Histamine is responsible for your allergic responses – sneezing, watery eyes, a rash. Histamine is also involved in our tear production, our pain response and our sex drive. Having too much or too little in your brain chemistry can really cause problems.

Back in the mid- 1960s, Dr. Carl Pfeiffer discovered that many people with schizophrenia had abnormal levels of histamine in their blood…either too much or too little. Over the last four decades doctors have come to believe that about 2/3 of all those with schizophrenia have histamine problems. And Dr. Pfeiffer’s research led him to believe that the optimum histamine level was 40-70. (So even though LuLu’s 106 is in the reference range for the lab, it would be considered high histamine by this standard.)

But histamine is linked to other brain chemistry problems besides schizophrenia. Those low in histamine can exhibit high tolerance to pain, catch few colds (hypo-allergic), hyperactivity, learning disabilities, and anxiety, hallucinations, paranoia.

On the other hand, those whose histamine level is too high can exhibit aggressive behaviors, obsessions, insomnia, ODD, low tolerance of pain, anorexia, and of course, seasonal allergies.

To totally understand how this works, you need a basic understanding of methylation. (I wish I’d paid more attention in chemistry class!) Here’s a link to Dr. Walsh’s writings on methylation. Basically those with low whole blood histamine counts (under 40) are referred to as overmethylators, and those with whole blood histamine counts of over 70 are undermethylators. Determining this gives some direction into what nutritional supplements could help your body find its methylation balance. As one would suspect, the protocols that work for undermethylators will make overmethylators’ symptoms worse and visa versa. Here’s another site that discusses methylation.

The theories behind all this are complex. And outside the mainstream of western medicine. The whole field of Orthomolecular Medicine is discounted by many. The only disorder for which it is becoming more widely accepted is Autism. Those working in the “world of autism” are seeing the positive results that changes in diet and supplementation with nutrients can have. But a child doesn’t have to have autism to benefit from biomedical interventions. Disorders such as ADHD, OCD, ODD, depression, general anxiety and eating disorders all show great promise with specific biomedical interventions.

This website, Health Recovery Center, has some very interesting information, all written in a way that even frazzled parents can understand. My caveat to sending you to this website is that they obviously support themselves by selling their pre-packaged supplement compounds. I have no personal experience with these compounds, so I can’t recommend or caution you about them. I do know that the supplement advice given appears consistent with advice I’ve received through other sources. However, in LuLu’s case, we give her individual supplements to have been control over specific amounts and over being able to remove anything that seems to be causing her problems. This whole process is a difficult one, with little direct guidance from doctors on what “the” answer is, especially if your child has many complex issues, as LuLu does.


Other resources:

American Academy of Environmental Medicine

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