Antihistamine Tincture Recipe

Herbal Support for Seasonal Allergies & Histamine Intolerance

Feb 24, 2022

Seasonal allergies have been the bane of fair weather existence for many folks throughout time but an emerging and evolving area of discovery is Mast Cell Activation Syndrome & Histamine Intolerance. There is still much to learn but these latter health issues go beyond typical allergy symptoms and can often behave more like an auto-immune disease. There are numerous root causes for each, from gut imbalances, hormonal issues, stress, and the list goes on. Sorting through to discover what causes flare-ups (before you can even think about the source) is disheartening.

As a homesteader, it’s even worse because the typical, real food, homestead diet can make people with these conditions quite ill. Fermented fruits & vegetables, sourdough, cultured dairy, aged or cured meat, and more are all foods that can cause your body to have a histamine response. If your histamine “bucket” is full, symptoms follow, and the list of possible symptoms is long.

For my husband, this manifests as a painful, burning, seeping, red rash that begins on his hands and forearms and ends up spreading to his face. We’ve spent the past decade trying to figure out what is the cause of this rash that typically rears its head around Memorial Day and goes away in the winter. Allergen testing and eliminating culprits have been fruitless endeavors thus far.

The past year, we’ve been exploring whether Histamine Intolerance is the cause but, in a good manly fashion, he’s not at all diligent about sticking to elimination diets so it continues to remain a strong suspicion.

What we do know is that when he begins taking an Antihistamine Tincture a couple of months before the trees start dusting the earth with their pollen in spring his allergy symptoms & summer rash aren’t nearly as bothersome.

A Bit About Histamine

Histamine is a chemical neurotransmitter made by the body whose job is to get rid of allergens through an immune response. Your symptoms are an inflammatory response from the histamine release.

My understanding is that histamine can cause problems in the body in several ways.

Histamine production when exposed to a trigger.
Enzymes (DAO & HNMT) break down histamines in your system. They can be blocked from doing their job or your body may not produce enough.
Mast cells can be triggered to release histamine
Histamine receptors are blocked (each of the 4 receptors affects a different area and causes different symptoms.)

Antihistamine medications may give you relief from symptoms but they don’t clear the histamine from the body. They basically just dam them up for a time. So the best course of action is to support your body through allergy season so it can do its job well. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, learning about a low histamine diet may help you keep your bucket empty during the pollen season.

So considering this, we primarily have 3 issues at work here: immune response, inflammation, & histamine malfunction of some sort.

This Antihistamine Tincture contains herbs that address each concern.

Nettles (leaves) - anti-inflammatory; antihistamine by stabilizing mast cells
Goldenrod (flowers) - constituent flavinoid quercetin reduces the release of histamine; repairs the gut lining; relieves mucousy allergy symptoms
Elder (berries) - immune stimulant; anti-inflammatory
Astragalus (root) - immunomodulatory
Chinese Skullcap (root) - anti-inflammatory; prevents histamine release

Other herbs I have considered adding are:

Rose Hips- antihistamine, immune support (highest source of vitamin C native to Ohio)
Licorice (root)- immunomodulatory & gut mucilage
Local Bee Pollen and/or Propolis

At the very least I would prepare this tincture with the nettles, goldenrod, and elderberry to cover your bases. We have tried just the nettle tincture and the addition of goldenrod took an improvement in symptoms to the next level, so don’t skip it!

You’ll notice this tincture takes a long time to prepare because the primary herbs in the formula are from different seasons. If you don’t want to wait for the benefits, perhaps prepare 2 nettle tinctures in the spring: one that will be ready for you during ragweed season and the other you can use to make the big guns for next year.