351-SYNCPodcast_Famotidine

Jenny Swisher: [00:00:00] Welcome friends to [00:01:00] this episode of The Sink Your Life podcast. Today we’re talking about something that just keeps popping up everywhere. For me. It pops up in my dms, in my conversations, honestly, in my own doctor’s appointments, and I thought maybe it could be beneficial for you. That is Famotidine, also known as Pepcid.

Yes, we’re talking about a heartburn drug, but we’re talking about why women are using it for PS. Perimenopause, histamine symptoms, anxiety, migraines like myself, and even psycho linked dizziness or nausea. So we’re gonna talk about when it makes sense, uh, we’re gonna talk about when it’s masking maybe a deeper issue.

And what do hormones really have to do with this whole thing anyway? What do hormones and histamine really have to do with each other? So let’s go ahead and unpack this. So. First and foremost, when people hear histamine, a lot of times they think of allergies, right? You think of itchy eyes, runny nose, maybe the springtime season when you start getting those, you know, all those horrible symptoms of the sneezing and, and coughing and all that.

But histamine is actually a neuro immune signaling molecule that plays roles in inflammation. Gut motility, stomach acid [00:02:00] production, how alert your brain is blood vessel dilation, and even in hormonal signaling now we have histamine receptors all over our body, including our brain, our gut, our uterus, and our ovaries.

So when histamine rises or when your own ability to break it down, drops, symptoms don’t look like allergies anymore. They can look like anxiety or agitation. Migraines or head pressure, nausea, dizziness, maybe your heart starts racing, flushing. Some women complain of not being able to sleep, worsening PMS symptoms or really just exaggerated reactions during ovulation or before your period.

So if this sounds familiar, you might wanna hang on to this episode. So why does histamine get worse in PMS or even in perimenopause now? This is where hormones really shine. This is where you can really start to see the connections between the two. Now I’m 42. I’m starting to experience more and more migraines around my cycle, specifically around ovulation in my period, and I have found that histamine is playing a huge role for me.

Now, I have specific genetics [00:03:00] that make it so that I don’t digest DAO very well. So I have to take a DAO supplement. Um, but I’m also finding really good relief with Pepcid. So this is again, why I wanted to share this with you. So let’s talk about how hormones come into play here in perimenopause and why this could really be beneficial for my women over 35.

Well, estrogen and histamine have a bidirectional relationship. Now, I have talked about this before on the podcast. I have an episode that I’ll link up for you all about the connections between histamine and estrogen, but they’re kind of chicken or the egg. So estrogen increases histamine and histamine stimulates estrogen activity.

So it’s chicken or the egg, but they go together. They amplify each other in a stable menstrual cycle. This system is nice and balanced, but in perimenopause, estrogen becomes more erratic. It can have drastic highs and lows. So a lot more spiky in nature, a lot more unpredictable. So even if your labs say everything is normal, and I put that in air quotes, it’s the variability that’s the problem.

At the same time, progesterone, which normally stabilizes mast cells and calms histamine, so [00:04:00] basically protects against this. This starts to decline first, and that creates a perfect storm. Then we start to have higher histamine signaling. Less buffering and exaggerated luteal phase symptoms. So a lot of women will come to me saying, all of a sudden they feel like they have food sensitivities that they never had before.

Or they’re starting to see more migraines, more anxiety before their period. Right? Different reactions than maybe they had in their twenties or thirties. This is not random. It is neuro immune hormonal crosstalk. Now say that five times fast. So where does Famotidine fit into this? Well, like I said, famotidine yes, is known as Pepcid.

Over the counter. It’s an H two histamine receptor blocker. So again, most people know this for being helpful for reducing stomach acid, but H two receptors also exist in our blood vessels. In our immune cells and in parts of the nervous system. So when women take famotidine, they might notice that they have less nausea, um, better anxiety, calmer anxiety, less head pressure, improved sleep, and they might even be able to improve PMS symptoms, [00:05:00] not because Pepcid is a hormone drug.

But because it’s lowering histamine signaling downstream, so tine doesn’t necessarily fix root cause, but it can quiet the noise, especially for those of us where the noise is very, very loud. So for some women, that relief is dramatic, and that’s important, right? If you start to get this type of relief, that means we’ve gotta look a little deeper.

What’s going on here, right? Like, yes, it’s good to to have something to help you with a relief, but we also need to be looking at how we could maybe reduce our histamine load. So famotidine can be helpful, it can be temporarily helpful for women when PMS symptoms feel like they’re inflammatory. When anxiety is spiking in your luteal phase, again, if you’re nauseous or dizzy around ovulation or, um, during big estrogen shifts, migraines.

Again, I know that’s my story, but some other women I know experience this as well with hormone fluctuations. . And even GI symptoms. So I’ve noticed even in perimenopause that I will start to get an upset stomach around ovulation in my period as well. So in those cases, something like famotidine can be a buffer.

[00:06:00] It can be a symptom stabilizer, and it can just be a short term support tool, not necessarily a cure. Not necessarily a permanent fix, but maybe just a bridge to help you feel a little bit better. So here’s where it could be a red flag. So Tine gets to the point where it’s something you can’t go without.

Like if you start taking it and you feel like you can’t go a day without it, it’s probably something you need to address with your doctor. If you feel like it becomes something that you’re using long term or it’s holding you together, that’s not really success. That’s a clue. Right. That’s a clue that maybe estrogen variability isn’t being addressed.

Maybe you need extra progesterone support. Maybe your mast cells are overreacting or something’s off with your gut or your nervous system. Histamine excess is often a downstream problem. Not the origin, right? So if it fixes your PMS, the real question is why is histamine high in the first place?

Now for me, I went a little deeper diving on my own genetics to learn again that I have specific issues digesting DAO. Um, and so therefore I need to supplement that, right? But for other women, it might be something different. So going a little bit deeper [00:07:00] on your bioindividuality. Can help you figure out why this is really happening for you.

So if histamine linked pmm, s or perimenopausal symptoms are showing up for you, it’s really time to do some deeper work, right? This is when we, we wanna look at hormone stability. We wanna look at progesterone, right? If we’re not already using progesterone, that’s something to have a conversation with your doctor about reducing that estrogen volatility.

Regulating our nervous system, everything we talk about in our adrenal healing program, right? Really focusing on breath work and um, slowing ourselves down and really being present in the moment. Gut integrity and also micronutrients. So many women are missing micronutrients. I know we just talked about minerals last week on the podcast with Caroline Allen, but also focusing on micronutrients and vitamins that we might be missing in our diet.

Those are all things that can help as well. So if Amadine has helped you, that doesn’t mean that you’re broken. It means your body’s communicating. If you’re having these types of symptoms and you haven’t tried it yet, in my opinion, it’s worth a try, right? It’s an over the counter option.

This is not considered medical advice as usual. You can always [00:08:00] run this by your doctor, but this is something that could give you information. If it helps you feel better, then you know that histamine could be at play for you. So think of it that way. Histamine is information, right? Symptoms are feedback.

Perimenopause doesn’t necessarily mean chaos. It just means that your system needs a different strategy. So we don’t necessarily shame symptom relief, but we don’t stop there. We’ve gotta dive deeper. We’ve gotta know what’s going on for ourselves. So I hope this is helpful for you. Maybe you pick up some Pepcid next time you’re at the pharmacy or grocery store.

See how it helps you heading into your menstrual cycle and keep me posted. I’d love to hear from you. Until next time, my friends, we’ll talk soon. I hope this helps. Bye-bye bye. [00:09:00]