Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) - Fact or Fiction?

MCS relates to the immune system and the inflammation and tissue damage that can arise from chronic immune activation caused by chemical exposure.7 min read

MCS can leave you helpless, alone, lonely, frightened, and embarrassed. You try to seek out help but carefully so no one finds out your problem. You make secret calls when you are alone trying to find answers, or are there any answers? Family and friends turn their backs if you dare speak of your ills. Your spouse or significant other might leave you, your own children can make you physically ill just by being in the same room with you, people outside will point at you or laugh or even be intimidated by you if you wear a face mask while you are out. If you don't wear a face mask when you are out you can't breathe the same air as the next person because to you the air burns your lips, and face and lungs.

What Are Symptoms of MCS?

You might have a seizure, or vomit or become too dizzy to walk, pain will impart as you take a breath of the perfume being worn by a person coming around the corner in the next aisle in a grocery store. You finally realize that you can no longer eat the same foods, or dress in the same clothes, or be close to the ones you love.

Your life is being threatened by your environment and isolation in a very controlled setting is all that can save you for now. With a heavy heart you close the door to the world you once knew—the world of familiarity, along with the support and the love that was yours. Does this sound familiar?

A Brief Overview of MCS and How It Relates to the Immune System

A brief overview of MCS as it relates to the immune system and the inflammation and tissue damage that can arise from chronic immune activation caused by chemical exposure follows:

"Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and the Immune System" * by William J. Meggs, M.D., Ph.D. an invited presentation at the workshop on Multiple Chemical Sensitivities sponsored by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics, Washington DC, Sept. 19-20, 1991. Dr. Meggs served four years as a fellow in clinical research at the National Institute of Health and recently served as an invited member of the National Academy of Sciences Subcommittee on Immunotoxicology which just completed their publication, Biologic Markers in Immunotoxicology. Dr. Meggs is currently conducting research into chemical sensitivities and indoor air exposures and practices at the Division of Clinical Toxicology, Dept. Of Emergency Medicine, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, North Carolina.