03/23/2025
Have you ever tried to get to the root of a symptom and didn’t know where to start? The histamine bucket theory provides a helpful framework for understanding how various factors contribute to histamine levels in the body and the effect that has on overall health.
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The idea starts with a metaphorical bucket which represents your body. Different foods, activities, stress, and environmental exposures add to the contents of your bucket. If your body can’t break down histamine quickly enough, the bucket can overflow, causing a wide range of symptoms. While a certain allergen or food sensitivity may seem like the problem because it’s what’s causing your reaction, it may just be the last thing to drop in your bucket, making the whole thing spill over.
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Once your bucket spills over, you can start experiencing symptoms like headaches, digestive issues, anxiety, skin reactions, nasal congestion, fatigue, joint pain, etc.
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For example, food sensitivities usually develop due to a leaky gut. Anytime we eat a food that we’re sensitive to, our bodies make histamine as part of the immune response. The inflammation that is developed in the gut impairs enzymes that break down histamine. This results in malabsorption which leads to lower levels of nutrients which inhibits processes like methylation which is essential for clearing histamine. See how easily these drops in the bucket add up? This is one way your histamine bucket can fill up, resulting in histamine overload.
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What’s the solution? We have to dump the bucket.
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This is possible by lowering the level of histamine from both sides – what’s coming in (limiting high histamine food/drinks, reducing stressors, chemicals, avoiding fragrances, using an air purifier) and what’s going out (supporting your body in breaking down, detoxing, and clearing histamine). When you’re able to balance out your histamine levels and dump your bucket, you’ll be amazed at how other symptoms improve as well!
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