You seem to know lots about this subject — are you saying that these mast cell inhibitors only work via injection?
And that, there would be no easy cheap OTC pill-form of mast inhibitor anytime in the near future?
Also, does the anti-histamine Benadryl have any inhibatory impact upon mast cells?
Thanks.
The “off label” use of Benadryl, as well as other inhibitors of histamine resonse, has been noted as useful with mast cell tumors in veterinary medicine, with dogs. Not aware of any human studies.
I’ve been doing a lot of study into this recently, and it does get complicated. To start with, while mast cells can release Histamine-1, and Benedryl, a Histamine-1 inhibitor, will interfere with it, it likely has little or no effect on the mast cells themselves, just on one of their products when they are degranulating.
To make matters a lot more confusing, there are about 150 cytokine and histamine chemicals and free radicals that work together, and we are still trying to figure out which do what, and to which others they do it to. Histamine-2, as an example, is responsible for acid reflux, so you can block it directly, with OTC H-2 inhibitors like Zantac, or you can slow down its production with the newer “proton pump” drugs.
As one researcher put it, he figured out that to become an expert in this stuff, you have to master the art of creating large wall charts with small text and lots of multicolored straight and dotted connecting lines on them.
Importantly, this research into obesity and diabetes directly impacts the study of influenza as well as a host of other diseases.