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Comment last edited on about 8 years ago by Maff Maff
...If addressing Th1/Th2 balance has helped you in the past you might want to look into low-dose naltrexone (LDN) with your doctor. It's not expensive and many people report success with it. Of course you might not be able to tolerate it but it's another option to think about.
When I got housing I had been on benefits for a few years due to my illness and I applied for council housing and explained in full what my sensitivities meant in terms of what I required. A housing officer came to visit me and saw that I had to wear a mask in his presence, asked me questions about my condition...and I was put to the top of the waiting list! I was given a housing association flat within 2 months. It was a standard flat but has a private entrance so no need to worry about communcal entrance, stairs etc. I painted it with Ecos solvent-free paints and furnished it with all second-hand furniture and was ok without my mask except in the kitchen and bathroom. Showering with a mask on is an experience but at least I could relax properly in the living room and bedroom!
It's good to hear the I Can Breathe mask is helping you
Thanks for your kind comments about the website. If I can help people who are suffering like I have (and still am in many ways) then I'll give it my best shot!
Good luck with everything and hope to see you around,
MaffLike 0 -
Comment last edited on about 8 years ago by Maff Maff
Hi Samantha,
Sorry to hear you have now developed MCS along with your already debilitating conditions. We do sound very similar as I developed MCS around the same age as you are now after already having had ME/CFS, adrenal fatigue (not as severe as insufficiency), and gut dysbiosis/Candida for years. I wouldn't wish our situation on anyone. Not even if I had worst enemies (I don't!).
Both published medical studies and anecdotal reports suggest MCS is common with both ME/CFS and adrenal problems. As you will know, the adrenal glands through the hormones they produce, provide us with the ability to deal with stress. We usually think of this "stress" as purely psychological but in fact the stress can also be biological (i.e. infections) or chemical (i.e. exposure to high levels of toxins) as well. This means that if we have poorly functioning adrenal glands our bodies are less able to shrug off these stresses and we eventually develop sensitivities. The exact mechanisms behind the sensitivities are not yet fully explained so trying to do so is educated guessing at best. However some research has shown neurological hypersensitivity in MCS patients and some has shown immunological hypersensitivity (e.g. increased mast cell activity - mast cells release histamine during allergic reactions) - so MCS is not necessarily the result of one or the other, it could be a result of both. The nervous and immune systems are constantly interacting and use many of the same chemical messengers. If one is not working correctly then neither is the other, simple as that. There is a new speciality in medicine studying how the nervous, immune and endocrine systems all work together called psychoneuroimmunology - you fancy some light reading
Your symtpoms sound exactly like mine, down to the bloog sugar imbalance after exposures. As you have noticed the symptoms are very similar to those of adrenal insufficiency and my explanation for this is as above - the body has lost the ability to maintain homeostasis (balance) in the face of chemical insults and we therefore experience symptoms resulting from the body's inability to keep blood sugar stable, cells supplied with sufficient oxygen etc.
Having said all this you won't be too surprised to hear that I overcame my MCS through a combination of strictly avoiding exposures (as you are already doing) - and focusing treatment on adrenal issues. I can't prove anything obviously, but I feel strongly that DHEA supplements were key to my recovery. I don't want to bore you with long explanations as you seem pretty clued up but basically DHEA is an adrenal hormone which works with cortisol to help the body cope with stress of all kinds and maintain homeostasis. Interestingly it also increases the activity of GABA - the brain's major calming/inhibitory neurotransmitter. I can only guess that it therefore reduces sensitivity to chemicals in MCS. Dr. Pamela Reed Gibson did a surver of around 800 MCS patients and DHEA supplements scored highly for effectiveness so I guess I am not rhe only one it has helped. I have to say that you should definitely not start taking this without talking to your doctor but you know that right
Oh yes - Candida can in my opinion and experience be a huge source of toxins that might contribute to the development of chemical sensitivities. It produces alcohols, aldehydes, and other organic chemicals as part of its basic metabolism and it is chemicals like these that seem to cause MCS and trigger symptoms. Yeasts/fungi like Candida are just waiting for an opportunity to increase their numbers and the immune impairment due to ME/CFS and adrenal insufficiency would provide such an opportunity. If you have a gut full of this stuff constantly spewing out toxic chemicals that you absorb into your body then the results are not going to be good are they...Like 0 -
I can remember hating the smell of the chemicals my mother used in her art studio and still do, eg oil paint and turps. Also I hated the smell in cars as a child and used to get car sickness. Over the years I have had bad reactions to working in a new building (all the new paint, glue, chemical odours).I also dislike the smell of anything strong in the air like gas, petrol fumes, strong perfumes,fly spray, varnish, pest sprays, nail polish and remover, cleaning products etc. I also get sinisitus from wood fires (bushfires) and wood barbques. I can't go into new fabric shops. My physical reactions are firstly, an aversion to the smell, nausea, headache and an exacerbation of my fibro symptoms. I manage it by avoiding these things as much as possible or by modifying the effect and being careful about what I use around the house. G
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