Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a condition in which you develop hypersensitizy to chemical contact; the exposure can come through inhalation, skin contact or ingestion. Chemical sensitivity can be relatively mild or manifest in extreme ways.
MCS is very common in people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.
This is an illness with a lot of stigma surrounding it. Sufferers often don’t receive much in the way of medical treatment and doctors, family and friends may not believe them.
Some people with chemical sensitivity feel that their reactions to odors and chemicals are actually sensible signals from their body alerting them to real danger.
The issues I have with that theory are that reactions can be really extreme and unhealthy (ie, seizures), and you can be sensitive to substances that are not dangerous whatsoever.
In my case I was sensitive even to the smell of essential oils, like lavender essential oil, which is purely therapeutic.
Here we’ll be discussing how my MCS developed, its presentation, tricks for managing it and how I have mostly recovered. We’ll also be looking at EMF sensitivity, which arose while I was most chemically sensitive.
How My MCS Manifested
My MCS began one afternoon while I was doing some shopping and spent several minutes inhaling different fragrances to try to decide which scented products I wanted to buy. I developed a headache on the way home and things escalated from there.
For around six months I dealt with significant impairment. I couldn’t be in the same room with someone wearing freshly laundered clothing because my nervous system would quickly become overwhelmed.
I also couldn’t spend much time outside because I became very sensitive to car exhaust, even from a road a quarter mile away or more.
This illness can be surreal in the degree to which your senses become heightened. With the previous examples, the odor was so intense it felt like my head was inside a tub of detergent or my face was in front of an exhaust pipe.
During this period I also developed extreme food intolerances, had to drop almost all carbohydrates from my diet and really reduce my calorie intake to ensure I could sleep. I also lost a lot of hair and developed EMF sensitivity.
EMF Sensitivity Symptoms
As bizarre as chemical sensitivity is, EMF sensitivity was even stranger. If I wanted to use my computer I’d just play videos while sitting on the other side of the room. Even at that distance, I felt this sort of electrical field around my head that gave me a headache.
I also felt achey and overstimulated by electronic devices while they were on near me, ie, when I was trying to sleep.
Mold and MCS & EMF Sensitivity
At the suggestion of my naturopathic doctor, I took a RealTime Labs urine mycotoxin panel. Mycotoxins are the toxins produced by mold. The test is unfortunately very expensive, but was extremely useful because I was high for all the types of mycotoxins tested.
There are two types of illness induced by mold: acute illness, or mold poisoning, and chronic illness. Chronic mold illness arises from living or working for a period of time in a moldy building.
The toxicity of molds varies a lot, but with enough exposure to even more benign species they have negative effects.
If you’re one of the about 25% of the population with a genetic mutation called HLA-DR, your immune system actually can’t learn to defend itself from mold, so these mycotoxins just build in your body and issues can escalate.
Clearing Mold Toxins
We cleared the mycotoxins using a drug called cholestyramine, which is a cholesterol-lowering drug. It does this by forcing the body to dump its bile, which is a substance that processes dietary fats.
Bile tends to accumulate toxins your body is bad at eliminating.
Some people are very sensitive to cholestyramine, but fortunately I tolerated it well and saw fast improvement.
If you don’t have access to CSM, there are many other binders, or substances that clear toxins from the body, like activated charcoal, bentonite clay, and diatomaceous earth.
There are also many other ways to detoxify, such as dry brushing, epsom salt baths and saunas.
Around this time someone told me that EMF sensitivity tends to flare when people have recent upticks in mycotoxin exposure. I realized I was drinking huge amounts of herbal tea – like 6-8 bags a day – and that this was a big source of mold toxins.
Mold accumulates on foods that sit around for long periods of time, like tea, coffee, chocolate, herbs, spices, grains, legumes, and cheese.
If you’re sick you don’t have to eliminate all of these, but it’s helpful to pay attention to your reactions to see if particular foods are an issue for you.
After reducing my dietary mycotoxin intake and using CSM and other detoxifying methods, my EMF and chemical sensitivity are 80% or more better.
Managing MCS & EMF Sensitivity
Managing these illnesses in the short-term is very important before you are able to treat and cure them.
For many people laundry is a large problem. I suggest using as little as a teaspoon of a non-toxic laundry detergent, (eg, Seventh Generation), or looking for laundry products that are labeled as safe for babies.
I also would air out my laundry after taking it out of the dryer and would often only wear one piece of freshly washed clothing at a time so as not to overwhelm my nervous system.
If any detergent is too much, however, washing clothes in hot water is also quite effective on its own.
It’s important to note that health issues arising from EMFs can be triggered by heavy exposure around the home. It’s good to be aware of your ongoing exposure if you’re trying to recover from it.
The biggest sources of EMF exposure include smart meters, Wi-Fi, cell phones and cordless phones, and dirty electricity, which results from bad wiring.
See my full article on EMF sensitivity and home fixes here.
Additional MCS Treatments
In addition to detoxification, there are other treatment avenues that may be helpful for you.
One is to pursue therapies that calm the nervous system, such as cold. The summer that my chemical sensitivity was at its height I had terrible anxiety; soaking in cold baths was remarkably effective in calming me down.
Read my article on calming the nervous system here.
You can also look at rebuilding the myelin, which is the electrical sheathing around your nerves. Some doctors who work with EMF sensitivity, such as Dr. Klinghardt, see this as an important part of the recovery process. There’s some support that high doses of omega-3 fatty acids (R) and vitamin D (R) are helpful in this regard.
Finally, you can look at neural retraining programs. Neural retraining programs desensitize your nervous system via psychological techniques that you practice on a daily basis.
Dr. Neil, Nathan, author of Toxic, specializes in Lyme Disease and mold-induced illness. He says that 98% of his patients with hypersensitivities who practice neural retraining for several months see improvement that is good or better.
He specifically recommends Dynamic Neural Retraining System, which I recommend also.
Here’s my Youtube discussion of neural retraining:
