Book Review: Strategies for Surviving Chemical Sensitivity: The Basics

By Shannon Morehouse, MA, CHHC

Don’t let the title of this book fool you. While this book does detail basic steps that chemically-sensitive individuals need to take in order to manage their exposure in and out of their homes, this book is a comprehensive guidebook that offers solutions even for those who have been battling chemical sensitivity for decades.

The author, Dr. Mayer, Ph.D., practiced pharmacy throughout his 20s. During that time, he owned two drug stores and numerous dry cleaning stores. He believes that the highly toxic chemicals used in the dry cleaning industry caused him to develop Chemical Sensitivity. After selling his businesses, he went on to earn a doctoral degree in history and a post-doctoral degree in Psychoanalysis. Dr. Mayer truly knows the struggles of the chemically-sensitive individual as he has had the struggles himself. He even had to leave New York City after trying to make four homes safe to dwell in. The strategies that Dr. Mayer, Ph.D lays out in this book are based on the trial and error experiences in successfully managing his own chemical sensitivity as well as experiences he gathered from over 1,000 individuals who responded to the question, “What works?”

Dr. Mayer explains how to find doctors and dentists who understand the needs of those who are chemically sensitive. He also describes various treatment options, including the following:

• Avoidance of Chemicals and Substances that Cause Reactions. According to Mayer, over 94 % of those surveyed felt better by avoiding chemical exposure. He defined avoidance as living in a chemical-free space, working in a chemically-free environment, and eating chemically-free, organic food.

• Clean Air. Many folks found that air filtration helped them.

• Sauna Therapy. Dr. Mayer discusses the option of sauna therapy at many treatment centers in the United States or using a home sauna. He specifies that for those who are sensitive to EMFs, infrared saunas are said to be better.

• Liver Support. According to environmental physicians, self-administered glutathione in conjunction with an assortment of vitamins and minerals, including the Hydroxocobalamin form of B12 can be helpful.

After outlining general treatment options, Dr. Mayer offers helpful suggestions to aid you in every area of your life. He offers hundreds of suggestions on how to avoid exposure in all rooms in your home; these suggestions are nicely bulleted out.

Dr. Mayer’s chapter on personal care products is particularly useful. For soaps, he recommends Magick Botanicals products, among others. He also discusses cosmetics, mentioning facts like black mascara has fewer ingredients than color mascara. He also recommends using apricot kernel oil or almond oil for a moisturizer.

Dr. Mayer’s suggestions extend far beyond your home. He gives you tips on purchasing an automobile, buying a new home, and even reveals exact locales that will be better for those with chemical sensitivities to reside. His chapter on managing chemical sensitivity when traveling is helpful. One recommendation is that if you smell something bothersome, rinse your nose with saline solution. He also recommends taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C to bowel tolerance, wearing a face mask, and keeping yourself hydrated.

In conclusion, you will find this book as useful of a resource as those by Dr. Sherry Rogers. This is a must-read for the chemically-sensitive person and those who love them!

Black Mold Exposure…....It Can Happen To You

A Review of the New DVD Movie by Michael Roland Willams
By Dr. Jen Morganti

This must-see documentary begins with the camera panning through a couple’s sparsely furnished house where every item is covered in plastic. The chairs, the tables, the computer keyboard, and every other item is sealed in plastic and covered in cloth. As the story unfolds, we discover that this almost obsessive sterilization process is absolutely required for this couple to exist in their environment. Any type of slight contamination sends their health into a tailspin, causing anything from skin rash to migraines to vomiting. The couple spends hours washing articles of clothing (especially when they are new), dusting,cleaning, and plastic-wrapping every new item they introduce to the home to prevent off-gassing. They spend an entire weekend tediously wrapping and rewrapping a new couch they bought, but nothing prevents them from having a reaction and they must return it.

Imagine being so sensitive to every odor in household products, food, furniture, clothing, carpet, your car, and even outdoor air, that you become ill to the point of dysfunction. You must isolate yourself from other people because of the products they wear. You are unable to work because your work environment makes you ill; the doctors don’t believe you and neither does your family. This film documents the daily struggles of real people with these extreme sensitivities to everything in their environment, all because they were exposed to high levels of toxic mold.

Mold and fungus are critical to a balanced ecosystem, but overgrowth of mold in living spaces can be inhaled, and over time exposure can cause multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). Molds such as Aspergillus, Fusarium,and Penicillium are some of the offending factors that can be toxic. The symptoms that mold exposure can cause are common and non-specific, such as fatigue, asthma, abdominal pain, dizziness, vomiting, hearing loss, and skin rash.

MCS can be caused by chronic exposure to any kind of toxin, including mold, chemicals, heavy metals, and more. It is not a widely-accepted diagnosis within the medical community, due in part to lack of education in medical school as well as the fact that the American Medical Association hasn’t given it credibility. Some of the doubt continues because patients present a long list of non-specific symptoms and there is no definitive lab test to determine a diagnosis. As a result, a person suffering with MCS symptoms may get passed from doctor to doctor without getting any help. During the course of this unproductive process, people with MCS may instead
become labeled as mentally ill, liars, money grubbers, or whiners. The skeptics may argue, why is it that only some people become ill when living in an environment contaminated by black mold or other toxins, and others have no symptoms at all?

Some researchers believe that genetic susceptibility explains why some people are sensitive and others are not. In this documentary, several experts weigh in, including Dr. William Rae, pioneer of environmental medicine and director of the Environmental Health Center of Dallas. His experience shows that people can recover from MCS, but everyone’s physiology is different, so treatments and successes will vary.

This documentary is valuable to anyone. If you suffer from MCS, it is a great movie to share with friends and family, and if you are healthy, it shows us how we should be both careful and aware about hidden dangers lurking in our environment.