As both of my doctors, Dr. Castells and Dr. Bayuk, told me — the nervous system and the immune system are incredibly intertwined. In fact, some researchers don’t really consider them to be separate at all– instead, they are part of the same system.

It sounds so hard to believe, but both of my doctors have seen people make incredible recoveries — and now I’m about 85% recovered myself– largely through healing the brain.

The Dynamic Neural Retraining System is an amazing example of this, although it’s certainly not the only way.

Coming to understand the relationship between mast cell activation and the brain was really pivotal for me.

It’s best to think of it as a two-way street. Because the brain and body aren’t really separate, as we sometimes think of it.

Instead, the brain and the nervous system are actually responsible for coordinating the immune system during an allergic reaction. So that’s one sense in which the brain is in control.

However, on the flip side, the brain actually has mast cells in it, and can be affected by their activity.

So it’s really best thought of as a feedback loop. What’s happening in the brain can affect how the immune system and mast cells act throughout the entire body, and vice versa.

It’s so important to understand the role of the brain in mast cell disorders.

The goal is to acknowledge its role not only in your symptoms, but also in your pathway to recovery.

Ultimately, the brain is responsible for setting the tone of how “alarmed” our immune system needs to be by the different things it comes across in the outside world.

It sounds crazy at first, but that’s why people using neural retraining programs such as DNRS have even been able to make their food allergies go into remission (thankfully, that’s something I personally never had to deal with!).

Again, I’m not trying to make it sound like this is easy.

I don’t want anyone reading this to feel like I would be judging them for struggling, or for not being able to send their allergies into remission (I personally am still dealing with environmental allergies!).

But I do want you to know that healing is possible– and that healing the brain itself is key.

I’ll be explaining so much more about the relationship between the brain and mast cell issues in future posts.

Be sure to check out my posts on the nervous system, as well as my DNRS page!