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As allergy season begins, millions of Americans are bracing for the return of sneezing, itchy eyes, and runny noses. At the heart of these symptoms is a powerful—but often overlooked—player in the immune system: the mast cell. This spring, Newsweek takes a closer look at the role mast cells play in seasonal and other types of allergies.
Why It Matters According to the American College of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ), nearly one in three U.S. adults and more than one in four U.
S. children report having a seasonal allergy, eczema or food allergy. The college added that more than 100 million Americans report having allergy symptoms.
Recognizing the role the mast cell has to play in allergic reactions could give allergy suffers a greater understanding of what's happening in their bodies and how to look after themselves. What Is The Function Of A Mast Cell? Mast cells reside in tissues throughout the body, particularly in areas exposed to the external environment, like the skin, lungs, and digestive tract. They release chemical mediators, such as histamine, when they detect foreign invaders, like pathogens, such as viruses or bacteria, or toxins, like venom from snake bites or bee stings.
However, the mast cells can occasionally detect something as dangerous when it isn't, releasing histamine and initiating an immune system reaction to something that is harmless. So, if you're wondering why you have allergies, the answer is "your immune system is confused," Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergist and immunologist at the Schweiger Dermatology Group, and author of the book The New Allergy Solution , told Newsweek.
"Allergic rhinitis, commonly known as hay fever, occurs when your immune system overreacts to harmless substances like pollen," he said. Also speaking to Newsweek about the role of the mast cell in allergies, Dr. Florence Ida Hsu, assistant professor of Clinical Medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said that "everyone with hay fever has mast cells that get activated by allergen, i.
e. pollen, exposure." "That's what an allergic response is, it's activation of mast cells by an allergen, causing symptoms from release of histamine, leukotrienes, and other mediators," she added.
In the case of hay fever, the mast cell activation occurs in the eyes, nose, and lungs, Hsu said. What Histamine Does To Your Body The histamine the mast cell releases opens your blood vessels and breaks down connective tissue to allow immune cells to rush to the area where the mast cell detected what it deemed dangerous. The release of histamine, and other chemical mediators released by the mast cell, can lead to inflammation in the body, Bassett said.
It can trigger sneezing, watery eyes, a runny or congested nose, and throat irritation—the classic symptoms of allergic rhinitis. For some, "this immune response can also exacerbate asthma symptoms, including coughing and wheezing," Bassett added. In more serious cases, you may experience severe digestive issues and it can cause a swelling in the airways or a life-threatening drop in blood pressure, which is known as anaphylaxis.
Frequent exposure to allergens can trigger ongoing immune responses that disrupt sleep, lead to fatigue, impact appearance, and increase reliance on medication, Bassett said. How Hay Fever Is Treated Therefore, understanding what you're allergic to is "the key to taking back control," Bassett said, adding that consulting with an allergist or immunologist would help you figure this out. "For allergic rhinitis, allergists may recommend medication management and/or allergen immunotherapy as well as monitoring pollen forecasts, reducing outdoor exposure during high pollen periods, and using air purifiers," he added.
Typically, medications like antihistamines and nasal corticosteroids can alleviate symptoms for those with hay fever, Bassett explained. Allergen immunotherapy can also "gradually desensitize patients to specific allergens, providing long-term relief," he said. What Could Be Making Allergies Worse? When mast cells become aggravated without clear allergens like pollen, or are triggered by a much broader range of things, it could be a case of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS).
It is difficult to determine how many people in the U.S. and globally have MCAS, but it's important to know that not every person with hay fever will have the syndrome.
Some with MCAS may not have seasonal allergies. The symptoms of MCAS are hugely wide ranging, from hay fever-like symptoms to vomiting, muscle weakness, heart palpitations, anaphylaxis and many others. Joy Mason, CEO of the U.
K.-based organization Mast Cell Action, who also has MCAS herself, shared a number of tips on how to manage MCAS symptoms, although it is always advised to speak to a medical profession first: Mason said that when it comes to treating MCAS, "there's no one size fits all – sadly we don't have a magic prescription that's going to be the answer, so there's a lot of trial and error involved in stabilization and finding what works for us as an individual.".
