Fainting! Swelling! Nausea! Hives! GI Issues!

All of these are common symptoms of mastocytosis, a rare disease that affects hundreds of thousands of people globally
Those with Mastocytosis never know what their day will be like since their symptoms come about unexpectedly and swiftly.
Discover how Mastocytosis can impact people, and how you can help raise awareness.

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Mastocytosis is a group of conditions in which people produce too many mast cells. The overproduction of mast cells can be limited to one part of the body (most commonly the skin) or the cells can be found in many body tissues such as the skin, GI tract, respiratory tract, bone marrow, spleen, and liver.
When the mast cells are in the skin we call that cutaneous mastocytosis, and those extra mast cells can cause skin lesions that vary widely in appearance.
When mast cells are in a range of body tissues we call that systemic mastocytosis. Systemic mastocytosis can be indolent (which means lazy) where the mast cells reproduce relatively slowly. In the less common more advanced forms, the mast cells reproduce more quickly and need strong medications that can decrease the mast cell burden.
Anyone with mastocytosis can experience symptoms in a range of body tissues because the chemical mediators released by the mast cells can travel around the body.