"A mast cell is like a basketball covered in ping pong balls. And it has all these Y- shaped dandelion heads on it. The foot of the Y is on the basketball, and their arms are reaching out to find invaders. If they find something you have become sensitized to, they latch on and the Mast cell "degranulates"--- goes off like a bomb. It can release some 60 different things, including histamines, and inflammatory elements are called onto the scene. "