What Are Symptoms of Tea Intolerance?
Aside from migraine, some teas can also trigger intolerances or allergies, although rare. According to Rachelle Robinett, a New York–based holistic health practitioner, registered clinical herbalist, and founder of Supernatural, some herbs can cause a histamine reaction (an inflammatory response triggered by an allergen) in the body, which can in turn cause a headache, itchiness, or flushing (and in more serious cases, anaphylaxis).
“A histamine reaction is a natural and necessary reaction [from your immune system], but when overly severe or chronically triggered, can cause rashes or headaches, and especially migraine attacks,” Robinett says.
But this doesn’t mean you need to stop drinking tea cold turkey. “The approach for remedying that is usually to reduce high-histamine foods, including herbs [teas with citrus flavors in particular are considered high-histamine], but it’s important to consider what a ‘normal’ histamine reaction for most people is overactive for you. If your gut health is compromised, for example, that could cause a reaction since gut health and an immune response are directly linked,” Robinett says.
Her advice for getting to the root issue is tracking when your headaches or migraine attacks are occurring and if they are coinciding with anything else, like consuming high-histamine foods, such as alcohol, cheese, processed meat, or chocolate.
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