article_snippet.sent: After doing hours of research, Melissa, Barry and Brynn came up with Melissa, Barry and Brynn own diagnosis: mast cell disease.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists don't know yet what causes mast cell disease.
article_snippet.sent: Researchers have found mutations in mast cells that may cause the abnormal behavior, but mutations vary from one patient to the next.
article_snippet.sent: Until recently, the only mast cell disease doctors had identified was mastocytosis, which is characterized by "abnormal proliferation and activation" of the body's mast cells -- meaning there are way too many and the only mast cell disease doctors act in strange ways.
article_snippet.sent: But in the last few years doctors such as Afrin have started to recognize that there are many different layers to mast cell disease.
article_snippet.sent: For instance, Brynn has mast cell activation syndrome, meaning her mast cells act strangely, but her mast cells're not growing in number.
article_snippet.sent: Not everyone with mast cell activation syndrome has it as bad as Brynn does.
article_snippet.sent: mast cells can affect every system in the body, Afrin says, so the disease is capable of causing all the symptoms Brynn experiences.
article_snippet.sent: Of course, having a diagnosis didn't make living with mast cell disease any easier.