Solution Guide to Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Robin had to move several times in the past two years because she is so sensitive. Her first house in Santa Barbara had a lot of new work done. There was an addition put on with new carpeting, which she found was leaching formaldehyde. So, she had to leave.

Robin then moved to a “clean” condominium with wood floors and all-natural furniture. But, the gardeners were spraying weed-killer and fertilizer – so she had to move again.

This time, she moved to another home where she could control her environment. Unfortunately, the next-door neighbor was covering her garden with bug spray, which drifted over the fence. This made Robin feel fatigued and ill.

Finally, Robin moved out of town. But thanks to industrialization, chemical toxicity is everywhere. If only avoidance were as simple as it sounds. For Robin, it is almost impossible to navigate the world without being immersed in tens of thousands of potentially troublesome human-made chemicals to which she reacts.

Chemical companies no longer deny that chemicals accumulate in our bodies, simply by virtue of being alive. While the too-low concentrations of those chemicals supposedly exist to cause any harm, MCS would suggest otherwise. The brutal sensitivity to the cumulative effects of these interacting chemicals causes extreme suffering. These can begin to have many adverse symptoms that slow or prevent normal functions of the body. People with MCS can be sensitive to anything, and it can change over time, trapping them in a modern, chemical world.

Table of Contents

Medical Doctors and MCS

Mainstream medicine doesn’t recognize MCS as a real disease, having failed to agree on a case definition for the disease. This makes getting a diagnosis a battle. Many doctors consider it an emotional or psychological problem.

Studies have failed to recognize any consistency in symptoms, diagnosis, or treatment. A person with MCS may have reactions to a chemical at one time, and not another. Furthermore, different people respond differently to each type of chemical stimulus. Moreover, both the severity of the reaction and the types of sensitivities change over time.^{^[1]}

The problem with the way we do research is that by using groups of people we assume they are similar, when, in this case, none of them are. The factors responsible for MCS are numerous, including the function of multiple enzymes and detox pathways, as well as the burden of various toxins already in the body. All of this changes continuously, making quantification of sensitivity very difficult.

What is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is just what the name implies. People are sensitive to many things in their environment, food, or even their own waste. This is brought on by a broad array of everyday chemicals. Exposure levels far below those that seem to affect the rest of the population provoke the symptoms.

The experience of each person is constantly changing, due to the environment. These are better and worse over time, due to a wide range of toxins. MCS has been equated to other problems including:

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Fibromyalgia
Sick building syndrome
Gulf war syndrome (GWS)

Symptoms of MCS may include:

Headache
Fatigue
Muscle stiffness
Joint pain
Inability to concentrate
Sleep problems
Gastrointestinal issues
Food intolerances
Difficulty breathing

These and other symptoms may come on during exposure to certain substances, and they go away when avoiding problem chemicals and exposure.^{^[2]}

Causes of MCS

Of course, a multi-factorial illness will not have a single cause. There are many factors which lead to this problem, most of which may include:

Drugs
Adrenal fatigue
Poor digestion of food
Yeast overgrowth
Inadequate absorption of nutrients
Leaky gut syndrome
Hormone imbalances
Stress
Genetic detoxification weaknesses
Dysbiosis (bad bacteria in the intestines)
Immune dysfunction
Emotional factors
Celiac disease
Viral infections
Previous chemical exposures
Heavy metals
Food allergies

MCS Diagnosis

While we can test for the problems above, none of the tests are diagnostic for MCS. People may test positive for Leaky Gut Syndrome, for example, but do not have MCS. Diagnosing MCS is purely clinical. It’s the patient who comes in with the diagnosis, having noticed that they are sensitive to many different things.

Some of these sensitivities may be perfectly natural, such as an actual deficiency in amino acids due to incomplete breakdown of proteins in the digestive system.
Others may be sensitive to toxic substances such as alcohol, dyes, or pesticides.
Still others are sensitive to smells. The actual molecule that stimulates the olfactory (smell) system isn’t big enough to create an immune reaction. However, even natural perfumes may create a debilitating reaction.

Since these sensitivities are not usually created by the immune system, they are not true allergies. This is why allergy testing is not useful. Moreover, the actual sensitivity may change over time. For all these reasons, we rely on the patient to notice environmental triggers of their symptoms.

The Shoe Factory

Karen had MCS for a couple of years as a result of her job in a shoe factory. After working there several months, she began to notice that when she went to work she got tired and achy. She would get fatigued. She began to have headaches and dizziness. Her eyes hurt, and she would get shortness of breath with only walking.

Since she was in her 30s and usually active, she wondered why this only happened at work. After a period of time, she found that when she just walked into the building she would immediately start feeling her symptoms. She thought she must be crazy, and maybe she was just stressed at work, but she liked her job, and was generally happy there.

After months of getting worse, she finally was unable to go to work, and decided to take a leave of absence so she went out on disability. It took about six months of treatment for her to feel normal again, but when she tried to go back, she got the same symptoms. She had to quit her job, and find another that allowed her to be away from the glues and offgassing of the shoe factory.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Treatment

So, this begs the question about getting relief from MCS. Do people really have to move multiple times, avoid contact with others, leave their work, severely limit their diet, or live in a bubble all their lives? No.

The Liver is Key

Our liver serves to process and remove all the useless chemicals in our bodies. Some of these chemicals are byproducts from our normal metabolic processes – our own waste. Others chemicals have no function in our bodies. Some are very toxic, while others are very benign. Nevertheless, the liver sorts out the good from the bad and breaks almost everything down into parts that can be excreted primarily in urine, feces, and sweat.

When the liver becomes so overloaded with harmful chemicals that the liver’s enzymes can no longer cope, the toxins build up and this then manifests itself in a specific disease state such as MCS. There are multiple factors that lead to this vicious cycle of chronic toxic overload.

Let’s take the example of stress.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Stress

Stress is never the cause of an illness. Emotional stress, physical stress, chemical stress, and so forth are perfectly natural and normal to every person on the planet. Our bodies are designed to adapt or compensate for the effects of stress. However, once a certain amount of adaptation or weakness occurs, symptoms appear under stress.

A simple analogy is to take a Popsicle stick and start bending it. As we put more stress on the stick, eventually it will break at the weakest point. In the same way, bodies manifest disease at the weakest point when stressed. If the weakness is migraines, people get more headaches. If it is IBS they get more diarrhea, and so forth. Thus, stress will also bring out a weakness in those who are sensitive to chemicals in their environment. The weakness, however, is already there, and may be caused by many other factors. Therefore, working on only the stress may help, but doesn’t really deal with the problem. Ideally, we need to find the cause of the weakness, and fix it.

It is different for each person, because each person’s stress capacity is different. At the weakness, there is insufficient energy to maintain health. This may occur after a few minutes or a few years depending on the intensity of the stress and the health of the body. At this point, some body system becomes dysfunctional. The symptom depends upon the individual pattern of adaptation. The body’s ability to cope with stress is greatly diminished.

Chemical sensitivity can cause any imaginable symptom, mental or physical. Each person can react differently to the same chemical. Only the stress theory can explain this. It’s not a yes-or-no question; it’s a matter of degree.

Thus, the best way to repair MCS is by addressing all of the factors involved: stress, hormones, infections, genetics, nutrients, toxins, and so forth.

4 Step Process for Relief from MCS

In spite of all the apparent complexities, there is a step-by-step way to address the problem.

It starts with avoiding toxins and reactants.
It ends with fixing the liver to allow it to detoxify the body properly. Cleansing is also important.
Balance hormones because they are the messengers that keep all your systems running smoothly.
Reducing the stress response is also critical.

There is an order to these because, for example, starting with a cleanse may release toxins into your body, which may create more problems if you can’t detoxify them well. We need to avoid toxins, and be able to detoxify first.

1. Detox

Most chemically sensitive people have an abundance of nutritional deficiencies. Click to Tweet.

These deficiencies lead to a detoxification system that does not function properly. Together, this results in multiple chemical sensitivity.

The purpose of a DETOX is to provide nutrition for the liver to remove toxins. The supplements that every MCS person should have so the liver can detoxify and excrete toxins include:

Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) – 300 mg per day
N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) – 500 mg twice per day on an empty stomach
Trace minerals (selenium, chromium, vanadium, manganese, and so forth) daily with food
Activated B-complex (P5P, 5-MTHF, methylcobalamin) daily
MSM – 500 mg three times per day
Green tea extract – as directed
Turmeric (curcumin) – as directed
Milk thistle extract – use according to the label

The above can also be found together in detox formulas. Thorne Research makes a similar formula, found here. This detox should be done for 2 weeks. If you are very sensitive, then you may need to half the dose for the first week.

After two weeks, continue the detox regimen and start a CLEANSE.

2. Cleanse

“Cleanse” literally means to clean out the body. This is done by not adding anything in – including food. Most cleanse programs have one thing in common – they are all a modified fast. So, whether you choose a juice cleanse, the Master Cleanse, a broth cleanse, water cleanse, or any other program, the bottom line is not to eat any food for a period of time.

The answer to the question of “how long?” depends upon the individual. The minimum time you need to change your metabolism and clean excess glycogen out of the liver is about 4 days. But, a week is better.

For those who are very sensitive to chemicals and have other problems such as diabetes or heart disease, you can go as long as 30 days! Cleansing out yeast, parasites, and bad bacteria is another benefit of this cleanse.

The next step to heal from MCS is to fix the intestines.

3. Bowel Repair

In order to absorb nutrients, especially those the liver needs to detox the body, it is essential that the bowels function well. This consists of four actions:

Remove all foods you are sensitive to. If you don’t know of any food sensitivities, at least remove gluten, dairy, and sugar entirely from the diet.
Take digestive enzymes and Betaine HCL with every meal.
Repair with glutamine 500 mg three times per day.
Take probiotics on an empty stomach daily.

4. Balance Hormones

Women with MCS often have hormone imbalances such as estrogen dominance. Click to Tweet.

Whereas, men with MCS often lack testosterone. These hormone balances are important to the functioning of the body. Also, the adrenal and thyroid hormones often need to be balanced to help the liver detox properly. Both men and women should consider the following.

Thyroid extract – about 30 mg per day from any vitamin store
Iodine – 12.5mg per day for 90 days.
Phosphatidylserine – 100 mg twice per day for 90 days

Women:

Vitex (Chaste tree berry extract) – as directed

Men:

Chrysin – 100 mg per day for 90 days

This program may need to be modified to individual differences. No two people are the same. The symptoms of MCS are diverse and unique to each person.

Multiple chemical sensitivity is a debilitating and invisible illness that results in a person’s body being unable to process or detoxify normal everyday chemicals.

However, the program outlined here can help the majority of people with MCS to process and rid the body of toxins. These steps will stabilize the body to reduce MCS symptoms and improve your health.

We have helped many people get back their lives and be functional again. Robin is no longer moving from place-to-place, and Karen is doing well in her new job. MCS requires a great deal of patience, so both still have to be careful for large exposures to certain chemicals to allow healing to happen. But, you can see major improvement and function well in spite of the “normal” levels of environmental toxins around them.

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Dr. Scott D. Saunders, M.D. is a practicing physician, specializing in preventative health care, who utilizes eclectic health care for the whole family, including conventional, orthomolecular and natural medicine. He is also the medical director of The Integrative Medical Center of Santa Barbara in Lompoc, CA. He went to UCLA medical school and is board certified in family medicine. View natural remedies with Dr. Saunders at: http://drsaundersmd.com