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Fools%u2019 Journey572More recently, it was learned that mast cells could undergo a permanent change, after which they overreacted to a wide variety of man-made substances and caused more severe and varied symptoms. Researchers called this new phenomena Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and it had many similarities to what Lynn and I (and others) referred to as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). The article noted that researchers were starting to look at overactive mast cells as a possible cause of chemical sensitivity. While most doctors were not trained to recognize MCAS, enough physicians were that it was becoming a legitimate diagnosis. And there were some treatments being studied, although there was as yet no miracle cure.The article mentioned a Texas researcher named Claudia Miller, MD. In the 1970s, she began studying workers exposed to industrial chemicals who were experiencing a wide range of symptoms such as fatigue, headache, joint pain, respiratory disorders, etc. By the %u201890s she was seeing similar symptoms in people diagnosed with what came to be known as Gulf War Syndrome. Then she started seeing the same symptoms in individuals after such varied exposures as pesticides and breast implants. When she learned about MCAS from other researchers, Miller could see a strong connection to her own work.The article also said that MCAS could affect up to 17% of the population in industrialized countries, and that the rate of people diagnosed with chemical intolerance had quadrupled since the mid-2000s. Of course, the statistic didn%u2019t include Lynn, nor many of the people we knew with MCS, because they had never actually been diagnosed by a physician familiar with MCAS. After Lynn and I finished the article, I pulled out a back issue of Discover from November of 2013 that we%u2019d saved. It had an article titled, %u201cAllergic to Life,%u201d which devoted much of its coverage to Dr. Miller%u2019s work. The article came out prior to knowledge of MCAS, and it discussed how Miller had coined the term Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT) to describe all the various symptoms caused by the myriad of chemicals in the environment. This earlier article discussed how individuals became hypersensitive to everything from drugs and detergents, to newsprint and fabric softeners,