After the Storm

Sometimes, one just has to wait for some fresh winds to blow through.  I waited.  The winds came tonight, with a forbidding sky and thunderous weather, graced afterwards by a rainbow.  I'm now ready to write.

I'm thinking about alcohol toxicity.  Alcohol toxicity is a dense and variable subject, as it can involve several forms of toxicity, some of which can occur sooner than others. 

Am I against the judicious imbibing of alcohol, on principle?  No.  In this post I simply hope to raise some questions that one can ask oneself along the way.  I claim no definitive answers on this extremely complex topic.  I do think, however, that it's a topic worthy of much serious consideration for those who are chemically sensitive and those who are at risk of becoming so.

There are those of us who already know that we're chemically sensitive.  We need to be fully aware of what can lurk in a typical social drink.  For those who have had noteworthy chemical exposures of one sort or another but who, as of yet, observe no distinct onset of chemical sensitivity in themselves:  It's still possible that, due to your chemical exposure(s), your reactions to alcoholic beverages may undergo some changes.  As the saying goes, "Forewarned is forearmed."       

Beer has been touted for its Vitamin B content.  Red wine has been touted for its antioxidant properties.

On the negative side, beer and wine can contain additives/allergens and outright toxins:

"Hidden Additives in Beer and Wine" by Drea Knufken - Living Without Magazine June/July 2008

These toxins are a distinct liability for those who are chemically sensitive and allergically reactive (this can accompany chemical sensitivity).

Then, there is another type of alcohol toxicity whereby a person simply imbibes far too much for his own body's tolerance on a given day and actually poisons himself by sheer quantity:

"Alcohol Poisoning Symptoms" (Alcoholism Information)

This is a medical emergency.  It's always possible that such a person might also have had a budding chemical sensitivity or previously unknown allergies.  These things would only add to the nightmarish toxicity of such an occasion.

I wonder, often, if chemical sensitivity, in its "masked" phase, actually draws some (self-defined) alcoholics to drink excessively in the same way that food sensitivities often cause a craving for the sensitivity-inducing food.  If one's chemical sensitivity is also accompanied by food sensitivities and allergies, the craving for alcoholic beverages might be all the more strong.

There are those who have "gone without" alcohol for decades and suddenly take up drinking again, with often disastrous results.  Perhaps this insidious "progression," this apparent worsening of the alcoholism even during long years of abstinence, is at least partly due to the pervasiveness of chemical exposures in our midst -- which, of course, accumulate steadily in our bodies the longer we live.  The increase in the body's absorption of daily "common" chemicals could easily account for the worsened effects of alcohol -- even after years of abstinence -- upon the body and mind.  These chemicals in our midst are stored in our tissues and organs.  This puts increasing burdens upon the liver and kidneys as they attempt to detoxify our bodies.  Add a little alcohol and the results can be increasingly devastating.

My own chemical sensitivity once caused a horrendous internal reaction to a simple glass of white wine within minutes of my finishing it -- as though an angry hand had taken hold of my thoughts and emotions and made them extra, extra strong.  No one could see the reaction on the outside, thankfully.  But on the inside, a nightmare was brewing from which no one could deliver me.  And I was stuck with it raging inside my head.  I was aware enough to know that I had to try to step above it, to manage it, somehow.  Obviously, something totally unforeseen and "alien" to me had occurred.  This I was not expecting.  It hit me like a freight train.  Such a thing had never happened to me before, in the "old" days before I was chemically sensitive. 

As the alcohol left my body over the next few hours, the reaction completely dissipated and I sobbed out the remainder of it through my tears.  From that point on, I only "sipped" tastes of such beverages.  I never want to go through such a frightful experience again.  Was this a reaction to sulfites?  Was there an unknown additive in the wine?  Had the grapes undergone pesticide treatment?  Or was it my body's nearly inept processing of the alcohol, itself?

I will never know.  My liver and kidneys, however, apparently know much more than I do.  I believe it could be a deadly mistake to let their knowledge get too far ahead of mine.  I must at least consider what factors might possibly have gone into such an unfavorable experience with alcohol.  In doing so, I hope to spare another person such an experience -- or worse.

"Forewarned is forearmed."

Wishing you healthy food and drink and safe socializing --

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Thinking in Pieces

Hello, Friends,

Over the past several days, I've been reduced to processing my written words in short bursts of thoughts -- what I call "thinking in pieces."  Synthesizing details in a global fashion has been a great challenge.  I've found myself typing and retyping the simplest things due to my inability to process more than one detail at a time. This difficulty has encompassed even nonverbal, visual details.

All of this is due to my having had a heavier variety of chemical exposures on Sunday than usual.  Today is the first day that some of the physical fog is lifting. Ironically, it's also the first day that the impending migraine is finally coming through.  It's been a three-day event instead of a two-day event, this time around. Now the body begins to fight.  Its reaction time was extra slow and dreary due to its having been literally deluged with airborne toxins.  The effects were so "heavy" that, first, all reactivity was frankly suppressed while my body endured a growing sensation of "stupor."  As my body "awoke" to its exposures, I felt progressively worse and more and more useless.

Laundry toxins figured first on the list, then cigarette smoke.  Creepy effects, this time, as though I'd received a novocaine shot at the dentist which was slowly wearing off in parts of my face.  This has improved, but it's not gone yet.  Such heavy nerve involvement.  I so much hate this.

The B and C vitamins have helped, plus magnesium (with some calcium).  The "creepy" physical reactivity gets a bit muted each time I take another dose.  With the magnesium, I opt for the higher ratio of something like 2:1 or 4:1 magnesium to calcium.  The only calcium I "take" is included in my formulation of Buffered C powder.  I don't want to calcify my soft tissues.  Already had that problem and that required a biopsy.  Don't want to go back there again.  My ratio of magnesium to calcium may look radical to some -- so be it.  I personally found the biopsy -- and the logic behind mainstream medicine's requesting future checks and biopsies -- to be quite radical.  Insane, even.  I'm convinced that I'm severely deficient in magnesium and maybe even have a bona fide magnesium-absorption problem. So I'll mention here what a friend kindly lent to me -- and now I've purchased my own:

Ancient Minerals Magnesium Oil (topical)

Perhaps unrelated but worth mentioning:  When my shoulder froze up with severe spasms of tendonitis and my arm was completely stuck, this oil began to free it up by degrees.  It begins to loosen up the joints almost right away.  Makes me feel better all-around, too.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have another post "on tap" which deals with a separate (and new) topic.  Please bear with me while I complete that one, and kindly accept this post as a sign that this blogger is "still present" with you!     

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

"Due" for Repairs

The giant hive on my leg was the clue.  That plus the crushing exhaustion which has kept me from completing the post I recently began to write -- since paragraphs of a more scientific bent must be linear, logical, and support themselves soundly.  This begs precision and endurance of a tired mind.

In short, I suspect I'm not feeling well.  I'm either very toxic with airborne and/or food chemicals; a small creature bit me; or, as I'm beginning to think, all of the above.  (I'm quite sure that the bologna, wheat bread, beef burritos, ice cream, and processed American cheese were not innocent bystanders in this debacle . . . nor were the scented dryer-vent emissions and cigarette smoke I walked through last night).  I fervently hope that, if a creature was also involved, it wasn't a tick or a poisonous spider.  I will hopefully be checking that angle by tomorrow.

I could imbibe several herbal teas and/or add some novel nutritional supplements, but during such times of "what is going on?," I prefer to stick with the most definitely non-inflammatory solutions possible.  Right now, that comes down to goat yogurt (hope I'm right about that), "buffered" Vitamin C which contains calcium and magnesium, and -- can't go too far wrong with this one -- glass after glass of pitcher-filtered water.

The "what is going on?" systemic overhaul, complete with new and weird physical symptoms to eradicate, has typically occurred once every few years since I became chemically sensitive.  Apparently, I must have been "due" for another round.  It's always an unsettling phenomenon flavored with the unexpected, and the key word for getting through it is "calm."

I will return to my half-completed post as soon as possible!  Please visit the information tabs, above, for newly added information.

In the meantime, cheers!

~ Carolyn