Chemicals, fragrances, and your health

[Jaltus-bot]

I did a speech on this a little while back that didn't go so great, but what I later wrote about it in one of my blogs is good information.

Do you ever buy products listing chemicals or fragrances? Those are affecting your health. Every time you are exposed to smog, car exhaust, fragranced products, etc., those chemicals create stress in your body which is forced to respond to it. For a while, your body may be able to respond simply with “adaptation.” The effects of stressors, including chemicals can build up to such a level over time that your body cannot adapt to it and your body will react. If a significant source or the stress that your body is adapting to is from a chemical or chemicals, your body will react to that chemical or those chemicals. The point where your body has been exposed enough to react is known as “total load.” The reaction doesn’t have to be a big dramatic reaction to be a chemical reaction like this. It could be a simple stuffy nose, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, head aches, peculiar body sensations, depression, dyscalculia, impaired abstract reasoning, difficulty breathing, etc. Reactions may have different symptoms with different people or with different chemicals.

Once your body has reacted in to a chemical, you are sensitized to the chemical. This means that you are chemically intolerant to the chemical to which you reacted. This is not an allergy because there is no histamine involved in the reaction. In fact, allergists have along with others spent years baffled by how this reaction occurs. It is not simply a psychological matter because we are biochemical beings affected by the chemicals around us. Repeated exposure will result in greater sensitivity to the chemical. The degree of reaction may grow and the amount of exposure over a period of time needed to cause a reaction may cause a reaction may decrease. Certain chemicals are sensitizers, meaning they break down barriers to being sensitive to other chemicals.

A study be USC comparing two groups of people, one that knew they were chemically sensitive and one that didn’t think they were chemically sensitive, found that a surprising amount of those who did not think they were sensitive actually were sensitive.

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a recognized toxic injury that even inhibits some from working. There are places and instances where parts of the government have acknowledged it, but it has been a hard fight for people with MCS because of the complexity of their illness. There are people taking at least 5 prescription medicines several times a day and pray that their insurance covers their medicine when their doctors change the medicines that they are taking.

Chemical injury like this does not come only from acute exposure but also from low level long term exposure. This is part of why there are over 17 million asthmatics in this country. I have had asthma ever since I was young, we had no air-conditioning, and the smog was three times what it is now where we live.

[I want my children to grow up without asthma. I want there to be fewer people who have to go to the hospital because they couldn’t breath. I want people to be healthy so that they can live, and if they need to, even if it is hard, look for work.

We as Christians should know to trust God to provide for our needs. Lets not be foolish with the resources He has given us.]

Bracketed text added in a reply I made on Theology web about the environment.

Names to look up for more information:

National Library of Medicine (pubmed), doctor’s use this as a resource

Sheila Bastien-PhD neuro psychologist, psychological and physical aspects of MCS

Rae-clinical ecologist, more studies,puzzling cases than any other at least as of a couple of years ago

Rowe

(Fragranced products information network) Fpinva

Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes By Nicholas Ashford & Claudia Miller

[Mr. SmartyPants]

oh wow, i never knew that stuff could effect your health, ill be more aware of stuff that is bought! Thanks for the heads up!

[Uriah]

I wear axe spray sometimes (when I'm really sweaty), other than that, I don't really expose myself to these things much, and they don't bother me.

My mom is really sensitive, though. One spray of Axe can give her a huge headache almost instantly..

[Jaltus-bot]

In the same way that fragrances can harm health, smog harms us. Now most people who have lived around smog are probably familiar with the fact that it’s not healthy, but there are ways to get around some of the health impacts of it. First, out door activity should be done more in the morning than in the mid to late afternoon. Also, if you get migraines, you might notice more of them with highway driving because of the increases smog from the cars. Hepafilters can be your friend because the suck out a lot of the small particulate smog. These are good to know, but there is more than that.

Know your smog. Three common smog types are PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone.

PM10 is the small particulate smog and is usually gray. Now, for a lot of this I’m not sure what you can do unless it’s a yellow gray. A more yellow gray smog will likely have more sulfur content. Vitamin B12 helps with the body’s reaction to this.

NO2 or nitrogen dioxide is the more brown smog. It causes inflammation and has an immediate reaction and a delayed reaction twenty-four to forty-eight hours later. Vitamin B6 acts has an anti-inflamitory effect, as does Aleve but it wouldn’t be good to take painkillers all summer unless you really hurt. Nitrogen dioxide will react and leave more ozone in its place after a hot day.

Ozone is the one that antioxidants are good for. With ozone, you end up with stray oxygen atoms moving around and causing damage inside you. Antioxidents include various fruits and stuff, and vitamins I believe. Grape seed extract, available in concentrated pill form or grapes also serves as an antioxidant.