Hi, I am suffering from severe MCS I am reacting to my clothes, I am reacting to all foods, all glass bottled water. I do not wish this on anyone but is there anyone else out there who is reacting to everything like me?

Hi M_D

Welcome to the site. So sorry to hear you are in such a bad situation. I do know there are others out there who react to everything as you do so it might be some small relief to know you are not alone.

In a situation like yours I would suggest you seek out a good environmental medicine doctor as it is unlikely you will be able to improve things considerably on your own when anything you do, eat or drink causes symptoms.

Specialist testing would be required to determine factors that are underlying your condition and point to options for management and treatment that you would be able to tolerate.

Are you currently seeing a doctor or are you confined to your home? Is your home safe or does it also make you sick?

Take care,

Maff

Hi,

I recently went to Breakspear and started the
immunotherapy, 3 weeks in to trying it I had a bad reaction to something while I was out from then on I had worsened and now reacting to everything. But when using immunotherapy it worssened me and they made me feel horrendous so I would be really scared of trying that again although I did feel a couple of posotive changes. do you know any other treatments when you are reacting to everything? I am locked away in my bedroom as I cant go anywear in the house and I am starting to react to my bedroom more and more every day. So I just donk know what to do next. I also have E.S.

Hi,

I have found that people with environmental illnesses need to be really careful with immunotherapy, as while it has the potential to be helpful, it often seems to have the opposite effect as in your case.

I myself had a bad experience with a form of immunotherapy called Enzyme Potentiated Desensitisation (EPD) which is designed to neutralise allergies and sensitivities to foods, chemicals, airborne allergens and even the gut flora. In my experience the EPD treatment gave me pretty bad flu-like symptoms for a week after each shot and worsened my existing fungal gut dysbiosis (Candida) considerably.

My advice would be to approach things more cautiously and look for the root causes of your problems. Gut health is important to consider (gut dysbiosis and leaky gut syndrome) as is the potential influence of adrenal fatigue. It is also likely to be helpful to look at factors that impair immunity such as heavy metal and general toxic exposure, nutritional deficiencies and chronic infections.

Good luck and best wishes,

Maff

Hi, Thank you for your reply Maff.

Obviously I know a few of the root causes which are too much bad gut bacteria, not enough good bacyeria, candida, gllutathione gene missing and nutriton deffincies.

I never had the heavy metal tests as I was too woried about taking tablets, but obviously knowing these underlying problems dosent really help me as im reacting to everything I cant take anything to do anything about it.

Do you know anything else I could try to stop reacting as much?

I am really reacting badly to metals like the radiator in the room is this to do with MCS or more to do with ES? also everwhere I stand on my laminated floor it makes me feel worse every day.

Hi,

No problem, happy to help as much as I can. I have been there with the MCS but have never had obvious reactions to foods (except wheat and dairy - likely due to opiate effects of gluten and casein), water or electrical equipment. The fact you are a 'universal reactor' makes things difficult but I wouldn't say impossible.

Avoidance of triggers is absolutely essential to give your body a chance to rest and recuperate. Anything you can do to avoid your triggers will help to reduce your total body burden. This means measures such as avoiding popular cleaning and personal care products completely, making sure your home is as chemical-free and safe as possible (particularly your bedroom) and only eating foods you know you are ok with until things start to improve (you may then want to add one new food back at a time).

Detoxification is also important and I would suggest far infrared sauna (FIR) as a non-invasive method to enhance this. I believe Breakspear use this technique or similar?

Since you are unable to tolerate supplements or medications I would suggest you try some alternative and complementary therapies that might give your body a helping hand. I suggested acupressure to another member the other day as Professor Pamela Reed Gibson found this to be a safe and effective treatment when she surveyed over 900 MCS patients. Other similar therapies such as reflexology may be helpful as might techniques you can learn yourself such as meditation and qi gong. It's easy to dismiss such therapies but my personal experience is that they can be very powerful and helpful and work quickly...there is also now a substantial amount of research to back up their perceived benefits.

Finally you might want to try some of the techniques aimed at restoring normal brain function in MCS and environmental illnesses such as Ashok Gupta's Amygdala Retraining and Annie Hopper's Dynamic Neural Retraining (DNR) System.

If these interventions start to strenghen your health and reduce your reactivity then you may then be able to begin to address contributing factors such as gut dysbiosis, detoxification problems, and adrenal fatigue with oral supplements, hormone replacement and medications under the supervision of Breakspear or other health care professional.

Laminated floors and furniture are terrible for MCS as it is as much glue as it is wood. If you can replace this with something less toxic such as hardwood or tile it would likely help you a lot. I am not sure what the problem is with the radiator. It may be an ES issue or it could be MCS-related if it has been painted in the recent past. Perhaps other visitors may have more insight on this...

All the best,

Maff<br /><br />Post edited by: Maff, at: 2010/08/07 11:37