vanilis When we hear the term of “Being Too Sensitive” we usually think about emotions, feeling and behaviour. But, there are many other ways of being sensitive. One of them is being too sensitive to chemical, the terms we know as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a condition where a person couldn’t tolerate many different chemicals in the form of odour, food or even surface based chemicals. When coming in contact with these chemicals, a person can develop wide range of signs and symptoms such as rashes, wheezing or asthma like symptoms, joints pain, headaches, fatigue and even confusion.
Some of the known chemicals that has been reported to induce MCS are:
- Aerosol air freshener
- Aerosol deodorant
- After-shave lotion
- Asphalt pavement
- Cigar smoke
- Cigarette smoke
- Colognes, perfumes
- Diesel exhaust
- Diesel fuel
- Dry-cleaning fluid
- Floor cleaner
- Furniture polish
- Garage fumes
- Gasoline exhaust
- Hair spray
- Insect repellant
- Insecticide spray
- Laundry detergent
- Marking pens
- Nail polish
- Nail polish remover
- Oil-based paint
- Paint thinner
- Perfumes in cosmetics
- Public restroom deodorizers
- Shampoo
- Tar fumes from roof or road
- Tile cleaners
- Varnish, shellac, lacque
Some people will correlate MCS with allergy or atopic conditions where the skin is usually the ones that develop symptoms but there are diferences between common allergy and MCS. Most allergic reactions come after a person is exposed to the allergen. The reactions usually are fast acting which means it is developed right after the exposure and can go away fast although some patients will need allergy treatment or drugs. But, with common allergy, there is no left over symptoms which means the reactions are limited to that specific time and conditions. With MCS however, the symptoms can go as long as the inflammatory reaction stay in the body, which is not restriceted by the length of exposure. Also, allerguc reactions usually restricted to skin and lung symptoms which are the main organs that exposed to the chemicals. While, in MCS, patients symptoms are varies and sometimes can be very bad that it’s disrupting their daily activities.
Another relate MCS to toxic exposure. Many of the known chemicals that has been reported by people who experienced MCS can be included in toxicants such as nausea, vomitting, headaches, hard to breathe, rashes, and many others. But, since the level of exposures are so low, it can’t be concluded as poisoning, which is the term used to describe toxic exposure on the body. The level of chemicals that can induce MCS are usually low and not enough to induce poisoning. Which is why many people start to believe that it’s a psychological event.
The last one is what called Neurobiological Senzitization which involves the Limbic System. It is proposed that the sensitivity developed under trauma which involves certain chemicals. The traumatic responses may be seen as gone but the effect on the Limbic System stays. This can actually explain why most of patients with MCS also have depressions and anxieties. Although the opposite can also be true. People with high level of stress can develop MCS while being exposed to acute exposures.
In Functional Medicine, we approach MCS not only on physical terms, but also emotional and environmentals. It is important to understand that not every person has the same cause even though both have MCS. On physical side, we look at the immune system and also detox system which are the two mos related systems that affected by MCS. While on emotional level, we need to understand the level of stress and whether there is a trauma based event or even reccurent mid low traumatic conditions that can trigger MCS or related to how the patient see their environment. The last one, we still need to look at their environment to understand whethere there are environmental disturbance and the possibility of bad chemical exposure that hidden behind MCS. All of these are needed to know the root cause of each cases, especially on MCS patients.
Do you have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity or do you know someone who might have it?
Sources :
- https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/1998/0901/p721.html
- https://re-origin.com/conditions/multiple-chemical-sensitivity/
