https://mastcellblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/canary/
Therapy
Can anything stabilize mast cells and stop them from being quite so trigger happy (we can’t disable them altogether otherwise we’d have no immunity and the first pathogen we came across would kill us)? The answer is currently a rather weak “yes”, but much better drugs are needed.
As mentioned, currently available anti-histamines can help with symptoms attributed to histamine mediator release such as insomnia, reflux, asthmatic issues, IBS. However, although they stop histamine binding to H1 and H2 receptors, they still leave the histamine floating around the body where it’s free to bind to H3 and H4 receptors causing other symptoms. The first generation anti-histamine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxyzine, however, crosses the blood-brain barrier and acts as both an anti-histamine and mast cell stabilizer. It has been shown to inhibit allergic encephalomyelitis and associated brain mast cell activation in animals[5]. It is also useful for anxiety (possibly as a result of CNS activation through mast cells), but can be very sedating.
To reduce the amount of histamine the body has to cope with you could, like me, try following a low histamine diet. But again, this only deals with histamine not the other 29 mast cell mediators. For that, you need to stop mast cells from unnecessarily spilling their mediator contents in the first place.
Sodium chromoglycate stabilizes mast cells in the skin and GI tract but cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier. SC may be useful if you have persistent GI symptoms such as cramp, nausea, diarrhoea, or persistent allergy-type symptoms such as food intolerance, chemical sensitivity, asthma/breathing problems etc. A table of other drugs currently used to treat MCAD can be found within
http://www.ehoonline.org/content/pdf/2162-3619-2-28.pdf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luteolin is a flavanoid which is an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, mild metal chelator, mast cell inhibitor and is neuro-protective – it crosses the blood-brain barrier where sodium chromoglycate does not. You can buy luteolin in capsule/powder form, however only 5% goes into the bloodstream. Ideally a much better way of getting luteolin into the brain is needed. Dr Theoharides has developed a non-prescription capsule called
http://www.algonot.com/neuroprotek.php which contains Lutoelin, and 2 other flavaoids known for their mast cell stabilizing properties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercetin and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutin, mixed with olive kernel oil which helps the body deliver and absorb the flavonoids. This is not a cure for mast cell disease but may help the severity of symptoms. (
Note: Dr Theoharides makes no money from the sale of Neuroprotek).
Luteolin, Quercetin and Rutin are also found in various foods, so it can’t do anything but good to include these in the diet:
- Luteolin is present in celery, green pepper, parsley, thyme, dandelion, chamomile tea, carrots, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary and oregano.
- Quercetin is found in many foods, particularly buckwheat, blueberries, red grapes, red onion, capers, dill, watercress, kale and sweet potato.
- Rutin is found in buckwheat, asparagus, citrus fruits, apple and berries such as cranberry.
Other treatments
There have been some exciting recent developments in M.E. treatment in a trial using the anti-cancer drug
http://bergento.no/cancer-treatment-cfs/. Rituximab works on b-lymphocytes and, strangely enough, b-lymphocytes are controlled by mast cells. The anti-cancer drug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imatinib has been used by Dr Afrin to treat MCAD (as discussed in his
http://www.mastocytosis.ca/2011 MSC Medical Lecture with Slides.pdf) with great success. Strange that these two very similar drugs have been used to treat the same symptoms in two supposedly separate diseases!
Low dose
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ (an immune modulator) has also been used with some success by people suffering from M.E. And, again, Naltrexone is also used to treat MCAD.
Some of the drugs generally used to treat the symptoms in M.E. have mast cell mediator properties. For example, some people find the anti-depressants Zispin, Doxepin and Amitriptylene helpful for both pain and insomnia – the reason being they all have anti-histamine properties (I didn’t have any problems at
all with hives or itching until I became allergic to Zispin and had to stop taking it – then my hives appeared apparently ‘out of no-where’). Some people have found a reduction in M.E. symptoms by taking high doses of Vitamin C – the reason being
Vitamin C is a mast cell stabilizer (and used quite widely by people with MCAD and Mastocytosis). The reason these drugs help but don’t cure M.E. is that they’re a sticking plaster over symptoms caused by mast cell mediators, but don’t get to the root of the problem which in my very humble, and totally non-medical opinion, is mast cell activation.