Does anyone else here experience strong chemical sensitivity - to chemical cleaners, fragrances, perfumes, laundry detergents...? I guess I always had it to some extent, but in the past year it's gotten more intense as I've become healthier (I'm long-term 100% raw, but I've been healthier this year.) I can't stand to be anywhere near a place that something has been sprayed (windex, cologne, conventional deoderant..) and now twice in the past year I've followed my old pattern of buying new clothes/sandals, only to find that the toxic factory chemicals (formaldehyde, urea resins...) burn my skin so much that I can't wear them at all, so I have to go with either organic or used. I already hated those chemicals, but now they attack me.
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Ohhh yes. I'm UBER sensitive to sulfites now that I have went raw. And, sulfites are in everything! I remember continuously getting out of the shower and I would be blotchy from head to toe and couldn't figure out what was wrong, then later did a wine walk with a friend, and my mouth, tongue and throat got all tingly and itchy and (this is going to sound really wierd) but my stomach itself (like on the inside, not my skin) felt itchy and burny and tingly too, and then had a couple other just bizarro incidences and finally connected-the-dots back to sulfites. Since then, I've tried to be really aware but it's not always easy with all the info the FDA allows companies to hide in their ingredient list.
That is terrible about sulfites - I'm very glad that the things I react to have no way of ending up inside my food, though it is bad enough how chemicalized the human world is. It is good that you don't live in Hawaii, as the volcano here is periodically spewing out tons of sulfur dioxide gas which spreads all over the island.
Strong perfumes make me nauseated especially those plug in air fresheners
ME TOO, to the max. I just went through a stand off with my boss and the candle she insisted on burning. It's an antique store, and I only work there one day a week, but as you know these things build up on the walls and items. Candles are actually as toxic as cigerettes, as they are burning petroleom oil. soy are only a bit better. (I won btw ;), the 2nd time (yeap, she actually said she was testing me to see if I noticed, that time my husband had to get involved). anyway, for me with Hep C my liver can't assimulate as well as others so it has a fit when it smells danger, and I get really angry too. It also can be caused by excessive candida, which is still a sign ones liver is clogged. Or is it that when one's body gets cleaned out it just says "NO MORE". not sure, but I so feel your pain. also those plugs ins (That I also had to fight her on) are just poisens that to some smell good. and they put a drug in there to make you addicted to them. and my neighbor boys decided it would be cool to hang out in there front porch (that faces our home) and smoke...oh just kill me now. Sometimes I have to close the window on the other side of the house. Or I wear my gas mask (I paint furniture so need one) to go to my car, just to make a point too) I have asked them to stop as I tell them with Hep C it makes me really sick. They have been our nighbors for 18 years too. sorry to say they are loosing their home though.....well, not that sorry. OH, and the name of my bosses perfume that I had to ask her not to wear: "Poisen".....no comment needed ;) But I sure hope going raw will help this hypersensitivity.
Since I started eating healthy I have become a LOT more sensitive to products! I think as well, when they get into our pores they continue into our bloodstream - so for us with such a diet and sensitivity to food we are equally as likely to find toxins reaching us a different way.
I admit I use perfume. I shamelessly wear expensive stuff because when you buy big bottles of cheap perfume, the bulk of it is crap and (I often find) irritable to my skin.
The same is with washing powder, big boxes of washing powder are useless only about 2% of the powder actually does anything.
I did two years of training in Makeup - two years of having makeup lathered into my skin and irritating it! I had allsorts of glues painted across me and seeping into my pores - it was disgusting. So now I'm a Vegan Makeup artist and I use mineral and gentle makeup.
Oh and my skin care is all organic and free from parabens and sulfites! This helps an awful lot.
Misseyme, I don't know exactly why I've become more sensitive, but it seemed to be accompanied by positive shifts for me, so I hope it doesn't indicate a serious health condition. It is so terrible, the games people will play, to 'test you' or assume that this or that 'won't count.' If you were in a wheelchair, would your boss add a few stairs to the ramp in order to 'test if you would notice?' I'm so glad I'm not exposed to ciggerette smoke ever.
I agree that the plugins are terrible - I don't know why people want to go out of their way to pollute perfectly good air - and those chemical scents do not make things 'fresher.' I remember years ago when I was in college a few times I went through the horror of finding the only seat available was behind someone drenched in a horribly strong perfume.
Thanks, threnody ! I appreciate that analagy. So many times I see how people are so sensitive to someone that has had chemo, they loose their hair, and have a walk-a-thon. (not to say people that are going chemo don't have their own demons to deal with) Me sick for 10 years and people think it's o.k. to test me. I guess it's cuz I look normal, they see me when I have good days and can't wrap their brain around what I go through. But the sad thing is, I have known her for 5 years, she knows. But she apologized and hopefully, this time she learned her lesson. Thank you for your understanding, I am going to use that analgy with my SIL as well.
and feel your pain as well, yeah, it's hard behind someone in line sometimes at the grocery store. So I just stand back until they are gone. There is one store, sew & vac...they have some awful stuff for people's vacumms. I wear my gas mask in there as they are the only place in 70 miles that has the thread I use for my sewing machine. I can tell they don't like it, but too bad.