Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Does anyone here have any familiarity with this illness, or know anyone who has it? Specifically I am interested in treatment options.

I've read many websites on detoxification (especially in relation to saunas etc), and it's really hard to know how much truth or success there is in them. They provide a treatment option involving large doses of "detox" chemicals, including glutathione precursors, chelating agents etc. This appears to be the only treatment option available. Conventional medicine has nothing to offer except avoidance of the triggers.

For those who aren't convinced this is a legitimate illness, I've seen it firsthand in someone very close to me... to the point of it being life-threatening (a chemical causing some sort of reaction which causes her throat to close off, leaving her unable to breathe).

Is this kind of like having severe allergies?
Like when people cannot be around perfume and stuff like that?

Pretty much yeah... she doesn't have an allergic reaction, per se (i.e. no hives, swelling etc) but she can't breathe and feels like she's choking. Really strong perfumes, paint fumes and deoderants set it off.... it basically seems to be petrochemicals or derived products...

Slow metabolizer?

Her metabolism hasn't been the best, but she's currently taking 20 mcg of liothyronine (T3) per day and she is feeling a lot better for it. (She has chronic fatigue; this is one of her treatments)

Ah, I see. I was thinking it could be something like that missing enzyme that makes the liver metabolize certain chemicals slower making them more sensitive. I've read something about this on erowid.

But a comment on the perfume thing, this happens to me too. My brother puts on cologne and deoderant to the point of smelling like a french whore, and when im in an enclosed area such as a car i have to roll down a window in order to breathe.

Maybe shes allergic to one of the chemicals on this list?
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Education/CASLE/fragrance.html

My father just recently developed this illness and it has cost him his job and he and my mother have had to file for bankruptcy.
He raced motorcycles for a living and was a mechanic, he was constantly around many chemicals, and this could have played a factor in his MCS. Needless to say he can no longer ride either.

There are support groups for people who have it that he attends. Once you develope the sensitivity it can only get worse with age.

When you have MCS you can be "allergic" or "sensitive" to the craziest of things. And for all sorts of periods of times.
I know of a friend who went through a period of sensitivity to toilet paper, rashing/ sneezing/ itching/ lightheadedness/ stomache sickness etc. This lasted for her a couple of months. My father has had other weird ones like a reaction to grocery stores he gets dizzy and light headed upon entering them. He has to drive wearing a carbon filtered mask so as to not feel drunkened. He cannot use anything that isnt 100% natural.

Upon finding this out he went on a special diet starting with very few foods designed so that he can slowly introduce foods into his system to determin what foods he can eat.

There are many people worse off than he is. One of his friends is so sensitive he cannot use any form of detergents/deoderants/perfumes or anything of the sort (shaving cream even, everything!) when he goes to visit her. his last visit he was "chemical free" no detergents/deoderants/soap etc. for 8 days prior to visiting her. The second he walked in the room she pointed out the brand of deoderant and soap he had been using 8 days prior. My father had to sit as far away as possible from her, and even on the other side of the room she was sick and throwing up.

If you see people wearing masks around 24/7 this is probably why, as many of them have to just to be able to leave there homes.

I know very little on the subject, but if anyone needs any information about this feel free to email me, or reply to this post. I know my dad would only enjoy having more people to talk to about the subject.

chelation?

Some chelation therapists and alternative medicine professionals have treatment options for severe allergies. if you want info contact me or search your area for chelation or alternative medicine clinics.

VelocideX said:

Pretty much yeah... she doesn't have an allergic reaction, per se (i.e. no hives, swelling etc) but she can't breathe and feels like she's choking. Really strong perfumes, paint fumes and deoderants set it off.... it basically seems to be petrochemicals or derived products...

Click to expand...

I don't think you should say that I dont get any swelling as we don't really have any clue what is happening.

My throat starts closing...my specialist who has never been there when it has happened - in conjunction with other specialists from around the world - think it is something to do with my epiglottis spasming or doing something...

but we can't be sure what is happening.

And it's not really that I feel like choking, I specifically feel my throat tightening and then the breathing space getting smaller (to me it feels like its closing, but who knows).

...You should know all this baby, I've gone over it a million times in your presence

I've been meaning to post in here for a while, but I don't actually feel like saying much about it tonight. This illnesses makes you so isolated from society and I'm pretty fed up with it at the moment.

*sigh!*

Boomer.Disposal.Unit said:

Once you develope the sensitivity it can only get worse with age.

My father has had other weird ones like a reaction to grocery stores he gets dizzy and light headed upon entering them. He has to drive wearing a carbon filtered mask so as to not feel drunkened. He cannot use anything that isnt 100% natural.

Upon finding this out he went on a special diet starting with very few foods designed so that he can slowly introduce foods into his system to determin what foods he can eat.

Click to expand...

I think it is unlikely that he has a reaction to the grocery store...more likely to things like bleach products.

I find it very difficult in supermarkets (grocery stores) and particularly in chemist. The latter obviously being quite frustrating given that I have to go to chemists so often!

It's also frustrating because I have a very dangerous allergy to dust, dust mites and mould, but I can't use most cleaning products. non allergenic ones still aggrevate me and are super expensive

Shi**y F***in disease eh. . . like a few others I have, glad i dont have MCS though.
Yea, the grocery store thing i dont think we figured out. Could be many things in there I suppose. That is what I think would bother me most is trying to figure out what you are sensitive to, what it does to you,and what the heck you do to live with it.
Sympathy to all bearing it....

VelocideX said:

Her metabolism hasn't been the best, but she's currently taking 20 mcg of liothyronine (T3) per day and she is feeling a lot better for it. (She has chronic fatigue; this is one of her treatments)

Click to expand...

When I read the original post, my first thought was it could be Myasthenia Gravis rather than Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Myasthenia is a commonly associated disease with thyroid conditions. Systemic signs are chronic fatigue, difficulty swallowing, and shortness of breath.

Hi: It has been almost 20 years since I was officially diagnosed as having Multiple Chemical Sensitivities or MCS. I have been ill for more that 35 years as result of chemical injuries that we know now led to my current level of MCS. My Allergist who is a medical doctor with specialties in many different field such as Environmental Medicine, Chinese Acupuncture, Natural Medicine to Bio-feedback. I tried them All. The result was that I received very little relief from my symptoms.
The symptom management approach that did work for me was to
" Identify and Avoid" the substances that would trigger my sensitivities. To accomplish this task I used a test procedure that is commonly know as the " Sway Test". I found this test to be about 95% accurate to a point that if the test indicated a problem and I went ahead and exposed my self to the substance I would definitely develop symptoms.
I would be pleased to share my info, so send me an email off line. Howard

QUOTE:Cyrus>>My brother puts on cologne and deoderant to the point of smelling like a french whore, and when im in an enclosed area such as a car i have to roll down a window in order to breathe.

^ >That's realy funny!!

>Tell him to use a milder one when you are around!

The sense of smell and taste are the only chemical smells we have which worn us of the dangers of our immediate environment.
Continued exposure to certain chemicals open the pathways, and will render one sensitive to those specific chemicals.
Neurobiological processes are implicated, the ability of odorants to bind to sensory receptors. Hypersensitivity of the olphactory nerve, which relates to the primitive part of the brain-the limbic system.

Under normal conditions once this binding occurs the sensory process of taste or smell proceeds in a physiological manner. Detection sensitivity depends upon the presence of normal receptors and the more receptors that are present the faster and more sensitive the process occurs.

People built defenses, over their sensory system, where as others, who do not, have an acute sense of smell and hypersensitivity renders them to smell chemicals in their environment well before others detect it,in doing so, some of these become irritants. (One of these is smell of fire, where as a forest may be burning, and the hypersensitive person will smell it way before others will). These people are also said to be more genuine in their overall character due to lesser defensive mechanisms over their sensory system.

As people age the number of both taste and smell receptors decrease. Thus, as people age their ability to detect tastants and odorants can and does decrease to some extent. However, there is a broad range over which this occurs. Some people can detect tastants and odorants at levels they did when they were young whereas others do not. Usually, detection may decrease to some extent with age but most people can detect tastants and odorants within what is considered the normal range even at an advanced age.