Treatment Options in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Abstract

The essential features of treatment for chemical sensitivity are: 1) Encouraging the provision of clean air, food, water, and surroundings. 2) Identifying substances to which the patient is sensitive, with subsequent a) enhanced avoidance, or b) specific immunotherapy to reduce the patient's reactivity to those substances. 3) Assessing and enhancing the patient's nutritional status to maximize the body's ability to detoxify and to minimize the free-radical production and oxidative stress of xenobiotics. 4) Addressing concurrent problems such as infections, immunosuppression, and other medical conditions in an appropriate fashion. 5) Evaluating the patient's psychologic status and addressing any social and emotional problems in a compassionate manner. The author believes that multiple chemical sensitivity is a real condition with documented physiologic abnormalities. It is not a functional or psychologic illness or a belief system of the patient. Second, this condition is diagnosable and treatable by various means. These treatment options not only make common sense but usually result in significant improvement for these unfortunate patients, who deserve the very best efforts of their health care providers.

Multiple chemical sensitivity and idiopathic environmental intolerance (part one)

“…First, physicians who specialize in MCS/IEI often recommend chemical avoidance (74,114,115). Patients comply with medical advice to improve their physical health and reduce sources of illness reactions.…”

Idiopathic environmental intolerances (formerly multiple chemical sensitivity) psychiatric perspectives

“…Subjective complaints indicate an intolerance of the concerned food. Correspondingly, sublingual, inhalation, or intracutaneous provocation and neutralization tests' are performed [72,73] as well as special laboratory tests such as the count of lymphocyte subsets, circulating antibodies, immune complexes or complement in blood samples [44,74]. Many of these diagnostic methods have no clear diagnostic value and have not been examined scienti®cally [75,76].…”

“…For example, special rotational diets [71,72,102,109] are performed in order to prevent a one-sided`overload' of the body with potentially pernicious substances. The avoidance of harmful chemicals identi®ed by diverse testing procedures plays a central role [72,110]. Avoidance strategies range from the use of respirators to the construction of`chemically safe' housing and`biological' diet to moving to an`intact' environment.…”

The role of nutrition in mitigating environmental insults: policy and ethical issues.

“…Some papers have begun to surface in the proceedings of symposia regarding nutritional approaches to the treatment of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome (20,21); however, neither laboratory studies nor well-designed clinical controlled trials exist to back up these assertions, and multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome itself remains a poorly defined disorder with no well-established pathophysiology.…”