Could Histamine Be Fueling Anxiety? | The Symptoms Nobody Talks About

Have you ever experienced anxiety symptoms that seem to come out of nowhere? Racing heart, flushing, brain fog, trouble sleeping, or feeling constantly on edge... even when life feels relatively calm?

What if, for some people, those symptoms aren't just anxiety?

In this episode of The Anxiety Compass, Sammy and Nat explore the fascinating connection between histamine, gut health, hormones, and the nervous system. Histamine is best known for its role in allergies, but it's also a powerful chemical messenger that influences the brain, digestion, immune system, and even our stress response.

We unpack why histamine intolerance can sometimes mimic symptoms of anxiety, why stress and gut health play such an important role, and why many women notice their symptoms become worse around certain times of their menstrual cycle.

This isn't about self-diagnosing or blaming every symptom on histamine. It's about becoming curious, recognising patterns, and understanding that our bodies often communicate with us long before they shout.

In this episode, we discuss:

•  What histamine actually is and why we need it 
•  Why histamine symptoms can feel remarkably similar to anxiety 
•  Histamine-rich foods versus histamine-releasing foods 
•  The role of mast cells and the DAO enzyme 
•  How chronic stress can increase histamine and create a vicious cycle 
•  Why some women notice symptoms worsen before their period 
•  Practical ways to recognise patterns and work with your body instead of against it 

As always, this episode is designed to educate and encourage curiosity, not to diagnose. If you recognise yourself in today's conversation, speak with a qualified healthcare practitioner who can help you explore the bigger picture.

🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love you to follow, subscribe, and share The Anxiety Compass with someone who's ever wondered whether there might be more to their anxiety story. ❤️

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, it's Sammy and Natalie here, and welcome to the Anxiety Compass. Where anxiety isn't the enemy, it's our tour guide. We'll swap stories, share tools, and have a laugh while we find our way back to True North. Come along. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode. Uh how are you, Nat? I'm wonderful, Sammy. How are you, my love? You're not fantastic today? You're just wonderful? Well, I'm fantastic and wonderful. Oh, I love it. I'm all the good things. You surprise me with all your feelings of wonderfulness and fantastic. I never know what word you're gonna use. You've been using fantastic a lot. Um, so I just assumed it was gonna be that. You're changing, changing pace. Uh look at me ranting on about crap. So today we sorry about that, everyone. We're going to be chatting about something that I discovered when I became a, I never really knew about these when I was uh before I was a nutritionist. This was something that I sort of discovered along my journey. And it was because I was seeing clients with more and more of this particular um intolerance, and I was like, wow, this is actually a thing. Um we're gonna be talking about histamines because quite often the symptom with uh having a histamine intolerance can be seen as anxiety symptoms. And on the anxiety compass, we're all about finding out uh all the reasons why you could be feeling anxious, and it could be because you are eating uh and not even being able to break down the amount of histamines going into your body. I've said histamines a lot, haven't I? Histamine, histamine, histamine.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Um so look, let's let's ask the questions. Like, so think about this. Um, have you ever felt anxious for absolutely no reason? Your heart starts racing, you feel hot and flushed, your mind is spinning, maybe you can't sleep, and you think, what is wrong with me? So that's what we're gonna do a deep dive in to histamine. Exactly. You know, because it every case of it's not every case of anxiety has a histamine issue, but for some people this can create symptoms that really do feel like anxiety, like having an anxiety disorder.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yes, and I often wonder like researching and doing what we do and looking at all the different points of the compass. Some of them overlap, and so for me, a hormonal dysregulation can also be impacting on a histamine bucket, which we're going to talk about later.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So and that's why it's really important to see, you know, we provide information on this podcast, but that's why it's really essential to go and see a qualified practitioner so that they can, you know, have that go through the whole history and work out what exactly it is. Because as you said, there is a lot of overlap, so we need to know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yes. Now, histamines. When I say histamines, people think hay fever, they think antihistamines. I've got friends that pop antihistamines all the time, and if they're listening to me, I'm talking about them. Um, we think spring, uh, you know, all of the plants that come out. I've got friends that they just their eyes water the whole time in spring. It's just too much for them. But histamines are actually a normal chemical messenger in the body. Nat, what is a histamine? I mean, it's a chemical messenger, but what does it help with? What does it do in the body?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Well, it helps us with our immune function, our digestion, uh, and along with that our stomach acid, so our hydrochloric acid, um, our weightfulness, um, and also how our brain communicates. So it's really not the enemy. It has a lot of beneficial um processes within our body. But the problem comes when there can be too much histamine. So, from a high histamine diet, you may have heard that, like an antihistamine diet, or the body is struggling to break down the histamine that is there because it is a normal response in our body and we we need it.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

I'm wondering whether people who take antihistamines all the time are uh actually, you know, when you take too much of something and then your body's like, oh, well, I don't need to make that anymore because they're taking a hundred. I just wonder whether it's having a negative effect. I mean, yeah, interesting. Um yeah, so histamine is a bit like that friend who's great at parties until they've overstayed their welcome. I've got a few friends like that. Get out! It's two in the morning. Oh no, I'm more like, get out, it's nine o'clock. I want to go to bed. But we got here at eight. That's your problem. So yeah, but why does it feel like anxiety? What what does so you were talking about histamine causing a racing heart, like dizziness, headaches? You can often see why people think that it's anxiety, like you're having a panic attacks or something. Like, what's the science behind this neurotransmitter, this chemical messenger?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

So, yeah, so it is a it is an actual neurotransmitter. Like we were saying, it is essentially in the body. So, too much in, or more importantly, that um the process to be able to break down the histamine in our body, when that becomes dysregulated, that can that can contribute to that feeling that our body is completely switched on hypervigilance, all those symptoms of you know, including brain fog and itchy skin. I'll go into that in a minute because that was Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

I feel like I asked you the same question twice. That's probably why you're looking at me like a head deer in head, like I know it. You didn't just say this? I'm like, what? I'm sorry. Might have distracted me. I'm like, hang on, I just asked this. Let's see if she'll repeat the same question. And you're looking at me going, I've already answered this. What are you talking about? I find um when you're talking about not sleeping and heart pounding in that, the thing that I think of um is red wine. I used to drink red wine a lot. I used to have a glass before bed. And when I stopped drinking red wine, I could sleep. My heart wasn't pounding and my mind wasn't racing. So for me, that was showing that I was tipping over that histamine bucket, which you were going to talk about in a minute.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Um, every time to me, it was actually um eggplant and tomatoes.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

I can't eat eggplant. I can't eat eggplant. It makes my whole mouth turn into chaos. Um, but yeah, so let's talk about histamine-rich foods because you were saying that it can be in foods, and we just mentioned red wine. There's the the aged foods, um fermented and foods that are stored for longer. So, what are some examples of them? Because there's different types of foods that carry the histamines.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Absolutely. So, you know, your smoked meats, your salamis, your leftovers. This is a really, really big one. It's something that I find in um my clinic a lot. So you, you know, you cook your dinner, you have your leftovers the next day. A lot of people live off leftovers. Yeah, exactly. Because histamine actually continues to increase the longer the food is sitting there. Yeah. Um, and your fermented foods. So, you know, we talk a lot about fermented foods, how great they are for our gut and our microbiome. However, in some people, that's actually having a counterproductive um issue. So your sauerkraut, your chikimchi, um, soy sauce and vinegar. Um, also they're they're high in histamine. Um, so they can that can, yeah. So it's it's a bit of again seeing someone professional because to, you know, because like it's good for your gut, but it can also increase histamine.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

And then when you're saying fermented foods, like when you think of wine, like wine champagne and beer, and even like aged cheeses, like if you're going out on a girl's night, you've got a cheese platter with you, know, all of your salamis, smoked meats, you're having a glass of champagne, maybe some cheeses, maybe there's a little bit of sauerkraut on there too. Oh my, that's just a lot of histamine going on there, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

It really is. Yeah, absolutely. And then and then chocolate. Add to that, add to that board, you know. Having yeah, I know. I know. I'm sorry. Alcohol and chocolate, like how many people reach for those sorts of things as a comfort?

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, but chocolate's more, it's not so much full of histamines, though, it's more something that releases the histamines.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Because absolutely so if you come up in a lot of allergy tests, yes, yeah, it comes up on mine. I shouldn't eat chocolate, and every time I do, If you see, but if you've got a known histamine intolerance going on, um, it's it's it's it's advisable to at least cut back on the chocolate until that has been resolved. Isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

It's interesting because when I was younger, before I was a nutritionist, I used to have four big pieces of dark chocolate because you know it's good for you. And I'd have a glass of red wine because you know it's good for you. And you know, the the science is out there that these are great choices. And I was thought I was doing myself a good thing having a glass of red and some squares of dark chocolate because that's what people tell you to do, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

But it was it was making me not sleep. So anyway, continue on. Um, what are some foods?

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Your tomato, as I mentioned before, for me it was tomatoes, strawberries, um, and eggplant. Some citrus citrus fruits in some individuals, isn't that a real common one, but it can be. Um and processed foods as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah. And I want to be be very clear that we're not demonizing these foods. We're simply pointing out that some of them can tip over that histamine bucket, and we'll talk more on that in a moment. Um but I I often say, because I get a lot of kids that love strawberries, and parents will say to me in my workshops that that's the only fruit that they'll eat, and they give them like a whole punnet. And I'm like, you've just be mindful because they're quite high in histamines and can cause issues. So um, and it's funny because some of those kids are the ones that are on antihistamines. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Um, but it's not just that.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Like for me, when I was at my worst, my gut health was playing a huge part in me not being able to break down those histamines. So, yeah, that plays a role in it, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

It really does, absolutely, because you know, um, a healthy gut helps to regulate the inflammation and supports that normal histamine metabolism because histamine, as we said, is a normal process in the body, but it's the way the body deals with the histamine. So if you've got, you know, IBS dysbiosis, which is um, you know, not a healthy microbiome, SIBO, leaky gut, chronic gut inflammation, they may actually produce more histamine, histamine or struggle to break it down and manage it effectively.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah. And is it true that some gut bacteria actually produce histamine as well?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

And other specific ones that help to break it down. So having a healthy gut again. In our butt.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

In our gut. Well, kind of, they're in our butt. Um, that's hilarious. Same, same tract. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

They're always up to something, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

They really are. I think we've we're learning more and more about how essential the microbiome is. Um you know, the science is just revealing more and more as we understand those little critters that those little bugs in our in our system, just how how big uh an important role they do play in so many processes, including histamine, the management of histamine.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah. So when I used to get clients that would come in and they'd have a histamine intolerance, I would often just sort of share with them because they'd want to know what what's going on in their body. I mean, I had some clients that were like, just give me the stuff, I don't want to know. And then some would actually want to know. And so I sort of went into a little bit of the science of it. And I know you're the science lady, so you can back me up on this. You can tell me if I'm wrong or right. Um so the mast cells are the immune cells that act like little security guards. So they're kind of like your body's security system, alarm system, and they're found throughout the body, especially in places like the skin, in your lungs, the digestive tract, which we were just talking about, and in your blood vessels. So when they detect a threat like pollen or infections or injuries, particularly pollen around um springtime, they release histamine. So the the histamine comes from your mast cells. And normally that's helpful because it stops, you know, the allergy from happening uh so much. Am I right? And you're looking at me funny.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

I'm listening to you.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

But sometimes those little security cards, they become a little trigger happy and pew, pew, pew, pew. Um, instead of responding to genuine danger to the body, they're gonna overreact every little thing. And that's when more histamine is released uh and your body starts flooding it. Uh, so imagine if every time someone knocked on your front door, tuk tuk tuk- tuk, your home alarm system and sprinklers and your smoke detectors constantly are going off. It's a bitter of overreactive mast cells. So that's sort of your body's alarm system going out of control. Your mast cells are constantly releasing histamine. Um, and that's just from being like if you're sensitive to springtime, you haven't even put any histamine-rich food in your body yet. So, yeah, we'll talk about the bucket in just a moment. And then I also often used to really focus on the DAO enzymes with them and talk about that. I mean, do you want to share a little bit on those?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, sure. So they're they're what we call the cleanup crew, they come in. So DAO is is uh DAO, it um stands for diamine oxidase, and it's one of our main enzymes that is responsible for breaking down the histamine from food. So histamine comes in, then the DAO clears helps to clear it away. And factors that uh sorry, if um Dow activity is reduced, so we're moving along the pathway going backwards, that histamine hangs around in the body for longer. And factors that can include sorry. I say no cleanup crew. No, there's no cleanup crew. So factors that um may reduce Dow activity include, again, the gut, gut damage, because the Dow is actually produced in the lining of our small intestine. Certain medications can reduce it. Um a big one, especially for us, you know, nutrient deficiencies, you know, copper, vitamin C, zinc, um, vitamin B6 are all involved in histamine metabolism. Um and to manage that histamine intolerance, prioritizing the freshest ingredients possible, um, as histamine can um quickly build up in stored foods, as we said. So increasing foods just as a little thing, um, with Dow because how do I do that? Yeah, um foods that are rich in the Dow cofactors, um, like we said, like basics, C vitamin C, copper, zinc. Um, so eating a lot of broccoli, fresh poultry, and apples specifically, uh, rich in the Dow. And of course, there is also uh can be a genetic component. So some people just naturally produce less. Yeah, I had a lady like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

It was very painful for her. She, yeah, she just wasn't producing it. And yeah, poor poor love my heart. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

And I'll just add in here just a little the micronutrient supplements that can support sort can support doubt uh when diet alone, so you know, mentioning pegobla foods, but sometimes it's it's insufficient, at least to start with. So for copper and zinc, when taken in appropriate balance, because these work synergistically, they play a vital role in that histamine metabolism. Because zinc supports um gut lining repair and immune modulation, so supporting our immune system, while copper direct is directly involved in that Dow enzymatic function. So without those two, and then you've got your magnesium. Yeah, we love magnesium, it's so great for our nervous system, it's so good for so many things. We always talk about magnesium, don't we? We do. And it could do because it does it it contributes to pretty much our every metabolic function in the body. It's just so important, but it also can assist in regulating that histamine release and degradation, so that breakdown of the histamine.

unknown 16:24

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

And then when paired with the zinc and the copper, um, you know, they they uh uh affected synergistically, they all work synergistically in the body. So that's why it's never we never recommend just taking one single supplement. You know, you really need to know how they all work together. Then you've got your vitamin B6, which is a critical coenzyme in that amino acid metabolism, um, and has been associated with improved Dow activity. Studies are showing. And then we've got our vitamin B12 and our vitamin C, vitamin C especially, also supports that Dow production indirectly through that immune and metabolic um pathway. And vitamin C in particular has natural antihistamine properties and may help reduce histamine levels in circulation. So that's one thing I recommend to uh patients who come to see me who are popping antihistamines, is like, let's try vitamin C. While we're working in the background, getting everything right, that those foundations right, try vitamin C rather than antihistamine. See how and they it works.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

I find it interesting because a lot of the nutrients that you're just talking about, a lot of them um stress plays a huge role um in using them up, which we've talked about before. So quite often the histamine issue, sorry, minus it's being difficult. I'm just gonna pop him on my lap. Uh, a lot of the histamine issues can be uh stress related as well. Like that can be the missing piece. Um it's interesting because stress doesn't just make anxiety feel worse in your body, like it accentuates those messages. It can also influence that histamine. And when you're under chronic stress, um, those cells can become more reactive and more histamines release, and you're chewing through your vitamin C and you're chewing through your magnesium, and you're chewing through your zinc, and all of a sudden you can't sleep, and all of a sudden your gut health declines, and all of a sudden you're so stressed and histamine, they're feeding each other, and the more stressed you are, the more histamine you have, and the more histamine you have, the more stressed you are. Oh my god. See the crazy.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah, it's just one thing. That negative feedback loop just happening, and next thing you know, you're just you're an absolute mess, and you don't know what to do, where to start. Vicious cycle, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:46

It's always a vicious cycle. We've got to jump off the cycle. So, um, we've been talking about the histamine bucket a bit. What is the histamine bucket, Nat?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Um, well, yeah, obviously, it's it's our everyday food, our stress or hormones, our poor sleep, our alcohol consumption, um, gut issues. They're all dropping in the bucket. They're all going into that bucket until it's overflowing. And that's when symptoms appear. And you're pouring all this stuff in, and individually on their own, you know, you think, okay, um, you know, my diet's not great. Oh well, you know, I'm having a little bit more alcohol than I'd like because I'm uh I'm stressed. So I'm dealing with that with, you know, I'm having my glass of wine after work. Helps to calm me down. Um, and then yeah, though those sort of things then lead into hormone issues, gut issues, slip e sleep issues, put them all together, and you've just got chaos going on in your body.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah. So we're not saying to avoid strawberries, don't eat tomatoes, we're saying the accumulation effect. Exactly. Yeah. And I also find like this is something I mentioned at the start that I find um they can kind of cross over. So I've mentioned in a previous podcast that just before I get my beer, my my period, my period, um, period, uh, that I get quite overwhelmed and anxious. And a lot of those anxious, it's like the can't the compass ramps up and it's going spinning around in circles. Um, but I it wasn't until a few years ago or so I realized that it could be also a histamine intolerance because my body's unable to process those histamines as well and it's it's flooded, the bucket's overflowing the week before my period. And normally I can tolerate certain things like chocolate, but all of a sudden, when and let's be honest, so many of us reach for chocolate just before we get our period, as well as red wine, it seems to affect me more. And there is a reason for that. There is a hormone histamine connection going on, isn't there? It's like a two-way relationship.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yep. Yeah, it's bi-directional.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yeah. So you've got the estrogen that stimulates the mast cells, so your estrogens, you know, whoop whoop, uh, and that encourages them to release more histamine, and then histamine influences estrogen, creating a feedback loop in the same cycle going on there. But yeah, that's not all women, but some women, and it's me. Wonderful. I love um because I actually had estrogen dominance.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yeah. I had fibroids, I had a lot of issues with estrogen um when I was still, you know, menstruating in those reproductive years. Um, yeah. So it I wasn't surprised when I found out that connection because I had a lot of histamine issues as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

I'm thinking it would be in the people in my age racket as well with perimenopause because it it happens with estrogen fluctuations. That fluctuation um, yeah, and you're gonna get those histamine symptoms. Um, they're gonna be more noticeable. So you You'll find that all those wonderful foods you used to eat in your 30s. Perhaps you need to switch off the red wine and the aged cheese for a little bit or just limit. I hate telling people to limit, but if you genuinely can't sleep, it could be a reason going on there. Um yeah, like flushing, hot flushes can. I find some women that would come to me for hot flushes in their 40s and 50s, that they would happen after they have a glass of red wine. Isn't that interesting? 100%. Yeah. And then when we remove the red wine, they'd be like, or even now.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

I mean itchy. I don't drink a lot. Yeah, but I'll know if I'm under a lot of stress and I'm not really uh, you know, really supporting myself, you know, I'm not doing what I, you know, I'm not practicing what I preach. And then I'll have a glass of wine. My biggest symptom, and it always was, you know, even you know, back in the day, back in when I did have severe anxiety, was itchy skin. That's the first thing I ask women now when they come in to see me, especially at the tops of the arms. If I, you know, if you go to bed and you notice that your arms are itchy, especially it could be itchy anywhere, but especially the upper arm. Um, because and and there's a reason for that. Um, I'll go into it in a second, but that's like, ah, that's a hist that that's possibly a histamine thing. So I notice now if I drink wine within half an hour, if I'm scratching, I'm like, ah, hang on, I need to go back into my gut. Like, I'm my body is giving me those early signals that something's going on. And the reason why the itchy skin, especially at the top of the arms, is because um, you know, when when the histamine levels are spiking, it triggers that inflammatory response, and that stimulates our nerve endings and causes localized blood vessels to actually leak. I know, think about that, which results in our redness and the swelling and the intense itching. So you're thinking more of that intense histamine um reaction.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

That's what's going on. Redness, flushing, all the things.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah, but the top of itching now is a common stop itching. You may go itchy. Power of suggestion, but the top of the arms are common sides for that, those flares because there is a denser concentration of mast cells um or an underlying skin sensitivity. So mast cells are more concentrated in our upper arms. I found that really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Oh, you know, that's interesting because when my son was younger, he was obsessed with cherry tomatoes. You had to hide them from him. He would eat a whole pun and he just loved them. And he used to get really itchy in his upper arms and like redness. I often wonder whether that was from the tomatoes. Come to think of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

It was. Oh, it's funny. Like, do you have itchy upper arms when you go to bed at night? And they're like, Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Yeah. Let's look at the histamine. Like you're a you're a fortune teller and you know things. They're like, oh my gosh, you can see into my soul. Um, yeah. So your histamine bucket is usually, let's imagine your histamine bucket's usually sitting around 70% most days. You're like, yeah, I've got this. I can have my wine and my chocolate and my aged cheese. I'm fine. Um, it's manageable, but the week before your period, perhaps your hormones are changing. That's gonna add another 20%. Then you have a glass of wine, you're eating leftovers. And I was actually doing a bit of research before, and you can't like if you're if you live off leftovers, heating it up doesn't kill the histamine levels. Like they actually sometimes increase histamine when you heat them up. I know everyone's like, but this is how I live my life. I'm gonna have to cook a new meal every day. Um, you're stressed from work, and suddenly the bucket starts overflowing, you get home, um, and all of a sudden all those symptoms appear. Mmm, if you're driving along and thinking, wow, that's me. Um who should think about this? I'm thinking people who notice symptoms after wine and in leftovers, um fever season. Yep. The itchy arms at night. Yeah, the itchy arms around hormones, fluctuations, uh, people with gut issues. So if you're known to have gut issues, check out your histamine levels. Uh, what are you doing? If you take an antihistamine and all your symptoms reduce, like that's a clear sign something's going on there. Maybe you took an antihistamine just after you ate a pint of strawberries. Oh, maybe you went to the strawberry farm and you overdid it on the strawberries. I've done that before. Oopsie. Um yeah, but yeah, not everyone with anxiety has histamine issues, as you were saying, and not everyone with histamine issues has anxiety. So it's it's worth exploring it though, booking in with a practitioner to really go into the depths of that to see whether the pattern fits. Don't go home and just start treating yourself with it and with histamine intolerance, because it may not be that. What are some practical takeaways we can give to our audience, Nat? If they're driving along and they're thinking, holy crap, my arm's itchy. I don't know if it's the power-up suggestion or it's those strawberries I ate. What can they do?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Exactly. Well, you know, become a detective in your own life. So notice these patterns, the things that we've mentioned, maybe keep a symptom and food diary. So that's the first thing I always ask my patients to do. And the first thing they when they come into my um clinic, they do a seven-day food and mood diary. Um, but and it also goes into you know the gut, the how they're pooping, all those sorts of things. Um, and maybe support your gut health, you know, look at the foods, maybe try eliminating a couple of the foods, see if it does help. Um, big one, as we all say, manage your stress levels. Um, you know, and but also as as I mentioned before, you don't need to um eliminate these foods forever. Even if you come and see someone like us in our clinics, we love it. It's not a forever elimination, it's just taking that flame away from the open wound, which is continuously, you know, creating this issue while we do the the deeper healing work of the gut, regulating the hormones, reducing the stress, so lifestyle. Yes, and then and then you we slowly reintroduce those foods back again. You're like, you know, like we said, you could try it yourself, but it's really hit and miss. It's like throwing spaghetti at the wall. If you're already suffering from overwhelming anxiety, uh, we don't recommend you do this. Seek that proper guidance from a professional health practitioner.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yes, all the things, absolutely. And if you're not sure how to manage your stress, I mean, go back and listen to some of our other podcasts where we pretty much talk about it in every podcast, don't we? Yeah, we do talk about stress. Ugh, it's um part and pass of life. We can't all go and sit on an island or do nothing. I wish that'd be nice. It'd be nice. I get bored after a while. I need to be productive in some way. I'd be building a little hut. Um do you want to throw a reflective question out to our audience?

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Sure. So if you looked back over the last few weeks, have you ever noticed anxiety tends to appear after certain foods, during allergy season, after poor sleep, just before menstruation, or following periods of high stress? Could your body be trying to show you a pattern rather than simply giving you a diagnosis? And could it be your histamine bucket is actually overflowing?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yes. I'm reflecting on that. I've definitely overflown the bucket when I went away on holidays, that's for sure. Too many wine tastings and cheeses. Do like cheeses.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

I had a good time. But you but you also have the tools being a nutritious to be able to Yeah, I was aware of what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Let's be honest. I'm not guilt, I'm guilty. Guilty as charged. Um you all are at some points. We're human. I enjoyed it. It was wonderful. It was a wonderful histamine holiday. You filled your histamine filled holiday. Your other buckets, though, didn't it? I did. I damaged one bucket. And then yeah, if only the overflow would go out into the world and not into my body. Um anyway, uh, yeah, at the anxiety compass, we believe anxiety isn't always something to silence. It can be something to understand. Sometimes your compass is pointing towards a difficult conversation, and sometimes it's pointing towards burnout, and sometimes it's pointing towards your physiology. There's just so many things that this compass can be pointing at, Nat. Your body has many ways of asking for attention before it even shouts. Is it histamine? This week, instead of fighting your symptoms, I encourage you to get curious about them and ask yourself why pat what patterns am I noticing? What might my body be trying to communicate? Because the anxiety compass isn't trying to convince you that you're broken, it's trying to point you back to your true north. And that begins with curiosity, not fear. Not fear, Nat. Not fear. So many of us are living in fear. Do you have anything else you want to add, or we're we're wrapping up?

SPEAKER_00 31:19

I think we should leave it there. Let's wrap it up. I think we did. That was a good little deep dive into a semi-deep dive into histamine and anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Now I'm gonna go and eat some strawberries and have a glass of wine. No, I'm not probably won't touch them today. All right. 10 a.m. in the morning. We need to have a talk, Sonny, after we're gonna. I know we'll catch up. Not today, my histamine buckets nearly at the brim. Thanks for joining us on the anxiety compass. If you love this episode, share it with a friend who needs a little laugh and low calm. We'll see you in the next one. Keep following your true mom. Disclaimer time. Sammy and Natalie may be clinical nutritionists, but we're not your personal doctors. What you hear is for learning and laughing, not diagnosing or prescribing. If things feel bigger than you, call your doctor or the local support line or reach out to a qualified health professional and