The good, the bad and the ugly…
As I said in my previous blog entry about 1 month ago I started a treatment against my life long chronic condition. Here are the latest update on the topic!
Now I understand better what’s going on so here is a summary.
I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), it has slowly worsen over the course of nearly 20 years. Martin Pall has a theory on how it works. It all start with some undetermined initial stressor of some receptor (possibly some smell receptor and some vanilloid receptor, whatever that is) which, for some reason, trigger an inflammatory response. The brain takes notice and pay more attention to whatever trigger cause the reaction (in my case car exhaust) and start to develop more synapse (hence sensitivity) just for this trigger, which cause more pain, which cause more brain attention.
And there you are, a vicious cycle of brain training / ever increased sensitivity is starting.
Martin Pall treatment is to reduce the Nitrous Oxide cycle, key element in the inflammatory response, hence reducing all the symptoms. And indeed it works. After 29 days taking it I was finally able to spend a whole day at work without any illness related problem (such as pain, heat flushes, brain fog, general unease, great tiredness).
But there are 2 problems:
- The real problem is not the pain but the brain training. Getting rid of the Nitrous Oxide stop the vicious cycle of the brain training, and the brain can start to forget. But it’s likely to take years to forget a 20 years long training. Which brings me to the second problem:
- There are side effects! In my case my muscles started to get stiff, as if I was about to have cramps. And, I think, some light headedness as well. Which makes it difficult in the long term.
I stopped for 5 days. Big mistake! I felt so much worse. Because, you see, the brain training is still there (will be for a long time).
Now is a good time to mention that I should thanks The Environmental Illness Resource web site, created by a fellow sufferer, for putting me on the right track after so many years of hopeless worsening suffering!
In one of my thread how to get rid of the sensitivity in MCS?, on this website’s online forum, Maff (creator of the website) told me that he was able to get rid of MCS, thanks to DHEA, and he has a little theory on why it works (basically DHEA is an hormone which tranquilize the brain). I believe now that DHEA might help to get rid of the brain training “relatively quickly”. I think I’ll try it. (BTW DHEA require a prescription in Australia).
Also I think I’ll reduce some component of the Martin Pall treatment. After much Googling, I decided to reduce the MVM-A from 2 capsule 3 times a day to 1 capsule 3 times a day, will see.
Ho, and the latest element of information. Following Martin Pall own recommendations I tried to get the product from the Allergy Research Group’s website. But it’s only for doctor and they advised Nutricology for patients. And while they do deliver the product, their customer service is a bit clueless and I’m anxiously waiting for a second shipment (this time with DHEA as well) which is quite long to arrive, if it is even on its way! And the UPS tracker link on their order summary page doesn’t seems to work. So I Googled a bit more and found the ProHealth website which also sells Martin Pall products, for much cheaper too! I think they would be my next supplier!
And that’s the latest news! Stay tuned for more news about the fight of one man against an hopelessly crushing sickness finally brought to halt!…