Foot Neuropathy from Inhaled Chemical Toxins?

 Dear Friends,

Through my many gluten and sugar dietary failures this past week, the perfect testing ground emerged: The only thing I succeeded in avoiding over the past week was exposure to the active burning of incense in the Roman Catholic church I've been attending. The result has been amazing: I can almost entirely feel all of my toes and can wiggle them easily!

I have always had no physical reactions to the brands of incense burned in Armenian and Middle Eastern churches. On the purely physical level: These parishes have seemed to use more organic brands of incense from the Middle East. On the spiritual level: I am a member of the Armenian Catholic Rite. Ever since I became a member in 1994, my soul has been nurtured and formed in this Eastern rite. Both the physical and spiritual realities may now be converging here to reveal that God is urging me to return to attendance at Mass in the Armenian liturgy. It is known that God permits difficulties with diet and/or physical environment to help people realize when they should leave those places and seek harmonious livelihood elsewhere.

Regarding my diabetes, MCS, and foot neuropathy, this experiment also revealed something amazing: My severe foot neuropathy appears to have been either caused or greatly worsened by impure, chemically infiltrated brands of church incense inhaled by me at weekday and/or weekday-evening special church services at the Roman Catholic church I've been attending! I avoided, this past week, being in the church during or directly after those services which included the burning of incense. At Sunday Mass there -- which I did attend last week -- no incense is burned. I ingested both generous amounts of gluten and generous amounts of sugar during this time. In summary: My foot neuropathy correlates less with my diabetes and gluten problem and more with my exposure to the burning of impure, chemically infiltrated incense (and, likely, also, to my exposure to those chemical-laundry-product fragrances which I also succeeded in avoiding this past week)!

So ... my foot neuropathy seems much more related to my incidental inhaling of chemical scents than to my diabetes or my gluten ingestion. 

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Nerve Toxins and Neuropathy: Perfect Together

Dear Friends,

I urge you to go back to my very first posts on this hard-work-filled blog of mine. This blog has been a true labor of "sweat and suffering," combined with hours and hours of detailed research over the years. My earliest posts (from 2011 through 2014) articulate my precise reasons for beginning this blog: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and a thorough defense of its reality.

I, myself, have had MCS for several decades now. In the 1990s, I charted my symptoms/environmental circumstances and finally came to a full realization of the very real patterns of my body's reactivity to common chemicals all around me. In my attempts to explain this to others and help myself, I was met consistently with laughing disbelief, annoyance, and even, at times, rage from other people. Hurt and seemingly discredited by this disbelief wherever I requested helpful omissions of chemical products (so that I could function there), I resolved to "answer back" every possible disbelieving reaction I could recall ... with this blog. And so I did (posts 2011 through 2014).

Following herbal treatment for Lyme disease in 2013, I noticed, by 2014, a dramatic lessening of my MCS reactivity. I have been reminded this past month, however, that my MCS is still active to a noteworthy degree and that I must withdraw from my various recent common-chemical exposures in order to detox seriously once again.

To refresh for those who have not been following along: I struggle with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), (autoimmune) antibody production in response to gluten ingestion, and Type II diabetes. I have found, over the past two to three years, that my toes (and the toes of one foot much more than the other) have been (1) increasingly icy-cold, frostbitten-feeling, alternating with a red-hot feeling of burning; (2) swollen and clunky-feeling; (3) pins-and-needles-feeling with spikes of sharp nerve pain; and (4) largely numb.

With my "gold-star" alternative/orthomolecular MD having retired during COVID, and with my having no medical insurance for several years now, I've been dealing with my diabetes and gluten problem on and off as poverty's varying diet permits.

I am writing again now, after a long hiatus, due to an observation of mine this afternoon which suddenly became clear enough to stun me. I'd been obscurely witnessing this phenomenon over and over, perhaps for the past few years or so, without my having pulled it out of my brain fog for actual inspection. 

My "toes" trouble, as noted above, began and dramatically worsened over the past two or three years. (My blood-glucose readings, for the most part, have consistently been way "over the top" during the past eight years, since 2015 when I was diagnosed.) I have been focusing for the past several days, however, on detoxing from a multiplicity of aggravating common chemicals in the church I've been attending. How long have I been attending this church? Since late 2019. A time period of ... a little over three years. Aha!

While I have been ignoring my high blood sugar (because my physical distress from chemicals lately has been so severe that I cannot work on that problem, the gluten problem, and the diabetes at the same time), I have been eating, all weekend through today, strawberry nonfat yogurt which contains a good amount of sugar. Unbelievably, however, my toes feel so much better today, after two days away from the church interior which absorbs (when reasonably filled with attendees) the multiplicity of chemical scents! Is this "toes" problem of mine due to "diabetic" neuropathy, or is it really due to -- and severely worsened by -- excessive chemical-scent exposures at my under-ventilated church each week after week for the past three or so years? Moreover, so many times this past year, I've noted to my husband that my toes flare up on Sunday evenings after Sunday Mass in the mornings, and in the evening when I've occasionally visited a hospital or nursing home earlier in the day. You know what's in hospitals and nursing homes: innumerable applications of disinfectants!

Therefore, I am putting these novel questions of mine "out there" today:

1) Might what is called "diabetic" neuropathy be caused and worsened not by sugar consumption and/or high blood glucose, but by exposures to common chemicals (many containing nerve toxins) in the home or outside environment?

2) Might diabetes, itself, in some cases, be caused by exposures to common chemicals containing nerve toxins?

[Common-chemical/nerve-toxin considerations: strong chemical laundry scents in homes, on clothes, and from dryer vents to lawns/yards; chemical-/petroleum-based perfumes, colognes, hair products, soaps, deodorants, aftershave, scented candles, essential oils, potpourri, incense, and cleaners; indoor and outdoor pesticides; smoking and secondhand smoke; public-building/hospital/nursing home/rehab/hospice/doctor's office chemical cleaners and disinfectants; and public/medical restroom cleaners, disinfectants, plug-ins, and aerosol deodorizers, etc.]

3) En route to answering Questions #1 and #2, has the following ever been investigated and documented (?): Are those with diabetes and "diabetic" neuropathy also subject to excessive chemical products in their environment, and/or have these individuals become sensitized to multiple chemicals -- meaning, do they have undiagnosed MCS ?

This could be a fatal omission of necessary awareness and diagnosis in mainstream medicine. 

~ Carolyn

Beyond Words: The Gift of a Cat

Dear Friends, 

I am finally ready to announce, with great sorrow, that our sweet and diabetic cat, dear Minette, died on January 14th, 2021. I am left to fend with my own diabetes without my parallel "person," Minette, nearby to spread her patient, kindred spirit.

I miss her so.

May Minette enjoy, in Cat Heaven, an abundance of the peace and love she so generously shared with our family.

Love to you, sweet Minette ... 

~ Carolyn

 

Seeking New Horizons

Hello, friends, 

Just came across this article and thought I'd share it with you:

10 Herbs to Shrink Tumors and Kill Cancer Cells - Posted by Katleen Brown | Oct 15, 2015 | Ayurveda 

May this information benefit anyone who is in need of hope and a potential remedy.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Cat News

Hello, friends,

I'm happy to tell you that our cat, Minette, has picked up and is thriving! She's aging and frail, in her own way, yet newly spunky in other ways.

You simply cannot predict cats!

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Sad Days

Dear Friends,

Our cat, little Minette whom I referenced in my previous post, appears to be dying ...

The vet, last night, thought she might have a tumor in her mouth. She's barely eating and her sugar is too low instead of too high ...

We're giving her Karo syrup to offset her lack of eating, to give her back legs some energy ...

But our little sweetheart Tuxedo cat, always so gentle, so mild, so docile ... even able to understand our words, at times ... seems to be winding down.

Please pray for our little kitty. This is so sad.

~ Carolyn

Minette Marra, six years ago

The Unexpected

Hello, friends,

There's been a slight interruption of my rediscovered wellness "rhythm" -- an emergency with our sweet kitty. Her cat motor was running down alarmingly and it seemed, earlier this week, as though she might die. So far, she's been found to have had a blood-sugar level over 500 mg/dL. This beautiful, elegant-looking creature was stupified by her high blood sugar. She was treated with insulin injections and, last we heard, improved to not needing more insulin yesterday.

Our little kitty sweetheart would nuzzle my legs -- the most painful part of me, due to my own diabetes and possibly the aftereffects of Lyme disease -- with her nose several times a day. She seemed to know that my legs had a problem; and she was simultaneously asking me to help her with her problem -- but I didn't know what it was.

Despite the finding of cat diabetes, rabies must still be ruled out. Due to this variable, and due to kitty's dear nuzzling of me in my diabetic state with previously hot and itchy shins, I was ordered by the supervising veterinary neurologist to go the emergency room for immunoglobulin injections to generate an immediate immune response to rabies, and to get the rabies vaccine. While stressed by the fear of rabies and death and the three anti-rabies inoculations I received that night, I was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. I wondered, once we got home, how on earth my blood sugar was doing. It was 180 mg/dL -- my lowest reading ever! Go figure.

I will be returning, on fixed, prescheduled days, to complete the full series of anti-rabies inoculations. Our cat also received her rabies vaccine, yesterday.

There is immunoglobulin help for humans to fight the early onset of rabies -- but no help, yet, for the animals who contract it.

Please pray for our little sweetheart kitty as we hope for her steady improvement with each passing day needed to rule out rabies.

Thank you ...

Hoping for the best,

~ Carolyn

The Crazy Thirst I Thought Would Never End

Hello, friends,

Where did my insatiable thirst go? Now, I have to remind and coax myself to drink even two bottles of water per day (four cups)! What an incredible change!

Since Thursday evening, February 7th, when I discovered my post-snack blood-sugar level to have been 500 mg/dL, I've got my waking blood-sugar readings down between 196 and 205 (and even a 180 before dinner, one night). Considering I don't sleep many hours per night and I need a small pre-bedtime meal to address actual hunger, this, to me, is real and steady progress! My improved metabolic state brings a feeling of lightness and reentry into the human race. My vision, also, is beginning to improve, as my lens prescription is becoming too strong once again.

My mainstays have become low-fat (2%) plain yogurt of varying brands and types (regular yogurt and Greek yogurt) combined with chia seeds, gluten-free oatmeal flakes, and/or fruit -- with or without stevia. There is no longer any gluten in my diet, as I believe it hiked up my blood sugar dangerously and sparked total-body inflammation (lab results of over a decade ago demonstrated that I should no longer ingest gluten, as my body had responded with antibodies to it). There are no fixed limits to my portions of this food and that: I let my natural appetite self-regulate and then test my blood sugar, later, to see how the sample meals/snack experiments fared, medically. It's been going great! My hunger has increased and is easily addressed with these choice foods. It's truly necessary, now that my metabolism is resetting itself, to feed my cells more of those food nutrients which, previously, they were simply unable to receive.

Walnuts and pecans are my nut staples. Raw cashews, whenever and wherever I can find them, will be another nut staple. Chicken is my new staple meat; and spiced, boneless sardines are my staple fish. Chick peas and onions mixed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, oregano, turmeric, a dash of black pepper, Celtic sea salt, and cayenne pepper are another staple. Deep green spinach and/or fresh broccoli heads go well with dinner ... The menu is evolving. The real perk is that I'm not only not starving, but I'm also able to eat as much as I feel I need to without driving up my blood sugar, because these foods are truly good for my own diabetes management. Moreover, I don't feel deprived of tasty foods. I'm really happy with this developing menu.

I find "Stevia in the Raw" to be delicious -- something to look forward to with yogurt, hot or cold oatmeal, hot buckwheat cereal (gluten-free!), tea, and/or coffee.

There are sound rhymes and reasons behind these food choices, plus many new points I've learned in the past week and then even revised as I've learned more ...

I'll tie it all together, in more detail, in subsequent posts, as I go along.

Stay tuned!

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Lucky To Be Alive

Hello, friends,

Life changed for me forever on Thursday evening, February 7th. For the first time since I was diagnosed with diabetes in October, 2015, I searched for my tester kit which I'd bought and never used. I couldn't find it. Two days earlier, my chiropractor had urged me to prick my finger and at least find out the ballpark of my blood-sugar level. I was scared to prick my own finger. I was scared I'd find the tester kit. Then, I was scared when I didn't find it.

I went to the supermarket pharmacy and bought a new kit. This time, I was serious. The chiropractor's story of his friend who'd had a totally unexpected blood-sugar level of 600 mg/dL had sunk into my thick head. Now, it was urgent.

I'd eaten popcorn and a corn muffin with coffee, and I'd begun to feel a sickly, feverish-like ringing in the ears, a spacey feeling -- not good. This was not the ideal time to practice learning to prick myself, but it was now or never. After pricking myself about 11 times at all different pressures in all different places, I finally drew a proper-sized sample of blood and applied it correctly to the side of the testing strip. "... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ..." the machine counted down. There it was, my blood-sugar bombshell:

500 mg/dL.

This was at least one hour after my corn muffin. What had the reading been before that? And that was a snack -- not a full serving of any of my favorite culprit foods -- many of them much worse and/or far more sugary than popcorn and a corn muffin. How many days and nights had my blood sugar reached 500 -- or more? Combine that with the grueling thirst, the gallons of fluid so often expelled ...

That number explained most things. I was lucky to be alive. My chiropractor's advice, urging me to self-test, may have saved my life. Tonight, I checked for ketones. Thankfully, none.

I've gotten my blood-sugar level down into the 200s and 300s, alternating, since Thursday night. I've begun walking. I've learned that my blood sugar seems to have done best, Thursday night through today, with a bean-and-onion mix. I've learned that the caffeine in coffee spikes my blood sugar. I've learned that decaf coffee is not only not entirely worthless, but also that a chemical-free brand of decaf coffee can confer the same protective benefits as regular coffee.

I'd started to feel really bad after drinking my usual cups of regular coffee. The magic was gone. In its place, my body felt dirty and depleted after a few sips of it. Most brands started to taste bad to me. My body was giving me all of these clues -- these biologically valid pieces of information.

Today, I'm no longer thirsty. Now, whatever water I can pour back into this body can begin to restore a real metabolic fluid balance ... which, according to my own theory [The Water Principle ©], might assist the mending of the whole diabetic picture through the kidneys onward and upward.

As for my pancreas, I would prefer to coax it back into functioning at optimal level rather than patronizing and consoling it with diabetes drugs which will just enable me to eat poorly and burn it out.

If it turns out that I need insulin, of course I would take it. So far, however, I've not been producing ketones ... so I believe there is hope for my pancreas to recover whatever function it has lost through glucose receptors being blocked by excess fats. I'm not a good candidate for palliative blood sugar medication, as my chemical sensitivity and otherwise low blood pressure can predispose me to hypoglycemic episodes and cardiac arrhythmias.

My task is to get this blood-sugar level lower, lower, and lower. Given that it's been only one full day of my working at this, the progress made thus far gives me great hope.

The other good news is that you haven't missed a single thing of my "journey of managing diabetes" since my post of October 6, 2015, because I hadn't done a thing about it.

Whether or not I was ready for it, my "journey of managing diabetes" has now begun. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn 

When I sat down to write my first novel, a "novel" view of diabetes emerged, instead:

The Water Principle ©

The teacher, diabetes, imparted lessons she could not have learnt any other way.

For decades, she had depended upon what she’d always considered to be the “cooling” property of chocolate after lunch and dinner. Although she could not have enunciated it at the time, she’d had a “thirst” for the refreshment of chocolate as though it were a badly needed glass of water after the exhausting, internally “sweaty” labor of chewing and digesting a meal.

Indeed, the chocolate and other sugars seemed to have usurped the place of water in her life for over five decades, until water, itself, protested the reversal. In the woman’s fifty-second year, water rose up to demand an immediate accounting of all the water not ingested which needed to be in order to match the glut of sugars left over from chocolate and company. Water made its voice heard via a thirst of such sudden and crippling intensity, the woman could barely speak until delivered bottle upon bottle of water.

This raging thirst would repeat itself upon the woman’s every ingestion of sugar and gluten. Some sugars and some gluten products induced more thirst than others, but the new pattern was set: The woman now needed to imbibe as much water as she’d once “needed” to ingest chocolate. The lessons of diabetes had begun. Through her pancreas and kidneys, the woman’s diabetes seized command of her body to speak to it.

Diabetes taught her body the difference between slightly sweet and far too sweet. Chocolate candy bars and chocolate ice cream became distasteful to her, the chocolate sensation now overwhelming, sometimes even sickening. There were many hours and days when the water she’d gulped down to relieve the insane thirst seemed to leave her body by a half-gallon or more at a time.

Was diabetes all about low water intake, in the first place? Did the bodies of some people mistake thirst for a chocolate-and-other-sugar craving? Was it the usurpation of water by chocolate and other sugars which eventually dehydrated and deregulated the kidneys, upsetting, in turn, the fine balance of sugars and insulin otherwise maintained by the pancreas? Did diabetes manifest itself, therefore, first through the kidneys and, secondarily, through the pancreas?

Should the primary treatment of diabetes be switched from the pancreas and blood sugar to the kidneys, perhaps with periods of fasting and reduced food ingestion, overall, accompanied by remedial water intake?


December 2, 2018. © 2018 Carolyn Cucinotta-Marra. All rights reserved.

At the Movies: Sound and Vibration Sensitivity

Hello, friends,

I'm not going to research the term "vibration sensitivity" before I write about it.  I want to hear and feel my own voice on the topic before I read about anyone else's experience.

I went to the movies this afternoon for the first time in 27 years.  The seats in this movie theater had high backs -- which made no sense to me.  This made it a strain to be able to view the bottom of the movie screen.

The soundtracks of advertisements-plus-movie had a deep bass tone and rumbled throughout my entire being.  This wasn't the kind of ear-piercing, shrill tone that would cause me to hold my ears.  It was simply cataclysmic sound.

By the time I had been in the movie theater for 45 minutes, I felt profoundly impacted on a physical level.  My jaw felt stiff, I was beginning to get a headache, and it felt as though all the tumbling, crashing, and bashing in the movie had been happening to me.

It was a horrible movie of lewd scenes interspersed with ever-changing varieties of physical impact.  I finally stood up and left.

As I walked outside into the summer sunshine, dazed, weakened, exhausted, head pounding, I had the insatiable desire to fall into bed.

That wasn't to be the case just then, but when I finally arrived home, I collapsed into my bed and slept for two hours.  When I awoke, I still felt physically and emotionally devastated, as though -- metaphorically speaking -- someone had taken me apart, spilled me on the road somewhere, run over me, and left me there to suffer.

I would have to "bring it all together again" -- revive myself -- somehow.

I began with a cup of coffee and a few cookies, then went along for a car ride and some fresh air ... unusually cool fresh air for northwestern New Jersey in late June.  The brisk air, and the lulling effect of being a passenger in a car, reset my equilibrium.

Now, I'm asking, "What was that horrible feeling occasioned by deep, bass sound accompanied by on-screen impact that left me feeling physically shattered?"

I don't yet have this answer.  I just felt it was important to write about it.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Good Fats versus "Low-Fat": Complexity, Questions, and Reassurance

Hello, friends,

I just came across this gem of an article on the topic of good fats versus "low-fat" recommendations as they relate to cholesterol and heart disease.  It provides an excellent and informed introduction to this subject, which consists of much greater complexity -- and hope! -- than previously concluded by mainstream thought:

Workblog:  "For decades, the government steered millions away from whole milk.  Was that wrong?" - by Peter Whoriskey, October 6, 2015, The Washington Post

Well worth the read!

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Health: To Help Someone Feel Better

I don't know what I don't know, but months ago I thought a friend was sick or despairing.  I was afraid that this person would get so much unnecessary or untrue "bad news" from people that he would despair and . . .

I was afraid, also, that the friend was sick and people might talk him into euthanasia or assisted suicide.

I tried to urge people not to give this person rashly judged or invented "bad news" and/or not to "euthanize" this person.  I tried to urge the person not to listen to such negativity.  I had no idea if I was right about either the despair or the sickness, and I knew I risked looking like a fool -- but, you know what?  Just in case I was right about any part of it, the person was certainly worth my effort!

So, I spoke out.  Call me crazy, but I felt it was the right thing to do.

Vision and Balance

Hello, friends,

Whatever I did in Ireland, I must do again . . . for the sake of my vision and so many other physical blessings.

Would you care to join me on my journey of managing . . . diabetes?

As I'm in no position to declare any answers other than my own anecdotal experience, I expect that these posts will be filled with questions.

Having experienced a dramatic improvement in my vision and overall well-being within a two-week span in Ireland this summer, I experienced an equally dramatic regression in my vision -- noticed by me last week -- since I came home.  I ran to get a comprehensive blood test.  My eyesight has reverted to its worst lens prescription, and I have now been formally diagnosed with diabetes.

Upon returning home to the U.S. from my brief vacation in Ireland, I grew slightly lax with sugar, and especially lax with gluten   The gluten ingestion has made me feel quite bad and, usually, extremely sleepy.  (I'd had bloodwork for gluten intolerance in the early 2000s, and it came up positive for gliadin antibodies.  I had been in a toss-up over gluten -- should I eat it or not? -- ever since.)  The beneficial daily walking ceased, as well, since I returned from Ireland.

Clearly, exercise is an urgent necessity.  Upon receiving my diagnosis yesterday, I went right outside and began my walking regimen.  Now, for the rest of it . . .

I have serious disagreements with the typical protocol of managing diabetes the mainstream way.  Not only that, but I believe myself to be a poor candidate for diabetes medication due to my previously high degree of chemical sensitivity.  Also, I'm only too aware of the attendant risks that come with errors in diet while one is on diabetes medications:  low blood sugar, coma, and death.

Having been chemically sensitive for so long, I fear strange and unexpected reactions to such medication(s) posed by my body's inability -- even if this has lessened -- to tolerate many chemicals.

For these reasons, I'm aiming immediately at managing my diabetes through alternative means.

On July 18, 2015, I received my strongest eyeglasses prescription ever, as of that date.  This had been my second lens prescription in three weeks.  My vision had suddenly deteriorated just prior to June 26th, 2015.  Then, three weeks later (July 16-18th), I experienced an unquenchable thirst for a few days.  No sooner would I finish one bottle of water than I would have to stop to get another one.  My vision deteriorated further, and back I went to get new lenses.  The prescription had increased.

Suspecting a problem with blood sugar at this point, I immediately tightened up my diet.  By the time I flew to Ireland, I was feeling perky again and the eyeglasses felt good.

Within a few days of being in Ireland, however, my vision changed dramatically again.  At first, I wondered if I might be dying.  However, I'd then been walking a great deal for a few days and the rest of me felt quite well.  Unusually well.  Still, there I was in the Irish supermarket with huge halos around every light and exceptionally blurry vision through my eyeglasses.  I found that looking through the bottom section of my bi/trifocals helped.  This was the reading section of the lenses.  In the back of my mind, I began to hope that, this time, my vision had actually improved -- since my best vision through the lenses was now through the "reading" part of the trifocals ("distance" at the top, "computer" in the middle, "close reading" at the bottom).

By the time I returned home on the morning of August 8th, I could not bear to keep the eyeglasses on my face because everything I now looked at was distorted through them.  Within a few hours I was back at the optometrist.  My lens prescription had improved so much, the new prescription was weaker than any prescription I'd had since before 2013.  Since I don't have the prescription records in my possession for my lens prescriptions prior to 2013, I can only guess, by the weakness of my August 8th prescription, that the improvement took me back, perhaps, to my vision of 2000 or even earlier.

I was happy.  I was elated.

After that, I became engrossed in the busyness of life and . . . started having a few desserts and permitting myself a lot of gluten, especially on the road:  buttered (wheat) rolls.  This was to be the beginning of the end of my dramatic improvement.

The optometrist was not surprised at the dramatic fluctuations of vision -- which he believed, from the beginning, were due to diabetes.  None of this was out of keeping with the visual regressions common to high blood sugar and the remarkable visual improvements his diabetic patients had enjoyed upon stabilizing their blood sugar.

I was fortunate that he also agreed with me that, for a gluten-sensitive person, gluten could be especially devastating to the blood sugar and, by extension, to the eyes.

Here is where I begin.  Obviously, all traces of refined/granulated/honey sugar must go.  But, now, gluten -- I'm asking the serious question about its effects on vision.  Some literature states that it can have a direct impact on vision by affecting the sensory nerves.  Since my first symptom of gluten sensitivity, back in 2002 and 2003, was severe dizziness and ataxia at times, I have no trouble believing this.  I became aware of my need to do a gluten-sensitivity blood test when I read literature on autism and came upon the genius of Lisa Lewis* ("About Lisa") through Karen Seroussi's book about her son, Miles:  Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Mother's Story of Research & Recovery – by Karen Seroussi (January 8, 2002).  I wrote to Lisa Lewis (around 2002) about my symptoms and she advised me to test for gluten.  (Thank you, Karen Seroussi and Lisa Lewis, if ever you read this.)

If this post is a little bit rambling, it's because I'm looking at the page through (hopefully temporary) visual distortions; and it's a rather sweaty enterprise to organize thoughts while feeling, overall, physically awful.  It makes one feel queasy to post little links and such while looking through a blurry haze with tired eyes . . . almost like motion-sickness . . .  One just wants to get it over with!

I do want to mention that there is an increasing awareness that gluten can have a devastating effect on blood sugar.  I hope to follow up with more posts and links on this viewpoint.

So many more angles to explore . . .   I must, in my next post(s), discuss the diabetic diet regarding "beneficial fats" and the common reliance on "low-fat" foods . . . the potentially direct impact of gluten on vision . . . and the potential causing/worsening of high blood sugar through gluten ingestion.
 
In the meantime . . .

Cheers!

~ Carolyn


*"An Experimental Intervention For Autism" - by Lisa S. Lewis, Ph.D. 

"Neurologic and Psychiatric Manifestations of Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity" - NCBI - PMC - US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health 

"UNUSUAL CAUSES OF ATAXIA" - by S.H.Subramony M.D. Professor of Neurology University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 

A Beautiful Life

Hello, friends,

These interviews are so dear to my heart . . .  Gianna Jessen's near-death experience and survival speaks for itself; and I have nothing to add to that.  No matter how many times she repeats her story, it's always eloquent with reality and love.

However, the reason I keep coming back to her videos is not because of her near-death experience or any of the conditions or persons connected with that.  No -- the reason I keep coming back to hear her speak is because of her beautiful, beautiful life.

I could listen to Gianna speak all day long.  Her life is a song of joy and forgiveness that just keeps on singing.  It's contagious.   :)

I feel privileged to have found these videos on YouTube and to be able to share them with you.  May they bring you joy!

Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen - theDove.us

Gianna Jessen Tells Glenn Beck How She Met Her Birth Mother | Glenn Beck Program 


Cheers!

~ Carolyn

     

On a Summer's Day

Hello, friends,

It's a lovely day outside and, after a long time away from this blog, I'm inspired to write once again.

While I wouldn't put myself in a room with a burning, synthetically scented candle and other strong chemical irritants -- and perhaps not with a non-burning synthetically scented candle if the scent could be felt by me (some synthetic scents carry an abrasive texture when smelled by chemically sensitive people) -- my chemical sensitivity has gone way down.

And yet I would not linger in front of a laundry vent or in a place where heavy laundry scents were evident.

However, lately I have enjoyed the experience of smelling various chemically scented products for the sheer beauty of the scent -- despite my hard-earned knowledge of the drawbacks.  Still, knowing the extent of the damage that synthetically scented molecules -- whether perceived by the senses or not -- can do to the body, I cannot disregard this invaluable, perhaps life-saving, information.

I'm at the point where I have to make decisions about many such products without the exponentially amplified chemical sensitivity to guide me.  This is progress -- tremendous progress.  I've done not a thing to have earned it, except to have been treated with herbal products for Lyme disease two summers ago.

I wish to leave all of my research/links in place for those whose chemical sensitivity is still active and mushrooming.

My writing here, going forward, will deal with a variety of topics both physical and biological, from an anecdotal perspective supplemented by occasional scientific/anecdotal links of a relevant nature.

I'm very happy to have learned that, as opposed to a fulminating, systemic problem, I have inflammation in one foot due to an orthopedic, mechanical difficulty.  For months, I'd put off looking into the matter for fear that I'd be told I'm a metabolic disaster.

Imagine my surprise to learn that surgery on a little toe, over 30 years ago, left the toe so unstable and strained that I'm walking funny -- the body's involuntary compensation for the weakness and instability of that one toe.  Other toes/parts of the foot grow inflamed as a result of the motoric compensation . . .

The good news is that this can easily be alleviated with a new surgery on that toe . . . which I never thought about and did not know.

It's wonderful when something is not systemic and not a disaster -- just a challenge.  :)

Cheers!   :)

~ Carolyn

      

Reminiscing . . . My First Thoughts for Beginning This Blog

Hello, Friends,

I was just recalling my first visits to chemical sensitivity websites way back in 2010, when my ideas for this blog were just beginning to percolate.

Following is the text* of one of my first dips into the waters of this vast field of environmental medicine and environmental awareness:


                  ********************************************************   

*TEXT of my letter to The Chemical Edge website:

Dear Author,

I’ve missed your name — but what an outstanding piece you’ve put together! This is an incredible resource. I’ve been suffering with MCS for the past 20 years. I only began making sense of the pattern of reacting to chemicals, however, in the mid-1990’s. It took a few years for me to “get it.” I’m only now taking the proactive route of trying to boost public awareness.

I was asked, yesterday, to provide statistics on how many homeless people are homeless specifically due to MCS. The person who asked me is a public advocate for the homeless. This person could begin to raise public awareness very effectively, armed with the proper statistics.

Do you have such statistics? (And I would love to know your name, also!)

Thanks so much.

Carolyn Marra

  by Carolyn Marra June 25, 2010 at 13:39 


"MCS 101.2: Definitions and Links" [scroll down for comments]


Thank you, Varda Burstyn, for the kindness of your communication back in 2010; and thank you, especially, for an outstanding website with volumes and volumes of information on common chemicals and their detrimental effects!


Readers, don't miss a visit to:

The Chemical Edge - Everyday Chemicals and Our Fragile Health


Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Humble Treasure

Kidneys' steady moan of pain . . .
would wish it not
but now, again . . . 
the ache bores in
without remit;
no way to get
the hang of it,
just sit . . .  and sip
some dandelion-root tea,
liquid mineral
purity . . . 

Relief enters in
for the first time in hours!
To thank:  humble roots
of dandelion flowers.

The Impact of Metals

Hello, Friends,

For anyone interested in what heavy metal toxicity can do to a person . . .  You've been reading it here.

What follows is, for me, priceless information (!):

I saw a new practitioner last week who took samples from me and tested . . .  I'm high in many metals,* cadmium at the top of the list.  I see, from the following abstract, that cadmium has a particularly adverse effect on the kidneys:

Cadmium & its adverse effects on human health. By Bernard A. , Department of Public Health, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. bernard@toxi.ucl.ac.be; NCBI PubMed.gov; US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

I have no blood sugar problem.  My blood sugar is good -- even my calcium is good.  But my ability to digest is very poor.  My Vitamin C stores are completely depleted.  My adrenals are exhausted and I'm inundated with toxins.

Metals.  If I have the courage to take the supplements suggested to me (new supplements always take courage, for me), I might actually detoxify!

The rest of this little report is very interesting.  Last Friday, I underwent acupuncture with this new practitioner.  First, I underwent "colorpuncture."**  This is the shining of colored lights on various meridian points in the body.  This prepared the body for receptivity of the real acupuncture needles -- and, you see, I thought I was escaping this by having colorpuncture, but I was wrong!

So there I was, a pincushion.  A strange and wonderful thing happened.  I'd gone into the practitioner's office with my throat so swollen on one side, it felt like a pillow in there around which the food and liquid had to move.  It was very disconcerting, to put it mildly.

Within a few minutes of all the acupuncture needles having been placed, I felt my throat again.  There was no perceived obstruction.  I could swallow normally, freely.  I had my throat back!

This weekend, I was around chemicals which started it up all over again in the throat.  Today, however, the throat has come down.  My knees/legs/feet, while still holding inflammation, are performing significantly better.  My knees aren't cracking and I'm able to walk up and down stairs much more normally.  The muscles of the knees are now weak, because the knees had been so full and stiff for so long, the muscles couldn't even operate.  But today, I'm doing chores!  I've been sleeping much more normally.

I haven't yet taken the supplement I was advised to take.  I'll tell you why.  I wanted -- indeed, needed -- to see what the acupuncture had accomplished all on its own.  I approach new interventions logically.  Yes, I want to feel better.  But I also want to know exactly what each piece of the intervention is capable of doing, taken alone.  I'll be working up to taking the supplement I'm supposed to be taking.

This is what the acupuncture did for me, all by itself:

1)  It helped me to feel my fatigue once again (I wasn't feeling it because my adrenal system was running in highest gear, all out of whack), and to sleep like a normal person.  The acupuncture calmed down the whole system and reset it at a lower level, a calmer level.  The calming effect began right away, while the needles were in.  It would have been nice to take a nap right there.  That was the goal, and it worked.

2)  I can feel my body finally able to help itself a bit.  After being exposed to polyurethane over the weekend -- and now that I think of it, the smell had been wafting upward to the upper levels of the building I was in for over an hour before I entered the actual room that contained it on the floors -- I felt physically sickened and discombobulated and could only sleep a few hours that night.  As a chemical reaction progresses, I always feel a "cap" on my appetite, as though something "plastic" has settled upon and within me.  It's a nearly queasy and sometimes outright queasy feeling.  This is a signal to me, always, that digestion cannot happen and that I'm in this reaction "for the long haul."  When digestion freezes and appetite cannot be felt, that, for me, is always "phase 1."  "Phase 1" was definitely occurring. 

As the reaction reached its peak, I felt completely undone yesterday, from a central nervous system perspective; but today, I'm doing unusually well.

3)  My knees aren't full to the point of crackling.  I can walk up the stairs and the knees -- although the muscles around them are now very weak from having been frozen in place due to swelling -- are moving normally.

4) I'd been barely able to eat, but now I'm eating a little bit more.  While I can only take in a little bit of food at a time, I can feel hunger again.

This is all wonderful and amazing to me.  I'm so grateful.  I hope to feel better and better and to help others by recounting this experience.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn


*(1) "If a person has a high body burden of lead, mercury, or other heavy metals, those heavy metals are thought to contribute to the development or aggravation of MCS."  Quote from Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine, June 26, 2013.
 
**(2) I do not delve, myself, into what are termed the "spiritual" aspects of any alternative treatments.  I strictly focus upon the biological realities utilized in those treatments which I believe have a sound scientific basis.  I hope, each time, that alternative medicine is really onto something scientifically based and effective with this or that promising procedure.

From the Outside

Hello, Friends,

LOL, this just caught my eye:  "Meet the Nasa employee whose job it is to sniff everything before it goes into space" - by Christopher Hooton, The Independent (UK), July 2, 2014.

So that's what it looks like from the outside!

Check this out --  I wrote it back in 2011:


Book Troubles (or Strong Scents Clinging to Paper - The MCS Files)

I'm reading a story about a girl whose boyfriend broke up with her because she was reading a book at a funeral.  Prior to that, she'd walked into a lamppost while reading.  Reading while cooking, she'd accidentally started a kitchen fire.

As for myself, I was caught sniffing a book Saturday at the library, checking for absorbed scents too strong to bring home.  The pretty, petite librarian clicked by happily in her high heels when I heard -- and saw, out of the corner of my eye -- the sudden catch in her step.  It was then that I realized the book in my hand was still held up to my nose.

She picked up speed again, thankfully . . . . .


It's a way of life.   :)

Cheers!

~ Carolyn