Going "hmmmm..."
Jul. 25th, 2023 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cathywwas doing some reading about MCAS the other day and came across the tidbit that mast cells are involved in osteoarthritis? in addition to histamine, mast cells also generate/granularize/release an inflammatory protein called tryptase that seems to do a lot of damage to cartilage.
there's not nearly as much research about 'what do I do about my tryptase' as 'what do I do about my histamine' out there and accessible to the public (which is pretty terrible because there's not a whole lot about histamine) but there's a suggestion that H1 antihistamines (Benadryl, Claritin, Allegra, Zyrtec) might be helpful - they won't reverse damage that's already been done but possibly in preventing further damage?
out of those, Zyrtec a) seems to work reasonably well on my actual allergies and b) doesn't put me to sleep. (Benadryl and Allegra put me to sleep, Claritin doesn't seem all that effective.) heck, given that I've described my allergies as "I'm allergic to four things: fur, feathers, pollen, and spores", I should probably be taking it anyways whether it helps my hands or not.
there's not nearly as much research about 'what do I do about my tryptase' as 'what do I do about my histamine' out there and accessible to the public (which is pretty terrible because there's not a whole lot about histamine) but there's a suggestion that H1 antihistamines (Benadryl, Claritin, Allegra, Zyrtec) might be helpful - they won't reverse damage that's already been done but possibly in preventing further damage?
out of those, Zyrtec a) seems to work reasonably well on my actual allergies and b) doesn't put me to sleep. (Benadryl and Allegra put me to sleep, Claritin doesn't seem all that effective.) heck, given that I've described my allergies as "I'm allergic to four things: fur, feathers, pollen, and spores", I should probably be taking it anyways whether it helps my hands or not.
