I am writing a post about B vitamins and their relationship to inflammation, histamine intolerance, and hot flashes, but stopped to put this post up first. In my quest to understand the connection I believe exists between supporting the hypothalamus with vitamin B1 to help eliminate hot flashes, I’ve discovered many things along the way. One of them is about my beloved olive oil.
In short, I got curious if olive oil is rich in B vitamins. I was looking for an additional link between it and my control over histamine intolerance thinking I would find it was rich in B’s. But what I stumbled over was even more exciting for me.
On the World’s Healthiest Foods site , a site I have valued for years for it’s thorough investigations into what makes certain foods healthy, was a new explanation as to why olives are so valuable for allergies.
This is the paragraph from the link I’ve provided:
In traditional herbal medicine practices, preparations from olives and olive leaves have often been used in treatment of inflammatory problems, including allergy-related inflammation. New research may help explain how olives work to provide us with anti-inflammatory benefits, especially during circumstances involving allergy. Olive extracts have now been shown to function as anti-histamines at a cellular level. By blocking special histamine receptors (called H1 receptors), unique components in olive extracts may help to lessen a cell’s histamine response. Because histamine is a molecule that can get overproduced in allergy-related conditions and can be a key player in the inflammatory process, it’s likely that the anti-inflammatory benefits we get from olives involve this anti-histamine pathway. It’s also possible that olives may have a special role to play as part of an overall anti-allergenic diet.
If you are up on your vocabulary, the blocking of the H1 receptors is huge! I knew it. My previous theories about olive oil were based solely on their polyphenols. This goes one step further to validate what I’ve known all along: olive oil was key to my controlling, if not healing, my histamine intolerance. And if you remember, I also took olive leaf extract twice a day during the acute stage of my intolerance. I still have it in the house and take it occasionally when I think I need it.
This time last year I was coming to the end of my itching and suffering. And I credited olive oil for a great deal of my progress. Even to this day I put a tablespoon of olive oil in my smoothies every morning. And I still use it on my skin as a moisturizer.
I am thrilled to be able to share this information this morning. I’m going to go out later today and buy a bag-load of olives and eat them with abandon every day!
I am also so excited about what else I’ve discovered about what I think could be key to eliminating hot flashes. I was up half the night tossing and turning writing a post in my head. There is a huge connection between the hypothalamus, homocysteine, histamine intolerance, estrogen withdrawal, inflammation, and B vitamins. I spent three hours last night chasing the idea of elevated homocysteine around the internet. And it all started when I was researching the Asian diet and white rice…don’t ask.
I’ll have it all for you this weekend. In the meantime, go eat some olives!
Dale
The menopause histamine connection 
Good to know Dale! Upon your suggestion I’ve applying olive oil to my skin daily since I don’t tolerate oils in my diet very well but maybe I should give eating olives a try as well!!
I love olives so any excuse to eat them is fine with me!
Maybe try the olive leaf extract too. I noticed a difference right away when I started using it.You can get it as a tincture or a capsule. I use the Gaia brand capsules. They’re hideously expensive but well worth it. They retail for 26 bucks in a store but you can buy them on Amazon for 14 I think.
This sounds really interesting! Good work! I had no idea olive oil blocked H1 receptors! Yay! I have been using olive oil on my skin for 30 years. I have not taken any extract before, nor do I eat a lot of olive oil or olives. I think I need to check this out. I wondered about eating them as they are usually in some kind of vinegar?
Thank you for your continued research.
It’s new information I think. I never once saw it last year in all my research. That’s why I was so excited to see it this morning.
Olives are usually in brine which is salt not vinegar.
Just a question…olives and colored oils are on the restricted list. Is that because olives have histamines, or stimulate the release of histamine? Or could it be what they are packed in?
I don’t know actually I’d have to check. But even if they’re on a list it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t eat them. You’d have to try and see if you react. I actually never had an issue. And I’d be surprised to see them on a list to not eat them considering they can block H1 receptors. So maybe it’s what they swim in. Wash them off and try one.
Capers also have the highest amount of quercetin per pound than any other food but they are usually in vinegar. I’d just pull them out and wash them off. Sometimes you can find them in brine also.
Dale you can lead a horse to water but not make it drink!
Vit Bs and C and Zinc and copper are what helps the transmitters. A bit about Vit B when we get a clearing out of the bowel, whether it is from something we eat, like before I knew the hives were internal and caused by Irritable bowel, it did not occur to me until some years later I needed to regenerate the B in my stomach and intestines. That is why the bad guys take over and then women suffer from THRUSH. Women then go to get an antibiotic and the situation intensifies. If only they knew the importance of Vit B and how Vit B is created in the gut half of female problems would be better managed.
Too many men and women rely on supplements, nothing can compare to fresh vegetables, but then we live in a society here in the Western world and I think now in China and Eastern society too, where a fast meal is easier. But if one takes into consideration the after affects of a ‘fast meal’ is it really fast? Look at the inconvenience of the after affect.
In the long run it is cheaper and we live longer eating fresh. When I see the sights of some women and men who are slowly killing themselves with high GI it makes me shake my head. Today my 42 year old son is living proof of this. Aged 36 he complained he was unwell, Like any mum I said to him he should watch his diet he was eating too much fatty foods/fast foods and drinking too much sweet fizzie drinks. [one of the best things for the body is plain water] I cannot stress that enough. My husband and I were overseas and unbeknown to us he went blind in one eye. It was only later that I found out when I collected him from the airport when he visited us, and I made the comment you look really healthy Michael that he told us he had become very ill while we were overseas. He had gone blind in one eye that scared the heck out of him. Cut a long story short he had to have his Gall Bladder removed and he was diagnosed with Diabetes. Today my 6.4 little boy is skinny, his doctor put him on a low GI diet and told him to eat fresh foods and he is down to 80gs from 101kgs. Looks much better, feels much better. He has reversed his blindness in time so today he drives without glasses, due to his reversal of his food intake. But this only is possible if the diet is reversed asap. Amazing how the body can react.
Today I take a Vit B6 only once a fortnight now, I take Pro biotic a couple of times a week, this keeps my Vit B levels in check. Vit B12 is also good as one gets older but these need to be taken WITH FOOD. Vit C I take at least 2 x 250mg a day and then the odd multi vitamen when I feel tired. Zinc is important, but if you do not need it, it will be toxic to our bodies. Best see your GP if you are having problems with skin infections that will not heal or cuts that will not heal, the body may be low in Zinc.
As many servings of vegetables and fruit I eat in a day, I still find it hard to get the daily requirements for certain vitamins. Combine that with the fact the soil is so depleted of nutrients in the US, I think supplements are a good way to support healthy eating.
I’m hoping when I get through the whole menopause thing I’ll be able to stop all the supplements.
In the meantime, I dehydrate my own fresh turmeric and ginger and make my own capsules. And I’ll take the Red Star until I feel I don’t need it anymore.
I have to say I had only one hot flash today. That’s practically a miracle after having several a day for months.
I’m glad to hear your son is also on a healing path. That had to be quite upsetting to see him half blind and so ill.
Thanks for the tip to eat olives! I had given up on canned/jarred foods. I gave olives a try (twice) and both times I had no histamine symptoms! YAY :).
Something tasty to eat! Chop them up and put them in everything!
Hi, I had hysterectomy, menopause, adrenal fatigue, screaming ears when I eat vinegar, and tested allergic to yogurt. I need to follow your blog. Just realized yesterday,I could be histamine intolerant. I’m afraid of probiotics now. I don’t know how to follow blogs.tho 😦
There’s a button on the right of the page you can click to follow the blog. But even if you don’t follow me you can read all of my posts. Just head over to the current thoughts page and start reading from the index of posts. You’ll find all the best information there. And take a look at the supplements tab too.
Dale
Do you have a particular brand of olive oil that you prefer?
I use Colavita. You can feel the burn so you know it’s high in polyphenols. There’s a lot of fake oil out there.
I have been taking approx 4 dessert spoons of extra virgin olive for approx 2 months now and have reduced the hives by about 90 per cent. I have no food tolerance problems anymore and importantly can drink red wine. Hurrah!!
Wow that’s amazing to hear! Thanks for sharing.
Dale
I just started taking olive leaf capsules and I haven’t had any seasonal allergy symptoms this spring. I worked outside in my garden all Saturday afternoon and only sneezed twice. Usually after working in my garden I would be miserable all night with a stuffy nose, headache and generally feeling achy but thanks to olive leaf capsules, not this time.
They really are that good!! Thanks for sharing.
Dale
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Thank you
I have recently become histamine intolerant and I am curious why olives are on the NO NO list and I can have olive oil. Does the process of extracting the oil remove the histamines? I will try anything to make it better. Do you use EVOO? Thank you
Olives are often in brine or vinegar. It’s not the olive themselves that are high in histamine. I use extra virgin olive oil. I like Colavita.
Dale