Sensitive

This modern world is full of conveniences. We have automatic everythings and easy take-out food right from the supermarket ("supermarkets" are themselves, of course, a major modern convenience). One of the greatest modern conveniences is at your fingertips right now, or you wouldn't be reading this. I'm no luddite; I believe that progress is a good thing. Like all good things, though, the modern world has its drawbacks.

One of the drawbacks is a non-specific syndrome known as MCS, or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Most people will go through all of life without being hypersensitive to any sort of chemicals. Others will have isolated reactions to certain chemicals. For the person with MCS, it sometimes seems as though anything, or even nothing at all, will set off symptoms. The smell of certain cleaning products will cause rashes, headaches, and other allergic symptoms. When you can't wear your jewelry or any clothing with a zipper and can't be around when anyone's baking because the smell of some spices causes you a serious reaction*, you start to feel that you're (1) allergic to everything and/or (2) crazy.

MCS seems to be related to some other chronic disorders. Many Fibromyalgia/MPS and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients report that their original symptoms started after a trauma or illness. For a small subset of those patients, the illness that first triggered that cascade seems to have been related to MCS (as with Gulf War Illness patients who are thought to have become Fibromyalgia patients and people whose illnesses were related to Sick Building Syndrome). Illness begets more illness.

Symptoms of MCS can be any allergy-like symptoms, from nasal allergy symptoms (rhinitis) to contact dermatitis. They can also include general malaise and worsening of any other chronic illness a patient may have.

What can you do about your MCS symptoms?

1. Try to figure out, as far as possible, what your triggers are and eliminate them from your life. If chlorine bleach sets you off, use bleach-free cleaning products and try to swim in salt-water pools rather than chlorinated. If cigarette smoke is a trigger, do not spend time in heavy-smoke areas.
2. Consider that food sensitivities may be part of the complex constellation of symptoms and syndromes that seem to have taken over your body. Consider an elimination diet. Keep a food diary in conjunction with your symptom diary even if you are not going for elimination; you may find that those horrible dizzy spells are caused by MSG** or that your chronic migraines are better on weeks when you don't eat peanuts.
3. Use detergents, soaps, lotions and cosmetics that are hypoallergenic and, as far as possible, free of dyes and chemical perfumes.
4. If you have a skin reaction to any item of clothing, wash it with a detergent free of dyes and perfumes. If you have a reaction again the next time you wear it, get rid of it. Put it straight in the "charitable donations" bag or box, even if it looks really amazing on you and you will never have a shirt/skirt/pair of jeans as wonderful again.
5. If you're sensitive to jewelry/metal on your skin, consider having all snaps and zippers on clothes you just have to keep replaced with metal-free buttons, unless you can find surgical steel snaps/zippers.

*Personal Story: I always had some sensitivity to cinnamon--I would always get sores in my mouth when travelling, which I eventually pinned down to the fact that I would always buy cinnamon gum when travelling. I started working in a Barnes and Noble Café and started having allergy symptoms all the time: rashes on my hands and arms, trouble breathing/worse asthma symptoms, constant sinus headaches. I soon pinned it down to cinnamon once exposures to concentrated sources of cinnamon--the Cinnamon Sunset tea and actual cinnamon powder--caused me a full-on anaphylactic reaction. The rashes were the result of Chai splashing up on my arms when working at the bar. With regular exposure, the reaction worsened to the point where even smelling cinnamon scones baking from across the store or talking to a customer who's chewing cinnamon gum has caused my tongue and cheeks to swell.

**This is my husband's experience--MSG is bad for him, and when he really craves a food with MSG to the point where he would rather have it than avoid the reaction--dizziness to the point of collapsing--he has to wait until he does not have to do anything for a couple hours afterward.