Tonight I found two gems that I wish to share

“The major effects of stress on gut physiology include:

1. alterations in gastrointestinal motility;
2. increase in visceral perception;
3. changes in gastrointestinal secretion;
4. increase in intestinal permeability;
5. negative effects on regenerative capacity of gastrointestinal mucosa and mucosal blood flow; and
6. negative effects on intestinal microbiota.

Mast cells (MC) are important effectors of brain-gut axis that translate the stress signals into the release of a wide range of neurotransmitters and proinflammatory cytokines,”[2011]

Histamine released from Mast Cells cause many of the symptoms of a Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction. So I was about to do a quick review of PubMed for candidates that reduced Mast Cell release:

• Lactobacillus GG (LGG) [2014] – strong impact – Commercial Probiotic: Culturelle
• L. salivarius HMI001 [2012]
• L. casei Shirota (LCS)  [2012]
• Lactobacillus plantarum depends on the specific strain — if not known, avoid
  • LS/07 CCM7766 [2015] – moderate impact
  • L. plantarum WCFS1 – INCREASES Mast Cell release [2012]

I have an ongoing interest in this area, and this is a followup to my Jan 20th post dealing with Histamine Producing Bacteria and their treatment. In that article I found that Cinnamon, Clove, Sage were good candidates for reducing Proteus morganii  (All species) which is likely an overgrowth in sensitive individuals (To confirm that, we will need a population of histamine-sensitive people getting their gut bacteria sequence).

When I did from googling on those and histamines, I found that they were frequently referred to as histamine liberators [Amy Burkhart, M.D.]. That description is probably very correct — the histamine is being released from dead and dying Proteus morganii.

Unfortunately, some cases writers deem them to be histamine producers [ref, ref] which clouds the issue for sufferers and may prevent them from being released from this problem!

Die-Off or the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction

Wikipedia has a good summary of the “Herx”. I have experienced this on several occasions and actually view it as an indicator that I am taking an effective herb, spice or antibiotic for what was making me sick. The Herx stopped with remission. By moderating the dosage, I could tune the herx to last only a few hours (or at night, all night long) – with the result that after the herx ended, I felt better.

• “plasma histamine concentrations rose appreciably before and during the clinical phase of the reaction.”[1985 Full Text]

So the question then becomes one of moderating the histamine release. I recently came across G. Pelletier’s “Naturally Occurring Antihistamines in Body Tissue” in Histamine II and Anti-Histaminics Handbuch der experimentellen Pharmakologie / Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology Volume 18 / 2, 1978, pp 369-380

He found that arginine – an amino acid, had significant impact and was the easiest to obtained of items listed. Interestingly, I found that arginine was usually associated with histamine in most online patient-written articles and recommended to be avoided. In other articles, I found that histidine and arginine tend to bind to each other (potentially reducing the risk of histidine being converted to histamine?). Going to PubMed, I found

• “Our findings reveal that malarial-parasite-infected mice, like humans, develop L-arginine deficiency, which is associated with intestinal mastocytosis, elevated levels of histamine, and enhanced intestinal permeability.” [2013], so arginine deficiency and elevated histamine appears associated. And supplementation can reduce it.
• “Arginine and glutamine attenuate IgE-dependent human mast cell activation” [2013]
• “while the histamine response in cells cultured in a high Arginine concentration was suppressed” [2013]