I want to post here a summary of my finding and progress in my fight against Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Celiac disease and leaky gut syndrome. I think it important, MCS is more or less a mysterious hopeless worsening sickness. Anyone who beat it should share his (her) experience for the other! And I’m beating it, I think
My health worsen slowly for many year without knowing what it was, but thanks to the internet I discovered in March (2009) that I had MCS. In my case it took about 12 years to go from benign to painful. Then I somehow discovered that car pollution made it worse. It has been almost 18 years now!
About MCS I already said a lot there. I’m taking Martin Pall’s tablet, I think they help, I think they would be necessary for a while (as MCS maintain itself as he explains so well in his book). But while Martin Pall explain how the sickness worsen and the sensitivity increases he doesn’t explain the ultimate causes as to why it started in the first place. Although he has some hypothesis, such as nutrient deficiency which seems to be spot on in my case.
Fact is, once I knew I had MCS I checked a local doctor who knew about it (and here I should thanks the pharmacist who directed me to this doctor, I learn then that it pays to ask your pharmacist!). This local doctor had me take a blood test, and I was all good except for a slight reaction to gluten. I had a weak case of celiac disease. This doctor told me that MCS often starts with Gluten and/or casein intolerance. Casein a protein in milk and, just so you know, casein intolerance is different from lactose intolerance.
It should be noted that celiac disease often damage the gut and lead to, amongst other thing, “digestive problem” where food is not digested (hence nutrient deficiency mentioned earlier) and undigested food goes into the blood stream (which cause all sorts of other problem).
At first I ignored him but, as I was still not well, (despite me taking Martin Pall’s tablet) and worse I still had huge, unexplained and sudden variation in my well being I started to pay attention to my food and reduce gluten.
It helped! but it was not enough!
I realized there was more than gluten that was harmful to me.
On a web page I can’t find anymore I found about Leaky gut syndrome with some food to avoid (some of them was food I discovered didn’t agree me). It also said to avoid “food you are allergic to”, while it’s rather unspecific I had recently read an article in New Scientist about how the body could acquire allergies. Leaky gut cause the same nutrient deficiency as gluten intolerance but much more acutely! I think it’s what I have and had in the first place, I think it is the ultimate cause of my sickness.
Anyway, after 4 month of painful experimentation I found a rather complete list of food which contribute to my problem (gluten: definitely, vinegar: definitely, milk: yes but curiously cheese and ice cream are alright, soy bean and sauce: definitely, peppermint tea: definitely)(and I can’t have most chilly paste made with vinegar, but I have no problem with sweet chilly (also with vinegar), strange but true).
Since then I avoid them and my conditions greatly (and slowly) improved. I’m almost well at work now! And I moved to a more urban place which was initially painful but is alright now. And I had no more mysterious variation in my pain level.
Even better, suddenly, 3 weeks ago, I started to be less hungry and my compulsive eating reduced greatly. Probably I was a compulsive eater because of I was malnourished hey!
Well that’s almost all but I think there is an easy way to check out if you have leaky gut. Well this is something which I deduce by myself and seems reasonable but I’m no doctor so take it with a grain of salt. As it started when I was a kid (I think now) and came very progressively I didn’t realize it at first, but I think my poo was not right. It was quite sticky and thin. It’s not how it should be, it should look like a fat sausage and be a bit dry and not sticky. I didn’t know it was not right as it happen so slowly it seems natural, but in retrospect I think that’s a good waning sign that something was not quite right in my gut and I (and anyone else) should pay attention to that!