Boost Good Gut Bacteria Without High Histamine Ferments or Probiotic Supplements

Close up shot of a mans torso. He has a painting of intestines on his body.

Getting back on track after a major fall off the good health wagon is usually a bit of a slog. But it turns out there’s a really easy way to reboot our gut bacteria after the holidays, a few rounds of antibiotics, or just generally not looking after ourselves. With fermented foods off the menu for most with histamine intolerance, two new studies offer a brilliant alternative to boosting our good gut bacteria naturally, without any histamine triggering supplements. All references at the bottom of post.

SCIENTISTS MAKE GUT BACTERIA BREAKTHROUGH

These two studies, one on mice and another on humans, were designed to isolate exercise-induced gut bacteria changes from diet and antibiotic use, as well as other factors that could affect the gut bacteria.

In one study, scientists transplanted poop from mice who were exercised or sedentary, into mice lacking gut bacteria. The gut bacteria of the mice getting the fecal transplant mirrored their donor’s exercised or sedentary gut bacteria. Mice that benefited from the exercised mouse gut bacteria had a higher percentage of butyrate bacteria. Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that promotes healthy intestines and mediates inflammation. Though you can supplement this fatty acid, moderate exercise may be a better bet for those of us with histamine intolerance and mast cell activation. Here’s why.

HUMAN TRIALS BACK ANIMAL STUDIES

The second study scientists followed changes in the microbiome of people as they made the transition from couch potato to exercisers and then back again. Patients were put on 30-60 minutes of cardio exercise just three times a week for a month and a half. Good gut bacteria that fights inflammation went up, and then down again when test subjects stopped exercising.

While the researchers found heavier subjects had a greater increase in gut bacteria, exercise is in my view an integral part of the healing histamine process. That’s why I include it in my 28 day histamine reset.

BUT EXERCISE MAKES ME SICK, WHY?

If you’ve had problems exercising in the past, it’s likely that your inflammation bucket was just too full to add anymore in.

Exercise causes a temporary spike in inflammation of up to seventy two hours, before having an all-over anti-inflammatory effect that’s wonderful for us. If you’re already spilling over inflammation-wise and your histamine symptoms are going bananas (histamine pun intended), adding that extra three days of inflammation as your muscles heal themselves, might cause further symptoms of inflammation.

Over the years I found research on the right type of exercise and how often to do it. You can read that post here.

I REALLY CAN’T EXERCISE, WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?

While exercise and diet have managed my gut issues, there is a liquid called Restore by Zach Bush that has some really interesting research behind it. The totally preservative free liquid has been shown to tighten the T junctions that keep bacteria and germs in our stomach away from our blood stream, which is what leaky gut is all about.

Eating prebiotic fiber has worked really well for me. In particular chicory root is an excellent good bacteria food that also happens to have antihistamine properties. You’ll find a post on that here. And here’s a four week course & meal plan to take the stress out of healing histamine.

———— REFERENCES ————

Jacob M. Allen, Lucy J. Mailing, Grace M. Niemiro, Rachel Moore, Mark D. Cook, Bryan A. White, Hannah D. Holscher, Jeffrey A. Woods. Exercise Alters Gut Microbiota Composition and Function in Lean and Obese Humans. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2017; 1 DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001495
J. M. Allen, L. J. Mailing, J. Cohrs, C. Salmonson, J. D. Fryer, V. Nehra, V. L. Hale, P. Kashyap, B. A. White, J. A. Woods. Exercise training-induced modification of the gut microbiota persists after microbiota colonization and attenuates the response to chemically-induced colitis in gnotobiotic mice. Gut Microbes, 2017; 1 DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2017.1372077
ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171204144757.htm.

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Welcome!

Yasmina was an award-winning broadcast journalist with a decade of experience covering war zones for CNN and the BBC. She devoted her journalism skills to researching and writing about histamine. Click here to learn about her. Each post is carefully and fully referenced with the latest scientific research. Not sure where to start? Here’s a four week meal plan and overall Histamine Reset.