Thanks for your reply. I hope my post will remain in the lung discussion group, which I joined when I learned I have a paralyzed left diaphragm. As far as I know, I'm not dealing with any MAST issues now, although their malfunctioning might well have caused many medical issues I've had to cope with in the past...such as chronic fatigue, depression, obesity, abnormal noncancerous growths resulting in 3 operations in 3 years to remove them (thyroid, uterus, acoustic neuroma), and so on. I wondered at the time what on earth was happening in my body to cause abnormal growths in 3 totally different systems. I've been reading post after post on the lung discussion group from people experiencing scary problems like shortness of breath, inability to take a deep breath, yawning, etc. who are seeking answers as to why this is happening to them and not finding them from their doctors or medical tests. The article referenced listed these symptoms being caused by malfunctioning MAST cells in the respiratory system, which is why I wrote a post about it on the lung discussion site. Andrew Weil believes inflammation is a root cause of many chronic and other illnesses, and I'm gaining a better understanding of that from the reading I'm doing on problems caused by MAST cells running amok. I'll definitely check out the things you mentioned. Thanks again. Nancy