Natural tools to soothe MCAS

This post is updated from its original.

Before I was diagnosed with Lyme disease, I was desperate enough to Skype with an expert allergy doctor all the way in England, hoping he could help me eat food without my body losing it. (Nope.) That doctor never mentioned Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, or MCAS. But in retrospect, it’s obvious that working with MCAS has been a big part of my Lyme journey.

Over years of treatment, I’ve gotten healthy enough to be able to eat a varied Paleo diet. But this summer I was exposed to mold. It took months to figure it out, and my mast cells went right back to having violent panic attacks, the likes of which I thought I was through with forever. I’m remediating the mold, but it’s been an awful reminder of how our immune cells can wreak havoc on our own bodies. I’ve very much relied on meditative tools and herbs to make it through.

What are mast cells?

Mast cells are allergy cells. They are the first line of defense against invaders such as allergens, pathogens, or poisons. A normal, healthy mast cell is responsible for the release of histamines, cytokines, and other inflammatory compounds upon interaction with an invading substance. Think swelling after a bee sting. When mast cells release these compounds, they alert the rest of the immune system to danger, and we experience an allergic reaction.

This is all normal. We are supposed to swell up when bitten by a venomous viper. Inflammation from normal mast cell activation speeds immune response and healing. But in MCAS, something goes awry.

What is MCAS?

MCAS involves proliferation and/or excessive sensitivity of mast cells. Basically, it means having intense allergic reactions to non-threatening substances (like common foods), or chronic allergic reactions due to persistent pathogens or toxins.

Tick-borne illnesses, toxic mold exposure, or exposure to other toxic metals or chemicals can trigger MCAS. Once your mast cells are aggravated, you may find that substances such as foods (especially allergens), chemicals, medicines, infections, emotional stress, and even exercise can cause allergic responses.

In a 1999 study, Lyme disease spirochetes (Borrelia Burgdorferi), were proven to cause mast cells to release cytokines – inflammatory chemicals. On Dr. Bill Rawls’ website, it states that in Lyme, the “stew of microbes and other stress factors…push certain aspects of the immune system, such as mast cells, into overdrive”.

Everyone’s MCAS is going to look a bit different, because there are so many possible allergic reactions to so many possible triggers. For me, no matter the trigger, MCAS means a sky-high heart rate, swelling in my sinuses, and staying up all night on the toilet. Other typical symptoms of MCAS include insomnia, pain, fatigue, sweats and chills, headaches, respiratory symptoms, abnormal blood pressure, vertigo, tinnitus, brain fog, problems with memory, anxiety, depression, and skin rashes. MCAS can even spiral into autoimmune disorders.

In order to truly heal MCAS, you’ll need to work on eliminating its root cause, of course. But this can be a lengthy process. What can we do to encourage our mast cells to settle down in the meantime? Luckily, some natural tools are useful in the moment to help settle a flare, and may even help teach your mast cells to calm over time, in combination with good treatment.

DNRS and the mind of a mast cell

Annie Hopper, creator of Dynamic Neural Retraining System, or DNRS, has done some really interesting work with MCAS. She began to suffer severe reactions to chemical exposures years back. For her, a whiff of perfume or the steam from a dryer vent could trigger an elevated heart rate, headaches, and even seizures. Though she doesn’t discuss MCAS specifically, it stands to reason that her symptoms were in part mast cell-related.

What Hopper does talk about is her amazing recovery through brain retraining. By using her special form of DNRS meditation practice, she was able to retrain her brain and body to stop reacting to chemical exposure. Today she is healthy, and teaches her method in the US and Canada.

Mast cells are quite active in the brain, and in the enteric nervous system in the gut (our second largest brain). In fact, mast cells are in constant communication with the nervous system as a whole. They even produce the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin.

Mast cells are woven densely throughout all our nerve tissue – sending and receiving messages that influence our psychoneuroimmunology. (Great word, encapsulating how interwoven our minds are with our immune systems.) This messaging goes back and forth, with the nervous system influencing mast cell behavior, and vice versa. In other words, mast cells adapt the level of inflammation in our bodies not just in response to invading substances, but also as a response to messages received from the brain and nervous system.

This suggests, as does Annie Hopper’s experience with DNRS, that we can influence our immune systems and our mast cell activity via neurotransmitters – otherwise known as our thoughts and feelings. Perhaps this explains why some people with Lyme, including myself, benefit from different forms of meditation, and why learning to handle stress is a critical part of Lyme and MCAS treatment.

Mast cell meditation

Here is a meditation practice I find really helpful for calming mast cells. If you are new to meditation, try this practice first when your symptoms are pretty mild. If it works for you, you can lengthen your practice slowly, and experiment with practicing when your symptoms are more severe.

Lie down and take your time to relax. Go through your body mentally, letting each part soften and release into gravity. Then, choose either an image or a mantra to work with, whichever strikes your fancy in the moment. I like imagining a place that makes me feel deeply peaceful, like a sandy beach at dusk, or a deep lake in the mountains. With mantras, I like to choose one word, such as “bliss”, or a phrase that opens the heart and calms, like “I am safe”. You could put an image together with a mantra if that works for you. The important thing is that your practice feels deeply calming in the moment.

Play with this practice for 15 minutes or so, feeling your breath and your body respond. Your mind will get distracted, just rein it in and come back to your image or phrase. Find ways to play that hold your attention – let the words and imagery change if need be. Feel your body as you practice, feel your breathing. If you are feeling pleasure, follow those feelings and let them build. Trust that you’re making changes deep in your body, and that you’re on a good path.

If you need help, use guided meditations. Guided meditations give your brain something blissful to follow that requires no personal energy output. For me, they work amazingly. Try my Anxiety Relief meditation for support with soothing MCAS symptoms. It speaks to the limbic system, the vagus nerve, and the enteric nervous system in the gut – in other words, the tissue where mast cells directly communicate with the brain.

Herbs for MCAS

Medical websites tell you that treatment with antihistamines is useful for MCAS, and they may soothe symptoms, though without treating the root cause. Some herbs, however, may help to lessen symptoms of MCAS while also balancing the immune system. Herbs such as ashwagandha, rhodiola, CBD, nettles, or blackberry root (especially in the case of MCAS-related diarrhea) are great places to start.

A qualified naturopath can help you sort through herbal treatments for MCAS, but I can tell you from personal experience that it comes down to a fair amount of trial and error! I use the above herbs in combination, rotating them here and there as I feel inspired. They all help me.

Make sure the herbs you experiment with aren’t contraindicated for you personally, and that they won’t interfere with any medications you’re taking. Also, look for herbs that are third-party certified for purity. There’s no point in taking herbs that come with a side of lead or mercury.

To wrap it up

Thank you so much for reading! As a Lyme Warrior friend said recently, the cure (or in my view, the path to a good life) will be multidimensional. We have to come at chronic illness from all sides, and support each other along the way.

Wishing you peaceful mast cells,

Shona

References:

J Talkington 1, S P Nickell. Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes induce mast cell activation and cytokine release. Infect Immun. 1999 Mar;67(3):1107-15.doi: 10.1128/IAI.67.3.1107-1115.1999.

SabineBuhner, MichaelSchemann. Mast cell–nerve axis with a focus on the human gut. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease. Volume 1822, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 85-92