Histamine Release From Basophils

[An attempt to block histamine release from basophils granulocytes with antibodies obtained as a result of long-term immunization]
"Microbes can play important role as hypersensitivity factor in some allergo-inflammatory processes. Bacterial products may act as basophil histamine liberators through immunological (IgE-mediated) and nonimmunological--particular lectin-sugar way.

Conclusions: 1. Bacteria induced basophil histamine release through two ways: immunological (IgE-mediated) and non-immunological (sugar-lectin interactions). 2. Non-immunological interactions played the main role in basophil histamine release induced by bacteria--both in normal individuals and asthmatic patients. 3. Sera of immunized with bacteria animals partially reduced basophil histamine release induced by homologous strains (Tab. 7). 4. An incubation of autologous bacterial strains with asthmatic patients's sera collected after autovaccines treatment has no influence on basophil histamine release induced by these microbes (Tab. 9). 5. There was no correlation between the skin reactivity to bacteria (both in healthy persons and in asthmatic patients) and the intensity of basophil histamine release induced by microbes."

Increased release of histamine in patients with respiratory symptoms related to perfume
“Perfume induces a dose-dependent non-IgE-mediated release of histamine from human peripheral blood basophils. Increased basophil reactivity to perfume was found in patients with respiratory symptoms related to perfume.”

Medical Gaslighting and "Somatization Disorders" (Rebranded Hysteria)

The Curse of a ‘None of the Above’ Disease
This article talks about people suffering from health conditions that are under-diagnosed or mis-diagnosed, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and IBS, but more so people whose symptoms get dissmissed or written off as fake or psychosomatic.  Many doctors are quick to jump to this conclusion about patients without doing any testing, based just on their appearance and the symptoms they present with.  It is also common for doctors to have an inflated sense of how much they know and lack of recognition of the limits of their education and the field of medicine itself.  One example cited is that of stomach ulcers, "(o)nly a few decades ago, chronic ulcers were chalked up to stress and diet rather than an infection by Helicobacter pylori, because scientists thought it unimaginable that such microorganisms could endure stomach acid."  

 When Anxiety or Depression Masks a Medical Problem

 

What Do Doctors Have to Say About It?
From Dr Courtney Snyder (In a blog post about Mold Illness)
"Symptoms of mold toxicity impact many parts of the body. Often there are many symptoms that seem unrelated, which is why many who are unknowingly dealing with this, end up seeing multiple specialists and are left feeling their doctors think it’s “all their head.” The diagnosis of anxiety or panic, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, ADHD/ADD, pseudoseizures and conversion disorder are fairly common. I empathize with doctors who have been trained to relieve symptoms as opposed to seek deeper root causes. Still, I do think all physicians (myself included) can benefit from realizing and saying repeatedly, “There’s so much we don’t know,” or even “I don’t know why you are having your symptoms.” The lack of humility or inability to admit one doesn’t have the answer, sadly can lead to some doctors to discount symptoms as “psychiatric” or even blame their patients for feigning their symptoms."

Misdiagnoses Happen. Medical Gaslighting Should Not
Written by Dr Anne Maitland, one of the leading allergy/immunology doctors in the country, about how common it is for immunological disorders (even ones as well known as asthma, food allergies, and anaphylaxis) to be misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or missed altogether, causing an immeasurable but very large amount of unnecessary suffering.

"Missteps and misunderstandings, even by well-seasoned medical professionals, are human, but medical gaslighting is not. Medical professionals must take a step back and recognize that the interpretation of test results is only as good as the practitioner glancing at the numbers. Moreover, normal test results in patients with chronic pain, unexplained sensitivities to the world, or fatigue should provoke more investigation, rather than a weak handoff to a mental health provider. One potential remedy to avoid these misdiagnoses and medical misdemeanors may be to rebuild the patient-practitioner partnership: the medical home. We should be empowering the patient to take charge of their health care, and we should be reminding the practitioner to be a mindful partner in health, rather than a patriarchal purveyor of prescriptions and procedures."

The Martha Mitchell Effect

Martha Mitchell was married to the attorney general in the Nixon administration, John Mitchell.  She spoke up about the illegal activities that she was witnessing, but her claims were written off as delusional until the actual events of the Watergate scandal became public, when she was vindicated.  Sometimes a patient reports events to a doctor or other health care provider that the provider finds difficult to believe and considers to be delusions even when what the patient is reporting is actually true.  This is called the "Martha Mitchell effect" in reference to her experience of being wrongfully considered delusional.  This is particularly likely to happen when a patient's symptoms are the result of the malicious actions of another person, such as harm resulting from harassment or abuse.  This might include poisoning, stalking, gangstalking (group harassment), or gaslighting.  Abusers sometimes deliberately do things to their victims that make the victim sound crazy if they report it.  This is also more likely to occur if the patient reports harm from a medical procedure, treatment, or another medical provider, or from someone who is powerful or well known.

This effect was seen recently when some people presented to the hospital during the COVID 19 pandemic suffering adverse events from the COVID vaccines and were diagnosed as delusional when they were suffering actual side effects that were later acknowledged by the medical establishment and public health authorities.

Examples of medical gaslighting include:

The Incidence of Misdiagnosis in Patients with Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome
"A retrospective chart review was conducted. Among the 429 patients, 405 patients (94.4%) said yes to at least one of the questions, with only 24 patients (5.6%) not having been misdiagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. A total of 378 patients (88%) were told that they were “making it up”, 326 patients (76%) were told that they were attention-seeking, 286 patients (67%) were diagnosed with conversion disorder, 255 patients (60%) were told that “it was in their head”, and 16 patients (4%) were diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy or a factitious disorder.A retrospective chart review was conducted. Among the 429 patients, 405 patients (94.4%) said yes to at least one of the questions, with only 24 patients (5.6%) not having been misdiagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. A total of 378 patients (88%) were told that they were “making it up”, 326 patients (76%) were told that they were attention-seeking, 286 patients (67%) were diagnosed with conversion disorder, 255 patients (60%) were told that “it was in their head”, and 16 patients (4%) were diagnosed with Munchausen syndrome by proxy or a factitious disorder."

Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia
“Like Postural Tachycardia Syndrome IST is underappreciated by many in the medical profession and many doctors mistakenly consider it to be a psychological condition. People with IST can find themselves increasingly disabled and may experience high levels of anxiety.”

The Case of CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) and Mold Illness
There are many examples of medical conditions that were first described by patients and doctors, for which no physical cause was found for many years.  They were given "placeholder" names as syndromes until such time as their biological mechanism could be figured out, which they eventually were.  There is a list of conditions including Sick Building Syndrome, Chemical Sensitivities, Environmental Illness, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), Toxicant Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT), Mold Illness, Biotoxin Illness, that had been identified accurately based on patient reports, and in some cases treatments were even discovered based on patient reports of benefits.  These conditions are now understood to be manifestations of Mast Cell Disease, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and genetic variants that limit detoxification of various compounds capable of inducing excessive inflammation, among other things.  The biological understanding came in time and validated the experiences that patients reported.  

Nagging Pain
This is a Slate article about a program of "boot camps" for people, mostly children, diagnosed with chronic pain (including Fibromyalgia and Central Sensitization) that attempts to "rewire" the symptoms out of the person through brutal and painful exercise and experiences.  Many of the children sent to these "camps" with a diagnosis of AMPS (for "amplified musculoskeletal pain syndrome"), a made-up diagnosis based on an untested theory.  The treatment, which was also made-up based on a this theory, doesn't have any real scientific evidence to support it, just the theory.  The "evidence" that these boot-camp programs work are self-reported questionnaires given to participants at the end of the program.  Part of the program is aggressively drilling into the participants NOT to talk about or report pain or any pain symptoms, so then asking them to self-report is dubious at best.  Everything about this diagnosis, treatment, and these programs is exactly what a cult is and how cults function.  The "patients" are aggressively indoctrinated and brainwashed, their will is broken down, using the exact techniques that cults use- coercive control.  There are no "good" applications of coercive control.  

This is a list of some of the medical diagnoses that survivors of these "boot camp" style programs were later diagnosed with:
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or other Connective Tissue Disorders
MCAS
POTS
SCN9A channeloppathy (causing paroxysmal extreme pain disorder with severe dysautonomia including life threatening autonomic storming)
Yao Syndrome
Gastropareses
Adrenal Insufficiency

The following is a comment I submitted as written testimony for a legislative hearing in Oregon regarding reclassifying various pain disorders with Somatoform Disorders in the state's medical code system:

I wish to address the proposal to group Fibromyalgia and chronic pain disorders with Somatoform Disorders.  When a patient presents to the doctor with physical symptoms, including pain, there is nothing scientific about assuming that the patient has a mental health condition rather than a physical one, and that mental health treatment is appropriate.  Cursory testing does not rule out the presence of a physical condition.  Many legitimate physical conditions aren't correctly diagnosed for many years, and may be misdiagnosed many times in the process.  For example, on average a person with celiac disease is properly diagnosed 8 years after first presenting to a doctor with symptoms.  During those 8 years, it can be said that no physical cause has been found for the patient's distress, but it makes no sense to say that they have a psychiatric condition that they are miraculously cured of when they are finally correctly diagnosed with celiac. 

The fact that there are simply so many physical conditions with a significant lag time between the time when a patient presents with complaints and accurate diagnosis should cast doubt on the usefulness and even the existence of actual somatoform disorders.  I lost count a long time ago of the number of cases I know of in which a person presented to the doctor with pain and other non-specific symptoms, was patronizingly dismissed and told to get counseling, eventually given pain meds, and then finally given testing only to be told that they have late stage cancer.  In a number of cases they were actually told "if only you'd come in sooner, we could have treated it".  Many of those people died.  It is also worth noting that new disorders are still being discovered, that medical testing is never 100% accurate, and there are over 7,000 rare diseases listed by the National Organization for Rare Diseases.

Somatoform Disorders are basically the updated name for "hysteria", an archaic concept based more on the misogynist ideas of it's time than any physical reality.  At that time, medicine was considered "scientific", but not exactly in the way we see it now- as a practice based on the sciences of biology and chemistry.  At that time, eugenics was considered science, and was deeply enmeshed in the theory and practice of medicine.  This historical reality has been swept under the rug, but the pseudoscience of eugenics still lingers in the medical practices of today- and I believe that the concept of "Somatoform Disorders" is one example.

The practice of medicine requires that patients be listened to and treated as the experts about life in their own bodies.  Treating them as misbehaving children, putting on a show for attention, has no place in a scientific practice.  I myself was subjected to this gaslighting and abuse for years while struggling to survive an illness which is life-threatening on a daily basis.  I was shamed and shunned until I myself arranged to have a tissue sample from a previous biopsy prepared by the lab that was storing it according to the instructions I got over the phone from the leading pathologist in the country for the disease that I knew I had, and then shipped to her hospital by Fed Ex.  Once she gave me the diagnosis, I was taken seriously and received more than 10 additional diagnoses. 

The delay in treating my medical condition, which I had been both laughed at and yelled at for daring to suggest I had, caused my condition to degenerate such that I have lived on life support since then.  At my lowest point, I was on oxygen, unable to eat and dependent on IV nutrition to survive, requiring continuous infusions of 2 medications, needed a central line which has resulted in 2 DVTs and 15 blood infections, was mostly bed bound, my back broken in 5 places, unable to take any pain meds and needed to undergo my surgeries without anesthesia, had skin cancer removed, had all of my teeth removed due to breakage, have had multiple heart attacks, and more.  There are many, many other people like me.  Most haven't survived.  You could say that "Somatoform Disorders" have a very high fatality rate- but not for the same reason that other deadly disorders do.  Please, it's the year 2024- isn't it time that our medical system reflected that?

This recent study shows examples of people with legitimate physical disease who were misdiagnosed with psychosomatic and psychiatric conditions, and the long-term harm it did them:
“I still can’t forget those words”: mixed methods study of the persisting impact on patients reporting psychosomatic and psychiatric misdiagnoses
"Patient-reported psychosomatic and psychiatric (mis)diagnoses are associated with persisting adverse impacts in multiple domains including mental health, medical relationships, self-worth, and some healthcare behaviours. Health services and clinicians should consider these potential adverse impacts on patients and offer support to reduce any persisting negative impacts."

Mold-Induced Illness

(work in progress)

Significant exposure to mold and related organisms, usually prolonged, can cause a wide range of symptoms and conditions.  This is a common cause or exacerbating factor for MCAS.  Common symptoms of mold illness include fatigue, headaches, digestive problems, respiratory problems (including asthma and shortness-of-breath), cough, sore throat, allergies and reactions that look like allergies (such as sneezing, hives, rashes), excessive thirst, muscle cramps, joint pain, stiffness in the morning, sleep problems, night sweats, brain fog and related cognitive issues (such as problems with memory and executive function), light sensitivity, blurred vision,  numbness, tingling, and tremors.

Mold illness can be diagnosed as many things, including- ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, MS, Somatization disorders, anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD, dementia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and more.  That is to say that you may meet criteria for one or more of these diagnoses, but mold exposure is the reason that you have the symptoms in the first place.  For some people, treating and healing from the mold illness allows them to heal and lose the diagnosis.  Whether or not they "actually had" the illness then becomes a semantic issue rather than a scientific one.

The Basics of Mold Illness and Toxicity
Mold Toxicity - Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, Brain Fog & Inattention 
Mold "can contribute to Pyrrole Disorder due the stress it puts on the body.  It can lead to elevated copper by overwhelming one of the antioxidants in the body that regulates copper.  Because it interferes with the immune system, it can lead to a susceptibility to candida/yeast, Lyme and its co-infections.  It also frequently worsens mast cell activation."

Mold can thrive in water damaged buildings or anywhere indoors where there is retained moisture, including AC units and ductwork.  The mold thrives because it has the ideal conditions for growth and because it doesn't have the competition that keeps it in check outdoors.  Additionally, mold spores and toxins build up inside without the natural ventilation that exists outside.  Mold can poison us with toxins and it can also colonize our bodies, such as our sinuses and GI tract.  Some people also have mold allergy.

"Seemingly 25% of people are unable to make antibodies to mold toxins. Add to that the 50% of buildings that have water damage, and you have a lot of people who are unknowingly becoming toxic while spending time in affected homes, schools, workplaces, cars, dorms, and nurseries."

"Mold toxins basically go from the body, to the liver and gallbladder where they are bound to bile and sent out into the gastrointestinal tract. The bile, however, is recycled (as a means of conservation), and thus take toxins back into the body."  

Some of the symptoms that she lists that I don't see listed often include: electric shock sensations, ice-pick pains, Atypical Parkinson's Disease, Atypical ALS, Psychogenic seizures or pseudo-seizures​​, Tics, spasms and seizure like events; Sensitivity to light touch, Suspected or Diagnosed PANS/Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome, Rapid weight gain, Body temperature dysregulation, and diagnosis of fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue.  
Detection of Mycotoxins in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"Urine specimens from 104 of 112 patients (93%) were positive for at least one mycotoxin (one in the equivocal range). Almost 30% of the cases had more than one mycotoxin present. OTA was the most prevalent mycotoxin detected (83%) with MT as the next most common (44%). Exposure histories indicated current and/or past exposure to WDB in over 90% of cases. Environmental testing was performed in the WDB from a subset of these patients. This testing revealed the presence of potentially mycotoxin producing mold species and mycotoxins in the environment of the WDB. Prior testing in a healthy control population with no history of exposure to a WDB or moldy environment (n = 55) by the same laboratory, utilizing the same methods, revealed no positive cases at the limits of detection."

Most doctors who specialize in mold illness use urinary mycotoxin testing to figure out which mycotoxins a patient is dealing with, as treatment consists largely of the use of binders and different ones bind different toxins  

Comprehensive Guide to Mycotoxin Binders

MCAS & Mold: Fungal Colonization of the Sinuses (video)

Mold often co-occurs with other organisms, such as bacteria, in water-damaged buildings.
Aerobic Actinomycetes of Clinical Significance

CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome)
There is another condition called CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) which seems to me to be essentially another name for MCAS, but was recognized and described without as thorough an understanding of the underlying immunological mechanisms.  CIRS-WDB refers specifically to the condition when developed after prolonged exposure to the inside of water-damaged buildings.  According to this 2024 study, CIRS is "an acquired medical condition characterized by innate immune dysregulation following respiratory exposure to water-damaged buildings (WDB).", and states that ME/CFS is "a common misdiagnosis of CIRS".  MedicineNet gives a more detailed description of CIRS "a multisystem and multi-symptom illness that occurs when a person gets exposed to toxins such as mold spores or biotoxins found in tick or spider bites. These toxins get attached to the immune system to trigger an inflammatory response and induce hormonal changes. The immune system produces an excess of cytokines that can lead to the immune system attacking its tissues, causing inflammation and other associated symptoms."  This source further defines biotoxins as "fat-soluble molecules that travel from cell to cell without entering the bloodstream" and further states that "measuring biotoxins in the blood is difficult, but doctors usually identify them by the damage inflicted on various organs."

According to Dr Shoemaker, there are some HLA-DR/DQ haplotypes (combinations of genes that are inherited together) that make a person less able to clear biotoxins, such as mold toxins, from their bodies, making them more likely to develop CIRS when exposed to mold, which then cause the innate immune system to overreact and lead to chronic inflammation.  These include:
HLA-DR4-3-53
HLA-DR7-2/3-53
HLA-DR11-3-52B
HLA-DR13-6-52A/B/C
HLA-DR17-2-52B
HLA-DR18-4-52A

Diagnostic Process for Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS): A Consensus Statement
Report of the Consensus Committee of Surviving Mold
"Clinical management of patients with a complex, multisystem, multi-symptom illness identified as a chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) has expanded. Often associated with illness due to exposure to low molecular weight biotoxins and inflammagens found (i) inside water-damaged buildings (WDB); (ii) following exposure to blooms of cyanobacteria; (iii) following consumption of ciguatoxic fish; and (iv) following confirmed acute Lyme disease, persistent despite reasonable use of antibiotics, CIRS is increasingly recognized. A need for a formal case definition and case management protocol has arisen. Patients with CIRS will have abnormalities in innate responses, reduced levels of
regulatory neuropeptides MSH and VIP, elevated inflammatory markers of C4a, MMP9 and TGF beta-1.  Systemic illness, based on abnormal gene activation and suppression, as shown by RNA Seq and transcriptomics, requires a multi-factorial, rigorous diagnostic assessment to assist in both differential diagnosis and monitoring response to therapy. A consensus statement is herein provided to assist practitioners in case identification and management."

Chronic inflammatory response syndrome: a review of the evidence of clinical efficacy of treatment

Dr. Scott McMahon, a board-certified pediatrician and CIRS specialist (Podcast)

Treatment for Mold Illness
The Shoemaker Protocol is widely recognized as the best treatment for mold-induced illness, whether or not you call it CIRS.  

Doctors who specialize in treating people with mold-induced illness tend to use urinary mycotoxin testing to identify which mycotoxins a person is dealing with, and prescribe substances that bind and remove those specific toxins as part of the treatment protocol.  Examples of binders include bentonite clay, activated charcoal, chlorella, cholestyramine, and colesevelam HCI. 

Finding and Remediating Mold in Your Environment
Consensus Statement for Microbial Remediation 2020
(Indoor Environmental Professional Panel of Surviving Mold)

Dr Jill Carnahan is considered by many to be an authority on cleaning mold and mold remediation.  This page from her website has the basics:
How to Get Rid of Mold – Definitive Mold Removal Guide

"Michael Rubino provides valuable resources and professional guidance on safely addressing mold issues in your home. His website offers detailed information on proper mold cleaning techniques, prevention, and the importance of air quality in maintaining a healthy living environment."

This is information given to me by someone with specialized knowledge of building materials:
"MDF is Medium-Density Fiberboard. There is also OSB, or Oriented Strand Board, and there are number of other building products like particle board made with the tailings or trash from milling lumber, held together by resins. The wood millings are damp from cutting, lay around in damp piles, and develop mold. The mold in this wood is fed by the resins used to make it into building materials. The paper backing on drywall has the same issue. I understand that there is now third-party certified mold-free OSB and MDF made differently."

ImmunoLytics swab tests

Resources Regarding Mold and Mold Illness:
Dr Ritchie Shoemaker's "Surviving Mold" website

International Society For Environmentally Acquired Illnesses / ISEAI website

American Academy for Environmental Medicine 
(database of practitioners who treat environmentally acquired illnesses including mold)

Dr Neil Nathan, MD is an expert in mold illness.  This book from him is highly regarded:
Toxic: Heal Your Body from Mold Toxicity, Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Chronic Environmental Illness

Dr Jill Crista, ND is a highly respected mold doctor.  "Dr. Jill focuses on conditions that cause injury to the brain and nervous system, including mold, PANS/PANDAS, Lyme disease, and concussion."
Dr Jill Crista online courses about mold 

Dr. Efrat Lamandre focuses on integrative and functional medicine, offering solutions for mold toxicity, chronic illnesses, and environmental health issues. Her practice emphasizes a holistic approach to diagnosing and treating mold-related conditions. Her website provides information and support for those navigating mold toxicity and other environmental health concerns.
Toxic Overload and Chronic Illness: How Mold, Plastics and Pesticides Make You Sick

#moldfinders: RADIO (Podcast)
Mold expert Brian Karr shares his secrets on how to find and remove mold and mycotoxins from your home,

The Virginia Center for Health and Wellness (has video series from Dr Andrew Heyman 

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Mold Information

CDC Information About Mold 

EPA Information About Mold

RealTime Laboratories, Inc. (RTL)
"RealTime Laboratories, Inc. (RTL) is a CAP and CLIA accredited clinical and environmental diagnostic laboratory that specializes in testing for and identifying hazardous mold, toxins, and infectious diseases."  They have a free e-book called:
Mycotoxins 101: An Introduction to Crucial Facts

MyMycoLab provides mycotoxin testing

Mold prevention strategies and possible health effects in the aftermath of hurricanes and major floods

The Hidden Connection: COVID, Mold Exposure, and Viral Reactivation 

A comprehensive review of mold research literature from 2011 - 2018

Legal Resources
Well.Law is a legal practice that understands the complexities of mold-related and environmental illness cases. They support clients navigating housing issues, disability rights, and toxic exposure with compassion and legal expertise. She started the personal injury firm she couldn't find.

How to get the most insurance money for mold remediation
"Learn the secrets insurance companies don’t want you to know that will maximize your insurance coverage amount."

Mold Insurance Playbook with Corey Levy (Podcast)
"It can be really expensive... But what if you didn’t have to pay full price for remediation? That’d be awesome! Today we share our entire playbook on how to maximize your coverage! Here is the quick overview... and we go in depth on each one of these in the episode: 1) DON’T CALL YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY! 2) STOP the water 3) Mold Inspection 4) Get Remediation Bids 5) Hire a public adjuster 6) Now you can contact your insurance company... If you go out of order you can literally cost yourselves tens of 1,000s of dollars!"

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and the Vagus Nerve

These are my notes from the article "Mast cell activation syndrome and the vagus nerve"
written by Ross Hauser, MD of Caring Medical on February 4, 2023 

Many patients diagnosed with MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) also have neck pain that is diagnosed as (or can be described as) upper cervical instability or cervical spine instability.  It is generally assumed that this pain is part of the existing illness, but in this article Dr Hauser explains that the causality could be going the other way.  Many of these patients are also diagnosed with  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), POTS, or some other form of Dysautonomia.  When these patients see specialists to see if the neck pain and problems could be causing some of their symptoms, some are then diagnosed with "degenerative disc disease in their cervical spine and a loss of the cervical curve contributing to kyphosis".Dr Hauser explains that:

"Which brings us to an important question, which came first? Autonomic nervous dysfunction or immune-mediated allergy?  At a minimum, we know they are interconnected. A lot of antigen-antibody immune complexes and a host of histamine releases are going to excite the autonomic nervous system throughout and likewise, autonomic nervous system dysfunction makes antigen-antibody reactions more likely. The patient has the symptoms, is it the neck causing them? Is it the allergies?"

He explains that the way cervical instability could lead to symptoms of MCAS, etc, is because it may be causing the vagus nerve to be pinched or compressed in the neck or: "damaged cervical ligaments’ inability to hold the “wandering” vertebrae in place."  The vagus nerve is how signals from the brain reach the viscera (the organs in your torso) in order to control them, so anything that impedes its function can have major consequences:

"When the vagal nerve sensory afferents are dysfunctional, the important body sensors for homeostasis are switched off. Cervicovagopthy or vagus nerve disorder brought on by cervical spine instability, has wide-ranging negative effects on mucosal barriers in the intestines and lungs, producing a large number of inflammatory mediators, including histamine."

Dr Hauser explains that many patients who fit this profile- having MCAS along with many of the following additional diagnoses- EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), Gastroparesis, Fibromyalgia, sleep disturbances, low blood pressure, serious gastrointestinal pain and dysfunction, "When someone has a myriad of symptoms like this, it is of course difficult to believe they all start spontaneously without a common thread linking them together. In a person like this, when all is a mystery, we follow the neurology, we look for short-circuiting messages between brain and body being caused by compression of the arteries, veins, and the nerves that travel through the cervical spine."

Dr Hauser notes that many of the different disorders and symptoms experienced by these patients Do have established connections and that these connections are further evidence of vagus nerve involvement.  A key example of this is the interconnection between the immune system and the gut, mediated by the vagus nerve, in which modulating signals are sent both ways.  Also, regulating signals and neurotransmitters in this system are part of the mechanism that the body uses to turn inflammation on and off.  To explain this he quotes a may 2021 study in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology:

“Inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and severe central nervous system injury (of which the vagus nerve plays a dominant role) can lead to intestinal mucosal barrier damage, which can cause endotoxin/enterobacteria translocation (movement, or better thought of as escaping to other parts of the body) to induce infection and is closely related to the progression of metabolic diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumors and other diseases.”

"The researchers add that repairing the intestinal barrier represents a potential therapeutic target for many diseases. Repair means addressing the dysfunction of enteral afferent nerves, efferent nerves, and the intrinsic enteric nervous system that play key roles in regulating intestinal physiological homeostasis and coping with acute stress. Furthermore, innervation actively regulates immunity and induces inherent and adaptive immune responses through complex processes, such as secreting neurotransmitters or hormones and regulating their corresponding receptors."

"Histamine is synthesized by mast cells, basophils, platelets, histaminergic neurons, and enterochromaffin cells, where it is stored intracellularly and released upon stimulation. It can be found basically everywhere in the body, including the spinal cord and brain. Histamine causes smooth muscle cell contraction, vasodilation, increased vascular permeability and mucus secretion, tachycardia, alterations of blood pressure, and arrhythmias, while it stimulates gastric secretion and nociceptive nerve fibers. Histamine increases secretions such as hydrochloric acid in the stomach and is vital to protecting the lungs and gastrointestinal tract from infections. When histamine levels are high, increased secretions in the lungs, therefore, cause coughing, phlegm production, sneezing, and diarrhea occur in the digestive tract in an attempt by the body to rid itself of an infectious agent or toxin."

When the transmission of nerve impulses along the vagus nerve from the brain are interrupted or stopped, this can limit the body's ability to regulate and maintain homeostasis (balance of systems), which can keep the body from appropriately limiting the inflammatory response.  It also results in higher histamine content of mast cells, mast cells being more responsive to nerve signals to react, which ultimately means a higher level of histamine in the organs systems.  

"The GI tract harbors the largest population of mast cells in the body and is thus the main reservoir of the body’s histamine. The mast cells’ job is to maintain intestinal permeability and make sure that no microorganisms or antigens enter the body. (A dysfunction of this system can lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome and inflammation of the intestines.) The neurological control over mast cells and their various digestive functions is via the vagal influences on the enteric nervous system.  Elevated histamine levels in the body occur when there is an increase in intestinal permeability (regardless of the cause), including that from synthetic foods (industrial food additives, chemicals in food, genetically modified foods), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), and cervical spine instability induced cervicovagopathy."

The effects of histamine on gut function, and how this impacts other disease processes especially autoimmune, has been well-studied.  Some common industrial food additives are known to trigger mast cells to make the gut more permeable (increase the amount of space between cells that line the gut and regulate what gets into the bloodstream and what doesn't), allowing larger proteins than usual into the bloodstream.  Once there, these proteins can trigger allergic and other inflammatory responses and are especially associated with autoimmune disease.  

"Histamine intolerance results from excessive histamine and a decreased ability to absorb or neutralize it.  Elevated levels of histamine give symptoms that mimic allergic reactions, and these include diarrhea, headache, rhinoconjunctival symptoms, asthma, hypotension, arrhythmia, urticaria, pruritis, flushing, and skin lesions. A true allergy is tied to IgE-mediated histamine release, which is to be differentiated from histamine intolerance. The latter is associated with some forms of urticaria, eczema, asthma, food sensitivity, migraines, and chronic GI and neurological ailments, including inflammatory and irritable bowel syndromes."

"The reservoir of histamine in the body originates in the gut and comes from the breakdown of food that is ingested or the microbiota-generated histamine. Histamine intolerance is akin to lactose intolerance in that the body is missing a key enzyme to digest a food substance. In histamine intolerance, it is DAO in the digestive tract, a deficiency of which leads to elevated histamine levels in the body. DAO is synthesized by the intestinal villi (enterocytes) and is constantly released from the intestinal mucosa into the gut, as well as the blood circulation, during eating and digestion."

Mast cell dysfunction is also being increasingly recognized as a major part of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, especially neurodegenerative disease.  "What is being suggested is that the Mast cells are causing runaway neurological inflammation by excerpting a disruptive influence (bad messages) on the central nervous system and brain and this is leading to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease for example." 

"vagal activity, partially driven by gastric mast cells, induces long-lasting changes in corticotrophin-releasing factor signaling in the amygdala that may be responsible for enhanced pain and enhanced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors."

"What they found was vagus nerve stimulation resulted in a significant reduction of the different inflammatory parameters assessed. They said their results underscore the anti-inflammatory properties of the vagus nerve and the potential of neuro-immune interactions in the intestine.  In other words, if the vagus nerve is working correctly, anti-inflammatory and mast cell activation could be suppressed."

Further Information from Dr Hauser:
Can Chronic fatigue syndrome and Myalgic encephalomyelitis be caused by cervical stenosis and cervical spine instability? 

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), the Vagus Nerve and Cervical Spine instability

Treatments for Neck Pain and Cervical Instability: A review of upper cervical instability and symptom treatment with Ross Hauser, MD

Cervical Curve Correction – Caring Cervical Realignment Therapy

Research Articles Cited in this Article (not all):
How to evaluate the patient with a suspected mast cell disorder and how/when to manage symptoms

Diagnosis of mast cell activation syndrome: a global "consensus-2"

Global Classification of Mast Cell Activation Disorders: An ICD-10-CM-Adjusted Proposal of the ECNM-AIM Consortium

Evaluation and Classification of Mast Cell Disorders: A Difficult to Manage Pathology in Clinical Practice

Intestinal Mucosal Barrier Is Regulated by Intestinal Tract Neuro-Immune Interplay

The Gut's Little Brain in Control of Intestinal Immunity

Vagal gut-brain signaling mediates amygdaloid plasticity, affect, and pain in a functional dyspepsia model

Vagus nerve stimulation dampens intestinal inflammation in a murine model of experimental food allergy

Migraines

Migraine headaches are a neurological condition with significant vascular involvement.  They occur as a series of phases, usually four, which are the Premonitory Phase, the Aura Phase, the headache itself, and the Postdrome Phase.

The premonitory phase includes symptoms such as light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, fatigue, irritability, depression, muscle stiffness, and can begin as much as 3 days before the actual headache starts.  It is believed that the hypothalamus is involved in causing migraines, it is a part of the brain that is responsible for regulating the autonomic nervous system, which is the part of the nervous system that controls body functions involved in survival which are not under conscious awareness or control.  These include things like blood pressure, hormone regulation, temperature control, thirst and hunger, and respiration.  There seem to be many potential environmental triggers which can bring on a migraine, which vary from person to person, including hormonal changes, weather changes (particularly changes in barometric pressure, so can be triggered by impending rain storms), emotional stress, changes in sleep patterns (although these may also be symptoms of the migraine itself), neck pain, not eating, and things that are common mast cell triggers such as certain smells, foods, alcohol, smoke, exercise, bright lights, and sometimes sex. 

About a third of people who get migraines have an aural phase next.  There are four different kinds of auras associated with migraines- visual, sensory, language, and motor.  Visual auras include things like seeing spots, wavy lines, or a ring around lights.  Sensory aura can include neuralgia, which is tingling and/or numbness.  Language aura refers to problems speaking and finding the right words, and motor aura refers to weakness.  Many of these symptoms such as tingling/numbness and weakness often occur on only one side of the body.  It is believed that the aura phase is caused by something called Cortical Spreading Depression, which means that the neurons on the outside of the cerebrum (the main part of the brain) begin to fire less frequently in a pattern that spreads through the cortex the same way that ripples spread on the surface of water.  People who do not experience aura symptoms may be experiencing this spreading in areas of the brain that they are not consciously aware of. 

The headache phase involves pain (usually, but occasionally not) but also tends to involve additional symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, light and sound sensitivity, balance problems, visual disturbances, sensitivity to certain smells, and a pain symptom called Cutaneous Allodynia which is when even light touch on areas of the skin causes intense pain.  It is currently thought that the Cortical Spreading Depression that occurs earlier in the process activates the Trigeminal Vascular System, which includes activation of the trigeminal nerve.  All sensations on the skin of the face are transferred to the brain via the Trigeminal Nerve.  The Trigeminal Nerve also carries pain signals into the brain from the Dura Mater, which is a thick membrane of connective tissue surrounding the brain and inside the skull.  While the pain signals may be coming from the Dura Mater the pain may be perceived on the face due to referred pain.  Referred pain is when pain signals from different areas of the body activate areas in the brain that are close together and the brain confuses which area is the origin of the signal.
The Postdrome Phase is the final phase in which some of the symptoms, especially the pain, lingers.  This can feel as if your brain is bruised or has been through some sort of accident. 

What Are Migraines?

Menstrual migraines