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QuoteHello all first time posting. So I have read a book called The Water Cure by F. Batmanghelidj and he makes a claim that Histamine is a neurotransmitter where one of it's functions is to manage water throughout the body, or as he calls it drought management. He said that when parts of the body become dehydrated histamine supplies water to those areas. It has another function for immunological response and that while chronically dehydrated histamine is busy with drought management and doing so slows or supresses antibody responses to foreign agents to the body, like pollen, dust, pet dander, etc. Is there any supporting scientific evidence for this claim?
I am looking for scientific fact to back this idea up and no speculation. Thanks.
2:26 pm
February 22, 2010
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A quick perusal of Google and Pubmed reveals the following, among others:
Endocrinology. 1995 May;136(5):2189-97.
Dehydration stimulates hypothalamic gene expression of histamine synthesis enzyme: importance for neuroendocrine regulation of vasopressin and oxytocin secretion.
Kjaer A, Larsen PJ, Knigge U, Warberg J.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7720668
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2000 Dec;279(6):E1305-10.
Dehydration-induced vasopressin secretion in humans: involvement of the histaminergic system.
Kjaer A, Knigge U, Jørgensen H, Warberg J.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11093918
Having not read the book, I don't know how much water he's recommending we drink or what else to drink with it -- but "drink more water and less sugary beverages" is a zero-cost intervention with (according to my cursory search) some biochemical plausibility.
Note: if you're drinking a lot of water, especially while exercising in hot weather, it's best to also increase your intake of sodium and potassium salts. Hyponatremia is no joke, and it kills many more people than dehydration does.
If you try it, let us know what you find out!
JS
2:53 pm
February 22, 2010
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Possibly related:
Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2006 Feb;6(1):37-42.
How does exercise cause asthma attacks?
Anderson SD.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16505610
"SUMMARY: Dehydration of the airways results in release of mediators. The likely source of these mediators is the mast cell."
This would suggest that mouth-breathing (which doesn't humidify incoming air nearly as well as nose breathing) increases histamine release. Thus, a stuffy nose would be a vicious cycle leading to more stuffy noses.
Moral: breathe through your mouth.
JS
While I don't think that anyone would argue that your body doesn't need to get the appropriate amount of water to perform optimally, I think it is a bit of a stretch to list all the diseases known to humanity and say that they ALL are caused by dehydration. Oversimplification.
If we really needed to drink that much water all the time, our species would have died out long ago.
Also, before you take "Dr. B" too seriously as a guru, you might want to read this :
12:29 am
February 22, 2010
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Paleobird:
Having not read the book, I'm only addressing the specific question Phil asked, i.e. "is histamine involved in water regulation?"
The answer to that seems to be "yes"...but how important that is to the allergic response in general is an open question. And yes, making claims beyond that appears to be quackery.
JS
11:18 am
Right, I am not so interested in his claims that water can cure disease but more of his particular claims of natural processes in the body. I don't think drinking water cures allergies, trust me, I drink plenty of water and I still have allergic responses to cats and such.
Thanks for the links J, I'll read them this weekend. So it would seem that at least that part of the book is not total B.S. He also mentions that Asthma is your body trying to conserve water loss through the lungs from evaporation, by constricting breathing. In order to keep the pores of the lungs moist the body produces mucus. A lot of his claims do seem to make sense, but I could just be naive. I usually don't like to write off people as quacks. It's dismissive, and if I practiced that I probably wouldn't have made it all the way here lol
2:43 pm
February 22, 2010
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Phil:
"Asthma is your body trying to conserve water loss through the lungs from evaporation, by constricting breathing."
This is an exaggeration: asthma is much more than an attempt to conserve water loss! Having had asthma as a child, I know that allergies and exercise were also triggers. Most likely, asthma involves a threshold effect: there are many possible insults, and too many at any one time pushes us over the edge and causes bronchoconstriction.
JS
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