Articles

Foods and Inflammation

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from live Well with Chronic Illness webinar 'Foods and Infammation'. In this talk, we will be exploring some of the foods that can provoke inflammation and some of the foods that can help reduce it, and how we can use these foods to help us with MCAS.

Dysautonomia

PowerPoint slides from Roselle O Brien's webinar on 'Dysautonomia', an umbrella term used to classify multiple disorders in which the autonomic nervous system isn't working properly.

Your Safe Haven at Home

PowerPoint slides from Roselle O Brien's webinar on 'Your Safe Haven at Home' exploring the realities of "safe haven" in the mast cell world, what it means, what it entails, crucial elements---and why it's so essential. Add to the tools in your ever-growing toolbox of health supports with insights and strategies for creating your safe haven.

MCAS and Environmental Pollution the Toxic Truth

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live Well with Chronic Illness' webinar on 'MCAS and Environmental Pollution the Toxic Truth' exploring the connection between MCAS and environmental toxins.

What is detoxing and how might it help with MCAS?

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live Well with Chronic Illness' webinar on 'What is detoxing and how might it help with MCAS?'. Learn tips and tricks to reduce toxins in your body and the environment.

Stress and Mast Cells

PowerPoint slides from Roselle O Brien's webinar on 'Stress and Mast Cells' exploring how stress impacts us physically in our bodies, the role it plays with mast cells and in mast cell activation, and some strategies for managing stress, the stressors in our lives, and mast cell activation reactions that can be brought on by stress.

Pillars of Health

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live Well with Chronic Illness's webinar 'Pillars of Health' exploring how these ‘pillars of health’ can improve the situation for any health condition. Deborah will share her unique ‘Health Discovery Framework’ with us, which she uses with her own clients.

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live well with chronic illness's webinar 'The Neuroscience of Mindfulness' exploring the neuroscience of how Mindfulness works, and how everyone can develop their own unique mindfulness practice to support them to manage difficulty and feel better—EVEN if you struggle to sit still, switch off and relax!

Understanding Lyme Disease – a general introduction to Lyme

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live well with chronic illness's webinar 'Understanding Lyme Disease – a general introduction to Lyme'. For many people, there is a significant overlap between Lyme Disease and MCAS, and Lyme can be an underlying root cause for MCAS.

How to Fight On in Tough Times – Tools and Tips to Foster Mental Resilience

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live well with chronic illness' webinar 'How to Fight On in Tough Times – Tools and Tips to Foster Mental Resilience' examining some simple tools that can help us all to navigate life’s ups and downs more skillfully.

How to be Heard: Advocating for yourself within the NHS

PowerPoint slides from Vicky Pearson's webinar 'How to be Heard: Advocating for yourself within the NHS'. This event was designed to help individuals learn how to approach MCAS whilst accessing medical care within the NHS and how to advocate for yourself as a patient.

How to Sleep Well

PowerPoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live well with chronic illness webinar on 'How to Sleep Well' exploring what sleep is, why we need it, and how we can support our body to get as much good quality sleep as possible.

Vagus Nerves and Mast Cells

PowerPoint slides from Roselle O'Brien's talk on 'Vagus Nerves and Mast Cells' exploring the role that the vagus nerves play in regulating stress, inflammation, and mast cell activity.

Long COVID and the Mast Cell Connection

PowerPoint slides from Roselle O'Brien's talk 'Long COVID and the Mast Cell Connection' exploring what current research has shown about the long-COVID-mast cell connection and what that may mean to managing symptoms as we support our health in challenging times.

Immune Health - How to Fight off Bugs and Viruses Naturally

Powerpoint slides from Deborah Bircham from Live Well with Chronic Illness' webinar 'Immune Health - How to Fight off Bugs and Viruses Naturally' looking at how the immune system works, and how we can support it to function optimally using diet and lifestyle measures.

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome: A Research Update

Kathleen Doheny (2023). This is a short informative article explaining the difference between clonal and non-clonal mast cell activation syndrome. It focuses on presentation of each and helpful investigations for a diagnosis. There are also useful links to scientific articles that go more in depth in the detail of the non-clonal form.

A Puzzling Mast Cell Trilogy: Anaphalaxis, MCAS, and Mastocytosis

Theo Gülen (2023). This article outlines the difficulties associated with diagnosing three interrelated conditions; anaphylaxis, MCAS, and mastocytosis. It outlines each in turn, to then discuss their overlap and clinical features of their presentation alongside other mast-cell related disorders. It concludes by calling for future research aimed at identifying new biomarkers to distinguish patients with each disorder and the treatment of patients in specialized centres due to the complexity of the conditions.

Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Response to Mast-Cell-Directed Treatment: A Case Series

Leonard B. Weinstock, Renee M. Nelson and Svetlana Blitshteyn (2023). This is a small study that explores the comorbidity of psychiatric conditions and MCAS. The study includes 8 patients with both a psychiatric and MCAS diagnosis and highlights how, treating MCAS improved the psychiatric symptoms. The study highlights how psychiatric patient's refractory to standard therapy that also have systemic symptoms should be assessed for MCAS. It calls for more studies to investigate the prevalence of MCAS in psychiatric patients not responding to standard treatments to get a better picture of this association and the potential therapeutic benefits for the patients.

Fluoxetine retrains allergic inflammation by targeting an FcɛRI-ATP positive feedback loop in mast cells

Tamara T Haque, Marcela T Taruselli, Sydney A Kee, Jordan M Dailey, Neha Pondicherry, Paula A Gajewski-Kurdziel, Matthew P Zellner, Daniel J Stephenson, H Patrick MacKnight, David B Straus, Roma Kankaria, Kaitlyn G Jackson, Alena P Chumanevich, Yoshihiro Fukuoka, Lawrence B Schwartz, Randy D Blakely, Carole A Oskeritzian, Charles E Chalfant, Rebecca K Martin, John J Ryan (2023). This article outlines a study on mice that tests the effects of the SSRI fluoxetine on IgE-induced activation of mast cells. It discusses how fluoxetine suppresses mast cell activation and ATP secretion, which amplifies IgE responses. The article concludes by suggesting that fluoxetine is a promising candidate for repurposing allergy treatment.

Increased Excretion of Mast Cell Mediator Metabolites During Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

Joseph H Butterfield (2023). This is a retrospective cohort study exploring biomarkers in MCAS diagnosis. While an increase in serum tryptase by 20% plus 2 ng/mL is required for an MCAS diagnosis, there is no agreement on what counts as significant rise in urinary metabolites such as prostaglandin D2, histamine, or leukotriene (which are also linked to MCAS episodes). The study finds that the measurements of all three urinary metabolites together is helpful for diagnosis.

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