What is Mastocytosis?

Mastocytosis is a rare disease that can affect various parts of the body. The most common form of mastocytosis is a skin disorder, but it’s also sometimes found to affect the bone marrow, stomach and with less frequency, the intestines.
Pronounced ‘mass-tow-sigh-toe-sys’, mastocytosis is a disease that can affect both young and old people but tends to be more serious in adults than children, who will usually outgrow a mild case of mastocytosis. Sufferers experience this condition when their bodies have an abundance of one particular type of cell known as a ‘mast’ cell. When the condition appears, there are too many of these mast cells in the body.
Mast cells are a particular type of blood cell, produced in the bone marrow. They’re a vital part of your immune system and contribute to fighting off infections and illness. Your skin has many mast cells in it, and researchers think they might also help with healing your wounds, which may explain why your healing tissue sometimes feels itchy – the mast cells produce a chemical that acts as a communication device to rally the troops of your defensive system to a particular place. It’s this chemical that makes the area tingly or itchy.
Scientists and doctors don’t yet know why some people have too many mast cells and therefore develop mastocytosis. The symptoms of mastocytosis can be set off by a variety of factors such as the temperature of the environment around the sufferer, a reaction to certain medicines, stress or even small cuts and insect bites. Unfortunately, the causing factors of these symptoms do not seem to be consistent across all patients who are diagnosed with mastocytosis.
The symptoms do vary, depending largely on which part of the body the mastocytosis affects. If there are too many of the mast cells in your skin, the reaction might be an itchy rash. Hives might also develop and sometimes the rash looks quite innocent, like light spots or freckles. If the rash is scratched too much, it might swell and go a darker red. The mast cells can gather together in one place which causes a visible bump in the skin. If affecting the stomach or intestines, the body may react with diarrhoea and cramping stomach pains, but fortunately that’s only in extreme cases.
For some people, the mast cells cause a serious allergic reaction, causing low blood pressure and sometimes fainting. It’s vital to get medical attention in this case as sufferers may have trouble breathing and this condition is clearly life threatening. For mastocytosis to be this serious, however, is fortunately a rarity.   

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More mastocytosis Information.