Hi Hope,
First off, I want to say, "Thank You" for how wonderful and positive and supportive you've been to me for years on here. I appreciate your thoughtfulness so much.
Can I take this conversation in a different direction?
Please, if you can, indulge me for a few minutes.
There are anxieties that don't respond well to traditional medications. We all know that. We know there are people who "light up" at times. I have every belief that everything you are saying is real and true. OK? But what if the root cause of this one is something different?
Have you ever looked at histamine as a neurochemical? It does a lot of wacky things to us.
The stuff I'm going to tell you about is all based on published research I've read over the years. At one time, I did a degree related to advanced sport performance. I was especially interested in the role that inflammation played, both as an adaptive response (making muscles grow stronger) and as an injury response (swelling).
Histamine is an inflammation response, but it also has a lot of effect on the brain.
It's possible to end up in a loop.... Heightened anxiety triggers a stress response which includes mast cells dumping inflammation chemicals, those inflammation chemicals produce responses in the body such as vasodilation, changes in gut motility, sweating, water retention, and other things. IF your liver can't clear those inflammatory chemicals out of your blood in time, the feedback mechanism to your brain begins to light up AGAIN! Think about the panic that sets in as you get sick or injured. Your brain is freaking out because of feedback from your body. Well, it's kinda the same thing.
Histamine produces heightened sensory responses too. High histamine levels are seen in schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, in people who have very vivid dreams (not all of us see color, or feel pain, or smell things in our dreams), in fibromyalgia, in dysautonomia, migraines, and other conditions. Mast cells, which release histamine, are often higher in biopsies in people who have these illnesses. Dr Theoharides at Tusfts University has been saying for years that Fibromyalgia is a misdiagnosed mast cell condition, for example.
People who have dealt with trauma are more prone to heightened inflammation responses, and that includes higher levels of histamine.
But something that was interesting to me was that in double blind studies done on nurses, where a dose of histamine was injected, a large percentage of them responded by having panic attacks. Histamine induces anxiety.
An antihistamine isn't the single best option for treatment though. An antihistamine just blocks the histamine receptors. It's like playing musical chairs.... The blocker gets to the chair first. But then the histamine just floats in the blood until it can attach to another tissue.
A person may need some help breaking it down, and lowering the levels in the blood to begin with.
IDEAS! JUST IDEAS BECAUSE I'M NOT A DOCTOR!!
1. Antihistamines that act on a couple of types of tissues - like gut and sinuses - Pepcid and Benadryl
2. Reduce mast cell responses - magnesium supplements, because magnesium blocks mast cell receptors and keeps them from popping off so much. If magnesium upsets your stomach remember it can be absorbed through your skin, so an epsom salt bath 2x a week can be a big help.
3. Supplemental glutathione, vitamin C, and fish oils - ALL of these help break down histamine and reactive oxygen species that histamine produces.
4. DAO supplements - your body produces DAO to break down histamine. If your DAO or Glutathione levels are lower than normal, a person could possibly have higher levels of circulating histamine because their body just can't get rid of it.
Anyway.... JUST IDEAS.
Love yourself. You're awesome and we appreciate you.
RDMercer