Michelle McKeon’s Lyme Hack:

“Hello, hello fellow Lyme Warriors. My name is Michelle McKeon, and I’m very excited to be participating in Tick Boot Camp’s fourth annual Lyme Hackathon. Today, I’m going to be talking a little bit about Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), which has become a pretty big issue in the Lyme community. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, or MCAS, often comes about due to people having a history of tick-borne pathogens and then being exposed to a large number of environmental toxins such as mold mycotoxins. It can come about for other reasons as well, but for my clientele, that’s where I’ve seen it to be the most common. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is when the innate immune system becomes overreactive and then it can send out a bunch of inflammatory cytokines, which can affect many different organs of the body. Treatment for Mast Cell Activation Syndrome looks different for everybody. It’s a little bit of trial and error and it’s that way because everyone is just so individualized and so sensitive. It’s really important to treat the mast cells and stabilize the mast cells before getting at the treatment for tick-borne infections or mold mycotoxins because oftentimes, if you skip over that, then when you’re treating Lyme disease it can actually really flare up your system. It’s all about the order in which you do things with your body’s gonna be receptive to treatments. Mast cell treatment can look different for everybody. Sometimes it looks like having a low histamine diet and taking DAO enzymes before you eat certain meals. Sometimes it looks like taking H1 and H2 inhibitors, or mast cell stabilizers, to help move your system forward. It oftentimes means getting out of a toxic environment and living in a home that’s conducive to moving forward. Sometimes it looks like going on certain peptides to help modulate your immune system or looking into different programs to help regulate your nervous system. So, there are so many different treatment options for people going through this and it’s definitely becoming a bigger issue in the Lyme community, but it is good that there is more awareness of it because it’s a key piece and moving forward. So, I’m just wishing everyone the best of luck in their Lyme recovery.”