Food and chemical sensitivities

The clinical ecologist found that I had many food and chemical sensitivities. My lowest point came after I started a desensitization treatment program, because that is when I became the most hypersensitive. Science fiction is what it was like. Things got really bizarre. I couldn t have contact with people. I had to be sort of quarantined. At one point I couldn t go into the grocery store because all I d smell was the cleaners. My partner, Mark, couldn t even cook for a long time because of the reactions I d get from the food smells. So there were a lot of inconveniences. 

Environmentally induced disease Environment-related malabsorption Food and chemical sensitivities Idiopathic environmental intolerance... 

Processes where direct vaporization is used for concentration or drying of heat-sensitive foods and chemicals, where, besides elimination of the heat exchanger, preservation of the product quahty is an important advantage,... 

When I went to him, it was a real eye-opener. I saw what happened to other people in the testing room and I saw what happened to me. I learned that I had both food sensitivities and chemical sensitivities. 

Basketter, D.A., Lea, L.J., Cooper, K., Stocks, J., Dickens, A., Pate, I., Dearman, R.J. and Kimber, I. (1999) Threshold for classification as a skin sensitizer in the local lymph node assay a statistical evaluation. Food and Chemical Toxicologf An International Journal Published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association, 37, 1167-1174. 

Kruizinga, A.G., Briggs, D., Crevel, A., Knulst, A., Van den Bosch, L., and Houben, G.F. 2008. Probabilistic risk assessment model for allergens in food Sensitivity analysis of the minimum eliciting dose and food consumption. Food and Chemical Toxicology 46(5) 1437-1443 doi 10.1016/j.fct.09.109. 

Preservation of food and chemicals in transit. Food products and chemicals which are sensitive to atmospheric environments may be transported and preserved indefinitely by low temperature refrigeration. The cold gas system can be used economically for maintaining low temperature atmospheres for ship transport and overland carrier installations. ... 

Canthaxanthin crystallines from various solvents as brownish violet, shiny leaves that melt with decomposition at 210°C. As is the case with carotenoids in general, the crystals are sensitive to light and oxygen and, when heated in solution or exposed to ultraviolet light or iodine, form a mixture of cis and trans stereoisomers. Consequentiy, crystalline canthaxanthin should be stored under inert gas at low temperatures. Unlike the carotenoid colorants P-carotene and P-apo-8 -carotenal, canthaxanthin has no vitamin A activity. It is chemically stable at pH 2—8 (the range normally encountered in foods) and unaffected by heat in systems with a minimal oxygen content. 

What has become an even greater concern in recent years is the phenomenon known as multiple chemical sensitivity disorder triggered by exposures to many chemicals in the environment. Synthetic chemicals are all around us. They are in the products we use, in the clothes we wear, in the food we eat, in the air we breathe at work. Because chemicals are everywhere in the environment, it is not possible to escape exposure. For this reason many people have become sensitized to the chemicals around them. In fact, it is estimated that 15% of the population has become sensitized to common household and commercial products. For some people the sensitization is not too serious a problem. They may have what appears to be a minor allergy to one or more chemicals. Other people are much more seriously affected. They may feel tired all the time, and suffer from mental confusion, breathing problems, sore muscles, and a weakened immune system. Such people suffer from a condition known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). 

Food products are systematically checked for safety indicators, including pesticides contents and chemical compounds. For this procedure highly sensitive GC and HPLC methods are used. 

Table 5.8 gives an indication of the range of elements that may be determined. Most procedures will require an analyte concentration of 10-3 mol dm 3 or more, although with special conditions, notably potentiometric end-point detection, the sensitivity may be extended to 1(H mol dm 3. The analysis of mixtures of metal ions necessitates masking and demasking, pH adjustments and selective separation procedures. Areas of application are spread throughout the chemical field from water treatment and the analysis of refined food and petroleum products to the assay of minerals and alloys. Table 5.10 gives some selected examples. 

Multiple chemical sensitivity involves coping with multiple losses. The loss of a safe home is one of the most devastating. Some other common losses touched upon in this collection of stories are selfesteem, relationships, mobility, careers, hobbies, access to public places and community events, transportation, tolerance to foods, and worship services. What I have tried to capture are the strength and grace that come from enduring and mourning these deep losses, and coming out the other side. 

One metabolic specialist I saw looked at my medical records and said, You re not going to find answers. We d spent thousands of dollars and I was still sick. She asked me what I d done that had helped, and I told her I ate organic foods and avoided chemical exposures. She told me to keep doing that, which was amazing to me. I don t usually mention my chemical sensitivities to mainstream doctors. 

I could feel and sense input from all manner of environmental elements and food and so forth. At the time I had no context for what was happening, and felt quite mad. Some of what I considered madness at the time was actually my having been acutely perceptive and acutely accurate about what I felt and sensed. Those of us with chemical and electromagnetic field sensitivities have extra senses. I have no way to accurately describe these to people who have never experienced it. It is a true advantage in many respects, but it s weird being that odd person who can sense trouble—that the power lines are leaking or the gas line is leaking. 

I am still chemically sensitive, and just about any food bothers me to some degree. But I m getting better. 

I ve been unhealthy all of my life but didn t realize I was chemically sensitive until I stopped smoking, in my thirties. Before that I felt so dead tired and sick all the time that I didn t know when I was reacting to chemical exposures. I couldn t understand what was wrong with me. After I quit, when I was around someone smoking a cigarette I felt like someone had stuck a hot poker up my nose. It was extremely painful. Now I have a chronic sinus condition and I am never without pain for one second, and I get sick from exposures to perfume, cleaning products and things like that, and many foods. 

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