A Toxin Is a Toxin

Hello, Friends,

For a long time now, I've had a deep concern for those whose immune systems are compromised -- whether or not they are also chemically sensitive.  I dedicate the following thoughts to them.

If one were to take a chemically sensitive person's anecdotal reports in good faith, one would quickly realize that the chemically sensitive person has, in effect, "done the work for you."  What work?  The work of sorting out and identifying which types of chemical antagonists can spiral the body into further and unnecessarily hastened destruction.

Those whose immune systems are already compromised need, in reality, to be just as careful as the chemically sensitive to avoid exposure to chemical toxins whenever possible.  If the chemical exposures of an immune-compromised person cannot be completely eliminated, the maxim would be, "Every little bit of avoidance helps."  Just as "Every extra chemical exposure can worsen things."  It may not worsen things to an immediately noticeable extent; but under the surface, the body knows that a toxin is a toxin, and it reacts accordingly.

We chemically sensitive individuals know, vividly and viscerally, how these chemical antagonists operate.  Their "ways and means" have been demonstrated upon our bodies again and again.  Everything that a non-chemically sensitive, immune-compromised person cannot feel happening to his body from chemical exposures, we can feel for him.

Furthermore, certain drug and chemical treatments can actually bring the body closer to a chemically sensitive state.  Of course, it is completely understood that this may be either medically unavoidable or water already "under the bridge."  But since this possibility for chemical sensitization, or increased physical vulnerability, is the inevitable risk of any treatment which includes the heavy use of antibiotics, antivirals, chemotherapy, or painkillers, it becomes all the more important for the treated person to try and minimize unnecessary chemical exposures.

The very last thing I mean to do here is lecture a person who is already exhausted.  So, please, take what you like and leave the rest, as they say. 

What I do mean to do, however, is offer the heartfelt support of the chemically sensitive community to those who may suffer differently from us, yet who also desperately need the knowledge we happen to have accumulated.  

As the saying goes:  What's ours is yours.  :)

Cheers!

~ Daisies