Klebsi-who? And it lives in my digestive system?
You’ve gone through the trouble of getting a stool test done to get a little bit closer to the answer you’ve been seeking: what’s happening in your digestive system.
The first thing you may have noticed is that there appears to be a large amount of a particular type of bacteria in your gut: Klebsiella.
Looking up information about how this little critter can influence the health of your digestive system can be daunting, but we’ve got you covered.
Today, we're going to help you to discover what you need to know about Klebsiella, what it’s doing to your gut, and why it could be one of the causes behind your histamine intolerance.
Klebsiella and Gut Health: The Basics
You may be wondering, what is Klebsiella anyway?
Klebsiella is actually a type of bacteria that’s commonly found in a healthy digestive tract (1). They generally live in happy cohabitation with the other bacterial residents in your gut. It’s when there are specific types of the Klebsiella that overgrow that they can become bothersome. One in particular is called Klebsiella pneumoniae.
In other words, if the colony is controlled and all of the bacteria in your gut are in balance, it won’t cause any problems. When something goes wrong, and your immune system is out of whack, for example, the general composition of your gut bacteria changes. Some of the more helpful bacteria die off, which allows some of the more pathogenic ones to grow and flourish.
Klebsiella and Histamine Intolerance
An overgrowth of klebsiella is more common than you think. Many people have a higher than typical amount of klebsiella because of the nature of our lifestyles that destroy our helpful bacteria.
Stress, living in polluted environments, eating too little fiber, eating too much sugar and other processed or refined foods, illness, chronic use of antibiotics… you name it, it has the potential to affect the growth of your healthy bacteria, leaving those bothersome critters freedom to take over.
When they do, that’s when you’ll see the symptoms start. Think gas, bloating, pain and cramping, changes in your stools, and any other unpleasant gut effects you may have experienced; this is likely a result of less than optimal bacterial colonies in your digestive tract (2).
With Klebsiella, there’s one additional and very important point to take note of: it has the ability to produce histamine (3). So, not only are you going to have the gut symptoms, you’re going to have all of the other histamine-related symptoms, too!
There’s more… Klebsiella can actually block the protective effects of your immune system, which makes you even more susceptible to other infections, both those that affect your gut and your body as a whole.
You can now begin to understand why you feel the way you do with all of this going on inside your system.
The next question is, what do you do, knowing what you know?
4 Steps to Address Klebsiella Overgrowth
Unfortunately, Klebsiella is a little harder to treat than some gut infections because of the way it affects and evades the immune system. But before you lose all hope, there are certainly things you can do to get on the right track.
1. First off, for the symptoms of histamine intolerance, we always recommend a low histamine diet. It’s one of the easiest and quickest ways to reduce the histamine load in your body and allow for control of those dreadful symptoms. You can access a free low histamine diet by clicking below:
2. Next, we want to try to rebalance the gut and allow for some good bacteria to take control again, which also goes a long way in helping your immune system to manage infections. Before you start eating sauerkraut, kefir or miso, remember that these are all fermented foods. Yes, they will have a range of healthy bacteria in them, but will also cause histamine to rise in the body, so they’re best avoided for now. Instead, we recommend a low-histamine probiotic to help start the process without adding fuel to the fire.
Keep in mind, bacteria that normally inhabit the digestive tract, in balanced amounts, naturally will produce histamine - just like Klebsiella. It's when the ratios become imbalanced that histamine production becomes a problem. It's for this reason that you cannot and should not use just any probiotics, as they will contain histamine-producing strains, which are problematic to those with histamine issues.
Those with histamine issues should only stick to low histamine probiotics, which are particularly selected strains that either do not produce histamine or reduce histamine levels - this will help to rebalance the ratio of histamine producing to non-producing bacteria, and ensure histamine issues due to bacterial production do not become worse.
3. Lastly, and this one is best done working with a knowledgeable professional, you can include a range of herbal antimicrobial compounds to tackle the various angles that the klebsiella use to protect themselves. Again, this is best done with a professional to help you select supplements that are specifically for histamine intolerance, or the problem could end up getting worse (think again of all of those lovely fermented foods that are good for gut health but awful for histamine intolerance!).
You can read the article we published on the best supplements for histamine intolerance, which lists the all-natural supplements which can produce some amazing results and symptom relief, while being particularly selected for histamine intolerance issues.
4. It’s also important to mention that the root cause of the issue needs to be addressed. If you have been under a significant amount of stress, or your diet needs a little help, then these are areas we certainly do encourage you to work on at the same time. Your healthcare professional can assist you with identifying and working through the common causes of histamine intolerance which are applicable to your case.
Now that you know Klebsiella has a role to play in your symptoms, you can make the necessary changes to fight it and rebalance your gut microbiome. We hope that this information has been helpful and that you too can begin your healing journey.
References:
- Li B, Zhao Y, Liu C, Chen Z, Zhou D. Molecular pathogenesis of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Future Microbiol. 2014;9(9):1071-81.
- Taha Rashid, Clyde Wilson, Alan Ebringer, "The Link between Ankylosing Spondylitis, Crohn’s Disease, Klebsiella, and Starch Consumption", Journal of Immunology Research, vol. 2013, Article ID 872632, 9 pages, 2013.
- Maintz, L and Novak, N. (2007) Histamine and histamine intolerance. Am J Clin Nutr. 85(5):1185-1196.
Anita Tee
My name is Anita Tee. I'm a nutritional scientist specializing in histamine intolerance. I hold a Master of Science in Personalized Nutrition and a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology and Psychology.
For the past ten years, I have used my experience in nutritional and medical health sciences to create a scientifically backed, natural approach to healthcare that relies 100% on evidence-based research.
As I previously suffered from - and overcame - histamine intolerance, my focus is to increase recognition and expand the available resources and protocols for resolving the disorder. To date, I have helped over 4,000 individuals fully resolve or better manage their histamine intolerance symptoms.
