Histidine is a semi-essential amino acid which is formed in the breakdown of carnosine. Red meat is a common source of carnosine, and therefore histadine. Other food sources include poultry, fish, nuts, seeds, and grains. Histidine and histamine have a unique relationship. The amino acid histadine becomes histamine via a vitamin B6- dependent enzyme called histidine decarboxylase. With this, decreased amounts of histidine and insufficient vitamin B6 can subsequently lead to a decrease in histamine concentration. This may impair digestion, since histamine binds to H2 receptors located on the surface of parietal cells to stimulate gastric acid secretion, necessary for protein breakdown. Histidine also inhibits the production of proinflammatory cytokines by monocytes and is therefore anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. With these beneficial effects, histidine supplementation has been shown to improve insulin resistance, reduce BMI, suppress inflammation, and lower oxidative stress in obese women with metabolic syndrome. Interestingly, histadine can also be broken down to form urocanic acid in the liver and skin. Urocanic acid absorbs UV light and is thought to act as a natural sunscreen.
References:
- Cuparencu C, Pratico G, Hemeryck LY, et al. Biomarkers of meat and seafood intake: an extensive literature review. Genes Nutr. 2019;14:35.
- Wu F, Yu J, Gehring H. Inhibitory and structural studies of novel coenzyme-substrate analogs of human histidine decarboxylase. FASEB J. 2008;22(3):890-897.
- Adrych K, Smoczynski M, Stojek M, et al. Decreased serum essential and aromatic amino acids in patients with chronic pancreatitis. World J Gastroenterol. 2010;16(35):4422-4427.
- Sasaki C, Hiraishi T, Oku T, et al. Metabolomic approach to the exploration of biomarkers associated with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis. PloS one. 2019;14(7):e0219400.
- Wade AM, Tucker HN. Antioxidant characteristics of L-histidine. J Nutr Biochem. 1998;9(6):308-315.
- Feng RN, Niu YC, Sun XW, et al. Histidine supplementation improves insulin resistance through suppressed inflammation in obese women with the metabolic syndrome: a randomised controlled trial. Diabetologia. 2013;56(5):985-994.
- Scott IR. Factors controlling the expressed activity of histidine ammonia-lyase in the epidermis and the resulting accumulation of urocanic acid. Biochem J. 1981;194(3):829- 838.
- Cooperman JM, Lopez R. The role of histidine in the anemia of folate deficiency. Exp Biol Medicine. 2002;227(11):998- 1000.
- Bhat DS, Gruca LL, Bennett CD, et al. Evaluation of tracer labelled methionine load test in vitamin B-12 deficient adolescent women. PloS one. 2018;13(5):e0196970.
- Kanarek N, Keys HR, Cantor JR, et al. Histidine catabolism is a major determinant of methotrexate sensitivity. Nature. 2018;559(7715):632-636.
- Medicine NUSNLo. FTCD gene. Genetics Home Reference 2020.
- Kawaguchi Y, Ogawa M, Ito H, Mine T. Alterations in plasma amino acid levels in alcoholic chronic pancreatitis in Japanese. Digestion. 2012;86(2):155-160.
What does it mean if your Histidine result is too high?
High levels of histadine are seen in high protein diets. Vitamin B6 is needed to convert histadine to histamine, therefore a functional need for vitamin B6 may elevate levels of histadine. There is also a relationship between histadine and folate metabolism. Histadine metabolizes to glutamic acid with FIGLU as an intermediary and tetrahydrofolate as a cofactor. Therefore, elevated histadine can be seen with vitamin B12 and folate insufficiencies.
Urinary levels have been shown to normalize with folate administration and plasma levels have been altered in supplementation with vitamin B12.
Lastly, there is a rare inborn error of metabolism involving impairment of histidase, which breaks down histamine and causes elevated histadine.
All Your Lab Results.
One Simple Dashboard.
Import, Track, and Share Your Lab Results Easily
Import, Track, and Share Your Lab Results
Import lab results from multiple providers, track changes over time, customize your reference ranges, and get clear explanations for each result. Everything is stored securely, exportable in one organized file, and shareable with your doctor—or anyone you choose.
Cancel or upgrade anytime
What does it mean if your Histidine result is too low?
– Low histidine levels have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis or a deficiency of the B vitamin folic acid. Salicylates (aspirin-like compounds) and steroids can also decrease histidine levels.
– Low histidine may be caused by too much lysine or arginine supplementation competing for absorption.
– Check dietary protein, or malabsorption if other essential AAs are low.
– Low histidine is associated with rheumatoid arthritis, folate deficiency, and/or salicylate/steroid use. Folate deficiency would be consistent with a partial methylation cycle block.
Laboratories
Bring All Your Lab Results Together — In One Place
We accept reports from any lab, so you can easily collect and organize all your health information in one secure spot.
Pricing Table
Gather Your Lab History — and Finally Make Sense of It
Finally, Your Lab Results Organized and Clear
Personal plans
$79/ year
Advanced Plan
Access your lab reports, explanations, and tracking tools.
- Import lab results from any provider
- Track all results with visual tools
- Customize your reference ranges
- Export your full lab history anytime
- Share results securely with anyone
- Receive 5 reports entered for you
- Cancel or upgrade anytime
$250/ once
Unlimited Account
Pay once, access everything—no monthly fees, no limits.
- Import lab results from any provider
- Track all results with visual tools
- Customize your reference ranges
- Export your full lab history anytime
- Share results securely with anyone
- Receive 10 reports entered for you
- No subscriptions. No extra fees.
$45/ month
Pro Monthly
Designed for professionals managing their clients' lab reports
- Import lab results from any provider
- Track lab results for multiple clients
- Customize reference ranges per client
- Export lab histories and reports
- Begin with first report entered by us
- Cancel or upgrade anytime
About membership
What's included in a Healthmatters membership
Import Lab Results from Any Source
See Your Health Timeline
Understand What Your Results Mean
Visualize Your Results
Data Entry Service for Your Reports
Securely Share With Anyone You Trust
Let Your Lab Results Tell the Full Story
Once your results are in one place, see the bigger picture — track trends over time, compare data side by side, export your full history, and share securely with anyone you trust.
Bring all your results together to compare, track progress, export your history, and share securely.
What Healthmatters Members Are Saying
Frequently asked questions
Healthmatters is a personal health dashboard that helps you organize and understand your lab results. It collects and displays your medical test data from any lab in one secure, easy-to-use platform.
- Individuals who want to track and understand their health over time.
- Health professionals, such as doctors, nutritionists, and wellness coaches, need to manage and interpret lab data for their clients.
With a Healthmatters account, you can:
- Upload lab reports from any lab
- View your data in interactive graphs, tables, and timelines
- Track trends and monitor changes over time
- Customize your reference ranges
- Export and share your full lab history
- Access your results anytime, from any device
Professionals can also analyze client data more efficiently and save time managing lab reports.
Healthmatters.io personal account provides in-depth research on 10000+ biomarkers, including information and suggestions for test panels such as, but not limited to:
- The GI Effects® Comprehensive Stool Profile,
- GI-MAP,
- The NutrEval FMV®,
- The ION Profile,
- Amino Acids Profile,
- Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones (DUTCH),
- Organic Acids Test,
- Organix Comprehensive Profile,
- Toxic Metals,
- Complete Blood Count (CBC),
- Metabolic panel,
- Thyroid panel,
- Lipid Panel,
- Urinalysis,
- And many, many more.
You can combine all test reports inside your Healthmatters account and keep them in one place. It gives you an excellent overview of all your health data. Once you retest, you can add new results and compare them.
If you are still determining whether Healthmatters support your lab results, the rule is that if you can test it, you can upload it to Healthmatters.
We implement proven measures to keep your data safe.
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.