A question: Mast cell stabilizers (ie Nasalcrom) and infection

[amitten]

So I know that mast cell stabilizers work by stopping the mast cell from effectively producing histamine.

But, mast cells are also responsible for fighting bacteria. So by using drugs like Nasalcrom, aren't people inhibiting their ability to ward off infections?

[valerief]

1. I always thought allergy meds lower your immune system, so I just

live with my hayfever when it strikes.

[amitten]

2. Where I live, there are extreme allergy conditions year-round.

No one "lives" with them here. The whole damn city is chronically medicated, with good reason.

[valerief]

3. Yeah, I'm in the Northeast, so it's not so bad. I sympathize with you. nt

[hedgehog]

4. What I've noticed is that when I do get a cold, the symptoms

are different: I'll get achy, feverish and tired,and often have a sore throat and dry cough but I avoid all the congestion. I don't seem to get colds very often, either.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I've noticed that my allergy symptoms disappear when I'm sick

It's as if my immune system concentrates on the germs and lets the less important "enemy" (pollen) go.

But once I'm healthy, it's back to overreacting to the pollen.

By the way, I continue taking allergy meds during an illness, on the advice of one of my former doctors. I once had a respiratory infection that kept coming back, and the doctor's guess was that just as I was getting rid of the germs, the pollen would irritate my respiratory system and create a fertile breeding ground for the remaining germs. I resumed the allergy meds, kept taking them during the next round of infection, and then the infection went away and didn't come back.

[amitten]

6. That makes sense. But during "cold season" (which is still also

a bad allergy season where I live) does one risk catching more bugs by turning off their mast cells...?

I found some literature online pondering the same question, and of course I can't access it, because I'm not an ordained member of the apparently cult-like medical website it's on... :eyes:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. I haven't gotten any colds this winter

she said, as she knocked on a nearby table.

I attribute this to taking large doses of Vitamin D all winter. The one time I felt a cold coming on, I swallowed some vitamin C and zinc and went to bed early. The next morning, my symptoms were gone.

This was in spite of the fact that I sing in a choir, sitting shoulder to shoulder with people every Sunday, and all the rest of them seemed to come down with bad colds at some point or another.

[grillo7]

8. I don't think it's absorbed systemically...

While it's possible that there might be a reduced localized inflammatory response, I don't think it would affect your overall immune system function.

[amitten]

9. Yes, but part of your immune response is located in your nose.

Many infections are brought into the body through the nose. If that area has an immune response that has been deactivated, wouldn't it become easier to catch colds, etc.?

[grillo7]

10. Should be fine...

While this is true, the effect on mast cells would not really inhibit the likelihood of you getting infected. The first responders to infection are other types of immune cells (neutrophils, etc.). So a new infective organism would probably be just as likely to gain entry and cause an active infection if the mast cells in the nose were dysfunctional or not. Other drugs though, like steroids, can cause this to occur.