If you have extreme chemical sensitivities which change your brain function, or you are the caregiver for such a person, could you please post here?

[Hope4]

Chemical poisoning, also known as chemical sensitivity, can alter brain function, as the chemicals "grab" different nerves.

If this happens to your brain, or to someone you care for, would you be willing to post how you recognize the onset, or upcoming onset, or the "brain hi-jacking"?

When it happens, how do you deal with it? How do you recover from it?

Are you able to prevent this brain hi-jacking?
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If you are the caregiver:

What have you found helps you to recognize the soon-to-happen brain hi-jacking? How do you help the person you are caring for?

Thanks very much.

 

[Shoshana]

I, myself, find this very difficult to live with. I am not able right now to elaborate on it, but will try to, during the next few days.
Thank you for asking, @Hope4

 

[outdamnspot]

I suffer from this. I currently live at home with 4 other people who aren't sensitive to the condition. What I've noticed is that my brain will often become hypervigilant/switch to 'high alert mode' before I even recognize the offending scent, which tells me the reactions are real (I used to worry it was a kind of placebo); so I may be sitting in my room, minding my own business on my laptop, and then out of nowhere my brain darts to attention; several seconds later, I'll realize someone has sprayed cologne, or air freshener etc.

I have frequent ice showers throughout the day for my fatigue and anxiety, and sometimes these can help ease the reactions too.

 

[andyguitar]

I used to be a part-time paid helper for someone with severe ME. They had multiple chemical sensitivities and bad reactions to light, noise and smells. I never found a way of stopping the reactions. So have to say that avoidance is the best way of dealing with it. But something of interest is the fact that these sort of sensitivities are common in Migraine. So if you get those a successful treatment for that it might reduce the sensitive reactions.

 

[Hope4]

I, myself, find this very difficult to live with. I am not able right now to elaborate on it, but will try to, during the next few days.
Thank you for asking, @Hope4

Shoshana, thanks. . I will enjoy your post.

I suffer from this. I currently live at home with 4 other people who aren't sensitive to the condition....

ODS, . I'm sorry you are in that situation. Avoidance of volatile oil compounds is vital. I am sending you good thoughts. Thanks for the cold shower idea. Showers help me, but they aren't possible for the person I'm helping.

...multiple chemical sensitivities and bad reactions to light, noise and smells. I never found a way of stopping the reactions. ...But something of interest is the fact that these sort of sensitivities are common in Migraine. So if you get those a successful treatment for that it might reduce the sensitive reactions.

Andyguitar, thanks for reminding me about the migraine symptoms, and for your kind thoughts.

====

There is an actual chemical hi-jacking that occurs in chemical poisoning. When a needle gets stuck on a record, it can't get out of the groove. When the chemicals grab the nerve synapses, the person can only wait for the chemical grabbing to fade away.

The people I know who have this happen to them, say that they cannot control it. They just have to wait until it subsides. These people have such extreme MCS/CI and multi-sensory sensitivity that they are shut-ins.

Once in a while, I am able to do something that gets that "needle out of the groove", but the ability to make the change seems to depend on the severity of the chemical "hi-jacking". The chemical "hi-jackings" change a person's way of speaking, his or her emotional reactions, and preempts the ability to control oneself in many ways. It is an extreme reaction. To me, it looks as severe as someone having spasms or a small seizure.

In this video about chemical poisoning, which is politely named chemical sensitivity, there is a section from 16:09, for almost three minutes, of a woman who has extreme neurological symptoms from chemical poisoning. The first time I saw this video, and saw this woman, it really woke me up to the extent to which everyday poisons could ruin someone's life.

Albert Donnay, the toxicologist, has said that there is nothing to do but wait for the "grabbing" of the chemical to subside. His website is: http://www.mcsrr.org


I am hoping, firmly, to find a way to do things, pouring in love, which will "derail" or bypass those chemical grabbings.

 

[btdt]

I have it and there are some things I found helpful.
Baking soda bath or shower... sometimes if I am sweating out crap and too sick to do bath ect I will put the baking soda directly on the sweating parts will drink some in water too.
Epson salt baths if the person can't do that soak the feet less helpful but better then nothing.
It can affect every part of my body including my brain emotions reactions ect. there is no part of me it cannot alter and derail.
There are a ton of different things I have tried... the most extreme was coffee enemas from book by dr sherry rogers. I did them daily for a time and it did improve my health.
Not feeling so hot now... soap is important I use nature clean for body and same brand of shampoo if I am unwell I mix both with baking soda if I am really unwell I use baking soda alone. water is important as clean as you can get shower filters help some .
get the book I think it was called detox or die... I read most of her books so I can't be sure.
it is important to address diet ect
get the best cleanest epson salts you can find

 

[Albert Donnay]

Albert Donnay, the toxicologist, has said that there is nothing to do but wait for the "grabbing" of the chemical to subside. His website is: http://www.mcsrr.org

I am hoping, firmly, to find a way to do things, pouring in love, which will "derail" or bypass those chemical grabbings.

Hi Hope4,

I don't remember saying there is nothing to do but wait. If I did, I no longer believe it in 2023.

Depending on the chemical, there are ways to derail or bypass those "chemical grabbings" -- so you don't just have to wait.

You can release carbon monoxide from the hemoglobin to which it binds, for example, using red light therapy with 630 or 660 nm LEDs or (better) Chip-on-Boards (both available at very low cost in bicycle tail lights). These do not get hot and so the USA FDA does not regulate them as it does hot laser devices. (recommended limit for all applications of LED or COB directly against your skin is 20 minutes per area per day)

If you search for red light therapy devices online you will see claims that red light can boost hair growth, pain relief, wrinkle reduction, athletic performance, and wound healing, all of which are true in my personal experience. For people with ME/CFS, they are great for relieving sore throats and headaches.

 

[salray]

Hi Hope4,

I don't remember saying there is nothing to do but wait. If I did, I no longer believe it in 2023.

Depending on the chemical, there are ways to derail or bypass those "chemical grabbings" -- so you don't just have to wait.

You can release carbon monoxide from the hemoglobin to which it binds, for example, using red light therapy with 630 or 660 nm LEDs or (better) Chip-on-Boards (both available at very low cost in bicycle tail lights). These do not get hot and so the USA FDA does not regulate them as it does hot laser devices. (recommended limit for all applications of LED or COB directly against your skin is 20 minutes per area per day)

If you search for red light therapy devices online you will see claims that red light can boost hair growth, pain relief, wrinkle reduction, athletic performance, and wound healing, all of which are true in my personal experience. For people with ME/CFS, they are great for relieving sore throats and headaches.

Is red light therapy safe for people with Lupus?

 

[Judee]

What about swollen brain? I had a roofing estimate done yesterday and the guy's cologne is still lingering in my living room. I think my brain actually swells with exposure.

630 or 660 nm LEDs or (better) Chip-on-Boards (both available at very low cost in bicycle tail lights)

Can you link an example so we know what we're looking for?

Will that turn off the reaction/swollen brain to the cologne? When you say 20 minutes per area do you mean for instance in my case I would put it against my neck and skull for that amount of time?

 

[Dysfunkion]

One of the first things you'll notice with me when I've been overexposed is I get very anxious, can't concentrate, lose all social skills, my mind blanks out on me and finding words gets really bad I get very twitchy, my ability to speak and form words gets harder. body temperature regulation goes out the window, brain feels swollen somehow, face begins to burn/sting/feel icy (it can switch around a bit), and I get this weird impending doom feeling, though in a really bad situation my mood can actually go all over the place. I guess it depends on what it was I was exposed to and what it does to the neurotransmitters. Essential oils for example as opposed to just perfume cause pretty distinct reactions that are different flavors of the same thing.

Mold is certainly among the worst for me, I can't rent out anything from the library because of it. Essentially if I want to read I'm stuck with brand new books as I can't use a Kindle or anything due to my EMF sensitivity. I remember one of my worst mold disasters that happened a couple years ago not knowing how bad library books can be. I rented out something and decided to take it with me and read while I was waiting to go into work one morning. I got it on the floor with all the older books in the archive that had some of the nastiest damage but the one I had only looked fine. As I read by the minutes I was getting more and more anxious and brain foggy, then my face around 15 minutes into reading started feeling burny and strange, and then I got slammed with the worst blank brain feeling I had in months followed by this feeling of sheer terror, and my body got so tense that I was moving like a robot. I managed to mask it just enough to get through the day but interacting with people was insanely difficult and the symptoms with me on the outside from exposures like that look like a TBI and people tend to think it's some strictly mental disorder (though it does obviously massacre my brain, one of the worst parts of it). Though if I'm not exposed for long enough to a bare minimum of triggers then I am a brand new person. I'll have one day or work like that and a couple days later appear completely normal. The personality and mental capability changes from the exposures in general are drastic.

 

[DonPepe]

One of the first things you'll notice with me when I've been overexposed is I get very anxious, can't concentrate, lose all social skills, my mind blanks out on me and finding words gets really bad I get very twitchy, my ability to speak and form words gets harder. body temperature regulation goes out the window, brain feels swollen somehow, face begins to burn/sting/feel icy (it can switch around a bit), and I get this weird impending doom feeling, though in a really bad situation my mood can actually go all over the place. I guess it depends on what it was I was exposed to and what it does to the neurotransmitters. Essential oils for example as opposed to just perfume cause pretty distinct reactions that are different flavors of the same thing.

Mold is certainly among the worst for me, I can't rent out anything from the library because of it. Essentially if I want to read I'm stuck with brand new books as I can't use a Kindle or anything due to my EMF sensitivity. I remember one of my worst mold disasters that happened a couple years ago not knowing how bad library books can be. I rented out something and decided to take it with me and read while I was waiting to go into work one morning. I got it on the floor with all the older books in the archive that had some of the nastiest damage but the one I had only looked fine. As I read by the minutes I was getting more and more anxious and brain foggy, then my face around 15 minutes into reading started feeling burny and strange, and then I got slammed with the worst blank brain feeling I had in months followed by this feeling of sheer terror, and my body got so tense that I was moving like a robot. I managed to mask it just enough to get through the day but interacting with people was insanely difficult and the symptoms with me on the outside from exposures like that look like a TBI and people tend to think it's some strictly mental disorder (though it does obviously massacre my brain, one of the worst parts of it). Though if I'm not exposed for long enough to a bare minimum of triggers then I am a brand new person. I'll have one day or work like that and a couple days later appear completely normal. The personality and mental capability changes from the exposures in general are drastic.

I have exactly response to chemical triggers. I lose my train of thought mid sentence and it can be very embarrassing. And it’s getting worse not better.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I have exactly response to chemical triggers. I lose my train of thought mid sentence and it can be very embarrassing. And it’s getting worse not better.

At least at home I can avoid most chemical triggers my EMF sensitivity is what wrecks my life much more since everything depends on technology and I need to live in the past and heavily shield what I do use. Pretty much nothing I have ever done touches it. Were you exposed to mold or some specific toxin at some point that you can remember when this started happening to you?

 

[DonPepe]

At least at home I can avoid most chemical triggers my EMF sensitivity is what wrecks my life much more since everything depends on technology and I need to live in the past and heavily shield what I do use. Pretty much nothing I have ever done touches it. Were you exposed to mold or some specific toxin at some point that you can remember when this started happening to you?

Im going to see if I can source some diquafosol from Japan. It’s a Japanese medicine that I think may be able to block the cell danger response. It’s a long shot but it may be worth looking into.

 

[cristi_b]

I have done an exploratory allergy test for 295 allergens and they didn't find anything that would explain my symptoms, so I'm left to struggle with the "chemical sensitivities" since I can't find the cause.

I recently came across this paper about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity that talks about an interesting theory about how people develop such "allergies": chemicals causing NMDA receptors to go haywire and lead to Peroxynitrite production which causes lots of sensitivities to chemicals. They also talk about a simple fix for it, that was discovered by some doctors: a cough medicine called Dextromethorphan. Has anyone tried it?

 

[DonPepe]

I have done an exploratory allergy test for 295 allergens and they didn't find anything that would explain my symptoms, so I'm left to struggle with the "chemical sensitivities" since I can't find the cause.

I recently came across this paper about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity that talks about an interesting theory about how people develop such "allergies": chemicals causing NMDA receptors to go haywire and lead to Peroxynitrite production which causes lots of sensitivities to chemicals. They also talk about a simple fix for it, that was discovered by some doctors: a cough medicine called Dextromethorphan. Has anyone tried it?

Yes I’ve tried it. It benefits some people I believe. But not me.

 

[hapl808]

They also talk about a simple fix for it, that was discovered by some doctors: a cough medicine called Dextromethorphan. Has anyone tried it?

I tried it, but I think more for PEM than for MCS symptoms. I didn't notice much beyond improving cough.