¿ Are chemicals and electro-smog in your home and workplace making you sick? ¿ Does your doctor tell you that your symptoms are not real? are all in your head? ¿ Has your condition been dismissed or labelled "idiopathic" (and then dismissed)? Turn on any newscast. Open any newspaper. Read any blog. What are they talking about? Pollution, global warming, and our skyrocketing disease rate. With so many research studies, how can these intricately-related topics still be called "controversial" and the results "inconclusive"? How can the scientists giving advice all have different versions of scientific fact? What and whom are we supposed to believe? Real science doesn't lie! The answers and solution are clear. Read this book to discover why today's so-called invisible illnesses are never idiopathic and to learn how to hold your own within a system that gets you sick, keeps you sick, and wants you sick!

Which Poison Will Change Your Life?

An MCS Survivor's Eye-Opening View into the Socio-Political Forces Which Make Today's "Invisible Illnesses" Possible and ProbableBy GLENNA J. CHANCE

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Glenna J. Chance
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4567-1293-8

Contents

Introduction....................................................viiDedications.....................................................ixForeword........................................................xiMCS Questionnaire...............................................xiiiChapter 1: There's No Place Like Home...........................1Chapter 2: What is Invisible about Illness?.....................21Chapter 3: MCS is as Real as a Broken Bone......................37Chapter 4: What is it ... Really?...............................51Chapter 5: What's in it ... Really?.............................83Chapter 6: Hand-in-Hand-in-Hand.................................101Chapter 7: Reflexions...........................................131Chapter 8: From the Access Annals...............................151Chapter 9: On the Medical Horizon...............................191Conclusion......................................................209References......................................................211Recommended Reading & Viewing List..............................217Index...........................................................221

Chapter One

There's No Place Like Home

May 20th. Today is the four-month anniversary of my latest displacement from the house where I pay the mortgage, taxes, utilities, and upkeep. Too bad I can't live there, too! This time the intense trauma of the situation has actually turned some of my hair grey—not noticeable to the casual observer, perhaps, but to me, an inescapable reminder of these past few months of exile and its consequent roller-coaster of emotions.

Since I was pesticide poisoned in Syracuse, NY in August of 1988, I have lived in a church, numerous apartments, a van on the street, on friends' couches, and, since 2000, in my own house which I have painstakingly modified to accommodate the physical requirements of MCS. I was lucky to find this house after five years of searching. It was the only house which did not cause my face to burn (animal, pesticide reaction), or my throat to swell (chemical reaction), or my lungs and muscles to weaken to the point of non-function (animal, pesticide, smoke, petrochemical reaction). It has no particleboard (formaldehyde glues), plywood (phenols), drywall (chemical adhesives, possible asbestos, mold attractor), or PVC (carcinogenic dioxins). There have been no animals inside for at least 55 years. There is no mold (multi-organ system mycotoxin). There has been no pesticide use inside or out (possible organophosphates such as wrecked my immune system in the original 1988 injury). Such is the running inventory which an MCS-disabled person must tirelessly consider in every aspect of life—whether it be in choosing housing or in planning a trip to the store. If you find the above description to be a bit hypervigilant or even hypochondriacal, 1) you do not suffer from MCS and 2) it's time for some background of the illness.

FACT: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is an acquired disease characterized by recurring multi-symptoms in response to a variety of chemicals at doses below levels assumed to be safe for the general public. The symptoms recur at increasingly lower levels of exposure over time and the numbers of substances which trigger the response increase over time [so-called spreading effect] (Matthews, p. 4).

MCS is also referred to by the following names:

• Environmental Illness (EI)

• Chemical Sensitivity (CS)

• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCSS)

• Environmental/Chemical Hypersensitivity

• Chronic Immune System Activation

• Total Allergy Syndrome

Note to astute MCS supporters and detractors who, for opposing reasons, are screaming, "You left one out!": I purposely do not include the newly- coined name for MCS—a name which was designed to discredit not only MCS patients, but also the physicians who treat them—because I do not want it linked with appropriate MCS monikers. It will make an appearance in a subsequent chapter.

FACT: The symptoms of MCS can be life-threatening on a daily basis and range from general malaise to confusion to extreme muscle weakness to intense pain to vocal cord paralysis to toxic encephalopathy to seizures to autoimmunity.

FACT: The cause of MCS is either a long-term chronic or massive one-time chemical exposure.

FACT: MCS is an illness recognized by and covered under the Social Security Administration, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Housing Act.

Why, you may ask, if we are all exposed to ambient chemicals at similar levels, do some people develop MCS while others do not? The answer to this question begins with an understanding of the body's detoxification process and pathways:

The human body is equipped with many detoxification pathways starting with its first defense and largest organ, the skin. Just as the skin absorbs beneficial substances such as the curative properties of an epsom salts or baking soda bath, it as readily absorbs toxic chemicals which happen to contact it—or worse, are purposely applied to it—such as pesticides, plasticizers, and chemical cleaning agents. Who would purposely apply toxic chemicals to his skin? Anyone who uses the myriad synthetic chemical hygiene, laundry, and cosmetic products which contain proven toxic ingredients. Personally, if I can't safely ingest a product, I don't apply it to my skin or hair, clean with it, or even have it in my house! Remember—the human race did successfully bathe, beautify, and survive for thousands of years before the chemical industry invaded its hygiene routine!

The skin does double duty in that it also provides an exit route for toxins when they are sweated out. Exercise will facilitate this process, as will a sauna regimen (consult your doctor before embarking on any medical regimen). At minimum, the skin should be brushed regularly to maintain its ability to breathe and to stimulate circulation to facilitate the elimination of toxins from the blood. Consider a houseplant with dirty, dusty leaves. It can't breathe! Thus, its processes to maintain life are inhibited. You must gently, carefully, and lovingly wash each leaf. Doesn't your own body deserve at least the same compassion and care?

Other entryways into the body are the respiratory and alimentary pathways. Depending on its mode of entry—absorbed, inhaled, or ingested—a substance then enters either the bloodstream or the gut. In the case of inhalation, the lungs' function is to exchange gases. They absorb oxygen molecules and expel carbon dioxide. Ideally, the red blood cells grab the beneficial oxygen from the inhaled air and transport it throughout the body via the bloodstream to facilitate the astounding array of tasks which the human body performs to sustain life. However, the red blood cells also absorb the molecules of other, similarly-structured gases which are counter-productive to sustaining and maintaining the human body. These are the chemical products of industry which are not only individually toxic but which increase their toxicity synergistically when combined. As Dr. Sherry Rogers points out in reference to this phenomenon, "One plus one does not equal two but more like...