Critique of concept of "MCAS"

"Idiopathic, from the Latin for 'idiot'". --Gregory House, MD

I take issue with the idea of labelling mast cell activation that occurs in response to environmental toxicity that very well may be a burden, to differing degrees, to all people , a "disorder" or implying that the mast cell activation is a pathology rather than a possibly protective response to toxic burden
The idea that mcas explains all environmental toxicity symptoms is one I resist because I think a) we have not even really begun to scientifically explore this illness and the possible immunological aspects , in terms of volume and depth of published research and b) mast cell activation is only *part* of the general innate immune system response to toxins. There are many direct and indirect ways pollution or toxins could damage the body. Inflammation is mediated not only by mast cells but also by macrophages , glial cells, and more. If idiopathic "MCAS" is assumed to be able to explain every single aspect of environmental illness , then it can become a thought-terminating concept
So in short, I believe many people with these set of illnesses have environmentally caused symptoms that are discrete and important ,and I also think that many of these patients would have more mast cell activation and mediator release than controls , but I don't think that we should use "mast cell activation syndrome" as an end all be all? umbrella concept to explain all of these symptoms. It could still be used strategically to guide some aspects of treatment , testing, and used for diagnostic code purposes, but I don't think it should be assumed to be a final explanation of all environmentally mediated illnesses


We need to always be comfortable with the concept of known unknowns in this illness. Until we study it more those are more solid bets than any totally coherent and already explained diagnostic category.

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