Posted by AMenz on June 9, 2001, at 12:04:51
In reply to Re: question for Miragee? Symptoms of M.C.S. » AMenz, posted by Miragee on June 8, 2001, at 12:54:48
Thanks, I don't have it. It sounds to me that it is a developped sensitivity to a bunch of chemicals, and quite real. In the nature of an allergy or multiple allergy. (Had a friend almost die of allergy to virtually every food. Allergy was developed by a combination of eating exotic shellfish during a trip and the stress of a nasty divorce. So I really think these breakdowns in tolerance to environmental issues is possible specially brought on by stress).
Good luck
> Hi,
>
> The main symptoms are reactions, such as headache, backache, wheezing, depression (or inumerable other possibilities), *in* the presence of a chemical, any chemical (perfume, new paint, epoxy, automobile exhaust, newly dry-cleaned clothing, fabric softeners, pesticides, etc.). How do you feel when you walk down the detergent isle of a grocery store? Do you feel like you just have to get out of there? How do you feel when a co-worker who wears a great deal of perfume comes nearby? Do you feel fine at home but start getting a headache when you get to work in your brand new office? If your illness varies from your location, you probably have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. (It has also been called Environmental Illness.)
>
> Some people are victims of "Sick Building Syndrome" and are only sick when they are at work, usually a brand-new building full of formaldehyde-laden contruction materials. Older buildings can also be culprits if they are moldy.
>
> If you feel better out in truly fresh air, a day at the beach or up in the mountains, but find the familiar lousy symptoms returning as soon as you get back home, that can be a clue. I became ill because my house had a low level gas leak.
>
> Many people who have M.C.S. are also sensitive to particular foods. In my case, I discovered that if I stopped eating wheat products, my depression lifted! It isn't easy to avoid eating wheat, but the results were worth it.
>
> In answer to your question about doctors who diagnosis this illness -- there are not many. This illness is "controversial" (it isn't controversial to those hundreds of thousands of us who are affected). I had to travel 350 miles to see the doctor who diagnosed me in 1990.
>
> An excellent newsletter that addresses this illness in a practical and scientific, as well as encouraging, way is:
>
> Our Toxic Times
> Chemical Injury Information Network
> P.O. Box 301
> White Sulphur Springs, MT 59645
>
> What part of the country are you in? Maybe I can look in my latest issue and see if there are any physician references for your area.
>
> > What are the symptoms of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and what specialty of doctor diagnoses this.
> >
> > > Well - - - Do you want the long story or the short story?
> > >
> > > The semi-short answer is that I was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivty in 1990. In 1998, I finally found a PDoc who understood this malady. In research with many MCS patients at a clinic in Dallas, Texas, he had discovered that Neurontin, in high dosages (from 3200 mg. per day up to 6000 mg.) gave relief. I was one of the lucky ones who responded well and my chemical sensitivity abated almost immediately. I started taking Nerontin in November 1998.
> > >
> > > However . . . I was still very sick and dependent on penicillin to control excruiciating mental symptoms. (This effect of the penicillin was discovered "by accident" when I had to take it for a dental problem).
> > >
> > > For more than two years, I tried to get someone to diagnose why I needed the penicillin. (And I tried to get someone to prescribe it -- you would have thought I was asking for powdered Oxycontin -- no one would prescribe that common antibiotic!)
> > >
> > > I finally found a "Lyme Literate" doctor who diagnosed me with Lyme Disease. I have the type that affects the Central Nervous System. In other words, it is in my brain.
> > >
> > > Now that I am on the antibiotics that work for me to treat chronic Lyme Disease (Penicillin and Flagyl and Bactrim), I have my life back.
> > >
> > > I have met others who have Lyme Disease, who also suffer from the chemical sensitivity. There might be some relationship between the two conditions. The Lyme "bugs" mess with your immune system something terrible if the disease is not discovered *immediately*. I do not know when I got Lyme Disease. I could have gotten it when I was a child or . . .
> > >
> > > So, I take my thirty plus pills six times a day and feel better than I have in twenty years!
> > >
> > >
> > > > Dear Miragee,
> > > > Thanks for the tip about Magnesium a no-no with Neurontin. By the way, what is the condition you're taking it for-surely not simple insomnia!
> > > > Be well,
> > > > mocdoc
poster:AMenz
thread:611
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010605/msgs/65919.html