Are you struggling with mysterious symptoms that have your doctors and loved ones scratching their heads? It’s like all of a sudden you are experiencing new symptom after symptom, becoming highly sensitive to everything. Your flare-up, fatigue, and numerous other symptoms are interfering with you living your life, and you just need answers and hope.

Your symptoms could be from a condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), which many providers, unfortunately, misdiagnose for other conditions, or worse, don’t find anything “wrong” and can’t give you answers.

What Are the Symptoms of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome?

With MCAS, all of the body’s systems can be affected. This is why we see a wide range of symptoms from person to person. 

Your collection of MCAS symptoms could look completely different from another individual with MCAS. Also, keep in mind that your symptoms may be a result of other comorbidities that are commonly seen with MCAS and may range from mild to severe.

However, there are common symptoms of MCAS that can give us clues that your immune system, or more especially, your mast cells are overactive, which is causing your issues.

Common MCAS Symptoms:

• Always feeling unwell

• Hives

• Spontaneous flushing

• Runny eyes/ running nose

• Itchiness/Redness

• Odd and increased allergies symptoms

• Swelling/edema

• Nausea

• Chronic cough

• Chronic fatigue

• Trouble breathing

• Waxing and waning of symptoms

Individuals could also experience:

• Profound fatigue

• Anxiety/Depression

• Brain Fog

• Headaches

• Mood instability

• Diarrhea 

• Constipation

• Vomiting

• Rapid heart rate

• Hard menstrual cycles

• Weight gain

• Unusual sensitivities to chemicals, smells, foods, pressure, or light

• Slow wound healing

• Poor vision

• Pain in muscles and joints

Your symptoms may come and go, and since everything seems to trigger your flare-ups, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing the issues. What’s even more frustrating is that any type of treatment you may have tried only makes your symptoms more severe, or barely takes the edge off. You might feel better temporarily but then feel terrible again.

The Onset of MCAS Symptoms

Many individuals who struggle with MCAS symptoms can pinpoint when a significant psychological or physically stressful event occurred where they noticed their health begin to decline. This could have been a trauma, a death, a tick bite, getting COVID, an infection, or traveling somewhere.

Recounting this time and or event can help providers address the root cause of your symptoms, which is how you can successfully find relief from your MCAS symptoms for good. 

If it was traveling, maybe we can trace your root cause back to a parasite. If it was moving into a new house, maybe it was mold exposure or chemical off-gassing. If it was a hiking trip, a tick bite could’ve infected you with Lyme Disease or another tick borne illness… any of which could have manifested into MCAS and other comorbid conditions. Often it is not just one underlying root cause.

Why MCAS is Commonly Misdiagnosed

Unfortunately, it’s common for many people with mast cell activation syndrome to get misdiagnosed due to a lack of understanding and awareness in the medical community. Most people go their entire lives without a diagnosis, or worse, they refer you to psychology and tell you “it’s all in your head.”

This is because just a couple of decades ago, MCAS was only seen in rare cases, and didn’t become an official syndrome with an ICD10 code until late 2016. But now, mast cell activation syndrome and other complex chronic diseases are more common. You can read my previous article about why MCAS is rising because of increased toxicities and sensitivity issues.

Most doctors aren’t trained to pick up on MCAS symptoms because only now it’s becoming a common issue in our society. It also takes on average 20 years for a new syndrome to become mainstream in medicine. This makes it extremely difficult to get real answers and relief of your mysterious symptoms if you struggle with mast cell activation syndrome or other complex health challenges.

A New Way to View Your Chronic MCAS Symptoms

With each new symptom that manifests, does your doctor hand over a new medication to control or mask the symptoms? Like a different prescription for your digestive issues, your anxiety, your fatigue, skin flare-up, etc. 

Instead of having this idea that 20 things are wrong with you, what if it was one underlying systemic problem?

And to address all these symptoms, what if you just had to get to the root cause of that one dysfunction or imbalance in the body, and address it naturally to see long-term relief from all your symptoms?

That’s exactly what the functional medicine approach is about: getting to the root cause and taking a systems approach to healing. This is how I was able to overcome my never-ending list of debilitating MCAS symptoms that were inhibiting me from living my life.

In 2018, I had 52 of 60 symptoms of MCAS and was barely functioning. I managed some of my symptoms with antihistamines, anti-nausea medications, and mast cell stabilizers, but was still miserable. I turned to Functional Medicine, Naturopathy, and Bioenergetic Medicine to address each of my underlying root causes, seeking remission. Once I addressed the underlying root issues that were triggering my immune system to overreact, I was finally able to recover and get my life back (which I only hoped was possible when I was in the thick of struggling with my symptoms).

Focus on Improving Bodily Functions, Not Individual Symptoms

With MCAS, the issue is that your immune system is overreacting to perceived stressors or stimuli caused by underlying issues like mold toxicity, parasites, and/or viral and bacterial infections like Lyme disease or COVID. The alarm bells of your immune system are on for a reason. Many times these underlying infections occur years before MCAS actually manifests. 

However, other issues and imbalances could exacerbate your immune response, triggering your mast cells to respond. For example, certain foods, environmental toxins/chemicals, and underlying gut issues (like leaky gut, dysbiosis, and overgrowths) could set off your immune response into overdrive and contribute to the dysfunction.

So how do you address these issues? You first need to calm your nervous system to be able to begin addressing your immune dysfunction. Then you need to remove your main stressors and stimuli, and then also reduce those additional triggers (hormone imbalances, leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, etc). It is equally important to address the underlying root causes in a specific order to get the best results.

We do this with the help of state-of-the-art lab testing that can identify infections, toxicities, nutrient deficiencies, gut health, and other issues that could be the cause and trigger(s) of your mast cells going into overdrive.

Do you suspect your flare-ups are symptoms of mast cell activation syndrome? Don’t wait any longer to get answers. You also don’t need to settle for a treatment plan that only includes expensive medications that mask your symptoms and don’t improve the function of your body.

Overcome Your Chronic Symptoms & Heal Holistically

Are you looking to get to the root cause of your symptoms? We can help you.

We use holistic approaches and functional medicine lab testing to investigate what is triggering your chronic symptoms so you can address them at their source and start to feel better faster. Our health coaches are masters at guiding the healing of multiple root causes in a personalized order that gets you wellness results that last. We also help you maintain good health and minimize your disease risks.

by sarah southerton

Certified Integrative Health Practitioner (IHP2) & Functional Medicine Health Coach

I specialize in helping people heal chronic illnesses and achieve optimal health. After my own battle with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Lyme disease, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Post Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), I was thrust into the world of alternative medicine, herbal healing, and low-tox/low-stress living. I have since restored my health and no longer suffer with debilitating symptoms and I’m passionate about help other people who are suffering, so they can feel better a lot faster than I did.

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