Histamine Clearance

Your result, the one DNA position behind it, and what the research says.

5/10 confidence.

About Histamine Clearance

Histamine is not only something your immune system releases: it is present in food, and it accumulates as food ages or ferments. Aged cheese, cured meat, red wine, sauerkraut and leftovers left too long all carry a lot of it. Diamine oxidase, made mainly in the gut lining, breaks that dietary histamine down before it is absorbed. This variant changes the enzyme and lowers its activity. Because the enzyme is produced in the gut wall, gut health influences the outcome at least as much as this position does.

Good to know: Histamine builds up in food as it ages or ferments, quite apart from any allergy. The enzyme is made in the gut lining, so gut health shapes the outcome too. Evidence linking this variant to reported food reactions is mixed.

Fun fact: The histamine in a well-aged cheese has nothing to do with allergy: bacteria produce it as they break the cheese down.

Discovery: Diamine oxidase variants and their effect on enzyme activity were characterized in the 2000s.

The Variant

The single variant behind this trait

Gene: AOC1

Variant (rsID): rs1049742

Location: Chr 7:150,857,465

dbSNP rs1049742

The studies

Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the diamine oxidase gene with diamine oxidase serum activities (Maintz L et al., Allergy, 2011)

Other lifestyle traits

Secretor Status: A change that decides whether you secrete your blood group antigens into saliva, tears and gut fluid, which shapes the bacteria your gut hosts.

Nicotine Receptor: A change in a nicotine receptor subunit, one of the strongest known influences on how much people who smoke tend to smoke.

Alcohol Flush: A change in the enzyme that clears acetaldehyde, the compound alcohol turns into first, which causes the facial flushing some people get from one drink.

Back to All Traits

Content updated September 2026.

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