Multiple chemical sensitivities: review

Abstract

Good-quality treatment trials examining psychological/behavioural approaches in the management of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities are urgently needed.

Exposure to negatively charged-particle dominant air-conditions on human lymphocytes in vitro activates immunological responses

“…Due to the increase of airtightness in the living environment, the levels of many chemicals such as aldehydes and VOCs are increasing in room air, and various health impairments such as SBS and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) are resulting (Hodgson, 1989;Crawford and Bolas, 1996;Menzies and Bourbeau, 1997;Labarge and McCaffrey, 2000;Das-Munshi et al, 2007). In Japan, the legal restriction of 13 kinds of chemicals Individual data concerning NK cell cytotoxicity and concentrations of IFN␥, IL-2 and IL-10 in the supernatant of cultures in standard (STD) or negatively charged-particle dominant (NC) incubators were used to obtain the "immuneindex" formula.…”

Diagnostic uncertainty and epistemologic humility

“…These have been called Bsomatization^and later Bsomatic symptoms and related disorders^ [26][27][28][29][30]. These patients may have a variety of syndromes, which have been termed Bfibromyalgia^, Bsystemic exertion intolerance disease^, Bpremenstrual dysphoric disorder^, Btemporomandibular joint disorder^, and Bidiopathic environmental intolerance^ [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. Some of these patients with seemingly unexplained symptoms may eventually evolve to a diagnosable disorder, and some of these may be patients with diseases yet to be identified.…”

Deranged Dimensionality of Vestibular Re-Weighting in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

“…Possible explanations for the rearranged model along vestibular processing and symptoms cohort referred to by MCS patients could be considered to reside within pathophysiological cascades, such as those involving limbic structures in the natural history of MCS [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. According to these notions, repeated exposure to MCS inducing agents were found to provide in MCS subjects both time-dependent sensitization and kindling, especially within hippocampal and limbic areas [65].…”

“…For instance, many studies have tried to find an unifying pathophysiology for all IEIs, focusing on CNS reactions to environmental stimuli, with activation changes of the brain areas related to sensory processing and emotional responses [1,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]41,42]. Since environmental noise has been recognised as an important health quality stressor [43], relevant literature up to now has focused mainly on auditory symptoms [21,22] without highlighting possible vestibular and postural consequences.…”

“…Major criteria to define the clinical spectrum of MCS were introduced by Cullen [4]; however, the discussion on definition and nomenclature reflects the fact that the aetiology of MCS is still unclear and a matter of debate [2,5]. The most frequently discussed aetiologies include neurogenic inflammation [6], classical conditioning [7] and biochemical disruptions [8].…”