Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Treatment programs for Multiple Chemical Sensitivity usually involve a variety of measures to reduce a patients’ body toxic load. Sweat therapy is a particularly effective way to accomplish this and is utilized at leading treatment facilities such as the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas (Dr. William Rea, MD) and the Northeast Environmental Clinic in New York ( Dr. Sherry Rogers, MD).

The vast array of chemicals to which we are exposed can be categorized as either water or fat soluble (dissolving in either water or oil). While our bodies are reasonably competent at metabolizing and excreting water soluble chemicals, we are far less capable of eliminating fat soluble compounds from our system. As a result, fat soluble toxins (which account for the majority of environmental toxins) are deposited in the fat components of our bodies.

Given that the membrane of each of our trillions of cells is comprised of fat, these toxins can reside in most organs and systems of the body including the brain and nervous system. This process of toxin retention is known as ‘bio-accumulation’. Toxins, however, are not permanently bound within our fatty tissues but instead tend to recirculate in our bodies creating an endogenous exposure; a ‘poisoning from within’ effect. This re-circulation occurs in response to everyday events such as emotional stress, raised body temperature, exercise, and the fast we experience each night while sleeping. The circulating toxins can be damaging to whatever organs and body systems they target. According to Theron G. Randolph, MD, author of ‘An Alternative Approach to Allergies - The New Field of Clinical Ecology Unravels the Environmental Causes of Mental and Physical Ills’, these circulating toxins can produce a variety of symptoms including headaches, tiredness, mental confusion and lack of acuity, irritability, memory loss, cold or flu-like symptoms, skin disorders, and musculoskeletal pains.

Dr. Randolph has suggested that:
“ The intermittent release of fat stored toxins may explain why a significant proportion of chemically susceptible patients do poorly even when they manage to control their environment and minimize chemical exposures. The endogenous chemicals seem to be causing acute reactions which are both confusing and frustrating to the person who is consistently watching his or her exogenous exposures.”

He recommends:
“ ...the optimum treatment for patients found to be reacting to endogenous chemical exposure is detoxification therapy aimed at reducing levels of fat-stored chemicals.”
Sweat therapy using saunas has been extensively researched and shown to be effective at lowering levels of fat soluble chemicals. One study observed an average reduction of 21.3% of 16 different chemicals in adipose tissue samples following sauna therapy.

Interestingly, a follow up measurement four months after completion of the sauna program detected an average reduction of 42.4% for the same 16 chemicals. This post-treatment reduction has led some physicians to speculate that the program was rehabilitating for the body’s natural mechanisms of elimination.

Dr. Zane Gard, MD, has concluded that sauna therapy certainly does provide this rehabilitating effect. Dr. Gard developed the Bio-Toxic Reduction Program, and reported on dozens of patients’ case histories who experienced significant reductions in body toxin levels and improvements in a wide array of medical conditions. (Measuring for chemicals such as DDE, xylene and toluene, he detected blood toxin reductions between 70 and 99%).

He states that:
“ The procedure not only significantly reduced body burdens of persistent toxic substances, but subsequently enhanced the body’s ability to neutralize the effects of many toxins, significantly reducing the rate of continued bio-accumulation.”

Gard’s conclusions regarding the effects of sauna therapy have important implications for the treatment of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS):
" Sauna detoxification can reduce patients’ reactive symptoms to external toxic exposures and to endogenous exposures resulting from the process of internal recirculation."

Sherry Rogers, MD utilizes sweat detoxification for the treatment of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity at the Northeast Environmental Clinic in New York and comments:
“ What is the best way to get rid of toxic chemicals including pesticides, heavy metals and hydrocarbon residues?"
The Far-InfraRed Sauna. ...I’m convinced that the Far-InfraRed Sauna is something everyone should do to restore health and then continue to do on a less frequent basis to maintain the ‘cleaned'....