Mycotoxins/ CIRS/ MCAS

In nature, mold speeds up the break down (decomposition) of things like dead trees and fallen leaves. Some molds are used to make cheese or create antibiotics.

But many types of mold can be hazardous to your health. These molds produce mycotoxins, poisons that can cause severe health problems and a wide variety of symptoms.

The two most common harmful mycotoxins are aflatoxin and ochratoxin, and exposure to either (or both) of these can trigger substantial health issues — from chronic allergies to cancer.

What’s more, if your body can’t remove these toxins on its own, they can slip into long-term storage to cause lasting or recurring damage such as leaky gut syndrome and  Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, and wrack havoc on your digestive system.

CIRS stands for Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. It is also called Mold Biotoxin Illness. This is a multisystem, multi-symptom condition that occurs when mold biotoxins (like mycotoxins) attach to immune cells and don’t let go.

The immune cells keep sending signals to produce cytokines — proteins produced by your immune system. When your immune system keeps producing cytokines, it grows weakened from being overworked.

On top of that, all the excess immune response leads to your own immune system attacking benign tissues and causing inflammation. 

There are three common ways you can run into CIRS:

• Water-damaged building (home or office)
• Tick Bite, such as Lyme disease
• Exposure to dinoflagellates (waterborne toxin producers) like Ciguatera or Pfiesteria

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker spearheaded the discovery of and research into CIRS. Dr. Shoemaker was a family physician in Maryland when he linked an illness to a toxin produced by Pfiesteria. 

MCAS stands for Mast cell activation syndrome.  It is an immune disorder. It’s just one type of mast cell activation disease. 

What sets MCAS apart from other mast cell activation diseases is that it isn’t caused by an abnormally large amount of mast cells (like Mastocytosis) and it isn’t a result of pathogen infection. Instead, when you have MCAS, you have a normal amount of mast cells, but they’re overactive and malfunctioning. 

When your body is exposed to what it thinks is a threat, these overactive mast cells start to go haywire and secrete massive amounts of chemical mediators stored in the cytoplasm of your cells.  This is called degranulation. What’s meant to be a positive, protective response from your mast cells instead triggers both local and systemic negative effects. 

When chemical messengers are released into your body, they set off an alarm that triggers an immune system response. And when this response becomes chronic—the chemical messengers are set off too much, too often—the result is mast cell activation syndrome.