Diamine Oxidase Histamine

Inflammation

Who is This Test For?

Typically, when we think of Histamine it’s usually because of TV commercials related to allergy season. What isn’t often talked about is the role Histamine plays in our body’s inflammatory processes and the symbiotic relationship it has with DAO, the body’s primary enzyme for breaking it down. Tests that measure the levels of Histamine and DAO can provide important information about gut status that standard food sensitivity tests may not reveal.

Food sensitivities are often thought to be the underlying issue relating to gut inflammation, when in fact the story actually being told may be an imbalance between the levels of Histamine and DAO

Inflammation

Our Inflammation Test

Histamine is an important regulator of gut function and plays a key role in the body’s inflammatory processes. Diamine Oxidase (DAO) is one of the primary ways our body makes sure that Histamine levels stay in check. Featuring an analysis of the levels of both, as well as the ratio between the two, this analytical test is a key component of our Intestinal iQ™ series.

What is Histamine Excess?

Too much Histamine in our system may be a result of its release from storage in the body, as part of our inflammatory and allergic processes. It may also be due to the intake of foods rich in histamine-creating substances such as alcohol, chocolate, pickled foods, as well as certain fish and seafood. But it may also be due to its insufficient breakdown by the body’s primary enzyme responsible for this action, DAO, which is found primarily in our gut. Although DAO activity does not depend on itself alone, measuring its levels plays an important part in understanding the phenomenon of histamine excess.

The Importance of the Histamine:DAO Ratio

The Histamine:DAO Ratio is helpful in highlighting the possible imbalances in histamine and DAO levels. When the ratio between the two is high it suggests that there is a relatively high level of free histamine in the system, and/or there is an insufficient amount of DAO enzyme available for histamine degradation. When the ratio is low it suggests that the amount of free histamine is relatively low, and/or there is sufficient DAO enzyme available to degrade the histamine that is present.

The Intestinal iQ™ test for Inflammation adds a critical additional layer of information by providing the ratio between the measured levels of Histamine and DAO.