Uncover MCAS Roots: Your Path To Healing

Welcome to the Summit 0:00

Hello and welcome back to our Reversing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Histamine Intolerance Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Meg Mill. And I am so thrilled to have you at this worldwide event. We're going to get into such great things. We're going to talk to great experts and give you so much information to help you on your healing journey. And I just want to share this is all about you. But I also am passionate about this because I've been in your shoes. I've reacted to everything I, you know, had.

I will go back and talk through some of this, but had symptoms, you know, that were triggers that you noticed through early childhood that then all hit me like a bomb. Whenever I was in my early 30s and had to look into these because I was having terrible anxiety. I was having panic attacks. I couldn't eat anything. I was reacting to everything. I just was in this place that really made me have to make some changes, have to dive into the root cause. And then it has been my passion to share that with you and to really educate on the things that we can do.

So I'm excited to talk today about why you're having the Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. But before we talk about that, let's just start by talking a little bit about what mast cells are and the role they play in our immune system. Because like everything else, there is a reason that you have the mast cells. They play a critical role, but it's when things go haywire

What Mast Cells Do 1:29

that we start to see all of these problems. So mast cells are a part of your innate immune system. We have our innate and our adaptive immune system. They originate in your bone marrow. And then they migrate to places in the tissue near the surface interfaces between the body and the outside world. So we see a lot of them in things like our gut, our skin, our airways. And that's why we start to see some of these symptoms start to come up there, because they're there to monitor for perceived threats.

NASA's are actually in almost every cell in your body in the mucosal membranes, things like the GI tract, the respiratory tract, they're near the surface of the skin, blood vessels, nerve cells, even the brain. And each mature mast cell contains hundreds of granules. So these granules contain proteins and chemical mediators. And this includes histamine. But it also includes heparin, triptans and other inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. And the process that they break down and release is called granulation.

And so they're playing a role in our inflammation. And this is important because an inflammation is actually an essential part of our immune response. It actually helps clear infections. And it is actually involved with tissue repair. It's when that we get this chronic inflammation that the inflammation doesn't stop, that we're in this place where it's happening over and over again. That actually becomes a problem. So your mast cells are actually playing an important function. But what starts to happen is that they can start to be dysregulated by everything.

So when we have mast cell activation syndrome, the mast cells become hyper responsive and overly sensitive them to a wide range of triggers. And your body is supposed to be able to eat food. It's supposed to be able to breathe air and drink water, and be around your cell phone and do things that we need to do in our everyday life. But when we're exposed to an infection, a toxin and allergen, we're supposed to trigger the mast cells and they're supposed to come to our rescue, but they're not supposed to react to all of the other things.

And so we start to see these symptoms start to happen because they're reacting to everyday things. And it can be hard because symptoms can actually vary person to person.

MCAS Symptoms and Diagnosis Challenges 3:40

So we're going to get a little bit into symptoms here. But you can have these these strong symptoms where you're even getting to that anaphylactic reaction as the severity to you know I have some bloating and fatigue and some hormonal imbalances. It's so hard sometimes to pinpoint because you might be going to your doctor and kind of with all of these random symptoms and you're you're getting told you're fine. I use quotations there because you're not getting an answer to any of these disconnected in their mind symptoms where we're looking at, okay, these are your immune system actually giving you signals.

And so we're seeing this more and more. We're actually getting after Covid. We're getting an increase and seeing people have this mast cell activation. And so symptoms can really vary. So we see them from all over our body. We see skin issues hives rashes, itching. We say anxiety and depression and mood disorders. So that's something you might not be thinking about. But we actually have histamine receptors. Even in our brain. We start to see some of these psychiatric things start to play out with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.

We also see headaches and migraines, commonly fatigue, weakness, dizziness, heart palpitations, chest pain, blood pressure fluctuations, diarrhea, bloating, nausea, heartburn, other digestive symptoms. We see weight changes, poor appetite, brain fog, cognitive problems, neuropathy. We see that tingling, numbness and pain you can have cough, shortness of breath, asthma, allergies, hormonal imbalances like we talked about PCOS, PMS, joint pain, joint, hyper mobility, muscle pain. So you're seeing wow okay.

These symptoms can all be different things. They can also overlap with some of the other things that people are often talking about. You know, we're often looking at these in different ways. And we can have some of these overlapping symptoms when we're dealing with this immune dysregulation. And having MCAS doesn't mean that you all have all of the symptoms. It actually simply means that you have an increased likelihood of them to occur. And they're they're ranging anywhere from mild to very severe.

And it can really vary from person to person. And we're going to talk about some of the reasons. It's also hard to get diagnosed with MCAS because it can be challenging due to its overlap with other conditions. We talked about lack of standardized diagnostic criteria. You know, we're looking at histamine levels, looking at trip taste levels. There's things we can do. And we're going to talk about those in another interview. But it was also really not categorized until 2016. And so it can be difficult to diagnose.

So I also want to bring something else up here because I think that this is something that is important when we're when we're looking at something like MCAS or even histamine intolerance, we will sometimes get a diagnosis. And it's wonderful to feel like, okay, now I know what it is. Okay, I have the diagnosis, I have these identified symptoms and you feel like, okay, I have a place to fall. I have somewhere a community I can belong to. I have an answer. But the problem occurs with conditions like this.

When we get a diagnosis. Now what? So now you have a diagnosis. But what does that actually mean for you. And I think this is something you really need to think about. And take into account, because the label is something then that we can live in without being able to see that we can have a change. And so when we have a diagnosis, we're often given things that are going to really sort of manage the symptoms.

Why Diagnosis Alone Is Not Enough 7:18

So we're saying, okay, this diagnosis is a collection of these symptoms. Now we're going to see that you have that. And then we're going to use these potential drugs or supplements or things to manage your symptoms. But if you do that you're never actually getting to the root of why. So why are your mast cells overactive? Why are they angry? Why are they responsive? And if we don't look at the why we're really never making the change. You're not getting out of that. So we need to actually move from okay, here's the the sitting in the diagnosis I have this I'm going to manage it to really taking that next step.

And I want you to find out why I want you to look at we're going to work together to identify. Hopefully you'll hear a lot of speakers on the summit that are going to be good, you know, tips as to why you're having this and really getting the the why down and the right roadmap to figure this out is the key to feeling better and having lasting change. And so I want to start this part. The point of this is to really talk about some of those whys. Look at the root causes. So, you know, when we think of it like a triangle.

So, you know, on the top of that triangle on that point where it's bothering you are the symptoms. So we you know, we said all of those range of symptoms. So you, you know, you have headaches, maybe you have PMS, you have anxiety, you have bloating, you have rashes. You you know, you have a variety of symptoms or you know, some of the symptoms and you're feeling the symptoms. So then we often look at okay, I'm going to look at hormones. I'm going to look at thyroid. I'm going to look at these sort of mid-level things and nutrient imbalances and all of those things.

And we're going to say okay, well we're working a lot of times on those things that we need to go a step deeper than we need to say, okay, why are your nutrients off? Okay. Why are your hormones off okay.

Finding the Root Causes 9:08

Why are you releasing more histamine? Why are you doing all of these things. And really look at that bottom layer and get to those root. And generally those are invaders environment and stressors. And so we want to bucket those into three different categories. And the order of operations that you use to help these categories makes a big difference also. So we're gonna find the roots. And then and there are a lot of them. So we're making them the categories. And there's a lot within each category.

So we need to work on those. And then once we find them then we need to address them. And so when we're talking about invaders we're talking about things like infection, parasites, candida which is yeast. We see viruses, we see infections. We can see tick borne illnesses. We can see all of these things that are bombarding our body all of the time. So, you know, really looking at your gut health going back to that foundation, because that's where a lot of these things we see start to bombard our body where you're dealing with, okay, do you have a parasite that's constantly activating your immune system?

But then even looking at other places like where do you have an underlying tick bite or did you have mono and that's coming back up and your immune system just can't handle it. So, you know, just think your immune systems surveying, surveying all the time is handling it. It's handling. It's handling. And now it's like, okay, I can't handle this anymore. Now I'm upset. And so that's where you're starting to see all of these reactions start to happen. So we need to really say, okay, what are your invaders.

We need to look at those. We also need to look at your environment. So are you living in a moldy environment. You know you're going to hear a lot about mold. And so you're not everyone has mold that you can have this without mold. So you don't want to say pigeonhole yourself and like, okay, this is it. I did have someone call me one time and say, well, I want to work with you, but are you going to make me move out of my house because I can't afford to? And she didn't even want to start because she was so afraid, said mold mode.

Mold that I was going to only make her move and have this, these huge bills. And so that can feel intimidating too. So I want you to to know that there's so many things you can do every step help. So it's not like, okay, I have to do everything to feel better. Yeah, everyone's different and sometimes it takes more steps, but each step counts and we need to work at where you are right now and where you have the capacity to be, and really finding the right person who will actually recognize that. When I first started practicing, I was so excited and I would say, okay, you need to do this and this and this and this.

And I wanted to just share so much information and, and just like, okay, let's get started. And what started to happen that I noticed quickly is I would just like give so much. And then I would put this on people and they'd come back the next time and say, how are things going? And they would say, well, I didn't do it. And it was because it was too much. It was too much to do. And it was like I was like, just like, I want to share all this with you. I have so much knowledge, so much research. I spent so many years and I want to share this, but it you can only do what you can handle right now.

And so then I took a step back and have developed a stepwise approach where we are partners and we're really that fine line of, okay, let's get to the next level, let's get to the next level.

Gut Health and Nervous System Dysregulation 12:22

And that's when we really start to see the change. And at some of those levels, you might get stuck, but you're you're as long as you're putting one foot in front of the other, you're making those small changes that lead to this greater transformation. So really come back on topic to look at your environment, you know, really looking at allergens. Do you you do have allergies. Did your dogs sleep with you at night and you're allergic to your dog? You know, really looking at some of those things, we're going to look at chemicals in our house, at toxins, at cleaning products, personal hygiene products, your air, your water, all of the things your furniture, your clothing, pesticides, glyphosate, plastics, all the things in your environment.

We even are starting to see EMF is a newer thing in our world. And so are you. Around smells and perfumes and products that are actually bothering you? Do you have medications that you're reacting to? There's all of the things in our environment, so we need to we'll get more in-depth. I'm going to give you broad overviews and this and this, and then we're going to get more in depth than other videos. The other one is stressors. Do you have physical, psychological or emotional stressors. Do you have trauma.

You have nervous system dysregulation. Most people that have mast cell activation syndrome have nervous system dysregulation. And we have to deal with this. At the same time, we have to be rewiring your nervous system and telling it it can calm down. We do another talk specifically on that. So make sure to check it out. But we're going to tell it to calm down, teach it how to do that. And we need to do this in a multi-pronged approach. We need to look at the vagal nerve. We need to do some vagal nerve work.

We need to work on the limbic system. We need to work on thought retraining and some somatic work and trauma release. So we need to do this multi-disciplinary approach in working on that nervous system and really training it to calm down and realize that your environment is safe for you. You don't have to react to your food. You don't have to react to everything. But that's an integral part of this work, too. And when we're working on the root causes, most often not just one thing. So it's a finding all of the things for you in a unique way that really get your body to calm down.

And the order of operations is also important. So we're looking at gut healing. This plays a pivotal role in mast cell activation syndrome. And it's due to a complex interplay of factors. You know we see the immune activation from the invaders that we talked about. We also see the dining oxidase enzyme deficiency which breaks down your histamine. So you can have all of these histamine reactions because you're no longer able to break down histamine. We need to be able to digest and absorb the nutrients that we need to calm things down.

And this is key because if you're taking all the right things, if you're taking the right supplements, if you're eating the right food, but you're not actually absorbing them, you're not getting the benefits, right. We also have the vagus nerve that connects our gut in our brain. We talked about that nervous system dysregulation. So that's an important piece. We can also start to see intestinal permeability which allows our foods, toxins, bacteria and other particles to pass through the intestinal lining into the bloodstream and trigger an excess of immune response, which can trigger our mast cells.

So we have to address all of these multifaceted issues with our gut and target treatment and lifestyle modifications to managing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome effectively. And then, as we said, we need to rewire our nervous system and we need to be doing this at the same time. So your autonomic nervous system or your Ans is deeply involved with your body's stress response. So if you've experienced prolonged stress or trauma, this can lead

Environment, Detox, and Healing Support 15:49

to a dysregulated Arne's, which in turn can exacerbate your mast cells. So your mast cells are actually sensitive to your mast cells are, which are more sensitive to stress, can release more histamine and other mediators. When your autonomic nervous system is on high alert. And so we need to really look again at this multi-pronged approach when we're working on the limbic work, when we're doing the thought retraining the somatic work, the trauma release, the thought re reframing, we're aiming to build and increase neuroplasticity.

Then we need to look at your environment and reduce your triggers. We need to look at toxins and environmental pollutants that can exacerbate MCAS. We need to identify the crucial triggers for you uniquely. And this can be difficult because we often live in the same house as other people that are not actually being triggered by the same things. So it all has to do with our own genetics, our own load, everything that we have. You know, what is our individual load of heavy metals, of mycotoxins, of stealth infections, of environmental toxins?

You know what it's unique for each person. And based on your own ability to detox, someone in your family may be able to detox them just fine. And here you are feeling this reaction to everything. So we need to make sure that you're not living in an environment where toxins are accumulated for you, and a test not guess approach can really help us enlighten on your unique situation. And then we need to unplug your detox pathways. We need to ensure that your drainage pathways are open before we do any type of detoxification.

And this is really important because we need to get those toxins, those invaders out. But we need to make sure that when we start a cellular detox of the heavy metals, the mold, the mycotoxins, the environmental toxins that we're not making it worse. I had a client who went to one of the top functional medicine practices as a very well known in the country, and she went in and she they gave her all these supplements and did all this testing and they just, you know, pounded her with supplements and she reacted to everything.

And she felt so horrible and it exacerbated everything. And she was like, now I don't believe I can heal because, you know, I paid all this money and I went to this famous clinic and I had all this, this terrible experience. And I said, well, we just need to take it slowly. And once she did the right things, in the right order, in the right timing from her body, she made amazing progress. And it took her a little bit longer. She wasn't able to blast through things like maybe some people could, but you need to be patient with your journey.

You may take one step forward, one step back, may take two steps forward, then one step back. You may just get to sometimes we get to a point where we're like, oh, we're doing well, or we're just plateauing. We're plateauing, we're plateauing. We just can't breakthrough. And then all of a sudden we make a big jump. But it's when people are patient and believe in the process that they can see these amazing results. And while we're doing this, we can also do mast cell stabilizing supplements and even medications.

We have things like vitamin C. I have a great combination for you in the Summit. Resources. If you go to megmill.com/summit, I have supplements linked there and we'll get more into that in other talks. But we have those. We're working on stabilizing the mast cells while we're doing this work, but we need to be able to get to the root cause because we can't just stabilize the mast cells and do a low histamine diet and try to bring things down. We need to actually get to the point where we can make a difference.

Summit Resources and Next Steps 19:08

And if you're ready to get started with this healing process, get in contact with me or one of the practitioners who are teaching you on the Summit. I brought many of my colleagues and mentors on the summit to give you top notch education, so that you can lean into them and learn how they can support you. And stay tuned, because after the summit finishes airing, I'm actually going to be hosting a series of classes to get you more information on your favorite topics and solutions. And we help people from all over the world, so be sure to add info@megmill.com to your saved email list.

And I will be in touch with you. After the summit, we'll talk about information that you love, will give you solutions. You can also find me at megmill.com and all of the summit resources. The things that I talked about, the things that people talked about. The interviews will be at megmill.com/summit. We have some great resources there for you. And if you'd like to get access to the summit interviews and all of this great information, just email support@DrTalks.com support@DrTalks.com and the team will help you get all sorted out.

Until next time, take care. Bye.