Environmental detox tips
ETA: I will keep working on this post, and maybe move it to another thread, over the coming weeks, because this whole thread has opened up a lot for me and I have been meaning to write about this for a long time...instead of getting sucked into pointless, draining arguments...:Retro smile:
Thanks very much for that Diesel. We must all get together and I feel very confident we can help each other
a lot. There is a lot you can do about mold but it is quite hard. Since you have the brain fog now I feel very sympathetic, so I'll post some suggestions, I hope you will be able to read them soon and find something here that helps you. I know this is going to be a long, hard post to read, but I hope it will be worth it for some people. I'm really looking forward to hearing whether you think all this makes sense for you as well.
Remember: this is just my experience, but I really hope this works for you too:
ETA: I should mention that many of the ideas here are based on Dr Myhill's protocols and in particular the book 'Detoxify or Die' which I recommend. I took the ideas that seemed relevant to me. It's not possible to do everything, just do what you can, and keep trying things. Try all the cheap or free things first, of course!
- You need to find a "safe haven". Somewhere you can sit, lie, be comfortable, where there is no itching. Then you can sleep, and then you can begin to recover. One really good night's sleep, and the brain fog can be over.
But this is
really hard to achieve.
- All the time I am in contact with something that makes me itch/burn/tingle, I am getting worse. It's crucial to stop everything and keep changing everything you can until the itching/burning stops. Zero tolerance. All the time you are getting worse, you are going down a hole, deeper and deeper. When you are not itching/burning you are going very slowly uphill.
- A Tai Chi master said: doing the Tai Chi is like laying down sheets of paper. Every day you lay an extra sheet of paper down. After some years, the pile of paper is high enough to make a difference. This is not easy!
- The slightest bit of mold on my skin puts me into "sensitive mode". In that state, I itch all the time. If you are itching, or feeling bad, you have to drop everything and work at changing anything you can to get out of the itching state. In the itching state, you will just get worse and worse.
- I think sleep meds are a very bad idea in the long run. They allow you to stay in contact with things that are making you worse - especially bad when you are sleeping and vulnerable. They take away the feedback you need to understand what is happening. They also have lots of other side-effects. I understand why the seem necessary, maybe sometimes they are essential in certain circumstances, but I really think that in the long term, they are a bad idea. You need enormous discipline to get out of the hole.
- For about one or two years, my safe haven was to sleep completely naked on a semi-aniline (chemical free) leather sofa. Heating bills were enormous, the sofa was very expensive too. Yes, I sweated, and stuck to the sofa! I had to tune the heating exactly right. But any clothes on my skin made me itch too much to sleep. I still can't tolerate pillows or cushions.
- lying in a bath might work. I find I am OK in a hot bath (many people are not). So I spend about an hour or two a day in a bath, which is great for reducing the itching.
- If you have any fungal infections on your skin, nails, etc, you need to get them sorted out. Your doctor should be able to help with that, but it probably takes at least 6 months.
- It is really, really hard to spot what it is on my skin that is causing the over-sensitivity reaction. The wrong pair of socks can make be very sensitive - but the itching from that is all over, not just on my feet, in fact maybe not on my feet at all. That discovery was crucial. I spent hours and hours every day changing clothes again and again, checking myself to see what was better, and I still have to keep buying new clothes. A new set every month. Cheap, though, these days. I found that actually the chemical problems with clothes aren't so crucial for me. You need to find cheap clothes that are OK for you; lots of experimenting needed. Even then, sometimes I buy a set of 5 pairs of socks and only 3 are wearable. It's tough. I block it out of my mind, accept it, and move on. Because I can do nothing else if I am going to get better.
- It might be impossible to do everything above without first doing a full detox first, so you are desensitised enough to spot the triggers. I spent a year changing everything I could think of. Natural, healthy, organic diet. Far Infra Red Sauna was crucial I think (they are actually not too expensive: I recommend buying one: I think you sweat out the mold trapped inside your body, not just the toxins). I also took Dr Myhill's supplement regime in that year. I think it helped but I don't know for sure what made the difference because I did a lot of things.
Avoiding things that make me itch has always seemed the most effective thing.
- I also had to cut out lots of other things that I tested sensitive to (with Biolab UK): flame retardants, chemicals in cleaning products, most importantly
washing powder (I use a washing ball).
- I also tested (through Allergy UK) for my 'allergies/sensitivities'. That found the mold sensitivities, and lots of food sensitivities too. I cut everything out and I got a lot better; my gut problems improved a lot. Food sensitivities are probably important as well. These tests - of course - are not recognised by the authorities. Just Ignore Them! Learning to trust yourself, not them, is crucial for everyone. Just use them for the few things they are useful for, like anti-fungal meds and help with well-known secondary and tertiary symptoms.
- I find fasting very helpful. Sometimes I eat almost nothing for a few days, and I always feel much better for it. I had a big swollen stomach, but when I got that down, things were much better. Wheat/gluten is very bad for me. If you have IBS symptoms too then experimenting with food is probably crucial.
- Keeping a bit of a diary might be helpful. Not like a 'CBT/pacing' diary, but your personal record to see what works. It takes time though, so just try it occasionally.
- If you are sensitive to environmental toxins in general, you need to stay in your 'safe haven' as much as possible. I work from home now, my employer was very helpful with this. I know I am very lucky. For a year or two, I rarely left the house.
-
CRUCIAL: Air Filter. Dehumidifier ideally. Attack all the mold and fungus in your home. Get somebody else to do it because doing it yourself, and dusting, will also make you ill, so you can never escape the trap. Also, make sure there is never condensation on the windows. Open them if there is, or mold will spread. I open the windows during the middle of the day, but early evening I close them because spores can get in. The air circulation I have is worse than most people would like, but for me, blocking out spores and environmental factors is more important.
- I have found leather/silk lining to be a very good insulator. I sit on my leather jacket when I have to sit on a fabric chair. I expect mold doesn't stick to leather, or something.
- You need to find help and support, it is almost impossible to do all this on your own. One thing I did was have a very open and honest conversation with my Dad, and I begged him to reserve a week to work with me. I phoned him every day for a week and updated him with my latest experience, and let him tell me what to do. I followed his instructions exactly. He gave me calm, common sense advice. It didn't work, of course. I bought new sheets (bedding) every day, bought a tumble drier, various suggestions. Every day that week I updated him with my progress, and did what he said. By the end of the week, I was quite a bit worse - but he was at his wit's end! But he
finally understood my reality! Now he was ready to work with me and help me. I think people have to stand beside you, and you have to try out their ideas, and be open and honest, before they can really understand. Then you have the ally you need.
All this is what I did, and I don't know which was irrelevant and which was crucial. I suspect you need to do nearly everything, but I also think by far the most crucial is avoiding skin contact with whatever it is that's causing this problem. I still don't know for sure if it is mold, or my own dead skin cells, or something else on my clothes. But after I wear something, or sleep in something, for 3 days, it becomes "infected" and after that it makes me sensitive. If I went on holiday (I don't) I would sleep in a different bed every night, and the ones that make me itch, I know straight away, and I would get the room changed, and keep trying until I found a bed I could bear.
All the above is expensive, time-consuming, and very, very frustrating, of course. I think you need to be very dedicated to this sort of programme for it to work. However, this was just my own, personal path. Probably much of what I did was irrelevant. I think we can probably find a quicker and easier way, together. I really hope so. But for now, I just hope there is something in there that provides gradual relief and improvement.
Listen to your body, notice when things are OK, notice when they get worse, and then change everything until things improve and work out what it was that caused a problem. Remember: our reality is crazy, not us! Your crazy ideas and intuitions - turns out they are right. Learn to trust them.
And remember: that's all just my experience. I really hope it works for you, but of course you may have a completely different reality. Find your own path and see what works for you.
Mark