Women Over 40: Why Your Asthma and Allergies Are Increasing

Have you been sneezing and sniffling recently? Maybe your asthma has suddenly sprung out of control, and your inhalers are no longer helping. What could be the problem? 

Are you a woman over 40? It may just be perimenopause.

What Is Perimenopause?

Perimenopause is a gradual transition seen most frequently in women over 40. It lasts until age 50-55, up until menopause hits (menopause occurs when a women has not had a period for 12 months, marking the cessation of her menstrual cycle).

Many women begin to experience physical, mental, and emotional changes several years before menopause hits. An increase in allergy symptoms may just be one of the many signs of impending perimenopause. 

Estrogen level tends to fluctuate during perimenopause, and your cycles may shorten or lengthen in response. You may begin to experience cycles where you don’t ovulate during your period. Perimenopause usually begins about four to ten years before your final period. The average age of menopause is 51.

What Are the Signs of Perimenopause?

Women in perimenopause have at least some of the following symptoms:

• Breast tenderness

• Hot flashes or increased sweating

• Worsening of premenstrual symptoms (PMS) or onset of new PMS symptoms

• Lower sex drive

• Fatigue

• Irregular periods

• Vaginal dryness, discomfort during sex

• Urine incontinence

• Problems with cognitive functioning or performing mental tasks

• Anxiety

• Trouble sleeping

Other symptoms of perimenopause include sneezing, sniffling, itching skin, and a worsening of asthmatic symptoms.

The Estrogen-Allergy Connection

Estrogen causes an increase in histamines. Progesterone helps break down estrogen (this process is called myelination).

Often, in perimenopause, estrogen production continues, while progesterone production is diminished. This leads to excess estrogen, which can lead to an increase in histamine production as well. 

Too much histamine in your body can cause:

• Asthma

• Headaches

• Acne

• Brain fog

• Insomnia

• PMS

Histamine-related issues are more commonly found in women. Women who suffer from allergy-related asthma are hospitalized (or require emergency intervention) 60% more times more frequently than males. Further, women are more likely than males to experience severe anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction that can lead to stroke. This sexual difference has been attributed to the presence of estrogen in females.

Researchers at the National Institute of Health showed female mice endured more severe anaphylaxis than male mice when exposed to histamine. When estrogens were removed, the sex differences disappeared. (1)

How does estrogen aggravate allergic reactions? Estrogen indirectly aggravates tissue swelling and inflammation--both dangerous characteristics of anaphylaxis. (Estrogen does this by increasing levels of nitric oxide synthase [eNOS], an enzyme.). Histamine production is part of this overall picture since it has a short-term stimulatory effect on eNOS.

Estrogen and Autoimmunity

We spoke of increased histamine as a cause of this estrogen-induced allergy, but what causes the histamine to increase?

Research has shown us that women can develop autoimmunity to estrogen, and this causes a chain of immune reactions to occur within the body. The body has numerous estrogen binding sites, and when estrogen binds to a reactive woman’s tissues, this causes a hyper-response in the histamine release from the cells. (2)

Environmental estrogens will react similarly to the body’s endogenous estrogen production. This means that ecological estrogens like the pesticide lindane or the plastic additive BPA may affect the female reproductive system as endocrine disruptors.

For allergies, it is crucial to be aware that these xenoestrogens interact equally well with the estrogen receptors and, thus, may either directly or in conjunction with an allergic reaction, support the release of histamine.

Allergies and Estrogen: Key Facts to Remember

• The presence and severity of asthmatic symptoms are worse in women than men, and research supports that this is related to estrogens

• Receptors for estrogen are located on numerous cells in the immune system, and the actions of estrogen skew the immune response in favor of allergy

• Estrogens may act directly or indirectly to create the effects seen in asthma or may affect other systems to exert effects on lung mechanics and airway inflammation

• Environmental estrogens may enhance the development of atopic disorders such as asthma (3)

What Is the Treatment for Allergies in Perimenopause? 

A basic functional medicine approach includes attention to stress levels, exercise, diet, and liver detoxification. You should check your adrenal hormones, sex hormones, and thyroid hormones to make sure levels are optimized. 

My favorite way to check these hormones is the DUTCH Complete Hormone test. It is the most comprehensive and valuable hormone testing I have found for providing accurate, actionable results.

DUTCH Complete Hormone Testing checks for the following:

• Estrogen

• Progesterone

• Melatonin, 

• Cortisol

• DHEA

• Some vitamins 

• Some neurotransmitters

The DUTCH Test utilizes urinary screening (read more about why I love this method here), a far better medium than blood or saliva. For example, cortisol measurement is more than just measuring a point in time. It fluctuates according to the time of day. The Dutch Hormone Test identifies a four-point cortisol test allowing for assessment of circadian rhythm.

Identifying hormonal imbalances and supporting them with diet and bio-identical hormones are building blocks for a comprehensive perimenopause treatment plan. It is prudent to advise reactive women to carry an Epi-pen during times when estrogen is high, such as just before a period starts, or during times of treatment with estrogen hormones. (1)

Health Tips and Lifestyle Changes for Perimenopause

Evidence is mounting that lifestyle changes can modulate hormonal responses improving health responses and even reversing chronic diseases. 

Exercise for Perimenopause 

Living a healthy lifestyle will help to alleviate some of the troublesome symptoms so common in perimenopause. If you don’t exercise now, it would be an excellent time to get a routine started. Exercise reduces stress and helps to rid the body of toxins through sweat and increased blood flow to the organs. 

Most clinicians advise 30 minutes of exercise per day, five days per week. A good routine includes flexibility exercises 2-3x per week, which will help the body to avoid falls. Strength training to improve muscle mass should be done 2-3x per week.

Sleep for Perimenopause

Obtaining adequate sleep is also essential. Getting 7-8 hours of restful sleep helps the body recover and rejuvenate itself. The DUTCH Test will check your level of melatonin, an essential hormone for sleep. Melatonin helps to regulate the circadian sleep cycle and is best taken half an hour before bedtime if supplementing.

Stress and Perimenopause

Antidepressants are often a mainstay during perimenopause. Practicing useful stress control techniques will help avoid depression and that “down feeling.” Meditation, artwork, creative dance, Tai Chi, Yoga, essential oils, and focusing exercises are all ways to relieve stress positively.

Perimenopause Diet

Diet can create imbalance or restore function. Because your risk of osteoporosis and heart disease increases at this time, eating healthy is more important than ever. Most clinicians recommend a high fiber, low-fat diet chock full of fresh vegetables and fruits. A diet high in the B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and magnesium are incredibly helpful. And, avoiding histamine-producing foods may help as well. For example, consuming cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower may aid in liver detoxification.

Perimenopause Diet Plan Ideas

My MATH diet provides the foundational:

• Fiber

• Protein

• Fats

• Antioxidants

• Hydration

That supports your hormones. You can learn more about it here. 

We also offer a helpful, free ebook called 25 Hormone Lovin’ superfoods you can grab here.

Getting Enough Nutrients in Perimenopause

Eating a healthy diet is not always easy as most people do not have time to shop, cook, or prepare healthy meals, and eating in a restaurant is not the answer. Buying and using the supplements in our Foundations Collection will ensure that you are getting the essential nutrients you need to support this phase of your life and health. 

The Foundations Collection contains highly absorbable mineral complexes, vitamin E, folate, and an array of B vitamins often challenging to obtain from food only. It also includes 1500 mg of omega-3 fatty acids, an amount often tricky to get from the diet daily unless you eat a lot of salmon and tuna. Hormonal shifts can cause a drain on your B vitamins, known for their stress-reducing effects.

A perimenopause diet is not complete without a magnesium supplement, also contained in the Daily Essentials Kit.  The daily recommended amount of magnesium is 320 mg, but research shows us that as many as 50% of Americans do not get the recommended daily amount of magnesium in their diets. (4) Magnesium helps with restful sleep, preventing osteoporosis, avoiding muscle cramps, and in supporting heart health. Magnesium also helps vitamin D to work thus, assisting with bone health and calcium metabolism.

Low Histamine Diet

For some women with allergies, following a low histamine elimination diet for a prescribed time helps control their symptoms. For reactive women, histamine-rich diets can trigger headaches, itchy skin or hives, difficulty breathing, or even diarrhea.

The following foods contain high levels of histamine:

• Fermented dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and kefir

• Fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi

• Pickles or pickled vegetables

• Kombucha

• Cured or fermented meat such as sausages and ham

• Wine, beer, alcohol, and champagne

• Fermented soy products such as miso, tempeh, and soy sauce

• Fermented grains such as sourdough bread

• Tomatoes

• Eggplant

• Spinach

• Frozen, salted, or canned fish

• Vinegar

• Tomato ketchup

Following this diet for a prolonged period may lead to malnutrition, so many clinicians use it as a screening tool. Following the histamine elimination list, women complete a food-symptom diary recording the foods they eat and the symptoms they experience, paying particular attention to the foods in the histamine list. This includes ingredients in recipes. 

In this manner, a clinician can track an individual’s response to high histamine foods and only restrict those foods which cause apparent symptoms. This approach limits the most offending foods while leaving other less reactive foods to balance out the diet. Using food records can be tricky as it can take a variable amount of time for reactive food to show symptoms, and occasionally, the amount of the portion size is the problem. Food records should contain the portion size of the food, time food was eaten, the name of the food, and any related symptoms experienced throughout the day.

Intolerance to histamine, in addition to estrogen allergy symptoms, may cause tissue swelling, high blood pressure, dizziness, difficulty regulating body temperature, irregular heart rate, and abdominal cramping.

Asthma Tips

I had some asthma as a college student that caught me off guard when it returned a few years ago when I was about 43 years old.

I did end of using inhalers and I’m glad I have those, but the following things have helped me a lot:

• Fish oil: 1,000 mg day

• Magnesium: 300 mg day

• Glutathione: 2 servings a day

• Honey/onion mix: 1 spoonful a day (see below)

• Multivitamin: 2 capsules per day with meals

• Vitamin D: 5,000 mg/ day

This combination makes it so I rarely need my inhaler! It was a big win.

For the honey mixture that I mentioned above: Mix ½ jar of local honey with ½ red onion. Store in a dark cabinet and eat 1 t per day.

Get Started with Changes

Try making some diet changes this week with a new shopping list. Download our Hormone Lovin’ Superfoods ebook here. 

You might want to try some of the supplements I listed above. If you are like me, you already have a number of them! Fill in gaps at our shop, FunctionalDetoxProducts.

Is it time for testing? We’d love to meet you in a private session to review your DUTCH hormone test results! This is our most popular test.

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Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP, is trained in functional health coaching and has worked with thousands of women over her career since 2004. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Collaborative llc andFunctionalDetoxProducts.

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