E277: Why Antihistamines Can Help PMS/PMDD + Functional Alternatives

Have you done all the right things and still spent two weeks a month feeling like a completely different, much less pleasant person? I get it.

Most PMS and PMDD conversations stop at estrogen and progesterone. But if you're still dealing with mood swings, brain fog, or symptoms that show up around ovulation, too, there's a piece nobody's named for you yet. It's histamine. 

And before you say, "I don't have allergies" - that's not what we're talking about here. In this episode, I'm walking you through why histamine can be a very real driver of your hormonal symptoms, why it tends to spike at two specific points in your cycle, and what's actually going on underneath that your body has been trying to flag.

You'll learn:

• The estrogen-histamine feedback loop that makes symptoms spike at two points in your cycle, including mid-cycle, when you're supposed to feel good
• The specific signs that point to histamine as a contributing factor in your PMS/ PMDD 
• Why supplements like DAO enzyme or Quercetin can help temporarily, and what the real question is that nobody's asking

If histamine has never once crossed your mind as a reason you feel terrible two weeks out of the month - buckle up, because this episode is about to make a lot of things click.

And if you're currently tracking your basal body temperatures and your PMS is still not where you want it to be, I have something for a few of you at the end of this episode. Stay all the way through, you'll want to hear it.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too! 
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Transcript

E277_ Why Antihistamines Can Help PMS_PMDD + Functional Alternatives

[00:00:00] What if your PMS being unbearable two weeks out of the month isn't just a progesterone and estrogen problem, but it's also an immune problem that no one has connected for you yet? If you've done a lot of the right things and you're still having specific symptoms that spike around ovulation in your period, this episode could help you understand the missing piece and the functional alternatives to just taking antihistamines as a band-aid All right.

Today we are gonna dive straight into another missing piece of the root cause of PMS, PMDD symptoms like irritability, anger, depression, anxiety, those one to two weeks before your period. But also this topic today, we really see show up around ovulation as well. When histamine is imbalanced in the body, it is not only going to show up in those last two weeks, but it can show up around ovulation too, and this can really throw you off when you're only [00:01:00] expecting PMS symptoms around the end of your cycle and you're questioning like, "What in the world?

Is this just me now? I've got this happening all the time and on and off, and I just feel like I cannot get control of it." This is where histamine comes to mind for me, especially with those ovulation symptoms where you almost have PMS symptoms around the middle of your cycle too, and you're like, "What in the world?

I'm supposed to feel good now." So if this is you and you haven't been able to find an answer yet, it is not just your estrogen and progesterone. Histamine, I'm gonna go into what that actually means and what it is and why it could be affecting you in these parts of your cycle. If you have a friend who's a girl, who's a woman who has hormones and potentially isn't in perfect alignment, right?

Send this to her too so that she has some context, because this really is something that is not being talked about enough. Okay, so let me talk about histamine for you. Most women will hear [00:02:00] histamine and think antihistamine, sneezing, seasonal allergies, allergies to cats, right? Something like that.

histamine is a deeper topic than just seasonal allergies, and it actually does affect your hormone because there is a connection between estrogen and histamine that makes it show up higher in certain phases of your cycle if you are extra reactive to histamine Histamine is in every tissue of your body.

It's part of your immune response, your stress response, your digestion. You do need histamine. So the problem isn't that you have it, it's that your body may not be clearing it well enough, which is causing you to be more reactive to it. So think of histamine as your body's alarm system, and specifically in the immune system, your body's alarm system.

Alarms are good, right? We want the alarm to go off when there is a fire. We want the alarm to go off when the oven is done, but we [00:03:00] don't want the alarm to be going off every time we cook dinner because it's just too close to the stove vent, right? So the question is not how do I eliminate histamine or how do I go on a diet that makes no histamine-triggering foods go into my body.

It's actually why is my alarm system so sensitive right now and what is it trying to tell me? So we're always looking at symptoms as a sign that your body is trying to tell you something. So The histamine is the symptom, not the root cause, but when we have histamine symptoms, which I'm gonna be really clear about what those are, in certain parts of your cycle coming up, then that is telling us that we need to look at histamine as a piece of the puzzle, and we need to look at the connection between estrogen and histamine that has not been clear to you in the past.

So when your hormones are out of balance, when you have excess estrogen, either just you're making too much or you're not detoxing it well or you're not making enough [00:04:00] progesterone to balance it out, then estrogen stimulates the release of histamine from your mast cells, which are immune cells in your body, and histamine in turn stimulates your ovaries to produce more estrogen.

So they actually, like, feed off of each other and help each other create more. So that is why typically when we have PMS, PMDD symptoms that are related or worsened by histamine, then we usually see those symptoms start to cluster at two parts of your cycle, like I mentioned already, just before ovulation when estrogen peaks.

So you have this big shift of estrogen at the beginning of your cycle just before ovulation, so day 10 to 14-ish, and in the luteal phase when estrogen isn't clearing well. So you've made a ton of estrogen in a good way right before you ovulate. It triggers all the other hormones for ovulation, which then triggers you to make progesterone, which is incredible and the whole point of our cycle.

And if your body isn't able to clear it well, that estrogen can stick around, it [00:05:00] can reabsorb, and it can cause some issues in the luteal phase. So when estrogen is at its highest around ovulation, you might notice things like brain fog, headaches or migraines, anxiety that feels like it's out of nowhere.

It could be bloating that feels like more inflammatory bloating, itching, feeling more flushed or hot. you could have sinus symptoms. I've definitely had clients with actual, allergy-type symptoms around ovulation and then moodiness that you're like, "This feels like PMS, but I'm not even there yet."

So a lot of women will think these are ovulation symptoms and move on or just "What the heck is happening? I should feel good right now. I'm not about to get my period." But if you notice this pattern of, some symptoms that pop up for three to four to five days around the middle of your cycle, then

They could be caused by this estrogen-histamine loop. So when estrogen dominance is present, you're making too much, you're not detoxing it well, the liver [00:06:00] and gut are involved here, and that excess estrogen continues to stimulate histamine past the point where it should have settled.

So the alarm continues longer than it should have. So that is why the gut and the liver are a huge piece of this when it comes to estrogen and histamine, because we don't need to only band-aid with something like an antihistamine, but this is why antihistamines sometimes do help. I've seen on some Facebook groups women who say like, "Oh, I fixed my PMDD with antihistamines," and .

that's really kind of what gave me the idea for this episode, along with some client questions about histamine. And I just wanted to give you the context of why this is happening, and what we really need to focus on is why is your alarm system staying on, and what is going on in the gut and the liver that is making more inflammation and more triggers for these mast cells and histamine to be released that is causing your body to not be able [00:07:00] to, essentially handle these estrogen rises.

So what is going on in the gut and the liver that we can support and we can actually get estrogen moving out of the body better so that it's not over-stimulating the immune system? That's the real question we need to be asking. Now, have I had clients who have tried using antihistamines before they came to me or even during the time we're working on all the other things?

Absolutely, because sometimes you do need a band-aid, okay? I know that , I often trash talk band-aid solutions, and there's a good reason for that, because band-aids are not meant to heal the wound. They're just to keep it clean and dry while it heals, right? Unless you are a three-year-old, and then you know in your deepest heart of hearts that band-aids heal your wounds.

And at that point, because you believe it so much, maybe it really does happen. but so let's talk about the reason that your body would be overreacting this way. , Why would histamine actually be an issue for you? I've already mentioned the gut and the liver piece that I'm gonna go into right now.

So when your body has [00:08:00] been carrying too much for too long, it is going to be getting too many signals that things are not safe, and it is going to say, "Hello, I need to start setting the alarms off because things are not safe, and they've been unsafe for a long time." So it could be carrying too much inflammation, stress, too many nutrients going out and not enough coming in, and too many signals that things are not safe.

And this is where we often get as moms, as women who are just giving and giving and loving and loving and not considering that we are truly every single day putting out more than we bring in energy-wise. And this directly can affect the gut. So many, many women who come to me say, "Oh, yeah, I've got these gut issues that I've always had, and no one's ever done anything about it, and I haven't really ever thought they were an issue."

So often there were underlying gut issues that maybe got you to hormone issues in the first place. But with that being said, even this like always carrying stress, always [00:09:00] holding on to, your excess estrogen, toxins, XYZ that's inflammatory in the gut, those can be directly affecting the gut as well. So certain bacteria in the gut actually produce histamine themselves, so we can have overgrowth of specific bacteria that produce more histamine, which just can be a hot mess all the time, but it can be an especially hot mess when estrogen rises.

And other bacteria can degrade the enzyme, this DAO enzyme that clears histamine from the body. And those bacteria, if they're degrading that enzyme, that means you have less of the enzyme that you need to clear histamine. So we need to make sure that you have the right bacteria balance to be able to get histamine and estrogen out of the body and not to be making excess of it.

And so a lot of times it is a bacterial balance issue. And when the gut is inflamed or imbalanced, your histamine clearance is compromised. So even a normal amount of histamine from a normal immune response can feel like too much

So [00:10:00] this is truly not a like, oh, my body's just working against me. I have a sensitive body. Things are always going to be bad. It's your body telling you that something needs foundational attention. So the women I see with the most intense histamine-related PMS symptoms often have been running on empty for a long time.

So their minerals are depleted. They are under-eating or under-eating the right nutrients or not eating the right nutrients in the right context with each other throughout the day, not sleeping really enough, really just continuing to be in a high-stress life. And then a lot of times have a history of birth control, which can just exacerbate all of these things over time because it can cause issues with estrogen detoxification.

It can deplete minerals. It can change your stomach acid, your gut bacteria, all of those things. And all of those things compromise your gut function and immune function over time. So the question is not how do I eliminate histamine or what band-aid do I use? Even supplements are often a band-aid for histamine issues.

You can take, [00:11:00] there's multiple histamine supplements that are supposed to help with histamine and can truly help you move histamine out. And those are also a band-aid just like an antihistamine is, but it's like a little healthier band-aid. So the question is not which one of these supplements can I take to fix the problem long-term?

The question is why is my body overreacting again with this histamine and what is my body missing? And that's always a question that I'm asking when I have you come into coaching and I'm looking at your body, your life, your labs, is , where are the signals of safety missing for your body to heal?

So it's just a much different question than just like what supplement or what medication can I take? And sometimes those things do help until you have the answer. So I'm here for both definitely. I just want to say, histamine is not always the cause of PMS, PMDD, but often it can be a component, especially if you're seeing these kind of like ups and downs throughout one cycle in your PMS mood symptoms, [00:12:00] or you have those symptoms both around ovulation and before your period.

If you also have signs like you've had gut issues literally forever, you have a history of allergies, sinus issues, skin reactions, digestive sensitivity, and these hormone symptoms. if you have been diagnosed with endometriosis or you suspect it, mast cells are overproduced in those endometrial tissues.

So that's the tissues that are supposed to be lining your uterus and sometimes grow where they're not supposed to grow. And histamine dysregulation is really significant and unaddressed in that piece of the picture usually. and then your PMS symptoms would specifically include headaches or migraines.

This is one of the clearest histamine and estrogen overlap symptoms. So that is really important for you to know if you're trying to be like, is this me? Is histamine an issue or is it not? and this is me. This has been me. You have done a lot of the fundamental work and things are a lot better than they used to be, [00:13:00] but you still have clusters of symptoms that just show up sometimes that you're like, wait a second, this could be better.

And especially symptoms that kind of show up sometimes when you've had a lot more stress or when you haven't been able to take care of yourself as well as to over time. So

when you resonate with this and you're thinking, "Okay, what would I do then if I don't wanna just have a band-aid solution?" We would want to look into histamine a little bit more closely and look for some of those root causes. So I do see a lot of women, this can be a rabbit hole, okay?

So I see a lot of women going down these histamine rabbit holes, and you can come out a lot more depleted and confused than before. So this is not where I'm sending you is down a rabbit trail. I am not here to tell you to cut out a lot of histamines in your diet, because you can cut out a lot of really nutrient-dense foods.

However, there are people who do need to take them out, but just doing it blindly and across the board is not always the right thing. And if [00:14:00] your body's already depleted, then removing these foods without understanding why you're reacting can make things worse. And then there are some specific supplements that are often recommended for histamine, like DAO enzyme, quercetin, stinging nettle.

Those can truly be helpful, and they don't fix it for everyone, and they don't actually fix the problem. They can help manage the symptoms. They can help you move histamine out a little better while you're taking them, but the symptoms will come back. It's not like you take nettle for long enough to calm everything down, and then it's fine.

You might be able to take nettle and cause some decrease in symptoms, but we still need to know why you have the symptoms in the first place. So the foundations always have to be there, and those foundations are making sure that your body has the ingredients to make hormones well and detox hormones well.

And what that looks like

is being able to prioritize and identify the triggers in your body. Is it [00:15:00] imbalanced macronutrients? Is it depletion of minerals and other nutrients that you're just not getting in your diet? Is it depletion because you are not digesting things well? Is it depletion because you've had a lot of babies and a lot of stress and you're just putting out more energy than you're bringing in constantly for years and years and years?

Or are you just not getting, the basic human needs met, like sunshine and sleep? And so this is where we start every single time because I do not have any of my clients come to me who have all these pieces really together enough to be able to feel good, and that's obviously why they're coming.

And these are amazing women who are truly doing as much as they can, right? But you can't always see the gaps in your own life. And so the foundational pieces have to come first. If you have someone tell you, like, "Oh, I'll just fix this to mean for you with just a supplement protocol," or just a gut test or just this, biohacking device or whatever it is, it's going to be a bigger picture than [00:16:00] that.

But that doesn't mean it has to be hard. It just means that we want to build a foundation and repair the foundation that's already there versus building a fancy house on a foundation that isn't ready for it, essentially.

So , we want to build those foundations, and then we wanna - figure out your specific trigger, whether it is those gut bacteria being imbalanced, whether it is a mineral imbalance that isn't allowing you to detox well, whether it is blood sugar issues, whether it's estrogen that's not clearing, or an immune system that is overreactive because it's under-resourced, and we want to address that directly.

So it is really both. It's the foundations and focusing on the specific triggers in your body that are causing this to continue to be inflamed.

So what does this look like in real life? I'm gonna give you a client example who came in with severe PMS mood symptoms, but not only at the end of her cycle, actually in the middle of her cycle too. And she had [00:17:00] been working on things for a while. She had even worked with another practitioner and had seen some good results, but she was still, not at all where she wanted to be.

She was doing better than kind of her rock bottom several months before, but she was still really struggling with these mood symptoms and with symptoms around ovulation, and just really not seeing the results that she had wanted to see. And so when we dove in for her, we found that there were definitely places in her day with her eating that her blood sugar was not adequately balanced.

We found that there were not really adequate minerals coming in, and when we did her HTMA mineral test, we found that there was a really common pattern that I see all the time, which is calcium and magnesium being higher than sodium and potassium. And this is a slow oxidizer pattern, which means slower thyroid function, slower adrenal function, and it is mineral-driven because there is not a lot of sodium and potassium to let those other nutrients into the cell, because sodium and potassium are the pump for the [00:18:00] cell and the gatekeeper for the cell, and they actually make a difference in how much you can get thyroid hormone and even insulin into the cell.

And so we found that there was a critical decrease in sodium and potassium in her cells, and that was something that we knew we needed to focus on to help with energy and to help with anxiety feelings, as well as to give her body the signals of safety to make hormones well. And so that was one of the big takeaways that we had.

We also found that she had true estrogen dominance, like , making a lot of estrogen, even though she was also making a good amount of progesterone. She was making too much estrogen in context and even had a negative estrogen detox pattern where she was putting a lot of estrogen toward one of the more potent symptomatic pathways and specifically was reabsorbing a lot of that from her gut and then putting it down that pathway.

And so we were able to tell all of that when she came into coaching and we did an HTMA and a Dutch hormone test. We could tell not only that she was having trouble making the [00:19:00] right amount of hormones well, but she was really having trouble detoxing hormones. And so being able to realize that these symptoms that are related to the hormones, but also the minerals, and also blood sugar, and also the gut because she was reabsorbing estrogen in her gut.

, That is the classic pattern that is going to trigger more histamine symptoms because you not only have more estrogen triggering that histamine, but you have gut imbalances that are increasing inflammation and increasing that immune response, and that is typically really clearly what we see. And so what did we do about it?

We took her specific patterns and her specific life and created a plan that works for her, even as a busy mom, to step by step, one, first things first, second things second, be able to see change throughout her cycle. And it takes time for this to happen, but she's having so many less days of mood symptoms in her cycle.

She's having so many less signs of [00:20:00] symptoms around ovulation, and she's feeling so much better overall because she's able to be consistent over and over again in doing the foundational things that move her forward. And then we also found the layers for her that were so important to be able to uncover, like, yes, this actually is not only an estrogen issue, but also a histamine issue.

And she, even this month, has had a better cycle than she's had the last three or four months and is really, really moving so close to where she wants to be because we found those root causes as well as really just, worked on the foundations. And so this is what it looks like when you get help with your hormone symptoms and when you let someone else look in from the outside and tell you, "Hey, this is what's going on."

And we even were looking at her temperatures recently and saw it looks like she still is making a lot of estrogen [00:21:00] in the , middle part of her cycle. And so because we're tracking body temperatures together and because we are looking at, all of these different factors, we can see how her body is progressing.

Without having to test again, we can see she's still making a lot of estrogen. And so this is where we need to support her body now so the symptoms can continue to get better. So I am offering four women who are charting their cycles right now with basal body temperatures and are having PMS, mood symptoms, or other period symptoms throughout their cycle, I'm doing a couple of mini audits for your chart specifically.

And all you need to do is email me at hello@leishadrews.com. Email me if you are this girl who's like, "My PMS is not where I want it to be. I'm doing the things. I'm tracking my cycle. I would love for you to look at my chart and tell me what you see as triggers for my symptoms." I would love to do that for you totally free, a free mini chart audit.

All you need to do is email me, [00:22:00] hello@leishadrews.com, and just say, "Mini chart audit," and if I still have any spots, I would love to do one of those for you. \

If this episode helped you understand additional triggers for PMS better, then make sure to also send it to a friend or even send it to your husband so he can understand what's going on in your body a little better. And I will see you next week