with a certain constitution, a certain pie, and then that just makes you more— I don't even want to say susceptible because I don't want it to be this bad thing, but it's like, okay, so if I have more pitta in my constitution, it's going to be easier for me to go out of balance with pitta. If I have more kapha in my constitution, it's going to be easier to go out of balance with kapha. Same with vata. Does that make sense?

When I was thinking about how a long time ago you were talking about how oftentimes we crave what will put us more out of balance.

Yes.

And so our behaviors and our habits and our cravings may inadvertently be making our imbalance worse. So, like, Paul is my partner, and we always joke about how he's very vata dominant, and he craves things like bubble water, which will make him like air and popping and all the bubbles makes him more vata-y. He also craves lots of busyness and stimulation, which then intensifies his vata. So he has to be really mindful to notice that and to try to pull himself back into center, back into balance.

Totally. And the easiest part about all of it is that once you know what your dosha tends to be, where you might currently be out of balance, even if that's not your dosha, All you have to do is the opposite. So it's like, oh, I'm rushing around doing all of the things. I have a lot of that air and ether quality of just movement, and things feel super ungrounded. All you need to do is the opposite of that, is ground down, maybe create some structure. Even with foods, it's like, what are the grounding, nourishing foods? Things like root vegetables, which are literally from the ground, things like that. It's like, oh, it doesn't have to be so complicated. It's just the opposite quality of what you're currently experiencing.

So let's talk about the different qualities of how histamine overload can show up in the different doshas. And I know Pitta is the one we're going to emphasize more of, but I do have ideas and how I've seen high histamine levels show up for my patients, and I have guesses in what that might be.

Okay.

And so I was curious if we could get into that and then we'll spend more time on Pitta.

Yes, I would love to do that.

So let's say that somebody is experiencing histamine issues. It's allergy season when we're recording this podcast. So right now it's June and the cottonwood trees are releasing all sorts of cottonwood fluffies. And so Michigan right now is covered in a blanket of what looks looks like fluffy snow.

Oh, yeah.

Trees. Do you remember that?

I remember.

Because you guys, Hadlee's also from Michigan. Super fun. And so people are having a lot of allergies right now. And so some people in particular, I talked to a woman today and the symptoms feel like fullness in the sinuses. So the sinuses are full, they feel heavy. She's got postnasal drainage. It's very mucusy. When she wakes up in the morning, she's got goop in her eyes. Her eyes are kind of— they feel boggy, heavy. It's just a bunch of sinus stuff and it's all histamine. And so for me, that feels very much like a kapha histamine because you have the fullness, the wetness. You use the words muddy oftentimes you describe kapha. That's how I kind of keep it in my brain.

Yes, totally. Water and earth is mud.

Yeah. See that kind of moist, heavy, full kind of a sensation that can come from histamine. And so What I'm hearing is that we treat histamine on a functional medicine side, and we can talk about the 3 histamine detoxification pathways and histamine-containing foods. But what I love is how can we really put a spotlight on balancing that kapha dosha to get you better results? And so if you were treating this person that I described or advising them, what would you suggest?

Yes. So, okay, so sometimes what happens in the, in the doshas in general, and especially when we have, when we have things like progress further down the line, like disease progression, we see a lot of a mixture of the doshas. And a lot of times what happens, so what I would think is happening with that person is that they have The primary dosha is still Pitta, but it's pushing— we call it Pitta pushing Kapha. So the primary imbalance is the histamines, which is pretty much Pitta. It's increasing heat in the body is kind of what they would describe it as in Ayurveda. And so that creates a bunch of inflammation in the sinuses and And probably redness, all of that kind of thing. But kapha comes in and is like, here, let me protect you from all of this heat. And kapha comes in with the mucus and the eye goop and all of the things and is like, let me soothe and soften the inflammation that was there first from the histamines. And then it's like you become sort of a snotty mess, right? Which I've definitely had that happen. Many, many times because kapha is my secondary dosha. And so a lot of times when I have burned out my pitta or something comes up, kapha will come in and be like, hey, I got you. Don't worry. We're going to protect. Because the worst thing for all of our organs is inflammation. It literally breaks down our organs. So kapha is like, we don't want that. We're going to come in and kind of take care of things. Does that make sense?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. The other thing I would ask is, so what's the color of the mucus and what's the color of the eye goop? And are the eyes red and stuff too? Because that would indicate Pitta as well. So when mucus is more yellow-green, that's more Pitta. When it's purely white, that's more Kapha. And eye goop that's yellowy is more Pitta as well.

So let's say that it is white and it's more kapha pushing. What would the treatment be? Because a lot of times I feel like they could be kind of the opposite, kapha and pitta, because like pitta, you want to cool, and kapha, often you want to warm, and kapha, you want to astringe and dry out. Yeah. So somebody has what is clearly like an inflammatory process and kapha is coming in to protect it. What do they do? What would they do for a treatment?

So we still want to go to the root cause, which is more of that pitta. But then we want to bring in a couple of other things that can help with the kapha. So we want to go with the foods that are helpful for antihistamine foods and stuff to really target the pitta. But then the other thing that we can do is help with a little bit of that kapha. A big thing, especially, I mean, just speaking from experience, when I have the sinus congestion, a lot of times it will go out down to my lungs too if that happens. And that's super kapha. Kapha is like housed in the lungs. And so what we would want to do then is make sure that we're not eating a ton of food. So when we balance pitta, we're eating like a A medium amount of food, whatever. Kapha, we might want to do more kapha proportions of food while we're balancing the pitta amounts of food. Now, I don't want you to go and be like, now I'm supposed to fast all the time. That's not what I'm saying. I am very cognizant about people's relationship with food and not going into that deprivation binge cycle, but maybe lessening the amount of food Just until the, the congestion and stuff is gone. So I will— I actually just had a cold the last week. I went up to LA to visit my sister-in-law and, well, my brother and sister-in-law and their baby. And they warned us beforehand. They were like, we, you know, the baby has been sick. I have like a cold now. And we were like, it's fine, whatever. Todd and I both got sick. And And for me, it comes up in these Pitta-Kapha ways. So what I did was I ate foods. Now, I'm not dealing with as much histamine intolerance right now, so I was having things like bone broth and making a chicken soup with bone broth and that kind of thing. But I just wasn't eating as much as I normally would if I were in my healthy routine and moving my typical amount, all of that kind of thing. So going with pitta pacifying foods or histamine pacifying foods, it's basically the same thing, but in kapha portion sizes would be what I would suggest for nutrition. And then when you have more of that kapha, and I say this sort of hesitating because you don't want to overdo a workout, but kapha needs a little bit more movement than the rest of the doshas. And so if you have a lot of that congestion and stuff, it can be helpful to get more movement. Now, if the congestion is super yellow and you're just sick, sick, resting is important with that. Maybe going for walks is going to be the best thing for that. But if it's a little bit more of the white mucus and if you I feel like I have the energy for it. It's just the symptoms are mostly just in my head, not in my brain, but in my— Literally. Yeah, in my head and in my face and sinuses and everything. Then getting a little bit more activity in is going to be really beneficial for that kapha piece.

I love that. And so what I hear you saying is that you want to make sure that you're treating the root of that, which is Pitta, but then you also want to throw in a couple of other things to be mindful about the Kapha component too. And so in particular, you emphasized getting a little bit of movement, like going for a walk. And then the other thing that you said is don't overeat, maybe even eat a little bit less so that you're not overfilling something that's already Kapha-y and full. Yes.

Right. And if you're tuned in with your body, you will probably not want to eat a ton of food when you're super congested anyway, because it feels like you're making yourself more congested. You might find, oh, I ate this thing and now I'm coughing more. I have more just mucus. And so the more you like— I mean, and this is what I do with my clients, is really tuning into what our bodies are communicating with us. Yeah. And then it becomes like, oh, I actually just want to eat this amount. It's not like, oh, Hadlee said to eat less. It's like, I just don't want to eat more because it doesn't feel good. It actually creates more congestion and it makes my symptoms worse.

That's super helpful.

Yeah.

So you've talked about low histamine foods a little bit, and so I was wondering if we could talk more about low histamine foods that are also Other than avocado, right, that are also going to be helpful for a Pitta state?

Yeah, totally. So, I mean, the foods that are high in histamine are things that are fermented, whether that's alcohol, which is probably the most Would you say that has the most histamines of all the foods? I mean, I feel like—

I put it at the top every time. It's like champagne, beer, wine, especially. Those are big ones. I also think about wheat and canned foods and other pickled or fermented foods like sauerkraut, relish, pickles, soy sauce, yogurt, kefir, which is difficult because we want to feed the good microbiome,

right?

But you have to feed the microbiome with things that aren't going to increase histamine. And so they make probiotics and psychobiotics that are built with more microbial diversity enhancing bacteria, but bacteria that don't increase histamine. Nice. And so you want to be mindful about that. So that's kind of— I always, like you said, Hadz, I always list alcohol first, but I feel like in that continuum, it's like fermented Wheat, canned, pickled.

Totally. Well, and the interesting thing about fermented foods is people are eating a ton of them because they hear, oh, this is healthy for me. I need to eat more of this. And if you have a lot of pizza in your constitution, you're probably eating more than everyone else because you're like, it's healthy for me, then it must be even healthier if I eat Eat more of it, which is like a classic Pitta thing because we tend to overachieve. But it's really— it's like the thing that is harming us the most. So things like kombucha, which has so much histamine, and it's like people are drinking an entire bottle of kombucha in one sitting, and those bottles are huge, and you're like, oh my God.

My husband does that.

Yeah. And it's a little bit fizzy too. So it's pitta and vata.

Yeah, that's exactly it. And let's just relax you.

Yeah, totally.

Smoked foods is another one too, is like a lot of people are really getting on board, especially again right now we're recording this in June, so we're going into the summer season. So people are out there smoking their foods. They're on the grill, the smoker. Right. And smoked foods, the process of preparing it and even smoke flavoring additives can be high histamine. And so cured meats, pepperoni, bacon, salami, lunch meats, hot dogs. Like, people are swallowing dogs around the 4th of July. Totally.

Hot dogs for days. Yeah. And the unfortunate thing is that that's the worst time of year Because that's another thing is that our bodies need different things at different times of year. And in the winter, we were always— our ancestors and stuff were always more likely to eat smoked, cured meats, all of that kind of thing when we didn't have access to other foods, fresh foods. And so our bodies have adapted to that, especially if you're of European descent or colder climate. areas, like descent from colder climates, it's going to be more beneficial for you to eat those kinds of things in the winter, but not in the summer, and especially not during pollen season. Right? Yeah.

So stop eating hot dogs on the 4th of July.

Right.

Other high histamine foods, citrus. Citrus fruits, right? Citrus fruits. Most of them are high histamine. Dried fruits. Drying. I love the idea of the portability of dried fruits, but strawberries, dates, figs, raisins, prunes, those all have high histamine in them.

Yeah. And all of those things are pitta aggravating. The drying process makes them way more heating because they don't have the cooling part of water. Because they're literally missing the water. And so the fruits can be cooling, and because they have a lot of water in them, right? If you think about watermelon, you want to eat that in the summer. It's super cooling. It makes you feel refreshed. But if we're going to dehydrate these fruits, that's going to take out the cooling properties and going to make it a lot hotter. So Ayurvedically, it makes perfect sense that they have more histamines too.

I love that. I love it when it works out like that. Yeah. So there's high histamine foods, but there's also foods that can make your body or stimulate your body to release histamine.

Yes.

So you may not be taking in histamine, but in response to the food, your body may decide to produce histamine. And so alcohol makes your body produce histamine. It's also high histamine inherently. artificial preservatives and dyes. And so you may be eating a low histamine— I'm doing air quotes for those listening— you may be eating a low histamine meal, but if they've added preservatives and dyes, that may provoke your body to make histamine. Dairy, cow's milk. We have all these kids running around and they have allergies and histamine issues. And you would think that milk would, because it's like Wet, you think kapha, cows running in the mud is kind of what I think of. But you think, like, pour milk on it, chill it out. But no, it will provoke the body into a histaminergic response. And tomatoes, another summer treat. People put tomatoes on their hot dogs, maybe. It makes your body make histamine.

Yeah.

Chocolate.

I

skipped over that one in my list because I didn't want to hear it.

Well, okay, so this is like a big thing for me. I haven't eaten chocolate in years.

Hadley, stop. You just bought me chocolate. You guys, Hadley just bought me chocolate.

I know. Well, I, I am a big fan.

I won't eat this, but I'll give it to Nicole.

Well, I also like have done the food sensitivities test, and that's like the highest thing. On my food sensitivities. And I think that it also has something to do with the histamine and in the aging process of chocolate, especially the chocolate that, like, the cacao, the stuff that's really high quality. It's really high quality, and it can have a lot of histamine because of the aging process. Like, aged cheeses even have more histamine. All of the aged things have more histamine. Because they're sitting out for a long time. Even if you have leftovers that are days old, that has higher histamines in it. So chocolate is another one.

No.

I literally— I've taken a sip of cacao, or what was it? It was 2 sips of cacao and then 2 bites of these little chocolate truffles in a 4-hour setting, and I literally got a rash around my mouth. Immediate. It's

not— that wasn't yeast sugar,

right? Well, that was like, that was like over a year ago, so it was before all of the, all of the other things, all the

yeasty

things. But well, it could have been, it could have— chocolate could have a little bit of yeast, but it also has more of the histamines as well.

So it could feed your sugar and then it's like the Little Shop of Horrors food museum, and then it's totally more chocolate. Here's another thing, though. Did you see the Consumer Reports article that came out and they were talking about all the brands of chocolate that had heavy metal contamination?

I very much believe it.

What if chocolate is innocent? You see what I'm doing? This, like, these mental gymnastics to make chocolate okay. What if it's not the chocolate, but rather the sourcing and the contamination?

And

is there a place where I can get chocolate that isn't going to give me histamine issues?

I don't know. I would love to find something because you guys, chocolate was like my favorite food. Yeah. People who, quote unquote, weren't chocolate people, I was always like, I don't know if we could be friends.

Yeah, no kidding.

Like, chocolate was literally my favorite thing. However,

it's my favorite source of magnesium.

I know. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's great. So if we can find one that's like the lowest histamine chocolate, if anyone knows of something out there, like, please let us know. That would be—

No mold, no metals, no histamine. Yes, chocolate.

Yes. It's so hard to find. But yes. Chocolate is— yeah, chocolate is another one. I will say though, once I gave up chocolate, and I mean, I have a lot of pits in my constitution, so like once I gave it up, I was like, I don't want it anymore. It's fine because I just like have that like, whatever, we're going to just do what I need to do. Once I gave that up, it actually opened me up to a lot of different like ways of, oh, how can I get creative with treats and different things like that too. So I actually kind of saw it as like a blessing in disguise. I was like, oh, this is kind of fun to experiment with some— with different things. So

I am glad you're the one doing the experimenting and not me then.

I know. I always joke that I'm literally the guinea pig for all of my clients because I'm like, I've had all of these health issues over my lifetime and I'm like, oh, well, I dealt with that. So like, I definitely know how to like come through it and I've dealt with I know how to come through it.

Sometimes the best healers are those who've walked it themselves. So I really, like, all joking aside, like, mad respect to you, my friend.

Yeah.

So we've been talking a lot about what people can't have, and I feel like that's really depressing. And so I want people to be able to walk away with what they can have. So what are some good foods that we can eat that would help us bring down histamine and also tame the feisty, fiery pitta?

Okay, let me see.

I have a couple of ideas while you're pulling up your list.

Yeah, I mean, basically it's like the freshest foods, but go ahead with specific foods.

That's what I was going to say.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I was going to say all the fresh food. Eat as much fresh food as you can, especially stuff that's in season. So then you're As you said earlier, there's different doshas and predominance depending on the season that we're in. And so if it's in a hot, sunny season, you're going to be getting fresh fruits and veggies that aren't citrus, but fruits and veggies that are going to be low histamine.

Yeah, totally. So fresh fruits and veggies, even fresh meats. So chicken is pretty Pretty safe. Fresh meats, meaning like not deli meats, not things that are cured and don't have like additives. So if you're buying like a rotisserie chicken from the store that has like a bunch of ingredients that you don't understand, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like the, like actual fresh meat. There are some fish as well, and usually that, usually the fish that are lower histamine are the ones that are also pacifying for pizza. The white fish is more of what I'm talking about there, which is awesome. Fresh veggies, not including tomatoes and nightshades. You've probably heard of nightshades. Those are going to have more histamines, like eggplant, that kind of thing.

Yeah. And no spinach and no cabbage.

Spinach. Yeah, that was something that I When I was going through my histamine intolerance phase, because I went through all the phases, that was something that was kind of surprising because it was like a fresh vegetable. But spinach is also one of the only greens in Ayurveda that is heating for Pitta. So, yeah, it's really cool how that happened.

Eat fresh fruits. So I'm thinking like kiwi, mango, pears. You talked about watermelon earlier, so that's a low histamine. So you can eat all the watermelon, grapes, apples, cantaloupes. Make sure that you look at the Environmental Working Group, check out the Dirty Dozen so that you're buying organic when necessary. You don't have to buy everything organic, but the Environmental Working Group has some good lists and resources. What about oils? I'm thinking about coconut oils.

Yeah, totally. We want to do oils that are anti-inflammatory in general. Those are going to be really helpful. So, like, coconut oil, I want to say coconut oil is probably the best option for low histamine. I mean, you know that ghee is like my favorite thing, although I want to look that up now to make sure.

To geek out about it. I've been telling pun jokes all day.

Oh my gosh, I love it. Okay. Yes, I wanted to look it up and make sure it is indeed low histamine.

Good, good.

Ghee is wonderful. Olive oil. What's the other— oh, what's the other oil that I always—

All I have is olive and coconut oils. My examples.

Okay, cool. Yeah, olive and coconut oil. I mean, that's what I use the most is those and ghee. Anytime I cook, I use ghee. And for those of you who don't know what ghee is, it's clarified butter. So what they do is they take butter and they Simmer it in. I mean, you can make this yourself. I just make it myself because I don't actually like the taste of the store-bought kinds. I like the taste of the kinds that I make. You just simmer butter on the stove and then you drain it and all of the, all of the milk solids essentially like come to the top. You can scrape them off the top or you can just like put them in a little strainer thing and it'll strain out. And that takes out a lot of the inflammatory fats— or sorry, not fats. It takes out the inflammatory proteins like whey, which is— that's what those milk solids are that come to the surface. You take those out and then the oil that's left over is awesome. It's like super beneficial for your gut. It's low histamine. It's super healing. In Ayurveda, it was like the nectar of the gods. It was like the best thing ever. So highly recommend.

And then an herb. You and I have in the Ayurveda course, we have herbs and botanicals that balance the doshas. And as I recall, tell me if I'm wrong, Hadlee, but turmeric was tridoshic, right?

Yes. Yep. Yeah, it's cooling enough for Pitta, but it still has a little bit of heat for Vata and a little bit of heat for Kapha as well. And it's just like, yeah, it's a wonderful herb.

And it blocks your mast cells from releasing histamine. It can combat allergies. It's an antioxidant. And then, as Hadlee just confirmed for us, it's also tridoshic. And so what about golden milk? Would that be okay?

Yeah. Okay. So one thing that I do want to say is, because this is something that I learned about while I was in, like, a couple of years ago in this high histamine state, that was when I had the first mold exposure that I had. Yes. So I found out that a lot of the dried spices are very high in histamine, just, well, mostly due to the fact that they're just sitting on a shelf for a long time, and so they gather more histamines. I now keep all of my spices in the fridge, and that's just a really easy way To make sure that they don't have as much histamine accumulation over time. So I have, like, a whole shelf in my fridge that's just spices in the door of my fridge.

I was wondering why that was. That's so cool. What a little life hack.

Yeah, I

feel like that's actually my favorite hack from this whole conversation.

Yeah, it's a good one.

Yeah. So today we've been talking about histamine and Ayurveda's perspective on it, and I feel like we got a really cool take on how to supercharge your histamine detox, your histamine process. We have a whole lot more information about Ayurveda and if you have a kapha imbalance, what to do, or a pitta or a vata imbalance. And so definitely check out our information. We have a free quiz. Yeah. And so you can go to the link in the resources below and definitely go take that quiz and see if you can zero in on when you feel a certain way, what kind of an imbalance you might be in and what you can do to put yourself back into balance. And then inside of the Holistic Wellness Collective, I have a whole lesson on histamine detox. And so we talk about the 3 main detoxification pathways your body uses. And so that includes methylation and it includes acetylation and it includes the gut. And That's DAO. And so sometimes it's not about how much is coming in, but how effectively you're getting it out. And so if that's something you want to dive in more, I have a whole lesson on that. And then if you need one-on-one support, actually, you have a group and you do mostly group stuff now, right? So if you want that kind of personal contact, that personal support, you could go to Hadlee's Instagram and she has a link in her bio about that.

Yeah. And if you want to chat about whether it's the right fit for you, just DM me and we can hop on a 30-minute discovery call and see if it's a good fit for what your goals are. So, yeah, I love this conversation. I think that it's going to be so helpful for so many people. One other thing is stinging nettles. They're actually not just low histamine, they are antihistamine. So we love that.

Yeah.

If you can get like a tea or ice I'm on the West Coast. There are stinging nettles that people forage here and sell at farmers markets. I buy them and I put them in my eggs. It's great.

I love that you said that. The Latin name is Urtica dioica, and that reduces mast cells also from releasing histamine. And so if you have a pitta imbalance, you can make a tea, but then put it in the refrigerator and have yourself a nice iced tea. Or if you have you want to do it as a salad, like Hadlee said, you could forage it. It grows here in Michigan, too. You just got to be mindful because it's called stinging nettles for a reason.

Yeah, you got to forage it with some gloves on. And

then once you wash it, the stingers, they go away and you can eat it.

And if you cook with it, I just put it in the pan or whatever, like with a glove. I put it in the pan, and then once it wilts enough, you can just eat it. And you don't have to worry about it.

Yay. Thanks for mentioning that. I love that plant.

Yes, they're so good too. I love stinging nettles. It's like my favorite vegetable. Yay. Please like this episode.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.

Yeah, thanks for listening, everyone. We love you so much and can't wait to see you in the next one.

Bye, guys.

Bye.