The Power...

Scent free people ROCK!

People who wear perfume are toxic, not quite as toxic as if you were wearing it yourself, but similar to us  breathing passive smoke from the smoker so too do we all breathe in passive toxins from perfumes others wear.  In a recent trip to the shops in the New Year I found myself stood in a queue waiting to exchange some goods, in front was a women wearing perfume, so I stood well back.  Behind was a man wearing aftershave, who insisted on standing as close a possible as if he was going to lose him place in the queue.  After 30 mins we finally got to the tills and exchanged our goods, and I heaved a sigh of relief only to be grated by second hand smoke as we left the shop.

On regular occasions I practice holding my breath, usually as we pass the smokers to enter the supermaket or if I have to brave the toxic isle, but there are certain times when it just plain doesn't work.

So.. I found this saying and it's one that I think I will use a lot.  "Scent free people rock!"  Go scent free if you care about yourself, and go scent free if you care about others.

Click here for more brilliant bumper stickers.

Earthing

Today has been better.  Not in terms of my work, but just in general.  I now have a little ioniser on my desk at work, hidden at the back so that no one can notice.  As my other half said, it's a bit like trying to put out a fire with a teaspoon of water, but maybe it will help.  I had to have my window open all day so that I could at least get some fresh air too.  But it didn't really work, I still felt sick to my stomach.

My earthing starter kit has arrived.  Earthing is about re-connecting yourself with the earth, which then remove all static electricity.  There are copious amounts of studies with such good results that I figured it was worth a try.  You can achieve the same effect by walking bare foot outside, but whist it is winter I figured I would go for the easier option. So I went for the sleep mat, which you can get for around £99 from various places, and they make plugs UK, Europe, USA and Canada.

I will keep you posted if I think it has made any difference at all.  I certainly feel more relaxed as I am earthed right now via a little wrist band too, but if that is placebo I don't know.

Manicure and pedicure.

I had decided to have a manicure and pedicure for my step-daughter's wedding in July 2011. I had to fit the day in before the wedding as I was having my hair cut and styled on the day. So four days before the wedding my friend and I went along and had a lovely morning chatting together while our nails were being groomed. They looked fantastic. I was over-joyed to have nails looking good. This was my first proffessional nail job in over sixty years!

However, about an hour or so after the nails had been finished I got a headache.... not a slight one but a big major headache, that stayed with me for over two days. Added to that my head came up in bumps! When I went along to the hairstylist on the day of the wedding I had to apologise in advance for my lumpy head that I had brought on by having my nails manicured. The lumpy head stayed with me for weeks, but wasn't noticeable to anyone other than myself.

That is one experience that I will NOT be repeating.

Early days

As Bubblegirl's mum I can tell you that life in the early days was not easy. She was age seven when I finally had taken her to a homeopatic doctor...along with her eight year old sister. We found out she was allergic to many many things. Her sister was allergic to none. Bubble girl was allergic to chicken, eggs, beef, milk, dust, tar derivatives, and much much more. What to feed her was my first challenge! We had so much to avoid!!! However within days of avoiding allergic foods she was sleeping through the night!!!

Big believer

I've always known that certain foods make me ill, it wasn't until later in my life after I had rebelled against my body, fed it a host of foods poisonous to it, alcohol and abused my visual and mental environments that I realized the opposite it also true.  Certain foods can heal.

I was about 16 when read my first nutrition book - The Vitamin Bible and I read it from cover to cover, thinking that everything I needed could be obtained from a supplement and therefore I didn't need to eat any more and could remain skinny.

My Mum, armed with much more knowledge had consulted a homeopatic doctor when I was very young, and that was the discovery of the cause of my chronic asthma, sleepless nights, bad eczema, dry skin, irritability, mood swings and migraine headaches, to name only a few of the challenges we faced everyday.  But to me it seemed like a prison sentence and when old enough that my parents could no longer control what I ate or did, I rebelled living on a diet of dairy, eggs, and alcohol.

Tired, lethargic and fed up, I realized I had to do something, and began reading more and more nutrition books and medical studies.  Even at my worst, eating very little, hating my body for putting me through this, and drinking every night, I was always on the look out for the pathway to pure health.

I'm still on my journey, I try to lead as normal a life as possible and I try to keep this under wraps so that only those close to me know the full extent of how the environment seems to effect me a lot more then most people.  My condition is by no means as chronic as it used to be and is far better than a lot of those suffering with MCS.  I believe this is because I do my best to keep it in check. 

So this year I'm on a mission to eat a lot more raw food, eat vegan, and be healthy!

My chemical sensitivity

I have tried to highlight this as bullet points for easy reading.

• I've always been sensitive to certain toxic chemicals right from the day I was born, unlike those whose sensitivity seems to have been triggered by excessive exposure.
• Not all fragrances will give me a headache, but most toxic chemical smells do, and most naturally occurring fragrances don't.  Chemical toxins do not even have to have a fragrance to trigger a reaction to them.  
• My reactions vary from a slight headache to migrane like symptoms, nausea, and serious fatigue where I will need to sleep constantly for 12 or more hours.  Certain toxins like cigarette smoke cause a reaction similar to that of hayfever alongside headaches and nausea.
• Some of my reactions are immediate and others are triggered after prolongued exposure such as sitting by someone wearing perfume for 20 mins or more, other reactions are comletely delayed and occur several hours after I have been expose to a toxin.  Identifying the cause of these reactions if often difficult. 
• I have good days and bad days.  On a good day I can work in my office where people wear perfumed deoderant and only have a slight headache.  On a bad day walking down the cleaning isle of the supermarket will put me in bed for the rest of the day feeling sick with a headache.  The more constant exposure I have the worse my reactions seem to be.  Good days are usually Mondays when I have had a toxin free weekend to recover.
• I also have many allergies to things that are naturally occuring, such as pollen, dust, pet dander, milk (inc. cow, sheep, goat), chicken, eggs.