Advisory Board - Alex Delgado, Delgado Ecological Services; David W. Donaldson, PhD; Kendall Gerdes, MD; Kathy Gibbons, PhD; Carl Grimes, Healthy Habitats; Connie Ledvina, CPA; Nichlas Nonas, MD; Jean Rowe, RNC, Npc; Del Stigler, MD
This page contains the following sections -
Environmental Illness (EI) goes by many names, including chemical injury, chemical hypersensitivity, total allergy. Perhaps the most common is multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). The alternative name, "environmental injury" (EI), illustrates the point that many of us have immune, detoxification, or neurological system injuries from our ever-more-toxic environment. Another label is "Twentieth Century illness," referring to the fact that this ailment was nearly unheard of in times past.
In general, EI refers to a wide range of neural or immune system damages, symptoms and causes, all traceable to the rapid changes we have made to our air, water, and food over the past century through pollution, chemical proliferation, and other causes. People can become supersensitive, as much as a thousand times more so than most people, to common materials from previous major exposures so that small amounts of chemicals in daily life trigger symptoms.
Also, very small low-dose, prolonged exposures can cause gradual, subtle but long term health damage, and can be hard to detect and prevent. People vary greatly in their response to chemical exposures. Some will hardly react while others may become very ill. Among the most vulnerable are women, unborn babies, allergy sufferers, workers in high-risk occupations, the poor, the young, the elderly, and the chronically ill.
It should be noted that sensitivities are not allergies. There is typically no immune system recognition of the offending material, although allergies may occur along with sensitivities.
EI symptoms are frequently non-specific (the 'sick-all-over' feeling) and traditional medical practices, such as 'allergy' specialists, are often of little help. EI sufferers become ill from eating, breathing, or absorbing small amounts of widely-used "safe" chemicals. Many people also become sensitive to "natural" substances such as cotton, certain foods, molds, etc. Reactions may be immediate or delayed, severe or mild.
There is Help! Many of the folks in RMEHA have come to a much better understanding of their physical condition and have learned what to do (and not do) to feel healthier and happier. Through assistance from Environmental Medicine physicians, helpful books and magazines, appropriate nutrition and supplements, and mutual support, our members have improved their health. We would be delighted to hear about your experiences and share the resources we have accumulated! Please contact and/or join RMEHA!
It is a very reasonable question from people without environmental illness to ask "How does one accept, accomodate and respect a person with this condition?" See the following page, Accommodating People with EI and/or MCS for a discussion of this area which is a very big challenge for everyone of us. Also see the following article: Understanding & Accommodating People with MCS for another discussion of this area.
Note that as of 2004, research has been published that demonstrates significant genetic differences between people with or without MCS in their body's enzymes that are important to the detoxification of toxic compounds. See the study published July 15, 2004 in the International Journal of Epidemiology by Gail McKeown-Eyssen and her colleages.
Not only were the MCS patients more likely to have significant differences is several genes that would impair their ability to detoxify toxic compounds, but some of them were over 18 times more likely to have a specific combinaion of two forms of the genetic differences.
The following link is a web publication of this article -
Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), where people report being exquisitely sensitive to a wide range of organic chemicals, is almost always described as being "controversial." The main source of this supposed controversy is that there has been no plausible physiological mechanism for MCS and consequently, it was difficult to interpret the puzzling reported features of this condition. As discussed below, this is no longer true and consequently the main source of such controversy has been laid to rest. There still are important issues such as how it should be diagnosed and treated and these may also be allayed by further studies of the mechanism discussed in the following web publication.
Other articles by Dr. Pall -
Note that Dr. Pall has written a book - "Explaining 'Unexplained Illnesses'", Dated 2007, ISBN 978-0-7890-2388-9, that has an extensive discussion of a proposed common physiological mechanism to explain many aspects of MCS, Post-Traumatic Disorder, Fibromyalgia, Gulf War Syndrome, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
The Wikipedia online encyclopedia has a page devoted to MCS, but lacks much significant information, such details as the incidence of MCS in the population. See the following for their definition of MCS -
Follow the links below to learn more about RMEHA and Environmental Illness.