October 2005 | Whole Health
Clean Living
Smells Can Make You Sick
by Rebecca Ephraim, RD, CCN
Ever walk into an empty elevator and collide with the overpowering smell of perfume, the lingering residue of a former elevator passenger? Or unwrap the newspaper and have the pervasive odor of a detergent or fabric softener sample hit you before the headlines do?
For a growing number of people, these “emissions of volatile organic compounds” can be a form of torment that throws their bodies into reactive overdrive. One whiff of a chemical cocktail—coming from not only perfumes and detergents, but also construction materials, fabrics, furnishings, cleaners, adhesives, paints, caulks, and paper—can result in a vast array of debilitating symptoms.
Consider Mary, for instance. She was healthy, athletic and worked as a graphic design artist for 20 years. But 13 years ago, at 37, she suddenly developed hypersensitivity to the chemicals she used in her graphics business. Today, her reaction to the thousands of man-made chemicals in our environment is so profound she can’t stand to read a newspaper, due to the chemicals in the ink and bleach in the paper. She immediately becomes ill with burning and tearing eyes, swelling, skin rashes, bleeding sinuses, and respiratory failure.
She ventures outside, hooked to an oxygen tank, only when she must carry out what she calls “activities of daily living,” such as buying groceries or going to the doctor. “It doesn’t matter where you go, because if they freshly waxed the floor, you’re sick. You can go to the bank, and if they just refinished the brass on the outside of the building and you walk by [and smell] the lacquer-thinner solvent, you become sick ... you’ve got to get home and go to bed.”
Hers is not an isolated case. The number of people with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) is growing. And worse, our mainstream medical community, for the most part, doesn’t acknowledge that the condition exists, even though studies consistently indicate that as much as 36 percent of the population may have MCS.
Dr. Marsha Vetter, MD, holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology and is one of the premiere physicians in North America specializing in environmental illness. What Vetter treats are those MCS illnesses that frequently arise from cumulative exposure to the more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals circulating in our environment. Patients who find their way to her suburban Chicago office have generally seen a multitude of other physicians for symptoms. “Multiple chemical sensitivity is a valid illness,” Vetter says. “What tends to happen is that you start out being sensitive to one thing ... such as auto exhaust, diesel fumes, cigarette smoke, and perfumes... and then it [the sensitivity] spreads... and you start becoming sensitive to all sorts of different things.”
As far as treating MCS, Vetter fortifies her patients with a whole-foods diet and various nutritional supplements—particularly those that support liver function. It’s the liver that takes the extreme stress of processing the toxins coming from these chemicals. Interestingly, many MCS patients have difficulty tolerating drugs, so Vetter usually sticks to herbal and nutritional supplements.
She also recommends reducing what is known as “total load.” Total load, she explains, “would be everything your body has to deal with that is putting a burden on the immune and detoxification systems ... [for example] being in places where there is mold, pollen, dust, cigarette smoke, or where there are people wearing perfumes. Do anything you can to lower the total load and then you can handle the chemicals a lot better.”
For more information on chemical sensitivities check out: fpinva.org.
Rebecca Ephraim is a registered dietitian and certified clinical nutritionist.
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