@yaramarthe You gave me an incredible gift last December by posting a reference on functional medicine and MAST cells that has led me on an amazing journey of learning and discovery. I'd like to return the favor. One of THE most valuable things I have ever read or seen in my 74 years is a nine part series on the connection between the gut and brain. It is being replayed this weekend for free and can be accessed at start.gutbrainseries.com. You'll also get two free e-books. Conventional medicine helps a lot of people, but it also is not helping a lot of people who are getting shuffled from doctor to doctor looking for answers. Rather than treating symptoms by giving a pill or performing an operation, functional medicine practioners are looking for root underlying causes of diseases and treating them. This incredible series includes interviews with 30 of the country's best functional medicine practioners, including doctors, nutritionists, psychiatrists, micro biome researchers, etc. Rather than treat symptoms, they look "under the hood" to see what is really going on. They are finding more often than not problems in every system of the body like inflammation, depression, anxiety, IBS, obesity, asthma, etc start in the gut. They begin by healing the gut by adding herbs and nutrients the body is missing, removing toxins and dietary foods causing problems, and changing lifestyles to let the body heat itself. I strongly urge you to watch this program and find a person near you who practices functional medicine. The case studies in the programs are truly awe inspiring and should give you hope. I did a google search to find a functional medicine practioner near me and found that one of the leading ones in the country, Dr, Will Cole, lives near me. His website is a gold mine of information, and he has several tests you can take on your own to evaluate different things. Most of his practice is done over the internet in case you can't find someone near you who practices functional medicine. Good luck. Nancy P.S. a lot of conventional doctors think leaky gut is nonsense...but a lot of people though the earth was flat at some point