eczema article from The Low Histamine Chef

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ECZEMA: A MAST CELL/HISTAMINE RELATED CONDITION



eczema
It’s official: though we’ve long suspected it, we can now add eczema/atopic dermatitis to the list of histamine/mast cell related conditions.
A new study [1] recently proved, for the first time in humans, that mast cells (the pesky little buggers that house histamine in the body) are a key culprit in causing eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis). The researchers also revealed that a protein known as STAT5, plays an important role in the equation by triggering major mast cell increases in some.
They now think the key to prevent or better treat eczema lies in blocking STAT5, which along with histamine, lives in our mast cells.
Lost?
Ok, so, mast cells are kind of the army barracks where histamine and others live. When our body’s in trouble, mast cells open their doors, allowing histamine and other inflammatory elements to be released in order to get to the site of an injury or infection, to get the healing process started. In addition to histamine, a number of other inflammatory molecules are synthesised, among them are interleukin and prostaglandins. These are all great things to have at our disposal, when they’re released, as needed, in order to help us heal.
The problem arises when some of us (hands up if you’re a mast cell mamma!), have too many of these mast cells, or unstable ones (you mean working in war zones affected my mast cells? Who knew?!), or just have too much histamine in the body because of a lack of histamine-lowering enzymes like DAO and HNMT. This leads to massive inflammation throughout the body, pain and misery, and undoubtedly years of misdiagnosis as doctors scramble to keep up with a never ending list of complaints.
Why are mast cell disorders so hard to diagnose? Mast cells are found in every organ system in the body – so yeah, we get a helluva lotta symptoms, usually rotating every couple of months (just to throw a monkey wrench in the works ya know?), and most docs have no clue what it’s all about.
It’s ok, give them a break. They try real hard, they’re not god, and HMO’s give them what, like 15 minutes per patient?
I had to be my own doctor in the end. Good thing too because I learnt how to heal myself without mast cell meds (of which there are quite a few); sadly only after being mis-prescribed almost every med on the planet (that’s what it felt like anyway).

We are really complicated beings, aren't we?