Fixing What Can Be Fixed - The First Step

Hello, Friends,

Today begins a new journey.  I'm hoping to be feeling much better soon.  Cured of my chemical sensitivity?  Probably not.  But feeling much, much better.

Forced by circumstance to see a physician for a note of exemption due to my chemical sensitivity, I chose an alternative physician -- a true M.D. -- of excellent repute.  I learned yesterday that I've been barking up the right tree, taking my Liquid Kelp iodine.  I need more!  My thyroid, the physician believes, is running on "low."  This has caused systemic discombobulation.

Now, I have the blessing of being supervised in my iodine dosage.  I'm to increase it a bit, very gradually to avoid detox reactions.  As for dairy and gluten -- I was told I must do without.  All dairy -- cow, goat, and sheep.  This was as I had suspected -- but one doesn't want to embark on a program of considerable self-denial without being absolutely sure it's necessary.  This physician was absolutely sure.  I also have my own vivid recollection to consult on this point.  When I did without dairy for a few years back in the late 1990's, I was slim without any effort and had the vibrant energy of a 12-year old returned to me.  And that was just the elimination of dairy -- no total gluten elimination, and no supplemental iodine.  Apparently, I've been iodine-deficient since the 1990's, at least.  That's a long time for the thyroid gland to starve. 

I ate my last morsels of gluten last night. 

The elimination of gluten and dairy, to which I'm apparently sensitive, will serve the function of allowing my immune system to revive in a more normal manner.  The elimination of both antagonizing food groups should have an anti-inflammatory effect.  I've become physically reactive left and right -- hives for touching wheat, hives for touching plastics, hives for walking into a scented room.  I, who characteristically had such low blood pressure that I nearly passed out and was more than once advised to ingest more salt, had a reading of high blood pressure yesterday.  This is very bad.  I mentioned a few posts back that I felt a racing heartbeat after exposure to scented fumes from a dryer vent.  I suppose that's now a truly dangerous thing, seeing that my baseline heart rate and blood pressure are running high at present.  Things are really off the track.

I'm on inflammatory, toxic overload.  The overload is so comprehensive, so vast, that to try to specify precisely which food -- or which chemical -- is causing a particular bout of hives is utter insanity.  The entire body load of poorly metabolized food toxins, to start with, must be dramatically reduced.  The hives, themselves, are no catastrophe.  They have been, however, a red flag of persistent systemic imbalance.

The silver lining -- and the very good news, to me -- is that my posts on this blog have been running in an accurate direction.  The iodine is truly needed and helpful to me, the heart (judging by my elevated pulse and blood pressure) is truly a concern -- especially in the face of chemical exposures which affect it adversely.  And detoxing from foods that are harming me is an urgent need.

So what began as a dreaded medical appointment, yesterday, turned into the greatest blessing.  The doctor and staff were perfectly cheerful and kind.  The office was overwhelmingly peaceful.  The advice was calm and clear.

I write this post for you, today, to provide an update to my earlier posts on these topics, and specifically for any others out there who might benefit from looking into these things for themselves, with their own medical practitioners.

And now that I've written this down, I must find the strength to adhere to it.  One day at a time.  It's the only way.

Cheers!

~ Daisies

Update on "Iodized"

Hello, Friends,

During my first few days of taking iodine drops, my chemical sensitivity lessened vastly.  Let me mention here, before I forget, that there is an accompaniment to my iodine supplementation; namely, the grey-colored Celtic sea salt.  I've been using Celtic sea salt every single day since I began the iodine supplementation -- even on days when I've refrained from the iodine supplementation.  The Celtic sea salt contains trace minerals which are simply not available to the body from processed, iodized salt.  These trace minerals are necessary to balance out the body's levels of electrolytes, blood sugar, hormones, and nutrients.

While I was still fortified with the liquid iodine, I spent over an hour in a dentist's office in which scented paraffin candles are burned when I'm not there.  Later that day, I entered a public building where there were pervasive and strong VOC's in the air from a new industrial cleaning solution.  From there I went to two supermarkets, both of which had aerosol "cinnamon/nutmeg" fall scents in the air from the front entrance inward.  The scent in one of the supermarkets was so strong, I went in one door and out the other immediately.  

I waited for that headache to come.  In the meantime, my face grew red hot and rashy for an evening.  It was so red hot and rashy that I forgot about the fact that there was no headache.  Three days later, I realized that I had not had to take a single ibuprofen tablet after that considerable chemical onslaught.  This was so amazing as to be nearly unbelievable to me.

I then stopped taking the iodine, because I'm hesitant about plowing forward aggressively.  By the next afternoon -- four days after the big, multi-chemical onslaught, I did get a migraine from laundry fragrances on people's clothes that same morning and afternoon.  But I hadn't taken the iodine.  Worth mentioning, however, is that this migraine behaved rather nicely:  It permitted me to nip it in the bud with a single ibuprofen tablet.  (That's what I consider a "good" migraine.)  So, all things considered, I seemed to have been still cruising along on the benefits of my iodine "upswing."

Then, this past Sunday, still doing without the iodine because my energy level was quite reasonable (I also wanted to learn how far a bit of iodine could take me), I met up with a monster fragrance on an acquaintance.  This fragrance was so severe, it filled half the room.  I suspected, also, that there were other hidden chemical antagonists in that same room.  It felt, to me, as though it was an extremely "sick" room.  A "feverish" room.  I rarely encounter this type of interior "climate."

I'd already had a migraine brewing by the time I met up with the monster fragrance in the "feverish" room.  With the monster fragrance and the "feverish" room added to the picture, however, the migraine increased in intensity minute by minute.  I began to sweat and feel sick all over, and I thought I would just pass out or fall over from the pain in my head.

I didn't.  But that headache, all told, was over 24 hours long and required four separate doses of ibuprofen.  I've been "draggy" and mentally sluggish ever since.  Still, I wanted to be sure I didn't need the ibuprofen when I resumed the iodine.  (Just a precaution against instigating hives.)

Now, however, my energy level is slipping, I feel poorly without the iodine, and I'm going to begin taking it again.

Here's hoping my anecdotal reports on this topic will help clarify what supplemental iodine can do for a chemically sensitive person.

Cheers!

~ Carolyn

Iodized

Hello, Friends,

It's been a very strange journey.  This post is purely anecdotal thus far, as I have neither thought through nor researched the possible science behind my present "upswing" --

Having become inundated with fluid, I looked up a topic I dread:  thyroid disorders.  To my dismay, I saw that I had most, if not all, of the symptoms of a thyroid imbalance.  I was advised about 10 years ago by a very effective alternative physician to take supplemental iodine for a subclinical thyroid disorder (deficiency state).  I resisted experimenting with the iodine, at the time, because I'd recently had a bad bout of benign cardiac arrhythmia which had sent me to the emergency room for two scary injections of adenosine to reset the heart rhythm.  I feared that the addition of iodine to my system might set off new arrhythmias if I got the dosage wrong.

But now, with all of this fluid to truck around in my body plus the debilitating weakness, mysterious breathlessness, and fatigue which have accompanied it, I've been getting arrhythmias, anyway!  The arrhythmias can occur as a compensation mechanism to offset poor oxygenation.  Obviously, for some reason, my oxygenation was poor.  So, having tried all sorts of iron supplementation and having failed to improve . . . 

I asked someone I knew who has benefited from iodine what kind of iodine she's been taking.  The product is "Natural Factors" Liquid Kelp drops.  I gathered up my courage and took my first drop (800 mcg of iodine).  Almost one whole drop, that is.  (I go slowly with supplementation, as I do, in fact, with many things . . .)

Now how do you take "almost" one drop?  Where there's a will, there's a way:  the spoon method.  I put one drop on a spoon and took almost the whole thing.  And there you have it!  I'm now taking one drop per day.  I'll see what happens with one drop per day for a while.  If I find that I need more improvement, I'll inch my way toward taking two drops per day.  I have read that women in Japan ingest more than 13 mg of iodine per day in seaweed, to the great benefit of their health:

Iodine: Its Role In Health and Disease - Some New Exciting Concepts (by Michael B. Schachter, M.D., 2005)

I got one bout of hives, yesterday, after taking the iodine for two days.  But I get so many hives now from so many things, I'm relieved that I don't have to attribute the hives to the iodine (a possible side effect) -- especially since they'd occurred over 12 hours after my last dose.

I read, in fact, that a thyroid disorder predisposes the body to allergies.  Which has, indeed, happened with me over the past year or two.  I'm not speaking here of my more "typical" chemically sensitive reactions, but of those more "allergic-like" bouts of hives from touching plastic and whatnot (bizarre -- yes!).

The good news is this:  I've had much more energy over the past couple of days.  The breathlessness has vanished.  As is usually the case when a supplement begins to work for the better, my chores have been "getting done of their own accord."  I don't have to think about getting up from the chair.  Suddenly, I'm just up and moving.  I'm up and down the stairs and I'm not mysteriously dying from the effort.  I go up -- I go down.  It's simple.  But it wasn't so simple for many, many months!  I'd been taking iron and iron and more iron -- to no avail.

Now, I'm moving again!  But looking around at all I couldn't do before . . . now this takes courage.  There is so much to do!  

Here is the big anecdotal "perk":  My chemical sensitivity has been noticeably better over the past several days.  I don't know why.  But this is truly the case.

Does this have something to do with the supplemental iodine, with "feeding" the thyroid what it seems to want, with balancing out the hormonal system?  And will I last with the iodine without side effects?  

I hope so.  I really hope so.  Because this is looking -- and feeling -- very good.

Please, if anyone has anything to contribute on the topic of toxic injury/chemical sensitivity, thyroid disorders, and iodine supplementation, I -- and perhaps others -- would very much appreciate your knowledge and ideas.  

Cheers!

~ Carolyn