CBD, Women, and Histamines - Nothing to Sneeze At!
The QuickTake
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Do you ever get allergies?
- Can a pet send your sinuses spiraling?
- Does your stomach get upset from beer, fermented food, dairy, or bread?
- Do pollen or other allergens cloud your thought process?
- Do botanicals make your skin crawl?
This article's for you!
Why??
A deafening silence.
That's what we hear in all the discussion of CBD.
In fact, there's a rush to "full-spectrum" CBD which includes a lot of the plant material in the oil.
Umm...we're forgetting one thing.
30-40% of people have problems with allergies be it seasonal or food.
We all know the telltale signs:
- Sneezing
- Watery eyes
- Scratchy throat
- Skin rashes and more
Those are the common ones but there's a host of symptoms that can result from the driver of an allergic reaction.
Okay….they sound an awful like PMS symptoms:
- Headaches
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Brain fog
More on the CBD for PMS here.
Maybe, more importantly, 65% of people who suffer from allergies are women!
Approximately 80% of people with histamine intolerance (the more severe end) are women and most of them over age 40!
Lucky us!
It turns out that progesterone is a huge calming agent for immune response which includes histamine!
Progesterone drops by 50% by age 40.
Why is this and what does the type of CBD we use matter?
Let's get into it!
You have may have an entirely different take on hormones after this.
You may also see your nose clear right up!
Histamine and Estrogen
First, let's get to the bottom of that runny nose.
What's causing all the commotion in the body when we come in contact with pollen, dander, or peanuts!
Histamine!
It's part of our body's immune response system to anything "foreign".
We need it to protect us but occasionally, it might get "overprotective".
If the immune system is on high alert, it can respond to things that aren't dangerous to us.
Doug the Pug for example.
So why are women hit harder by allergies?
Estrogen!!! The opposing force to progesterone. It drives immune response.
Ever notice how your allergies seem to change with your cycle?
There's a direct connection between Estrogen levels and Histamine levels.
If estrogen goes up, histamine goes up.
When estrogen drops after a woman's egg is released, histamine drops.
Interestingly, the body appears to lower its defenses in case there is a viable egg and placenta.
Why?
Maybe to protect a potential placental sac from being attacked by the woman's body.
The sac is actually created by the man's DNA and a woman's body is itching to attack it!
We digress (but it's weirdly interesting, right??)
All that matters for our discussion is that Histamine and Estrogen are intimately tied.
There's a great resource regarding this for women who want to delve deeper:
https://www.larabriden.com/the-curious-link-between-estrogen-and-histamine-intolerance/
This is SOO important for women and important for choosing CBD!
Why??
CBD Full Spectrum versus Isolate
There are lots of options but CBD currently comes in two distinct types.
Full Spectrum and Isolate.
Isolate generally starts from extracting just CBD as a crystal and then infusing it into a base oil (such as olive oil or MCT - a part of coconut oil).
Full-spectrum is more of the original hemp plant with dozens of other substances:
- Other cannabinoids like CBG, CBC, CBN, etc
- Terpenes
- Flavonoids
- Other plant materials
Everyone and their mother sells the "entourage effect" of having the whole plant together.
We generally run for doors when someone touts "synergistic" but more importantly, we're not finding great research that this even exists.
In fact, the original root of the "entourage effect" related to how CBD offset some of the negative effects of THC.
See our article on do you need THC to activate CBD.
The vast majority of the research is on isolated CBD and THC separately (which we don't include since it's psychoactive and builds tolerance).
This makes sense since these two components generally make up 95% of the cannabinoids in the plant.
The issue is that all that "plant material" can cause adverse reactions in people with histamine issues!
No one's talking about that.
We know that CBD by itself is showing promise regarding histamines in research.
CBD has even been shown to prevent mast cells from releasing histamines!
More here.
Again, this is CBD by itself that is being researched.
We're not saying that the other substance in hemp oil doesn't have benefits...it's just not researched well yet.
More importantly for the 30-40% (we think it's higher) and probably 40-60% of women that have histamine issues…
One person's superfood is another person's poison!
Here's an awesome resource on histamines themselves:
https://drjockers.com/suffering-histamine-intolerance/
We know that CBD helps to calm the immune system and histamine is an actor in that system!
We see its positive effect in everything from itching (a direct result of histamine in the skin) to relaxing blood vessels (the opposite effect of histamine).
Check out the powerful connection between CBD and histamine for anxiety as an example.
Histamine is excitatory in the brain!
It eats up GABA which is the primary lever of benzos for anxiety.
After all, the original class of anti-anxiety meds were...antihistamines!
Check out Can CBD boost GABA or CBD versus benzos for a complete rundown.
So CBD helps with allergic reactions but what about hemp oil (full spectrum essentially) and histamines?
Not much research there but lots of anecdotal results...from women!
Best CBD for Women with Allergies
Here's my personal example…
I first tried the full-spectrum CBD from a major brand.
Organically grown. 3rd party tested. CBD levels verified.
Very green!
I immediately felt anxious and had a fever-like response.
Yes, I'm one of the lucky women with allergy and histamines issues.
There are millions of us out there!
You can read all about similar results from women to full-spectrum in our reviews at any of the product pages here.
I then tried a CBD isolate with MCT oil and loved it!
In fact, that's what got me excited about finding the best CBD oil in its cleanest form for women like me - and voila! Indigo Naturals.
Let everyone sneeze their way through the day but I wanted to feel good.
Wasn't that the point of CBD to begin with?
Yes.
Here's our recommendation if you really want to try full-spectrum hemp oil but have histamine issues...
Try the CBD isolate first.
Test it or 30 days which is about a 30ml bottle anyway depending on the dosage. Use the FIRST50 code for 50% off.
You can then try full-spectrum and see if you have a reaction to it.
Our concern is that a lot of women are going to try full-spectrum first since it's pushed EVERYWHERE and not feel great on it.
They'll stop using it and totally miss out on the benefits of CBD for women.
CBD is almost made for women in our modern world!
You can check out more on why CBD is so fitted for a women's body (and brain!)
In the meantime, no more sneezing or itchy eyes.
Isolate, please!
Check out our full toolkit here:
Please...PLEASE let us know your results below.
Learn all about how CBD works for histamines here.
Let's help each other!
6 comments
We found out the hard way in the beginning after running through about 3-4 of the biggest brands of CBD. Total histamine response. We have a massive review on gut inflammation coming out shortly (search up top on site). Really fascinating and gut inflammation is the thermostat for the rest of the body (and brain). A few points. CBD isolate has been shown to calm histamine response (see CBD and mast cell activation). There are other tools we’ve found along the way for dysbiosis.
Vitamin D – critical player in immune response and gut barrier. Many people are deficient. I would put my money on this being the issue for immune hyperactivation and gut issues
Berberine – great tool for supporting microbiome and gut barrier (similar to metformin)
Oregano Oil – a powerful tool for dealing with pathogenic bacteria and overgrowth
Of course, we look at CBD and gut barriers in depth. There’s even new research on acetylcholine (can supplement choline) and the gut/brain axis via the vagus nerve. We’ll do a deep dive on that soon but check out review on acetylcholine. CBD isolate is a great tool for microbiome and gut health. It’s important to bring this under control as it’s the trojan horse for autoimmune and brain inflammation.
You’re not alone! Roughly 25-33% of people have an allergy to THC and all the plant material. CBD may help to counter that effect but really, it’s about calming your histamine response. You can test CBD prior to cannabis and see if there’s an impact. Let us know! Also, magnesium glycinate might help calm histamine response.
i seem to be allergic to weed can you stop that?
I’m a 33 year old male with hist issues due to dysbiosis, among a lot of other issues.
I just got restocked with full spectrum hemp cbd after 2.5 not being able to get it. First day I took a massive amount because I haven’t felt any major issues with it in the past, in fact over the course of 30 days it always fixes my gut. But because my histamine bucket was already filled… my left arm went numb, extreme pain in entire back and left arm. I thought I was having a stroke or something.
I then realized it was histamine as it calmed down at 2am, which the circadian rhythm tend to do as histamine slows down then. Now I found this article and it makes sense.
Thank you for sharing this! I feel more sane now, even though I’m having a major flare. Guess I gotta go a lot slower and with lower doses until gut clears up. Stay safe!
I love your website…..I am learning a lot from your articles. Yes, I have high histamine and have been using
a full spectrum CBD for a year. I’ve had itchy eyes, puffy eyes and tired more. Thank you so much. I’m going to
continue reading all your good information and try CBD Isolate. One question, does isolate have a positive affect
against diseases and they say full sprectrum does?