Hello, I'm new to this forum and was wondering is anyone is or has used an FIR Sauna to detox through sweat? I've had MCS for a little over two years now and my MCS was caused by a chemical exposure. I am pretty much house bound and have been doing the sauna for the past month, following Dr. Sherry Rogers advice in her book Detoxify or Die. At first I was starting to feel much better ater each sauna, although now after a sauna, I am feeling much worse. Was wondering if it has helped others? Am I just detoxing too fast?
I appreciate any advise anyone has.

Also, I'm looking for friends in the Vermont area who also have MCS, or email pals if anyone is interested.
Karen

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the forums

Sorry you haven't had any replies yet. I am pretty sure others who use the site have used FIR saunas so hopefully they will offer their experiences.

On a general note. Any form of detoxification can cause you to feel worse but you would usually expect to feel worse and then better - not the other way around as you seem to be experiencing. It could certainly be as you suspect and that you are simply detoxing too quickly. The saunas liberate stored toxins and not all will be excreted in the sweat - others will have to be dealt with by the liver and kidneys. You can imagine then that these organs my reach a point where they can no longer cope with the added burden of toxins they are having to deal with.

My advice would be to ease off on the frequency and/or duration of saunas for a while and see if this reduces your symptoms. Additionally you may want to read up onmethods for supporting the liver through diet, nutrient and herbal supplements, and other methods on this site and others.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Hi Maff,

Thanks for your reply, you have some really nice information on this site and your replies to everyone are very helpful. Maybe you could help me some more and here is a little backgound. I have been on a very healthy diet for almost two years now. Mostly organic and fresh foods. I had my detoxification profile done last fall from Genova Diagnostics and my superoxide dismutase was found depressed. For this I am taking manganese, copper and zinc. My phase I /phase II ratio for glucuronidation is elevated which implies an imbalanced detoxification in the body. I need to support phase II pathways. My Dr. has be on Calcium D-Glucarate, MSM, NAC, Glycine, Glutamate and a good multi vitamin. A year and a half ago, my Dr. had me do the Ultra Clear Plus progrma for liver detox. About three weeks into the program I had a very bad reaction and my Dr. said I was detoxing too fast. I became very very ill and my body started rejecting all foods I ate. My face would go beet red and my nose would swell to the point of splitting the skin. I was like this for 8 to 9 months. My body was not digesting food and I was loosing weight. I never had a reaction to foods before taking the Ultra Clear Plus. I would like to warn others out there that this type of liver detox is very very dangerous. I believe that through your diet your liver will detox in a healthy safer way. Still today my nose swells after I eat and I am still on a very limited diet, although not to the extent during those 8 or so months. I am still not back to where I was before I did this program. It wasn't until I started the suana program about 2 months ago that I am finally starting to gain back my weight and I feel my body is absorbing nutrients much better. When I started doing the sauna, I could not sweat at all. After about three days, I would only sweat on my chest, then I began sweating on my chest and back. After three weeks, I starting sweating on my arms also. It took about 5 weeks before I started sweating on my legs and building up to 50 minutes in the sauna. I always felt better after each sauna and always replaced lost nutrients. I did saunas daily until about the 6th week, when I started feeling worse after a sauna. I would then wait 2 or 3 days before I would feel better and now I waiting 5 or 6 days to start to feel better. Maff, your probably right, my liver cannot keep up and I need to slow down. Sorry this post is so long, although do you know of any other way to get your liver phase I and Phase II back in balance? Do you think acupunture would work? I'm not sure how much the nutrients are helping and I've been taking them for so long, maybe I should try different ones to support liver phase II. I think I willing to try just about anything at this point and thanks for any knowledge you might have.
Karen

Hi Karen,

Apologies as I don't have much time to reply but wanted to point you to some blog articles I wrote on detoxification and phase 1/phase 2 balancing last year. It is a series of three blogs with the final one describing foods and supplements to balance each of the main detoxification pathways - including glucuronidation. The first article can be found here:

Pathological Detoxifiers and Environmental Illness

From your further description is does seem that perhaps you have been detoxing too fast but it's hard to say without further informatio in the form of test results and history. In any case, detoxing too fast can certainly exacerbate existing symptoms and even create new ones if the body is unable to get rid of the toxins through the stool, urine, and sweat efficiently.

Acupuncture is certainly worth trying - Chinese medicine puts great emphasis on the liver for sustaining overall health - something conventional Western medicine would do well to follow.

Good luck!

Thanks Maff, your information was helpful.

Hi Sunshinebug,

I'm new here too. This is my first post. I've suffered from MCS for years.
Go slooooooooow! Very slooooow! I finally found an environmental physician that suffers from the same illness so she has an incentive to improve. I've also done just about everything under the sun for the last ten years.

I have been using Ultra Clear Plus. It is the strongest Metagenics product.
I started using two scoops. It literally knocked me out flat for several hours every day. I reported this to my doctor. She said to cut it back to one scoop 1 x per day.
I did this and it still did the same thing! This time my doctor backed off the dose to 1 tablespoon. Only, this time, I chose to take it before bed. AMAZING! I slept all night and felt great in the morning. I have been doing this for over 1 year.
I have noticed other very subtle improvements. i now sleep all night.

Sherry Rogers provides a wealth of information. My doctor told me to read the book after my consultation before returning to my next visit. I have the book Tired or Toxic. I haven't read the Detoxify one.

My doctor told me I am extremely toxic. She took me off most medications and started me on Armour Thyroid. The addition of Thyroid helped, but mainly I noticed an improvement in my endurance.

In my case, I avoid chemicals at all costs, including medications now. I was reacting to the glycerin capsules that held the supplements. I, to this day, am leary of any supplements.

I found I have a \"gift\" and have figured out how to energy test my food and supplements. I have been doing this for several years now and it truly has been a gift. What works one day--is not good for me the next. I think we over medicate ourselves.

I don't remember reading if you had allergy tested, but years ago, I was even unable to take Ultra Clear due to the rice base. It is supposed to be a safe product, but I used it so much I was unable to continue on the program.

You may want to go really radical and read Ann Wigmore's \"Be Your Own Doctor\" She believes in growing your own wheatgrass and juicing it. That's all I'm saying about that. I've learned to meditate and do yoga. Detoxing isn't about just the environment and what we eat--I finally found we truly improve when we practice Mind-Body & Spirit. As you can gather from my post, MSC from my standpoint, has been a multi-modal approach. Not any one thing is the answer. I am STRONGLY considering growing wheatgrass since I live in the country on a farm and praying this will provide the detoxification qualities and nutrients that I so desperately need. Happy hunting;)