I was just browsing a search engine and found this info on lots of sites, that people with high histamine, or "Histadelia" should avoid b12 and folic acid. Anyways my nasal allergies have been terrible for the last few days, nose clogging at nighttime, (housebound right now, so have not been outdoors no outdoor allergy exposure) and I just re-started taking the Methylfolate and MethylB12.
Now it could be a complete coincidence but I was just wondering if increased allery symptoms have been seen in other people? Is it temporary- like my body trying to get rid of excess histamine? If this is the case, is there anything I do to help? Already taking antihistamines and nasal allergy spray. Thanks.
Hi, Moon.
The concept of "histadelia" comes from the work of the late Carl Pfieffer, which is now carried on by William Walsh. High histamine occurs in people who are getting folic acid as their main source of folate, but are not able to convert it readily to the active, chemically reduced forms of folate. I think this is due to having inherited a slow version of the DHFR (dihydrofolate reductase) enzyme, which normally carries out this reaction. It has been found that the activity of this reaction varies a great deal among different people (by a factor of 5, or 500%!)
Folate normally impacts the degradation of histamine levels in two ways. One is that the normal breakdown of histidine, from which histamine is made, requires tetrahydrofolate, a reduced form of folate. Deficiency in this is what accounts for elevated Figlu (formiminoglutamate) on urine organic acids tests, such as the Genova Diagnostics Metabolic Analysis Profile.
The other way folate impacts histamine levels is that the intracellular breakdown of histamine is carried out by a methyltransferase reaction, and this depends on having adequate methylation capacity, which in turn depends on having enough methylfolate, another reduced form of folate.
For a person with this DHFR problem, taking folic acid will just add more inactive folate, and its absorption will compete with absorption of the active forms of folate, such as are found in natural (not folic acid fortified) foods. Nowadays it is possible to obtain methylfolate as a supplement (unlike at the time Pfieffer did his work) as L5-methyltetrahydrofolate (Metafolin, FolaPro, MethylMate B, Deplin (by prescription)), or the racemic 5-MTHF supplements.
So the problem in histadelia is not caused by too much B12 or folate, but not enough of the proper forms. Folic acid should be avoided particularly by people who have elevated histamine. It is not the best form for other people, either, but can be used by most to make the active forms
There is an over-the-counter synthetic form of the normal extracellular enzyme that breaks down histamine (diamine oxidase, an enzyme that requires copper and B6). This form is called Daosin, and is produced by Sciotec in Austria. DAOSiN is also available under the brand name DIASIN in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Histame in the USA and Canada.
It can help in lowering histamine until the folate status and the methylation cycle function can be improved.
Best regards
Rich