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In the past few years my family and I have somehow developed sensitivities to at least a few different commonly used chemicals. We are not quite sure about which or even how many chemicals each one has become allergic to, but we know that formaldehyde as well as several chemicals associated with paint and building materials are definitely on the list.
It all started after doing some major remodeling of our house. We basically renovated the whole place in a matter of a couple of years. We also replaced HVAC system, bought all new appliances, and bought several pieces of new furniture. During the middle to end of this process the whole family began getting and staying sick, with a wide variety of different symptoms (from skin rash to bronchitis)which made it hard to figure out what was going on.
Long story short. I finally figured out something was going on with the house after going out of town for two weeks for work and feeling better than I had in over a year. We immediately moved out. After a series of mold and chemical testing done on the house, it was determined that the house contained a very high and dangerous level of VOCS, Volatile Organic Compounds, chemicals associated with building materials or even everyday products such as cleaning agents.
At the same time, my wife had a skin test at her allergist that confirmed that she was now highly allergic to formaldehyde and several other chemicals mainly associated with paint. He said that even though she had no prior allergy, that at some point she had been over exposed to high levels of these chemicals or had been exposed to moderate levels over a long period of time, and was now allergic for life.
We sold the house but are continuing to have symptoms and sicknesses related to these sensitivities, as these chemicals are everywhere, including even the outdoor air in many more populated areas.
I have since researched and found that this is much more common than I would have expected.
While it is still a somewhat rare and even unheard of condition, it is actually becoming more and more prevalent in industrialized nations.
Was basically just wondering if anyone else out there has experienced or heard of anyone who has experienced anything like this, and how did they adjust to be able to live with this?
I feel for you, I too am chemically sensitive but it can and does get better over time. You want to eat the HEALTHIEST diet possible, get plenty of exercise and fresh air and drink lots of water. Of course, as much as possible try to avoid these contaminants. It is difficult for me to do, as my husband loves to tinker in the garage which included building his own car, I was smelling gas and paint for awhile there. It helps that I live in an older home with terrazzo floors (no carpeting) and pretty much anything in here has long ago out-gassed itself.
I know a lot of people will pooh-pooh this, but it helps to eat alkaline foods such as vegetables and some fruits, and avoid too many acid-producing foods such as meats, sugars, junk food, etc. This gives the body a chance to purge itself. I personally also believe in good massage therapy. I make sure to get plenty of Vitamin C, also.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with this, you are definitely not alone out there.
I feel for you, I too am chemically sensitive but it can and does get better over time. You want to eat the HEALTHIEST diet possible, get plenty of exercise and fresh air and drink lots of water. Of course, as much as possible try to avoid these contaminants. It is difficult for me to do, as my husband loves to tinker in the garage which included building his own car, I was smelling gas and paint for awhile there. It helps that I live in an older home with terrazzo floors (no carpeting) and pretty much anything in here has long ago out-gassed itself.
I know a lot of people will pooh-pooh this, but it helps to eat alkaline foods such as vegetables and some fruits, and avoid too many acid-producing foods such as meats, sugars, junk food, etc. This gives the body a chance to purge itself. I personally also believe in good massage therapy. I make sure to get plenty of Vitamin C, also.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with this, you are definitely not alone out there.
Thanks. I didn't know if anyone would respond to this or not. I could have written a couple of pages on the variety of symptoms we have had. We actually had to get rid of much of our furniture as a lot of it was very new and contained particle board with formaldehyde. We have switched to organic soaps and cleaners which has helped our skin tremendously. We are slowly trying to rid our house as much as possible of any possible irritants.
My youngest son and I seem to be getting a little better, but my wife and oldest son actually seem to be getting worse. My oldest son has recently been diagnosed as having asthma and my wife is continually battling skin rashes, even on her face.
There is a condition called MCS Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and from what I understand, you can start by being allergic to a few chemicals and if you are not able to clean up your environment that eventually you can continue to become sensitive to more and more things overtime. Not sure if that is our situation as we have only discovered our problem in the last year or so.
Just going into a clothing store and mess us up for the next day or two or longer sometimes. We live in an apartment now (temporarily since we had to sell our house) in a somewhat urban environment. We recently took a week long trip to a very rural and extremely clean area as far as pollution and air quality. We all seemed to feel much much better the whole week, almost no symptoms and much more energy. But on the drive home, as soon as we started to go through a more populated industrialized area we immediately could tell and started to experience symptoms coming back.
I know that this probably sounds a little far fetched to someone who has not experienced these things before, but I promise it is true. I would be interested to hear more opinions on the effects of outdoor air. And also kind of curious how you became sensitive to chemicals' if you know and didn't mind sharing.
I absolutely know it's true, since I myself have experienced symptoms on and off most of my life, and I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who have also. My condition actually became very bad when in the 1980s we moved into a very old (1920s) home here in Florida, with no ac, that needed a LOT of work which we could not afford to do at the time. The house was very moldy from years of a leaky roof and plumbing, and had crumbling plaster walls (lots of dust) We lived there for 12 years and that house made me very sick. We moved from there to a newer home in a different rural town that also did not have the tropical vegetation there that contributed to my allergies, and I slowly but surely recovered, or at least became MUCH less sensitive to stuff. Now we are back living the the same tropical area and I am having some issues again, but nowhere as bad as before.
There are a lot of stores that make me uncomfortable, especially stores like Home Depot where you smell a LOT of offending products, or the detergent aisle of the grocery store. I don't use ANY type of scented products anymore and haven't for years. You just do your best to avoid all you can, it is better to live somewhere fresh and clean if possible. I would try to move out of the urban environment if at all possible, I do think you will all feel better.
I worked at a company that moved into a building that was an old carpet company. It seemed I was sick all the time. I had a co-worker who was also sensitive and sick as well. We both believed that it was all the chemicals that were used for the carpet and it was coming through the vents. I put a diffuser in my office with essential oils and it helped a bit.
I totally agree with gypsychic , eat a clean alkaline diet, lots of water :-)
Im afraid mine only got worse, but then the NHS here in the UK dont recognise this as a true allergy or illness as it doesnt show up on their blood tests.. mine started almost 50 years ago when I worked in my first job in a printing factory... at first I felt sick a lot while using glues, inks, varnshes etc but thought everyone did .. so didnt bother much until it got so bad I had to be sent home from work..on several occassions.. things didnt get better when I got my own flat and was polishing furniture and cleaning windows with the pink stuff that turns to a powder, my eyes suffered badly and I took a growth in the bottom lid.. that I still have to this day... over the years, I noticed more and more getting to me.. like air fresheners, perfume.. household paints with VOCs. turps. paraffin. diesel , petrol.. in fact everything you can think of with petro chemcials bases. and thats about all thats around these days.... I havent worn perfume for thirty years. dont have anything with a smell in my home. clean with only Green products, same with soap. shampoos. even makeup has to be water based and perfume free... this allergy- sensitivity is known as MCS Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.... since no one would listen to ma comlaints, I decided to search for myself, first with Allergy UK who didnt deal with chemicals and passed me on to AAA. who were helpful expliaining what I might have and trying to help by letter... then Allergy UK took a greater interest and now have a section of their dept. only for chemical sensitive people to phone or email and hopefully get help, or at least to be listened to... the UK is very bad as dealing with this, as other countries take it much more seriously and some have clinics especially for this... If you visit Diana Bucklands Global Awareness site, it explains and lot... she does all the work on her own with a little help from cooridinators worldwide , her site has a guestbook and you can read others like yourself and how they cope...Once MCS gets a grip, if like mine it has multiplied from one or two items to all ... even plastics , wood burning, new carpets, flooring. new houses all affect me... If you PM me Ill give you some sites to visit and to try and understand whats happening to your body.. and mind.. as I find I lose concentration very easily and have poor short term memory so it definitely does something to the brain also.. Ive had to leave jobs over the years as bosses didnt understand that spraying the office or workplace was making me so ill... now some places have public place bans on scents.. sense at last... only a sufferer can ever understand how bad this makes a person feel and how ill they can become... its like having the flu, the only way I can explain it, with added symptoms. like tremors.. sweating. tiredness. headaches, nausea. mood swings..spaced out feeling. a heavy cloud over your head... and many more symptoms..and this can all be caused by one whiff of someones perfume.. but much worse if shut in like a car, bus or room with perfume around .... so avoidance for me is all I can really do, and make sure no one visits my home.. wearing anything perfumed, even a slight smell of deoderant or a soap powder sets it off, worse still is fabric conditioner.. and I wont go into whats in that junk.. no one should use it ..
MCS became more and more common as more chemicals were introduced into our environment. I was extremely fortunate to get treated by one of the few experts in the field back in 1989 but it was already too late.
My illness was caused by living in a house with a leak in the roof that caused mold and a faulty furnace that was spewing soot into the house through the duct system. I was in graduate school at the time, trying to save money, so couldn't afford to get things fixed.
If this hadn't happened to me I don't think I would ever have believed it.
I did move out of the house, someone told me about a doctor after I had seen many doctors who said there was nothing wrong with me, and it took many years to get somewhat better.
During this time I have met people who got MCS from building a new house and then living with the out-gassing chemicals, especially the formaldehyde from the carpeting. I knew one couple who had to sell the house and they sued the carpeting maker because testing revealing very levels of toxic chemicals. People had good jobs and had to go on disability due to MCS.
I still get allergy shots because you usually develop all sorts of allergies too and my doctor told me to lower "the total load" on your body. Getting the allergy shots gives your body a few less "enemies" to fight off. I never use chemical cleaners, I don't do oil painting anymore, I use only unscented products, make my own laundry detergent, and avoid several foods to which I was very allergic. With the foods that I was only slightly allergic to, I eat them on a rotational basis.
Finally, after many years, I am able to live right next to the ocean where the air is clean. I avoid cities and the car fumes that give me headaches and make me feel weak.
I can now go into stores but in general, I don't. I can now walk down the horrible detergent and fabric softener aisle in the grocery store without my legs turning to jelly but I don't. Mostly now the offending chemicals don't sicken me anymore, they just smell bad.
If I were to get exposed to more perfumes, fabric softeners (which are toxic to anyone), cigarette smoke, paints, varnishes, air pollution, new building materials, etc. I'd get sick again. This time at least I would know the cause and what to do about it. Best healing wishes to all who have this malady and let's all keep working to get the word out so that these chemicals will be taken off the market and so that people will become aware of the hazards.
dizzybent, you could come and visit me! I can 100% guarantee that you would not be made sick in this house. Everything toxic was banished long ago and the ocean air is clean. Mostly I do not allow plastics of any kind in the house--having been made so sick by furnace fumes I am extremely sensitive to petrochemicals, petroleum derivatives. Food is definitely NOT kept in plastic--ever. The house may be small but it has tile floors, no carpeting. I am well enough now that I have a few little area rugs but they were purchased second hand so any chemicals are long gone.
By the way, for those of us with MCS, thrift shops (charity shops) become our friends. You can buy things without that sickening "new" chemical smell. Those shops usually have better quality items than the new junk available today anyway!
Thanks friend... oh our charity shops are the opposite as everything gets sprayed with air fresheners and has me hoofing it out the door... new clothes though are a nuisance as they always have chemicals on them .. and sometimes the girls packing the goods have perfume on their wrists and it goes over the garment or bag.. and as you all know its impossible to get the smell away...
I deal with a lot of allergies with the work I do, and many times we find the weirdest things which make sense to that person for how they are living. There are different kinds of allergies first of all, with your situations the allergy is probably an inhaled allergy, but could be from contact or touching the skin. If you are looking for someone to help you with these allergies, there are ways. Most I know of are from alternative medicine. Acupuncture from someone who knows their stuff might help, anyone who does CPK (Chiro Plus Kinesiology) would be able to help, maybe someone who does applied kinesiology. A typical chiropractor will say that it will help, but they are just guessing, where the other list of people will actually have ways to help get rid of it specifically. I use CPK in my practice and deal with those allergies and have a system that helps the body reset to them.
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Everything toxic was banished long ago and the ocean air is clean. Mostly I do not allow plastics of any kind in the house--having been made so sick by furnace fumes I am extremely sensitive to petrochemicals, petroleum derivatives. Food is definitely NOT kept in plastic--ever. The house may be small but it has tile floors, no carpeting. I am well enough now that I have a few little area rugs but they were purchased second hand so any chemicals are long gone.
oh our charity shops are the opposite as everything gets sprayed with air fresheners and has me hoofing it out the door... new clothes though are a nuisance as they always have chemicals on them .. and sometimes the girls packing the goods have perfume on their wrists and it goes over the garment or bag.. and as you all know its impossible to get the smell away...
