Hello Mast Cell 360 Community.
Have you ever had one of those days that felt harder than it should be? One that would have felt completely ordinary before you got sick, but now leaves you struggling?
Sometimes, the body can respond to ordinary experiences as if something much bigger is happening.
A client we’ll call Anna had a routine doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. As soon as she walked into the waiting room, she smelled the heavy perfume someone was wearing.
The familiar cascade started… a headache, nausea, her heart beating a little too fast, and that anxiety-for-no-good-reason feeling settling in.
Traffic was hectic on the way home, which was stressful. And by the time she pulled into the grocery store parking lot, her head was pounding, her body felt heavy, her nervous system was frayed, and the thought of fluorescent lights and a busy store was too much. So, she turned around and left.
At home, she was wiped out but held off on a nap, knowing it would wreck her sleep later. She warmed up chicken and rice from the freezer, two of the few foods she tolerated, and sat down to reply to a friend’s email. Despite reading through the same paragraph three times, she just couldn’t get past the brain fog to respond.
**Even though she was exhausted that night, she didn’t sleep well. **
Her symptoms had kicked up from the earlier stress of the doctor’s office, traffic, and perfume exposure, even though they were all what many people consider pretty minor events. And it took three days of rest and extra support to recover.
For most people, a day like that would be mildly stressful at worst. With Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and a dysregulated nervous system, it can leave you struggling for days. Or it might even be how you function on a daily basis.
And there’s a connection here that is helpful to understand that a lot of people miss. Let’s look at that next.
This post is for informational purposes only. To read our full disclaimer, please scroll to the bottom of this post.
We’ll start with the nervous system. Here’s a chart so you can see the basics of how your nervous system is put together.
Your Central Nervous System (CNS) is your brain and spinal cord. It’s the command center that processes information and makes decisions (conscious or subconscious).
And your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) controls the things you don’t think about, like your heartbeat, breathing, and some of digestion.
The two parts of your ANS that you want to know about for this conversation are the sympathetic and parasympathetic.
One is your “go” gear (sympathetic nervous system). It’s built for handling something demanding or dangerous, fast.
The other is your “rest and recover” gear (parasympathetic nervous system). This is where digestion, repair, and healing happen.
In a well-regulated body, one stressful moment shifts you into “go” briefly, then you shift back. The size of the reaction roughly matches the size of the moment.
The problem comes when those danger signals keep coming. Whether they’re coming from life stress or from what’s happening inside your body. Over time, shifting back can become harder, and your nervous system can start operating from a more sensitive baseline that’s always on high alert.
This is one reason it can be especially challenging for people with chronic health conditions like Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS).
Many people get stuck in a daily overactive sympathetic state — wired, reactive, exhausted. And for some, that eventually leads to a crash. A dorsal vagal freeze, which is a state of conservation and collapse. It’s an ancient biological response that kicks in when fight-or-flight has been running too long without enough resources. Eventually, the system can’t keep up. And even mounting a stress response becomes difficult.
Related Resource: Primal Trust Academy
You can cycle between all these states, too.
So, what helps your body move between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity? One important part of that communication system is the vagus nerve.
Your vagus nerve runs from your brainstem to your heart, lungs, gut, and other organs. It carries a constant stream of information from your body to your brain. And some information from your brain to your body.
Supporting healthy vagal signaling can help shift the nervous system toward a more balanced state.
Now, let’s look at how your mast cells play a role in this communication.
Your mast cells sit especially close to your nerve endings throughout your body. And they respond directly and quickly to signals from your nervous system.
And the communication runs both ways... your mast cells talk back.
Sometimes these two communicators can get stuck in loops where they trigger each other.
Mast cell mediators (chemical messengers, like histamine) raise your nervous system’s reactivity. And then your nervous system triggers your mast cells right back.
That back-and-forth communication combined with how closely they sit together, is part of why one stressful moment can trigger a flare so quickly. And part of why that flare can keep going for hours or even days.
They work together, not separately.
This isn’t a full list, but you might recognize some of these signs that your mast cells and nervous system are hyper-reactive. Do you:
Startle easily at sounds or sudden movement
Have trouble relaxing, even when nothing is wrong
React to foodsor supplements that shouldn’t be a problemFeel wired and unable to wind down after normal activity
Have a sensitivity to light, sound, or strong smells
Experience fatigue that doesn’t match what you did
Have
sleep that doesn’t feel restorative, or frequent waking during the nightExperience brain fog or trouble concentrating
Get anxiety with no clear reason
Have
digestive symptomsthat flare with stressFeel exhausted after social outings or conversations
Have difficulty recovering from minor illnesses or
everyday stressors
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s worth looking into the relationship between your mast cells and nervous system. And how to start working with those toward healing.
From the nervous system side, the answer to healing is repetition.
**Your nervous system learned to stay on high alert through repeated signals that something was wrong. It unlearns that the same way, through repeated signals that you are safe. **
Small, consistent practices that slowly update what your brain and nervous system have come to expect. Over time, that shifts the baseline of how and where your nervous system operates from.
On the mast cell side, the work is about lowering your overall load and stabilizing your mast cells.
That means reducing the triggers hitting your mast cells daily and supporting them with stabilizing supplements or medications, and lifestyle changes... including nervous system work.
As your nervous system calms, your mast cells are less triggered. And as mast cells stabilize, they stop feeding that constant stream of alarm signals into your nervous system.
This is why working on both at the same time tends to produce better results than focusing on just one.
There are many ways to approach calming your mast cells and nervous system.
But with MCAS, they often need to be done within a framework of order. And at a pace that your body tolerates. Going too fast or doing things out of order (detox before stabilization for example) can lead to flares and feeling worse instead of better.
Here is one simple place you can start with nervous system work if you are stuck.
Stop and check your shoulders and breathing. Are your shoulders tight? Pulled up towards your ears?
Is your breathing shallow (up in your chest) or does your stomach move in and out as you breathe too?
Try breathing out longer than you breathe in.
In for a count of 4. Out for a count of 6 to 8.
Your exhale is tied to your “rest and recover” gear (parasympathetic). A longer exhale releases chemicals that tell your body it’s safe to calm down.
It’s small, it’s free, and it sends your body a real, physical signal that it’s safe to shift gears.
If breathing exercises don’t work for you, try a simple orienting exercise. Slowly look around and notice colors, sights, sounds — anything that feels calming. Giving your surroundings slow, relaxed attention can help signal safety to your nervous system, too.
Together in healing, The Mast Cell 360 Team
**PS. If you want to learn more about your nervous system, mast cells, and how to heal when you are sensitive, don’t miss our ** FREE live class on Monday, September 21 at 12:00 PM ET.
We’re grateful for this community, whether you’re free or paid.
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