Why are seasonal allergies the worst?
Don't forget. Right now, Gemini are running a special campaign at our If you go to kodashfi.com/ chem for your life and subscribe at any amount, Gemini will send you a special chemistry for your life sticker. That's kodashfi.com/chem for your life to learn more about why we're doing this and how to subscribe. And now on to today's show. Hey.
Melissa:I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay, Jam. So I had a whole plan for today.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I wanted to do Chigurbites.
Jam:Oh, man. Nice. That's throwback.
Melissa:So for people not in the United States or I mean, I think though that they may be found all over the world in similar climates to the United States.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:There are these small bugs called chiggers. They're really truly more like mites.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And they fight people and leave these awful itchy bumps for weeks.
Jam:Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Melissa:The worst. And I've heard lately 3 or 4 people talking about how you need to put nail polish on chigger bites because sugars are still inside you, and that will suffocate them. And so I wanted to do an episode on that be Right. Because sugars don't really stay in your skin.
Jam:That is good to know. I grew up thinking that also That they did.
Melissa:Yeah. It's just a weird rumor, but what they really do is they make a hole in your skin. It's way worse in my opinion. Big a hole in your skin, spit into the skin Mhmm. Some digestive enzyme, and that starts to break down your skin, and then they eat that, and that is what makes you itch.
Jam:Oh, weird. So they get and then they leave. They
Melissa:eat that. Leave.
Jam:Have a little they have a little snack, and then they leave.
Melissa:Mhmm. They may hang out for a while, but they try to get out of there. You know? Dang. So I was looking into that, but there's not a bunch of information on the chemistry of that enzyme or anything about what's happening.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And while that was going on, we posted our bonus episode q and r if you have any questions. And Renee c wrote in asking us why things are itchy. Okay.
Jam:There's some more general why do we have
Melissa:Yeah. General question. And while I was researching triggers and also while we're
Jam:I I
Melissa:was doing some of the research on jellyfish.
Jam:Mhmm. I
Melissa:did see the word histamine a few times.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So my trigger goals took me down a path to histamine.
Jam:Nice. Just kinda getting into care term my wife is very knowledgeable about too.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. So maybe she'll find this episode interesting, or she'll have more to add to it, which would be nice.
Jam:Yeah. She'll be like, boring. I'm
Melissa:just kidding.
Jam:But there's many times that I've, like, been griping about my allergies and stuff, and then she'll explain to me what's actually happening. And I'll be like, cool, but that didn't solve my allergies.
Melissa:So you know, some of what I'm gonna tell you today.
Jam:Yeah. Probably just a very, very light version, I would guess. But
Melissa:Okay. Well, that's kinda fun. So histamine is a molecule.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Just an organic molecule just like everything, basically, and histamine has a functional group on it called an amine. That's where the name histamine comes from.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Amine is a nitrogen group with 2 hydrogens on it or sometimes 3 hydrogens or sometimes 1 hydrogen and some other things bonded to it. But, generally, when it's in a molecule, it has a nitrogen and 2 hydrogens, and then it's bound to the molecule.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. And we've talked about functional groups before, but just to review, functional groups are basically just an arrangement of atoms that are present in a molecule that generally functions similarly when that arrangement of atoms is present in different settings. They have similar properties.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Similar functions, similar properties, and they're present in a lot of different organic molecules. So amines are fairly common.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Okay. So the thing about histamine is actually it exists in our body because it's trying to help us.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So it originates in our body as part of an immune response. There's an antibody which fights off bacteria in our body or maybe even viruses. This is I'm not a 100% sure on the function of antibodies. Uh-huh. But that will release histamine when it's triggered by bacteria or an invader such as pollen.
Melissa:The antibody triggers the release of the histamine.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:And histamine's job is to help us fight off these invaders, and histamine does that by increasing blood flow, which then will sometimes cause inflammation.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:Stuffynose Yeah. And it will allow the fluid in our blood vessels to leak out, which seems like that's awful, but actually that fluid also has things in it that help us fight off infections and fight off invaders.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:But it's awful when it's just a runny nose.
Jam:Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:So histamine will trigger that response, but it also binds to a receptor or called an h one receptor
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And when it does that, when there's a lot of excess histamine binding to our h one receptors, it will give other symptoms associated with seasonal allergies. So that's histamine.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:It's in our bodies trying to help us. But when pollen exists in excess, our bodies interpret that as an attacker.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then because they're attacked they feel like they're under attack, they release all this histamine to try to protect us, and that makes does have all these symptoms that make us feel kind of miserable, and we're not really even under attack. It's almost like a fake attack.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Trojan horse style.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:So what we do to help that is take allergy medicine. Right?
Jam:Yes. Antihistamines.
Melissa:Antihistamines. So antihistamines have a similar enough structure. They're usually organic molecules as well. Uh-huh. They have a similar enough structure to histamines that they can bind to the h one receptors where histamines try to go.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:But they are different enough that they don't trigger the immune system response. So sort of like what we talked about in our caffeine episode
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Where it blocks off the sleepy receptors
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Antihistamines block off the allergy receptors, the histamine receptors.
Jam:The h one one or a different one?
Melissa:The h one. Yeah.
Jam:Got it. Interesting.
Melissa:So they sort of protect your body from binding to that histamine, so the all those other symptoms that are triggered when histamine binds to the h one, aren't triggered.
Jam:Got it. Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So that's why it's important to take your allergy medicine before you think you're gonna have an allergy attack if at all possible because that's gonna be more effective than taking it after the histamine's already bound.
Jam:Right. Right. That makes sense.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:This is so funny. I was having a layperson's conversation about this with our mutual friend, Brad, just the other day, trying to explain just My level of knowledge about it and also the basic thing you just said about it's better to take it before because he was talking about which medicine seemed to work for him and which didn't. And I was like, well, are you taking all those after you already have a lot of symptoms going on? Because that Could be so the could be the whole reason.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. A 100%.
Jam:That's so funny. That makes more sense now that I have heard that part of it.
Melissa:Yeah. So that's really the basics of this lesson.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I want you to take a stab at telling it back to me.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I'm gonna give you a bonus fact, and we're gonna talk more about histamines in the future.
Jam:Okay. Sweet. So istamine is a an organic molecule. It's one of those things that Mhmm. You have to say, Give a space between so it doesn't sound, like, inorganic, like you talked about.
Jam:That is a functional group In our bodies. Functional group, we talked about that before, but basically performs similar functions in the The shape it's in with the l elements that are present in it. Right. And you said it's, Oh, I forgot the what element you said over there. What atoms?
Melissa:It's a nitrogen and 2 hydrogens bound to the molecule.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So, like, then there's a bond that goes from the molecule to the nitrogen, and the nitrogen has 2 hydrogens off of it.
Jam:Okay. And that's that's the concept that we're as soon as I think, like, taking notes would be smart about that. But, Otherwise, it does feel like just keeping my eyes on you and just listening to what you're saying instead of trying to worry about writing stuff down is more helpful. But just on, like, the Adams and stuff is the kinda thing. I'm so then I'm like, mhmm.
Jam:If I wrote that down, that would be smart. So histamine is in our bodies, and we have it so that whenever there is some sort of Invasion, where our bodies think, oh, this is not good. Something's present that shouldn't be here, like pollen. It sends histamine or yeah. I guess, sends it, right, to areas where I think that's happening?
Melissa:So I think it's actually based on one thing I listened to, it's the histamine is stored in the areas where you're more likely to be vulnerable to attack, so in your eyes and nose. And I guess it just releases it whenever that antibody is triggered.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Okay. So it's a defense mechanism, like many things in our bodies, And it's sent to do some of the things that does, like, release the fluid from our From our bloodstream or whatever else would be to help fight these things that it thinks are invading our bodies.
Melissa:Yeah. Which I did not know that. I mean, I knew there's something about how histamine triggered our immune system, but I thought histamine was always the bad guy. You know? Yeah.
Melissa:I got an allergy test, and they scratch you with all these different possible irritants.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And they scratch you with histamine. So I thought, oh, histamine must be the number one allergen. Yeah. But that's not what it is doing at all. It's testing your immune response.
Jam:Yes. Yeah. I've had a long history of allergies. I had I got allergy tests whenever I was in, I think, 3rd or 4th grade because my parents were just like, how does every single thing in nature make this kid itch And get read and stuff. And, like, every kind of tree and grass, I could never just roll in the grass like some of my peers could.
Melissa:Right I
Jam:was basically just locked in like a bubble, you know, my whole life. I'm just kidding. And So I had a sim similar deal where I had to get the tests and stuff like that. And I'm allergic to every type of grass pretty much and Every kind of tree, but especially cedar for some reason.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:So, so as an example, if I'm around cedar And some cedar, you know, whatever it is, little molecules in the air kinda get into my nose and stuff and And eyes, which happened really bad one time when I was mowing at my parents' house as a kid. I was mowing, and I hit a, Like a little bit of a dead cedar branch on the riding lawn mower, they went everywhere, and then only seemed to me, like, only, like, a couple minutes later, Things started going crazy. But
Melissa:Oh, no.
Jam:So in my case, I'm more allergic to it, and so There's a higher chance of my body kinda overreacting Mhmm. And releasing lots of histamine Mhmm. Something that's just cedar is not super harmful, you could argue, but my body just releases tons of it. So then Mhmm. Runny nose, excessively and watery eyes
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Irritated, kind of itchy skin or whatever.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And that's our bodies Releasing a lot of histamine, but doing more than really into being necessary.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And so Downside is that I didn't take an allergy pill before that. But say that I had
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:When I take an antihistamine, It goes into our bodies and binds to those h one receptors
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:Which then takes up that space. Back when we did the caffeine episode, I used the analogy of musical chairs. And so it's sort of like the music stops, and there's not a chair for histamine to bind to because we've already filled it with our own
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Musical chairs players, and the music stops. It the histamine can't bind anything, and It curbs the overreaction of our bodies so that we don't get a super rainy nose and don't get super watery eyes. But on the one hand, you could argue that maybe depending on what things your body might be trying to fight, you might be Stopping some good things from being fought, so who knows? But
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Most of what we get annoyed by is the Overreaction of our bodies. And it's not like pollen actually makes your eyes water and your nose run.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Our bodies are doing that or whatever.
Melissa:Pat, and I thought that was so interesting. I didn't know the histamine was a molecule, I should have probably, but Uh-huh. I think it just never those dots never connected for me that I thought, oh, histamine's probably just a molecule. You know? It just sounded like sort of a name for something.
Melissa:I don't know. It never connected for me, and I never realized that antihistamines were blocking the uptake of the histamine and that histamine really was an immune response, I sort of knew some of that, but I had never put it together in this way, and so I was really excited.
Jam:Yeah. Totally. It's fascinating. And we can all relate. I think everybody has at least a little bit of seasonal allergy allergies for stuff.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:You know? Some of us are these puny, really get down, you know, once or twice a year. But everybody can relate to The the feeling of having watery eyes and runny nose and being miserable.
Melissa:Right. Well, I have one bonus fact for you today. But before I give you that
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:I was torn about this because there's a lot of other stuff that histamine and antihistamines can do.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And so I couldn't decide if I wanted to bake it all in 1 or split it up. And so what I decided on eventually was today's is just gonna be about the function of the histamine and the antihistamine.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But next week, we're gonna do one of those dives into literature
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Where I share some of what current research is doing to make use of histamine and antihistamine.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So this is sort of the setup to next week's, which has a lot of really cool stuff. So there's links to I'm not gonna give you too much, but links to alzheimer's to antibiotic resistant drugs
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:To animals, there's all kinds of other stuff happening here.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So I wanna give you a little sneak peek of that, but we're not gonna dig into it until next week.
Jam:Got it. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. So kinda like We did with mosquito repellent research, and then also, I think, like, plastics and recycling research where you kind of
Melissa:yes.
Jam:Share with us what's happening right now, some exciting stuff to to cheer on the scientists that are Figuring stuff out and making advancements and whatever else right now.
Melissa:Absolutely. That's exactly what I wanted to set it up as. Nice. I thought it just would be too long, especially after last week's long jellyfish episode Yeah. To have it all in one.
Melissa:So I kinda broke it up, but here's a fun bonus fact for you.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:If you take Benadryl, are you one of those people that gets incredibly sleepy?
Jam:Yes. I am.
Melissa:Okay, so am I. So antihistamines can make us sleepy because h one receptors are not only involved in the uptake of histamine
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But they're also involved in the triggers that tell our brain that we should feel sleepy or that we should feel awake.
Jam:Right. So, like, with caffeine?
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But in this case, if we're blocking these receptors, we can't uptake some of those things that we need to feel awake. And so we feel very sleepy because our antihistamines are blocking our receptors.
Jam:Oh, weird. Mhmm.
Melissa:So it's not just that. Antihistamines are blocking these receptors that are gonna uptake some histamine and make us feel bad, they're also going to block the receptors that are gonna uptake some other molecules that will make us feel awake as we should.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And so we suddenly just can't keep our eyes open.
Jam:Dang. Wow. That is crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. So I thought that was so interesting. I'm always wondered why Benadryl just knocks me out, and that's why. Because it's working.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I think some of those others antihistamines that don't block those receptors probably have a different shape or something to them to where they're they're not able to block the other receptors, just the histamine uptake receptors.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Do you can I tell you a quick story about Benadryl?
Melissa:Oh, definitely.
Jam:So dogs can take Benadryl. I'm not a vet, so do what your vet says. But My dog has been told we've been told to to give Benadryl to our dog occasionally, especially, as, like, a quick measure if he's really having allergic reaction, and it's like a, a way to just to try to curve it quickly and make him less miserable. But Many dogs don't get drowsy with Benadryl.
Melissa:How interesting.
Jam:I don't understand that exactly, but he does not. And the amount of Benadryl we're told to give him was, a significant amount for a human. But for him, not in terms of the drowsiness, like, Factors. So back in I was still in college, I think my senior year of college, I had Benadryl, and I had it with my all the dog stuff because I mostly give to him and occasionally take some as well. And I woke up 1 spring morning on a Sunday.
Jam:It was just my allergies hit bad. And so know. I took some Benadryl, and I was like, I really don't, you know, want to be drowsy during church, but I gotta take something. It'll be better
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:To to take something. So I took some and then went to church With my, at the time, with girlfriend, but, you know, now wife.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And I was just so drowsy the whole time And was having such a hard time staying awake. And then afterward, I told my girlfriend that I had taken some Benadryl. Afterward, she was like, how much did you take? And I can't remember the amount, but I took what I've been had been giving my dog.
Melissa:Oh. Because I thought
Jam:I thought I mean, he's a little dog. He's a beagle. He's not very big. And she was like, that was double what you should've taken. Like, if I was gonna tell you to take Benadryl and then try to be awake during the day Yeah.
Jam:I would've told you to take this amount. I can't just can't remember how much, and I don't wanna Give advice about how much to take anyway. But, basically, I'd taken double what I should have taken. And so it's no wonder that I was having an impossible time staying awake During church. So
Melissa:And now you know all those h one receptors were just locked.
Jam:Yeah. Gosh. Man.
Melissa:Well, I'm really glad that we got to do this. I did not know any of this about histamines or antihistamines, but they're all just organic molecules, which I love, I'm so excited about, and I love learning new things. So I thought this was a really interesting topic, and I'm really glad. Thanks for Nacey for asking us about it. Yeah.
Melissa:Speaking of really fun things, I'm gonna go 1st again this week Okay. Because I had a really fun last week where I went to Colorado for a trip for my honeymoon, and we are up in a cabin in the snowy woods.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:I hate being hot as you guys well know, and it was a dream come true that it was snowing in May. So, that was my fun thing from this past week, I really enjoyed it, and I got to see snow in May. So that was great.
Jam:Dude, that's awesome. Yeah. I got to see some pictures that y'all sent From your honeymoon, even one where y'all were, you know, in a hot tub in the snowy Colorado weather, which was awesome.
Melissa:What a dream, and we ate so much good food.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Hot chocolate. We ate good steaks. We grilled out. It was a delight.
Jam:Dude, that is awesome. Man.
Melissa:So what have you been doing for the last week while I've been gone?
Jam:Well, this is a little bit of an unusual one, but I just think it'd be fun to share. So I was Looking it's about the time since we moved in to change our air filters, and that's a great time to do that, especially, you know, When you've moved into a new house or whatever, but seasonally
Melissa:probably all kinds of allergies
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Allergens up in there. Totally.
Jam:Totally. And so Our house is a little funky, and I've been dragging my feet about doing this for no real good reason. But, we have 3 different air intake Little sections for our house. I mean, we had to have 3 air filters, which is just kinda funny. I've never been in a house like that.
Jam:I've only ever had 1 or 2. And you just because you have different HVAC units that you have more than 1. But we have 1 HVAC unit, Three air intakes that require a filter.
Melissa:Interesting.
Jam:Pretty weird. 2 of them are, like, And the floor level. And so I was checking the district to see what size I should buy, and I noticed that when I Took the, like, vent cover off and took the filter out, that there was a large space behind there. And, Basically, it would be very easy to then step inside and stand up in there. And probably
Melissa:That is crazy.
Jam:Yeah. You could probably fit 3 adults in there if you wanted to.
Melissa:It's like you have a a hidden secret room in there.
Jam:Yeah. It's like I think they just didn't want to the space was just a little weird because then there's a a hall closet next to that.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And then there's a hot water heater at the back of that closet. So I think it's like, spacing wise, it was just a little strange, and so they decided To just let there be a wider area and then not run the, like, vent tubing, whatever you call that kind of stuff.
Melissa:Right All
Jam:the way down. They just attached vent tubes to the top of that little narrow passageway And then just let air flow up through there instead of Wow. Running this all the way down. And so there's probably somebody out there who knows more about this stuff that would say That's normal to do, or they might say that's really weird and not normal. Who knows?
Melissa:But Who knows?
Jam:Either way, I was surprised to find out that there's this area in our wall That I can go inside and stand in if I want to.
Melissa:The possibilities of that, you could make it a hideout in case something happens, I bet it'd be really safe in a tornado because it's so enclosed.
Jam:Oh, that's a great point. Yeah. We don't really have a lot of other good options for tornadoes, so that's This is not a bad idea.
Melissa:You could hide your treasure in there if you have any. You know?
Jam:I don't, but I could probably get some. You know?
Melissa:You could probably get some. Yeah. You could you could put all kinds of stuff in there. Mhmm. That'd be so fun.
Melissa:You could make it a reading nook
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Where you go in, and you're like, I just Need some alone time, and you just crawl in the vent. Yep.
Jam:I wonder what it'd be like when the air kicks on if I feel weird in there at all or if, like Yeah. It could be loud. It's it's interesting. But the fact that you can't really sit down very easily does make it Yeah. Kinda difficult.
Jam:But, But standing up
Melissa:good hiding spot.
Jam:Yes. Definitely a good hiding spot. So if you guys if there's ever any reason that we'd need to hide somewhere, If we can just keep this between us, you, me, and all of you guys listening out in the world and just not share about that with everybody Indigenous food and our our small little several thousand, people.
Melissa:Community. Yeah.
Jam:That'd be that'd be great. So
Melissa:well, can you will you take pictures or a video and let us post it on Instagram? That'd be so fun.
Jam:Yes. I will. Absolutely. I'll
Melissa:do that. Secret room on Insta. How exciting. Alright. Well, thanks for telling us about your secret hiding spot that now we all know about it is not a secret anymore.
Jam:Yes. Anytime.
Melissa:That was really fun. And thanks for coming and learning about histamine. I was so excited about it. And thanks to all of you listeners for coming and learning about histamine as well because I really and truly love this so much, and we could not do it without you. And we're so thankful for you guys.
Jam:And thank you for teaching us, and thank you to Renee Cee for suggesting this topic and asking us a question. So if you've got an idea Or a question that might have something to do with chemistry, please let us know. Reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, your life to share your thoughts and ideas. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, go to kodashfi.com/ chem for your life, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.
Jam:And this is the last week to join our at a monthly amount, any monthly amount, and still receive an exclusive sticker and a note from Melissa and I to say thank you. But if you're not able to donate, you can still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and reading and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Collini and Jim Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jim Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to a Hefner and a Colini who reviewed this episode.
