Thanks to one of my readers, I’ve started researching more about olive oil’s role in healing my histamine intolerance. It’s such a large puzzle and there are so many pieces to put together that it’s hard to know which theory is right or if all my theories are right. It’s usually not just one thing anyway.
In yoga, when I pulled a muscle in my back, my yoga teacher asked what I was doing before the injury. Her thinking was it wasn’t reaching to touch my toes in class, it was the vacuuming, the carrying heavy grocery bags, the biking, and the running in the days leading up to the muscle pull.
I’ve even said I think I’ve always suffered from a mild form of intolerance but just never knew it. So it built up over time until menopause, in my case, was the tipping point.
The link that Dotslady sent is really interesting when it comes to what effect olive oil might have on a person with histamine intolerance. I was initially focusing on what effect olive oil had on the hormones DHEA and cortisol. This article focuses on yet another system that olive oil effects: the intestinal system.
DAO is an enzyme that helps break-down histamine. If you’re lacking this enzyme, which is produced in your intestines, your body doesn’t handle the histamine in foods properly and your histamine bucket tips over. This article in the Examiner is very concise about DAO’s role in controlling histamine. I hate the name of the article though. Food Allergies may be simply a DAO deficiency. Simply? Really? There’s nothing simply about it. But I digress…
If a person has a slightly lower level of DAO, or has eaten too many foods with high levels of histamine that exceed their enzyme’s capacity to break down the excess quickly enough, signs of histamine excess result. And we all know what that means. For me, itching, insomnia, hot flashes…
So then what does olive oil do? In the studies I’ve linked to, it was found to increase intestinal lymph DAO. To put it simply, it is my understanding, after reading a few medical abstracts, that if you are low on DAO, olive oil helps make some.
If you like reading medical abstracts, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’s site has some great explanations of DAO and the details of histamine intolerance.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep using olive oil to cook with and make salad dressings, supplement with it, and apply it to my body. I know it’s helped me heal. Why, well there could be more than one reason. And if I ever figure it out I’ll let ya know!
The menopause histamine connection 
Interesting!! I see there is a DAO supplement on Amazon.com. Has anyone tried it? I am adding the olive oil in and will report back. Ate some high histamine foods over the weekend and had a bad day today. I have to remember it is accumulative. Today I could not put anything in my mouth without a reaction. This is scary. Susan
Well, you do learn to not go off the diet too much because it’s not worth the fight getting your level back down.
But I don’t see it as scary. I think of it more as a challenge. And in the end you eat healthier because you wind up staying away from processed foods and less than healthy choices.
I’ve read mixed reviews on the DAO enzyme. It’s synthesized from porcine livers so I won’t try it as I try to keep to veganism. Maybe someone else can chime in.
Hang in there Susan. It’s a path to travel. It doesn’t happen overnight, but healing will happen if you stick with it. Knowledge is power!
Last night I took the tsp. of Olive oil and also put some on my arms and legs. I also took 1tbsp of Raw Manuka Honey and also 2 oz of Lily of the Valley Aloe Vera Juice ( inner fillet ) and this morning I woke up feeling the best I have felt since all of this has started with a normal appetite and digestion. I put a tablespoon in my smoothie this morning as well. I am so excited to feel so much better. Now to be honest i do not know what worked?? LOL I used three different products that have antibacterial effects. I am going to continue this routine and report back. You may be on to a miracle. Susan
I am so glad you’ve reported back and on those ingredients specifically. I’ve been using a mixture of olive oil, honey, and lemon juice before bedtime and think it works even better than just the olive oil.
So if you look at both our concoctions, they share olive oil and honey. And that’s what I had just started to research. The honey. It’s a powerful anti inflammatory among other things.
I used that recipe as a cough medicine a couple of months ago and realized that’s when I really started to feel better so just in the last week I went back to it.
For me it’s like my body goes quiet. It’s hard to explain. But I feel really different.
I am so happy I was standing next to my phone when I was alerted to your post. I’m encouraged by the couple of women who have used olive oil and gotten similar results to me.
Please keep me posted! This is really exciting.
Yep, scary stuff-lately reacting to most stuff I put in my mouth-
Have been trying Roobios tea-helps a little-
Hello All,
Thanks to the info here on olive oil, I have been using more of it in my diet. (As of yet, not on my skin because of living in the country, where the bugs already think that I am some sort of personal buffet for them. I have to use tea tree oil to keep them at bay.) ;-P
Olive oil and coconut oils are the only two oils I keep in the house. Due to other factors, however, I had previously focused more on coconut more than olive, but now I’m using more olive oil to see how it helps me.
For example, the other day I used a lot of olive oil in some roasted potatoes (instead of coconut, or none at all). Potatoes, thankfully, are easy for me tolerate, but even so I noticed a big difference with the addition of the olive oil. As I continue to use more, I hope I see the healing you all have experienced.
By the way, coconut oil has antibacterial properties.
(Later, I’ll do some research on coconut oil and healing low histamine.)
In any case, I very much appreciate what you’ve all written about olive oil here, and so much more.
To our continued healing. 😀
My son has severe eczema, which seems to improve on a low-histamine diet. I have been avoiding olive oil because it is supposedly high in histamine. Do you think that’s not true, or do the benefits of olive oil outweigh the histamine contents?
Ness,
I’ve read conflicting opinions about the histamine content in olive oil. I think it’s one of those things you have to try to see if you react to it. Maybe you can try putting a little olive oil on a small patch of your son’s skin and see if there is any reaction before even trying to ingest it. If there is no reaction, try a larger patch until maybe you decide he can have a teaspoon.
In my early days of trying it on my skin, it still did make me itch a little, but only for a minute or so. I felt a positive difference using it so immediately that it was worth it to try it again and again. To this day, I still credit olive oil for the bulk of my healing. And I still use it on my skin and supplement with it.
My legs were a mess with bumps and red patches and scaley skin before I started using it. I still can’t believe how good they look now and how itch free I am.
My friend’s son had terrible eczema when he was little, twenty five years ago, and she used to dress his skin in crisco and then wrap him in gauze and put him in pajamas. She said it really worked wonders. I’ve often thought of doing the same thing only with olive oil, but I never needed to wrap myself up, the application alone worked. I started taking the olive oil as a supplement after I started using it on my skin. I researched it and realized that I was probably getting its benefits through the absorption through my skin and reasoned that I probably could eat it since I wasn’t reacting to it.
So the answer to your question ultimately is that I really don’t know the exact answer to your question. Each person reacts differently. What works for me might just work for your son, or he might react poorly to the olive oil. But what I have learned through this whole thing is that sometimes I have to be willing to suffer the negative effects of something to test the waters.
I knew that if I were going to react I was going to have itching or hot flashes or insomnia, but my life would not be threatened, so I was willing to take a risk here and there to see what worked.
Just the other day I had a piece of chocolate for the first time in six months, not just because I wanted it but because I wanted to see how my body would react to one of the things that made me itch worse than anything. And I am happy to report I did not itch. I had no reaction. I still won’t be eating chocolate like I used to, but now I know if I want to have it every once in a while, I can without dire results.
If you do try the olive oil, I urge you to report back to us as there will be many people on here wanting to know if you’ve found success. Or failure for that matter. All information and results we share help the next person. I don’t get nearly enough feedback.
And as I always like to have a disclaimer, let me just remind you I am not a doctor and am not offering medical advise. You must make informed, educated decisions based on many different resources and research. I am only one opinion.
Heres wishing you and your son health!
DLB
Wow. I am really enjoying and learning here. I’ve always thought my horrible hot flashes that I’ve endured for 11 years were connected to eating but I didn’t know how. When I mentioned that to physicians it was ignored. My worst hot flashes come on about 20 to 30 min after eating and during sleep which I wake up 4 to 10 times a night. I have dry skin but not much itching. HRT Year’s ago, did nothing so went off it and just suffered. Last Sept. I went to a nurse practitioner who specializes in hormones. I’m apparently on the low end of the estrogen spectrum but estrogen dominant. Very low progesterone to estrogen level. I’m on trials of Bioidentical hormones now. No relief yet. Do you think getting the progesterone level higher might lower the histamine response? I must mention my DHEA was very low. I also have suffered from upper digestive issues and on PPI’s for over 15 years. Recently treated for H pylori. I noticed at night I would wake up from a hot flash, sit up and burp. Again hot flash and stomach issue correlation. I would guess histamine intolerance gives you digestive issues? My stomach is much better since irradiating the h pylori but I still get a lot of upper gas. I was low in b12 last Feb. now it’s high from supplements. I just started B6 last week. I will try the nutritional yeast and olive oil. Thank you, thank you. I pray staying away from histamine inducing foods, and your other advice will help. I’m 61 years old. No hot flashes until I stopped my periods so guess this started Post menopausal. Bless you for helping us.
Make sure you search my site for everything I’ve written on olive oil. I think it’s one of the best things to use.
I can’t answer your question on progesterone because I just don’t know.
Thanks for writing. I hope your issues begin to resolve and you get it all under control!
Dale
I was on a bio identical progesterone until about a year ago, I’ve just recently worked out, that did contribute to my histamine symptoms getting much worse.
I love your blog and it makes a lot of sense. Please forgive me I am almost 70 and I have a lot of brain fog. I seem to have missed all the steps that you did to get you well. I really want to do your protocol. Is there somewhere else I can find all of the information. Every good blog and I want to do more reading about your healing.