Hi there, Eric Bakker.
Naturopath from New Zealand, coming back to you again with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.
We're talking about problems and appropriate response of white blood cells in the body.
So what we're going to look at really is that some of the causes of this problem but a lot
of people now believe that genetics do play a major role in causing this condition.
There was a study conducted in 2013 that showed that over 70% of people with mast cell problems,
in fact, have got a blood relative also with a mast cell problem, so it could be a little
bit like eczema or asthma, often they'll be some type of relative involved here that's
passed that gene down to you but, then again, there are a lot of people who develop mast
cell problems who never have relatives with this issue at all so what could some of the
likely causes being there?
Apart from causes, are there any triggers for this condition?
Because triggers and causes are not dislike.
So if we look at some of the triggers typically for people, in my opinion, it will be digestive
problems and stress and depending on a lot of this inappropriate eating, leaky gut, the
development of more parasites or poor bacterial load in the gut, the development of too much
yeast building up in the gut.
All these things create massive immune dysfunction.
They almost enforce that the immune system has to shadow box all these things constantly
in the gut to keep on top of things so the gut is often the seed of inflammation for
many people.
This, to me, is one of the prime causes, in my mind of not just mast cell problem but
many, many different diseases that people develop as they get older, is digestive imbalance.
We see this particularly with autoimmune disorders.
I've not met an autoimmune patient yet who's got an outstanding digestive health.
Every single one I've seen over the years has got some kind of a gut dysfunction that
needs correcting which makes me wonder if the gut problem helped to contribute to the
autoimmune problem.
In some of my earlier videos, if you've watched enough of my videos, I've spoken that I like
old medical text books and in particular, the 1930s text book, The British Medical Journal
book I was reading a long time ago, it said that in all cases of autoimmune disease, look
for the hidden bug, look for the pathogen.
They'll often be some type of bacteria that's staying in the hidden part of the body that
hasn't been looked for.
So these sorts of things can activate the immune system and create a lot of problems
for people and yet nobody really looks for causes anymore.
Everybody is just too busy trying to plug up all the symptoms which is a real shame.
So let's talk about some of the triggers because we looked at the causes.
So some of the triggers, there could be many different triggers.
Medications can be a trigger, it's incredible how many people stay on drugs for years and
years and years and expect not to develop any side effects of these drugs but they invariably
happen, particularly if you stay on antihistamine kind of drugs or allergy kind of drugs.
If you stay on pain relieving drugs or acid blocking drugs.
All these sort of drugs eventually will take their toll on you.
You'll pay the price, which will be some type of a problem, so who knows?
We could be looking at conditions that develop from pharmaceutical drugs as well.
Foods, we'll talk about foods in a subsequent video.
There are many different foods that can trigger response so if you have got the symptoms we
spoke about in the earlier video, you may want to avoid those foods.
Also we need to be careful with the amount of heat we get exposed to, the cold and the
air, is it dirty air?
Is it polluted air?
Is it air full of mold or toxins?
Many people believe also that a rise in this mast cell syndrome is become very relevant
in the past 10 years because this was discovered in 2007, this syndrome.
Now they're thinking more and more people are developing it because of pollution, because
of toxins, because of stress so there would be a whole bunch of reason why people can
get this and I think it's no one particular cause.
I think it will be a combination of 2 or 3 things together along with the poor gut function
that will precipitate this condition.
If you're in doubt, get your digestive system checked out, ask your doctor to do a comprehensive
stool test for you and have a good look to see if there is no hidden inflammation in
the gut.
You've got no lack of beneficial bacteria, you've got lots of bad bacteria, you've got
parasites.
I mean anything could be found.
The gut needs cleaning out in most cases.
So yeah, I hope this was an interesting video for you and made you think a bit about mast
cell activation syndrome.
Thanks for tuning in.