The husband and wife team had gotten me to a point where change seemed possible, and in the next year a lot of change would happen.  This was one of the several occurrences that helped trigger that change.

 

One of the most important secrets in managing Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) triggers was told to me while shopping for a futon.  There is a store in Seattle that sells futons and other bedding made completely form organically grown materials.  I was talking to the sales woman about what I was looking for and why.  In the conversation she told me that the best way to strip any contaminates from clothing was to wash cloths with ¼ cup of Borax and ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar along with a natural liquid laundry detergent.  Not only did I walk away with a new bed that day, I would soon discover that I had received something far more valuable in the transaction.  I had been told how to render almost any cotton clothing wearable.

 

For the vast majority of us who live in North America constant nudity is not an option.  Whether it be from local cultural norms, harsh climate or just our own personal upbringing we all find ourselves having to wear cloths most of the time.  From an MCS perspective this can be a huge challenge.  Since the our cloths come with us everywhere we go we run the risk of bringing MCS triggers with us into every environment we go to.  One of the greatest advantages I have learned is to making sure this does not happen. 

 

Clothing that is bought ‘off the rack’ often is full of harsh MCS triggers.  Whether it be what the clothing is made of, how the fabric was processed, what the clothing was shipped next to and perhaps worst of all the ‘sizing’ chemicals that the clothing is finished with to make it look good at the store.  All of these can cause terrible MCS reactions. 

 

One of the first things I learned around this time was to buy only cloths made from all natural fabrics.  I prefer organic cotton when possible but just about any all cotton clothing usually works.  Many people prefer hemp and linen but I have had only limited success with them.  I have had about a 50/50 track record with wool and no real success with silk.  I became an astute label reader.  I was amazed at the number of products advertising that they were made with organic cotton only to read the label and find they were also made with Spandex, polyester, Dacron or any other number of things that rendered the organic cotton worse than useless.  I was very happy to discover that, for me, Nylon in small quantities did not present and MCS trigger.

 

I began to buy many cloths form used shops.  Not only were these cloths often well ‘aired out’ but they were also inexpensive.  When I would buy cloths many of them did not work out.  It was always better to donate a $5 pair of pants that did not work out instead of a $50 pair.  Thankfully now days there are a huge amount of 100% organic cotton clothing available online and at many local retailers such as American Apparel.  This makes new clothing a much better option than it was only ten or so years ago.

 

After I brought these cloths home I still had to ‘process’ them.  This consists of washing each article in the above mentioned Borax / Apple Cider Vinegar mixture.  I learned that washing most cloths this way two to five times would wash out any MCS triggers that may have gotten into the fabric.  A world of clothing options had opened up to me.

 

There is one more step to doing laundry this way.  A trick a friend taught me some years before when I was stuck with out detergent was to wash a load of laundry with 8-12oz of Baking Soda and an equal amount of Lemon Juice.  This will get your cloths just as clean as detergent without any toxic residue.  The only trick to this is to make sure the lemon juice and the baking soda do not mix right off the bat.  The real action of them works when they mix in the wash cycle.  Put one on one side and the other on the other.  After doing any load of laundry with the Borax and apple cider vinegar wash them again with the baking soda lemon juice combo.  Even now when doing laundry at home I’ll do one ‘processing’ lode then re-wash the same clothing with the baking soda and lemon juice.  I have had almost no problems with my clothing since I started this habbit.

 

Knowing what cloths to wear, how to process them and how to properly clean them has done as much for me in recovering from MCS as any other discovery.  With the health improvements I had gained from the husband and wife team and knowing what to do with my cloths, I actually began to feel good most of the time.  It became increasing obvious when there was something in my environment that was triggering an MCS reaction. This awareness  armed me with knowledge on how to avoid the trigger.  In many ways avoiding MCS triggers is one of the keys to real thriving.