> Environmental and Health Concerns > Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)

Treating Toxic Bodies With Environmental Medicine
by author Jozef Krop, MD

The scientific and medical world of the 19th and 20th centuries was dominated by the germ theory. The present century is dominated by chemicals and toxins.

The global increase of chemicals is staggering. In the United States alone, synthetic organic chemical production rose from a few billion pounds a year in 1945 to 163 billion pounds a year in 1985. Chlorine production rose from three to 12 billion pounds a year between 1930 and 1985. These chemicals include all known PCBs, DDTs, 2, 4-Ds, polyvinyl chloride, gasoline byproducts and heavy metals such as lead, aluminum, cadmium and mercury.

The chemicals in our food chain, air and water are responsible for the genetic changes that make micro-organisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi) more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. Contamination of the environment causes a decrease in beneficial soil organisms, creating an imbalance between beneficial and pathological organisms. Similarly, toxins and antibiotics penetrate the human body through the food chain and damage beneficial gut bacteria, upsetting the body’s balance and further destabilizing bodily functions.

Acid rain, toxins, poor farming practices, food processing, transportation and lengthy food storage all decrease nutrient content. This disturbs our metabolism and shocks our very genetic code, which tries to build cells from deficient raw material (nutrients) and in turn creates weaker and more vulnerable future generations.

The first medical and scientific description of an adverse reaction to low levels of chemicals was made in 1950 by Theron Randolph, MD, today considered the father of clinical ecology or environmental medicine (EM). He described a woman reacting to the natural gas burned in her own home. Since then the number of individuals adversely affected by chemicals has grown, as well as the number of physicians interested in environmental factors.
The frequency of chemically sensitive individuals varies from 16 to 34 percent in various investigative studies carried out in the United States. In Canada, one in 80 adults is affected and one in 50 can’t work because of environmental illness (EI).

These patients generally have multi-system disorder complaints including asthma and recurrent respiratory tract infections. The most common symptoms relate to the central nervous system (CNS), including tiredness or lethargy lasting longer than six months, mental difficulties, dizziness, depressed feelings, tension, nervousness, migraines, seizures and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Many patients suffer from muscle and joint pain, chest tightness, arrhythmia, hypo/hypertension and Raynaud’s phenomenon. Most patients report an intolerance or sensitivity to common chemicals such as paints, perfumes, cleaning products, pesticides, tobacco smoke, gasoline and auto exhaust. They also increasingly react to chemicals, foods, inhalants (grasses, trees, moulds) and prescribed medications.

Over the years many different names have been given to this disorder: multiple chemical sensitivity, universal allergy, 20th-century illness, cerebral allergy, and food and chemical sensitivities. Two other distinctive disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, have also been recognized by medical academia. Both share a large number of similarities to chemical sensitivity. In fact, these may all be different manifestations of the same problem, but chemical sensitivity is still considered by many to be of psychological origin. This is no surprise since a well-oiled propaganda machine constantly ensures us that chemicals, when "used as directed," are safe and only benefit us.

Environmental Medicine Model

It seems obvious that in order to help patients with environmental illness, an allopathic approach using drugs or psychiatry is not likely to work. Allopathic doctors focus on the body, with diagnosis based on laboratory and clinical findings. End-organ damage must be present. In contrast, in environmental medicine, the patient’s history and diagnosis is considered in relation to symptoms from chemical, inhalant and food exposures, testing by avoidance and re-exposure, as well as sublingual, skin or electrodermal testing. A case history generally reveals a major high or a chronic low-level exposure to chemicals. Diagnosis is made prior to end-organ damage.

Allopathic doctors focus on malfunctioning body parts. A patient becomes forced to limit complaints to a medical specialist’s organ of interest, as if there were no connection between various symptoms. Environmental medicine focuses on a patient’s chemical and inhalant exposures and dietary habits: the patient’s environment is sick. The concept of specialization is limited because chemical exposure may provoke symptoms in many organs simultaneously.

Allopathic medicine generally limits its inquiry regarding chemical or dietary effects on illness. Environmental medicine reviews all body systems and searches for environmental contributors to the patient’s illness. Diet and the effect of individual foods on symptoms are carefully analysed.

Treatment Approaches

Allopathic therapies are limited to drugs, surgery and psychotherapy. In environmental medicine, patients are treated by avoidance of toxic chemicals and problem-causing foods; neutralization of symptoms by giving small doses of incipients; nutritional supplementation of tolerated nutrients by oral and intravenous routes; detoxification through intravenous administration of nutrients and chelating agents; and the use of sauna. Environmental medicine prescribes organically grown food, teaches lifestyle changes, and rotation and elimination diets. Environmental medicine corrects dysbiosis and treats the patient as a whole, body and psyche. Use of amino acids as precursors of neurotransmitters are often given to stabilize CNS functions. Natural hormones are offered to women and men to help restore homeostatic and physiological function and balance.

All conventional medicines perpetuate and increase the number of chemically sick patients since most drugs pollute the internal environment of the patient. Environmental medicine, by defining the cause of sickness, is preventive and cost-effective. Creating a safe indoor and outdoor environment in agriculture, industry, business, homes and schools will create the basis for a healthy society.

For more info and links, visit www.aaem.com.

Jozef Krop, MD, has integrated complementary medicine into his practice for more than 24 years. A fellow of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and member of the Canadian Complementary Medical Association, he is a physician in Mississauga, Ont.

Source: alive #231, January 2002