The Tummy Whisperer
Welcome to the Tummy Whisperer Podcast. I'm your host, Renee Barasch, a certified digestive health specialist. In this podcast, I'll be discussing how to rehabilitate your tummy so you can sleep better, turn off cravings, increase energy, and feel great. I'm here to provide real answers and practical solutions for those dealing with typical digestive discomforts to more severe issues such as chronic gas, painful bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, and ridiculous heartburn. Additionally, I'll explore the connections between seemingly unrelated issues such as allergies, fatigue, and skin conditions through various diagnostic tools and testing. I'll help identify nutritional deficiencies in the digestive tract and develop a plan that is sustainable and effective so you can have better digestion, absorption, and detoxification for optimal health and well-being.Join me each week on the Tummy Whisperer Podcast as we take a deep dive into digestive wellness, a place of understanding, knowledge, and empowerment for finding lasting balance for a lifetime of better health. Follow us now on Apple or Spotify or wherever you stream your favorite shows. I look so forward to talking with you soon!
The Tummy Whisperer
Ep. 19 - Histamine and Health: Navigating Allergies, Skin Conditions, and Dietary Adjustments for Improved Wellness
Ever wondered how seasonal allergies can impact more than just your sinuses? Discover how the invisible enemy of histamine wreaks havoc on your digestive system during allergy season. We break down how common airborne allergens can lead to unexpected symptoms like increased mucus production and UTI-like sensations. Learn how your favorite foods, including nightshades, black and green tea, and alcohol, might be heightening your histamine levels and exacerbating these effects. We'll walk you through actionable steps to adjust your diet and better manage your body's reactions during this time of year.
Struggling with persistent skin issues like eczema, psoriasis, or rashes? You might be shocked to learn that high-histamine foods, like bone broth, could be the hidden culprits. We share personal experiences and dive into how diet, lifestyle, and even household chemicals contribute to skin inflammation. Gain practical tips on maintaining a low "histamine bucket" and creating a clean, chemical-free environment. Plus, stay tuned for our engaging chat with Dr. J, who will introduce us to Sweet Relief—a cream designed to relax the nervous system and aid in detoxification. This episode is packed with invaluable insights and tips to help you navigate histamine sensitivity and improve your overall well-being.
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Email: Nhsolutions@sbcglobal.net
and we're live. Thank you, janine, welcome. Welcome everybody to the tummy whisperer podcast. We are on episode 19.
Speaker 2:Hard to believe, you believe it, I know it's super exciting.
Speaker 1:It took us a while to get here. Remember the first five times we tried. I had to get a new laptop, Anyway.
Speaker 1:So funny it's so true, so true, but we're live. I'm excited to be here with you guys today. It's been a couple of weeks, but we've got a lot to talk about as the season is changing, as people are struggling with more bodily fluids coming up out of their bodies, more mucus, more urine. What's happening? It is allergy season, so we're going to dive into what the airborne allergens do to our digestive system and how eating certain foods can trigger a histamine response, and I'm going to walk you guys through the whole cascade of what happens in the body when we have this kind of overload and the body has to get rid of the stuff via mucus, right. So, if you guys are listening and you've been experiencing a little more gosh, I wonder if I'm having some food sensitivities. Every time I eat this, my nose runs right, every time I eat dairy, or every time I eat pizza sauce or whatever. Whatever, I'm noticing this.
Speaker 1:Certain foods, as you guys know you've heard me talk about the sentinosium at this point are high in histamine. When we add the added extra layer of airborne allergens in the air, that adds more to our histamine. When we add the added extra layer of airborne allergens in the air, that adds more to our histamine bucket. So people who already have a sensitivity to foods high in histamine, like me. I'm wiping my nose because my nose is itchy and I have to really dial it back this time of year while everything's blooming, because I'm on a hair trigger. I can't cheat with even a half a gluten-free beer. I feel it like the next morning. I'm like waking up at four in the morning with half a box of Kleenex. And even Mark on the way to work today he texts me can histamine cause like me to be peeing more and I'm like ding, ding.
Speaker 1:Histamine can affect the bladder. It can cause you to feel like you're even almost having a urinary tract infection or urinary tract that, the feeling right where you're feeling like you're having a UTI but it's not quite an infection. So histamine is something that is again in the air when things are blooming. Some people are more susceptible to allergies airborne allergens which makes them those people more susceptible to certain foods that are high in histamine. Those foods that are high in histamine can create anything from diarrhea to constipation, to bloating, to headaches, nausea, reflux, sleep dysregulation, headaches, skin problems, hormonal dysregulation. Do I need to go on?
Speaker 1:no, it sounds awful it's awful and it's funny. I used to think that people can grow out of their allergies. Can you grow into them and you can grow out of them? And some people do. With our environment being just so polluted and so toxic, and our air and water and food not being what it was, it's really hard to really stay ahead of it. And those extra chemicals can also cause an interesting hit to the cells and create a little bit more histidine in the body. So the whole idea behind the conversation today, guys, is to really again, every time I'm talking to you guys, I want you guys to walk away with some kind of like eye opener God. That just makes sense, right.
Speaker 1:When I eat, this happens. I wonder why I'm all of a sudden feeling like maybe I have a food sensitivity. It's not necessarily a food sensitivity, it's more a reaction in the body. Or it's not really a food allergy a true allergy, because a true allergy is hideous to deal with. But a sensitivity causes all those things I mentioned and more, and it can be just as simple as a sensitivity.
Speaker 1:You start eating enough of these foods when things are beautiful and blooming, and even two to three Zyrtec isn't going to touch it. The nose is going, the bladder is going, the lungs are going, your skin is itchy, your ears are itchy, your eyes are watering, rubbing. This is the time to really check the foods that are high in histamine. So let's go through some of these foods that are high in histamine, all the nightshades. So those are tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplants. So for those of you that love eggplant and peppers and tomatoes and you have some itchiness going on in the nose, I would take a pause for a couple of weeks until some of the airborne allergens die down, or you can test it out and see. Another group of food or drink that's very high in histamine are black tea, green tea and alcohol.
Speaker 2:I had no idea.
Speaker 1:Black tea and green tea can be like histamine yeah, high in histamine. And then alcohol as well, very high in histamine. So for those of you that love your kombucha and your fermented stuff and your pickles and your sauerkraut and you're like I just got to keep eating it, your nose is running both nostrils like down your shirt, yeah, knock it off. Just pause on the pickles, folks, you can do it for a couple of weeks, right? Other foods that are high in histamine there are certain vegetables that are high in histamine. So tomatoes we mentioned, which is really a fruit, but definitely in the nightshade family. Tomatoes are one to really watch. Stay away from for sure, they say. If you peel the skin and cut the seeds out, then you can try it, but that's a lot of work and I had no idea that.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't have thought that a tomato would be a high histamine I know and I'm so sorry because I know you're italian and it's like what are you saying?
Speaker 2:I had no clue short time of year.
Speaker 1:Fruits that are high or can be actually histamine liberating where it actually liberates the histamine and can liberate the histamine in a histamine sensitive body will be your strawberries, kiwis, bananas, overly ripe bananas and pineapple. Those are ones to stay away from. Every other fruit should be okay. Your stone fruits are good Cherries, peaches, berries All the berries are good except straw, plums, apples, bananas again. Should be the tips. The belly of the banana should be a bright yellow with no freckles and the tips should be green and that's your perfect banana with the tips still green. One day past that you're at the yellow mark, past that you're already in the red zone. So get your bananas in the refrigerator too, even when they're at that perfect place, so you get an extra day or two out of them, because the refrigeration does slow down a little bit of the histamine process bananas and pineapples really are my favorite fruits.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Oh, so do you hate me now too.
Speaker 2:No, I could never hate you, but I just have to stay away from pineapple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Pineapple is so lovely and delicious, but you may be able to eat that maybe in the winter. So this is another thing to consider. Folks, If your seasonal allergies are like down for the count in the winter which mine are not bad, I can have a little pineapple and a little kiwi, and I do. I tend to have a little bit in my smoothie or whatever, and it doesn't really affect me. But if I were to have a pineapple right now, which sounds delicious, I'd be going hold on, janine, you're that sensitive to it.
Speaker 1:I mean it takes like anywhere from a minute to four hours. For me that is astonishing. But this time of year only, not other times of year. Something else to watch for too. I know we talked about this on one of the episodes for the wine drinkers. I've been trying that Cameron Diaz Avaline wine. It's very good. It's good. She's got like no sugar added. It's all organic. It's like a low histamine wine. But then you can take that wand and stir it in the wine and you degradate some of those histamines out. So it makes it a little more friendly for us ladies who have to have a glass of wine on the weekend or something like that. So order the wand from Amazon, get your Abilene wine from wherever you can get it. It's like everywhere.
Speaker 2:So I've tried three of the flavors. It's good. I've seen it advertised and I've met.
Speaker 1:I was curious. And then I was in my grocery store and I was like it had an organic wine section. I'm like what are the chances it'll be here? And sure enough there was four flavors and I got three of them. I come home I'm like Mark, what the hell? Because we're not big drinkers, but occasionally I'll just have a little something. Other things that are high in histamine. This is one that people get a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. About Chocolate, I'm ducking.
Speaker 2:I just ate a dark chocolate raisin.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks for the reminder. Dried foods too. Dried foods for histamine intolerance. Grapes are also on the poor list for histamines, but I don't know that you have. Do you have much in the? I know you're bloated today because guys she let me know she wasn't taking her enzymes after 50 questions. But the bloating can be from histamine intolerance. Do you have seasonal? You do not.
Speaker 2:Nothing Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh good, so then you may be okay.
Speaker 2:The only thing that I'm allergic to are plants like a Malaluca bark and Australian pine, but no food allergies and I don't feel like I. Obviously dairy. If I eat dairy there's mucus there, but other than that, that's everybody. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:But nothing airborne this time of year when things are blooming, okay, so you, then you can have your chocolate, and you should be okay, but before you are bloated.
Speaker 2:so sorry, guys, I am bloated, I'm always bloated no, you're not always blow.
Speaker 1:You're bloated when you don't take your enzymes, which, hello, I know okay, scolding you in front of everybody.
Speaker 2:Please scold me. I will have them as soon as we get off of this podcast. I will take my freaking enzymes, I promise I just think it's so funny.
Speaker 1:So her husband brings her this little food she's having a few bites before we start and she's like, oh, she pushes, that's all I want. He said why? She's like I'm just so bloated, like why are you constipated? She's because I shit my brains out yesterday. I said and why did you shit your brains out yesterday? Because I took this magnesium. It was difficult, but this is what I have to go through with her.
Speaker 2:So we finally get out there Everyone. I'm constipated Facebook, youtube.
Speaker 1:I'm constipated you told me I could do it. She told me I could. And then I finally get to it because I got to get to the why. I said you get to it because I got to get to the why. I said you've been taking your enzymes. She said no, not for about a week. Ding ding. Anyway she's back to taking her enzymes. Now that I've embarrassed her in front of the free world Awesome. No reason to be bloated on my dime girl.
Speaker 2:That's true, this is true.
Speaker 1:But Janine makes good food choices. She's allowed to have a little stress. She burns the candle at every end, Anyway.
Speaker 2:I love you. I've been really good, though, with the gluten-free.
Speaker 1:I really have it really does make a huge difference.
Speaker 1:And it's so easy to do. It's just so easy to do. It's ridiculous not to be able to do it these days. Symptoms of histamine intolerance besides just GI, the ones that I mentioned, the bloating and constipation, diarrhea, skin rashes, sleep. Sleep is a big one. Sleep is something that a lot of people struggle with, and there's sleep is like the princess and the pea, and there's so many things that can disrupt the sleep.
Speaker 1:What disrupts the sleep? The first thing is the adrenals are offline. Right, they're either in, maybe like resistance, or they're not firing, or they're just sleeping, or they're exhausted or whatever it is, and they're not operating. So when your adrenals aren't operating properly, cortisol rhythm is off. That's an easy one. Cortisol rhythm is off, your sleep rhythm is going to be off.
Speaker 1:And then we add all the other shit that we do with blue light and eating too close, you know, to going to bed and not having a nightly routine that is resting and like amber light and shutting off the blue light and turning off the cell phones and not having the cell phones in the room, and Mark and I leave our phones off at night. He actually uses his for an alarm when he has to get up for for Starbucks. But it's in the bathroom, it's on low, we have a little EMF protector thing on it and there's no TV in our bedroom and we haven't had one, probably ever. That blue light is a big one. It's another thing that disrupts the chemistry of the body the cortisol, the adrenals.
Speaker 1:And then when the body makes this histamine, when the body has this extra histamine, it's got to get rid of it, which is why all that mucus comes and why the bladder is like on overdrive and you have to pee more so than you normally would. So again, it's these little things that are good to know about what's happening in the body and why things are happening. So, especially this time of year, being very kind to yourself and not overdoing, and taking note and checking in with your body, what's happening and, of course, always if there's questions, you guys can certainly find me at the time. Whisper dot com. Another thing that is an interesting one and I've dealt with it my whole career, coming up on 20 years now. Skin inflammation, eczema, psoriasis, rashing, the gluten rashes, dermatitis, hepatiformis, just whatever is also can also be certain types of rashing and things like that can be a response to histamine. So back in the day, and it's still an issue, like people love their bone broth.
Speaker 1:By the way, when I tell clients that bone broth is high in histamine, they're like they pretty much had enough of me but, very high in histamine and back in the day when I was doing a lot of bone broth, I was having severe rashing under my arms and on my forearms and my skin would open up from the inside and I would have these little cuts and I didn't realize it. Took me to figure out it was from histamines, took the histamines out and the rash went away.
Speaker 2:That is insane. I've never had bone broth other than the little packet like a sample. But people swear by bone broth.
Speaker 1:They swear by it and it's okay for some people, but for the people that come across my desk it's not because they're already having. Most people are sensitive to histamines. Their stomach balances off inflammatory stuff, diet, lifestyle, environment, yada, yada. I went through it already. So that rashing absolutely is an inside out thing. Most rashes are inside out unless, of course, you rolled in poison, ivy or something like that, or change your laundry detergent. That's definitely outside in, but those are the rare cases. Usually the rashes are inside out Again. So that begs the question what's happening in the body and why is it happening? And starting to look at all of these things diet, lifestyle, environment, emotions, right, all this stuff that keeps our nervous system in in the constant feedback loop there's many ways to change that up.
Speaker 1:I'm missing Dr Carey right now. I wish she was here to jump in on that, but but yeah, so again, I hear this one a lot too. I've been good, I've been good for my whole life and all of a sudden, just months ago or weeks ago or last year, all of a sudden, I started having this symptom. It's not that you were healthy years ago, it's just that you didn't feel your symptoms. By the time it gets to be a symptom and it expresses on your body. There's already been a problem. You know long before that, but the body's letting you know hey, we're at the end of the line here. I got a rash, or I got to go to the bathroom, or I'm exhausted and I can't sleep, I'm wired and tired, right All of these things. When the body is showing you, it's not that it's too late, but the body's been in already an exhaustive state. It's been in an overburdened, overtaxed state at this point. So that's why prevention is really the name of the game. And if you're already symptomatic right, and you live, like me, wrangling the symptoms and having the threshold of feeling okay every day, then you're there.
Speaker 1:Then you work hard to keep the bucket low. Keep the histamine bucket low, don't overflow it. Because when you do again, the boogers. Keep the histamine bucket low, don't overflow it. Because when you do again, the boogers, the rashing, the bladder, the bowel, all of it. And it's not so easy, like I said, to manage with just a Zyrtec if you still bombard the body with extra things high in histamine, perfumes, chemicals, people that use a lot of chemicals in their home that's a really big one too. And some people they don't notice it, they don't feel it, they don't smell it, and that's fine. That means their body doesn't really respond to that because it doesn't have an issue with detoxification. But most people's do, and at least the people that come into my life with the help that they need have their ways. That their body doesn't get rid of poison and toxins, and that adds to the histamine bucket, makes sense.
Speaker 2:Makes total sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the invitation is for you guys to just again. I invite you all the time to pay close attention to your body, pay attention to what's happening, always reach out to me with questions. In fact, I got a really nice email from a lady who I must've been mentioning the plugins, but she emailed me and the title of the email was plugins and she said she was using some. She said, oh no. She said to me you can take a cinnamon clove and a couple of like oranges or something and boil them on the stove to make the house smell nice, and of course that's perfect because it's natural and there's no chemicals.
Speaker 1:People are aware, most people are aware, some people are not. But again, the idea is to really keep your environment, your diet, your lifestyle as clean as possible. Because, guys, we're bombarded every single day. Everything we eat, everything, we drink, everything, we think, everything, we're exposed to everything. We see our bodies take it all in and process it all the way it processes it, and it's a lot different than it was years and years ago.
Speaker 1:We have to work extra hard just to feel okay and it's harder work these days, harder work than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago, before our food source became pretty poisoned here in the united states with all the chemicals and all the Roundup and all the pesticides and all the junk that we eat, and even though we don't die right away from it like a bug would, because that's how the bug dies the bug eats it, it leaks their gut and they become auto-intoxicated and they die.
Speaker 1:Right, we have a larger mass because we don't have the size of a gut, the size of an ant or a bug, so it takes us longer. So not only do we not die right away, we get sick in the process and we get this prolonged, slow, agonizing, painful inflammation that for some people is completely debilitating. And I have seen a lot in my career and I've been so blessed to be able to help so many people with so many issues. And I'm here for you guys and I want to make sure that you guys have a lot of knowledge is power and I'm here to help you connect the dots for your health, for your digestion, for your safety, for your longevity.
Speaker 2:I love that, renee. That's amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1:People, everybody, my, my coach used to say even a coach needs a coach, like everybody needs. We all need each other. We all need help with whatever we need it and for and I've got my opinions about stuff and I'm happy to share them with you guys, so true.
Speaker 2:So eat healthy. If you need anything, ask Renee. She's a world of knowledge, she's just an encyclopedia of information.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you and stay tuned, you guys. Next week we're going to have Dr J on the formulator for the sweet relief which Janine's been having great results with, and I'm super excited to spoil a little or she'll share with you guys. In two weeks from tonight, dr J will be on I think Crystal will be on as well too, and we're going to talk about how to relax your nervous system through a cream and help your body with detoxification and helping your nerve tissue heal and get nutrition and help balance your organs in your body and help your body with, just again, the everyday bombardment of life. So until next time, guys, everybody stay safe, remember to treat your food really well and if you have any questions, feel free to reach me at thetummywhisperercom.