MCS is a lessening of our body’s natural resistance to different substances.  Even the healthiest of people when exposed to a potentially toxic substance will have an adverse reaction if the quantities are large enough. 

 

 

Let’s take a look at the following thought experiment:

 

Envision a hypothetical healthy person who has a resistance to toxicity of 100.  Below a toxic level of 100 our person has no ill effects; their body can deal with what is going on.  Above a toxic level of 100 problems start to arise.  The symptoms of having their toxicity go over a 100 will take different forms depending on what is causing the problem.  Perhaps the result will be an upset stomach, tiredness, difficulty concentrating or maybe even a skin rash.  

 

The toxicity level in our hypothetical person’s body does not have to rise all from the same source.  Perhaps their day to day level is normally 40.  This is due to different background items from their daily lives: 

• +15 from the pollution of the city they live in.
• +10 from their hair care products (gel, scented conditioner, etc…).
• +5 from the polyester pants they are fond of wearing.
• +10 from the scented air freshener they use in their house.

 

Up until this point they have felt no Ill effects and have paid no attention what is going on. 

 

Let’s make this day a little different.  Today they are painting the bathroom, +50 for being exposed to paint fumes.  This brings their toxic total to 90.  They may begin to feel a little ‘out of it’ but no big deal; they expected it from the paint.  Now, on the way to the grocery store after painting, our person’s car develops a leak in the coolant system.  Coolant fumes are getting into to the cab of the car, +50.  This puts the total toxicity in our person to 140.  Our person is now feeling some mental confusion, slightly nauseous and more then a little dizzy.  The coolant or the paint on their own would not have caused a problem, but combined they add to the over all toxicity of the situation and our person became ill.  

 

Those of us with MCS are not too different.  The main distinction is that we no longer have a resistance of 100.  Ours is perhaps only a 20-30. (There are even those of us who for all intents and purposes have a resistance threshold of zero)  This means that our hypothetical person’s normal life would be too much for our system to handle. If we were in their shoes we would feel poorly all of the time. 

 

Of course the above thought experiment is meant to be a metaphor of our condition and not an explanation of MCS’s exact way of working.  The real power in this metaphor is it has allowed me to create a couple of very effective strategies.

 

There are two parts of this metaphor that we have some control over.  The first, and I believe the most powerful for us, is we can lower our background toxicity.  This will keep us from feeling a constant MCS reaction.  Also when something unexpected does happen it will not put our overall bodily toxicity higher then is absolutely necessary.  To use the above metaphor; let’s say your threshold is a 40, the back ground toxicity is a 20, and something unexpected toxic agent comes along and adds another 30.  This would put your total to a 50.  Yes, you would have a MCS reaction but it would only be 10 over your threshold.  If the background items had not been taken care of it might have been 20-40 over the threshold.   I have found from experience that something much like this actually happens.  I would rather experience a lesser MCS reaction that is only 10 above my tolerance level then a severe one that is 40 above*.

 

The fist main strategy I use is to lower my consistent back ground toxicity.  I have found that not only does this lead me to feel good most of the time but also it will lower the severity of the MCS reactions when they do come.

 

The second thing we can do is to raise our tolerance level.  If it is now a 30 then there are things we can do to make it perhaps a 50 or a 60.  Although this second part is what most of us really want, there is a huge pitfall in it.  We miss the dozen or so opportunities we have right now to feel better in favor of a hoped for future that may not come.  Every one who has ever suffered form MCS has had the thought “How do I get rid of this problem and get back to my normal life?”  Since people are creatures of inertia, what we really want is to keep living our lives in the same way we did before the onset of MCS.  What none of us want at first is to change our own behavior. (I will be doing a lot of discussing on how to raise our personal toxicity thresholds later in this blog)

 

Our bodies are now different then they were before.  After the onset of MCS we must change our actions if we are to thrive.  I have experience with many paths that have raised my over all resistance to toxicity.  I believe this is a very important path to follow.  I will talk about this aspect of recovery later on in this blog.  For now I’ll spend a fair amount of time discussing how I interact with different aspects of my environment to lower my immediate exposure.  It is this strategy that creates relief now. 

 

*For the first ten years of having MCS I suffered from constant symptoms.  There was not a time in those years where I felt normal, or even close to it.  I was suffering from a severe MCS reaction all the time.  I would have given anything to have a solution that would have lessened my symptoms.  So for those of us who have a threshold of zero, gaining control of our environment can lead to feeling better, even if feeling perfect is not an option at the moment.  I would always rather experience a milder MCS reaction then a greater one.