OT: coping with MCS, was Re: Looking for doctor in Toronto area with SCD experience

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Hi a. I hope that you have changed your shampoo and conditioner. You may have to shop at health food stores instead of wherever you would normally buy these products, to buy safe, fragrance-free, non-toxic products.

There are many things I do for chemical sensitivities, including taking supplements that boost my liver's ability to detox chemicals, avoiding using chemicals, trying to prevent exposures to chemicals, e.g., by wearing a half-face respirator when I am out in public or anywhere that I might be exposed to chemicals (even including inside my car, where the odours of plastics offgassing can interfere with my ability to focus on driving).

I can't use any fragrances, including fragranced shampoos or conditioners. I typically try several products before finding one that doesn't make me ill. I also can't tolerate vehicle exhausts, tobacco, solvents, chlorine, formaldehyde, and many other chemicals. So I also have to be careful about furniture, detergents, and even water. I have to filter my drinking, cooking, and showering water.

At Dr. Kerr's clinic, I get intravenous supplements, including glutathione. I also get advice about changing my diet or supplements.

A popular detox therapy I have not yet tried is far-infrared sauna. I hope eventually to be able to try, and possibly purchase my own sauna, made only of poplar, because I react to the terpenes in coniferous woods such as hemlock or cedar.

My MCS is not as bad currently as it was last March. In March I started on SCD. I also started taking R+Alpha Lipoic Acid capsules and had some other new medications introduced around the same time. In April, I bought a half-face respirator, to replace the disposable respirators I was finding ineffective. So I am not sure whether somewhat healing my dysbiosis, adding the supplements and medications, or wearing better respiratory protection, explains my minor improvement, or whether they all do.

Ironically, during the same period, my allergic reactions to various allergens have become worse than they used to be. But I am hoping that an allergist I have recently begun consulting will be able to help me with those problems.

Hope this helps.

Ellen in Toronto, Canada

SCD since March 17, 2008

RE: Looking for doctor in Toronto area with SCD experience

>Hi Dave. I am also in Toronto. The doctor I consult about my chemical >sensitivities and ME/CFS (chronic fatigue/immune dysfunction) is Dr. K. >Kerr.

What does one do for chemical sensitivities? I thought they go away once the immune system gets stronger? I noticed a while back that shampoo and conditioner gives me a wicked headache and backache.

a