If you are very chemically sensitive, you are best advised not to buy, use or travel in a brand new car. These usually give off high levels of chemical fumes and vapours from new foam, plastics and materials, particularly for the first six months. Many chemically sensitive people will be fine in a new car after six months. Some who are much more sensitive find they can only travel comfortably in a car which is at least two or three years old.
If you are thinking of buying a car, test-drive models and makes of different ages, or travel in friends’ or family’s cars, to see which age of car suits you best. If you ever have to hire a car, ask for one which is of an age that you tolerate well.
Some models and makes of car have fascia, seats and fittings made of materials which are better-tolerated by some people. The Volvo 340 range and the Volkswagen Polo, for instance, seem to be made of different materials; some people feel better in these, although others notice no difference. The Citroen 2CV and Dyane range have very little plastic fascia, and also cause fewer problems. Some people tolerate leather seats better than those of synthetic materials. Again, test-drive or try out different models or makes to see if one suits you better.
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Hard lenses do not absorb fluid in the way that soft lenses do. Even in gas-permeable lenses, only a tiny amount of fluid is taken up by the lens. Preservative-based systems can therefore be used on hard lenses without trouble by the chemically sensitive, since the agent can be thoroughly rinsed off before wearing.
The rinsing solution used is a sterile saline solution sold in ozone-friendly aerosol cans. Some brands of saline are buffered with chemicals that maintain the pH of the solution; these can cause problems. Make sure you are using an unbuffered saline solution – there are half a dozen brands readily available. Ask your optician or pharmacist to check for you if you are not sure which to use.
If you use a surfactant cleaner for your hard lenses, these will be thoroughly removed by overnight soaking and rinsing in saline.
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Burns and Scalds
Cool the area of the burn or scald to relieve pain. Keep the burned area in cold water or hold it under a cold running tap until the pain stops, or for at least 10 minutes. Do not prick or burst any blisters, or apply any ointment or lotion.
If the burn or scald is serious, seek emergency medical help. If the bum or scald is superficial, but rubs against clothing, cover it with a dressing of pure cotton lint and secure it with a cotton bandage. Do not use fluffy cotton wool.
Cystitis
Drinking alkali salts can ease the symptoms of cystitis. Dissolve a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate in a glass of water and drink it. Consult your doctor if you are on a low-salt diet.
Diarrhoea
Taking arrowroot will stop diarrhoea very effectively. You can buy this as a powder at a pharmacy and make a paste by adding water. Consult your pharmacist to get the right dosage.
If you need rehydration salts after severe diarrhoea, do not take any of the proprietary ready-mixed products which can cause reactions. Rehydration salts are a mixture of sodium and potassium salts, and glucose in the right ratio; ask a pharmacist to mix these for you.
Earache
If you tolerate olive oil, warm a teaspoonful of it. Drop it into the ear, then close the earhole with pure cotton wool.
An alternative to this is sodium bicarbonate BPC, which is available in an eardrop solution.
Eyewash
For sore and itchy eyes, use a sterile saline solution to ease the itchiness. Either make a solution yourself, buy Normasol or Steripod in sachets from a pharmacist. Bathe the eyes with the solution in an eyebath, or put a few drops into the eye with a dropper.
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To avoid eating soya, you have to stop eating:
Soya flour
Soya milk
Soya beans
Tofu
Soya oil TVP
Soya sauce
Miso
Soya, in its various forms, is found commonly as an ingredient in processed foods (e.g. pies, bakery, prepared dishes). Read labels to see if any of the above products are mentioned. If a product contains vegetable oil of unspecified nature, it can often be soya oil. Avoid this. If it contains vegetable protein, this is invariably soya, and should be avoided.
Lecithin is sometimes derived from soya and sometimes from eggs; products containing this (e.g. ice cream and margarine) are best avoided to be absolutely sure.
Many breads now contain soya flour as well as wheat flour. You will not know this if you buy unlabelled bread from a local baker or wholefood shop. Check with them as to what ingredients they use. Avoid bread if you are not sure whether it contains soya or not.
If you are chemically sensitive, you may react to the water used to make up processed soya milks rather than soya itself .
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In intra-dermal tests, a higher dose of allergen extract is introduced just under the outer skin using a syringe. A similar weal and flare response within 10-15 minutes indicates a positive reaction. In addition, you may get a late skin reaction – a raised red swollen bump around the test site – about five or six hours later. Sometimes there may be a late skin reaction on the following day.
The infra-dermal test is much less commonly used in the UK than the skin-prick test. It can be painful, it has a slight risk of adverse reaction, and some people feel unwell on testing. It can, however, be useful in that it can detect positive reactions where skin-prick tests have previously been negative.
Patch tests are used to confirm a diagnosis of contact dermatitis – a delayed allergic skin reaction to something you have touched. Patch tests can be very useful in identifying specific things that you can then avoid. Small patches containing a range of common allergens, mostly chemicals, are attached to the skin, usually to the upper back. The sites of the tests are marked on the skin. The patches are left there for 48 hours, and then removed.
The sites are examined for reaction and then left unwashed for a further 48 hours, when the sites are examined once more. A raised red bump at the site of the allergen is an indication of positive reaction. False positives and false negatives can result, so once again patch tests are used mainly to corroborate a case history. You can use patch tests to test specific things you suspect – for instance, a fabric, a leaf or a chemical you use at work or school. You can also do a home version of the patch test for yourself.
Anti-histamine drugs block the release of histamine and can interfere with skin test results. Such drugs should not be taken for several days before testing.
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If you are exceptionally sensitive to resins, wear wool, pure silk or pure synthetics if possible. You can buy resin-free cotton clothes -usually called ‘formaldehyde-free’ – for babies, children and adults. Sources are given below.
You can also find certain kinds of cotton clothes that are much less highly treated than others. These are often well tolerated even if you are sensitive to resins. If you are unable to wear wool, silk or synthetics, and want to have a wider choice of cotton clothing, choose relatively untreated cotton clothing as follows:
Try
Avoid
Take care with
Cotton jersey
Cotton poplin
Brushed cotton
Cotton fleece
Cotton drill
Cotton lawns
Cotton corduroy
Denim
Cotton voiles
Cotton towelling
Easy-care
Knitted cotton sweaters
Permanent Press
Indian cottons
Sanforised
Third World cottons
Wash New Clothes
Resins wash out readily, but not all fabrics or clothes are washed during manufacture, and new clothes can have very high levels of fumes. You can reduce the level to tolerable amounts by washing new clothes before wearing them. If you add a dessertspoonful of sodium bicarbonate to the water, this also helps to neutralise the resins. You may have to wash new clothes several times before you can wear them, but, for virtually everyone, this is sufficient to avoid any major problems. Unless you are extremely sensitive washing clothes well will make resins tolerable.
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Synthetic and latex materials are conventionally described as non-allergenic and are often recommended by doctors in the belief that they do not cause allergy and that house dust mites do not thrive in synthetic materials. This advice is misleading. Synthetic and latex are useful as an alternative to wool and feathers, which commonly cause allergy, but people who are chemically sensitive often react to synthetics and latex (including plastic mattress covers as well as the bedding itself).
Synthetics and latex also harbour dust mites. To thrive, mites need warmth, moisture and human skin, bacteria or moulds as food. Bedclothes, pillows and mattresses of synthetics and latex provide these just as natural materials do. Some synthetic bedding can be washed and this helps in controlling dust mite allergy in that the mite’s faecal pellets (which are for most people the allergens) are washed out. But mites are not themselves killed by washing at the low temperatures necessary for virtually all synthetics. So they can survive the wash and continue producing faecal pellet allergens. Synthetic and latex bedding are therefore not an automatic choice for people with allergies and chemical sensitivity. They are a good choice if you are:
• allergic to wool, feathers, cotton or other natural fibres
• not chemically sensitive
Do not use a plastic or vinyl mattress cover even if you do not react to plastics. It prevents the mattress airing, keeps in damp and aggravates house dust mite problems. Use a small plastic sheet under the area that needs protection against bedwetting.
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If you want to keep a dog, some breeds are reported to be less troublesome than others. Allergy is very idiosyncratic, however, and these may not work for you, so take care. Many people with allergies say that dogs that require a lot of grooming are more likely to cause reactions than dogs that do not, because more hair is shed and more contact is necessary. Dogs that have shorter, wiry hair generally shed more dander than long-haired dogs, but dogs with soft, curly hair, such as small poodles’ are sometimes found to be less provocative.
If you are blind and have to keep a guide dog, it may be best to choose a type of dog that sheds less hair, or needs less grooming, such as curly-coated retrievers, or cross labradors.
Be careful with children and animals at school. Small mammals are often kept in schoolrooms and these may be responsible for your child’s reactions. School cats are also often allowed to roam out of school hours and can leave allergens to upset the exceptionally sensitive. Watch out for the ‘school run’ if your child travels regularly in a car in which dogs travel.
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• Learn all you can about erections and impotence problems by reading this book and talking to your doctor.
• Don’t give up on sexual pleasure even if your partner isn’t interested. Try to maintain physical contact with him, and give yourself pleasure by masturbating.
• Don’t let the problem control your life. Put energy into having some positive experiences. Don’t withdraw from friends, family and activities you enjoy.
• Take care of yourself. This is a difficult, stressful time for you, and you need extra amounts of support— which your partner, preoccupied with his own feelings, is probably unable to give. Talk to a close friend, or seek professional help with coping. Eat well and exercise to combat stress.
• Part of taking care of yourself is recognizing that most cases of impotence have nothing to do with the man’s attraction to his partner. Love may be strong, but it can’t open clogged blood vessels or overcome other physical conditions.
• Examine your attitudes towards erection. One woman said about her husband, “If I can’t give him an erection, I don’t want anything to do with him.” Her insecurity caused a lot of pain for herself and her husband. She was a victim of the myth that her partner’s erection would validate her worth as a woman.
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Lionel, for example, a 54-year-old, could not get an erection after he had surgery to correct severe back pain, because the operation damaged some crucial nerves. Lionel had a very strong relationship with his wife, Terry, and the couple adapted to this situation by expressing warmth and closeness in other ways. But they still felt something was lacking. For seven long years Lionel and Terry lived this way. Doctors told them it was very unlikely that Lionel’s body would heal itself. If Lionel wanted to have intercourse, he had two choices: a penile implant, or the shots.
After some discussion with his wife, Lionel decided to give the shots a try. After all, if the injections didn’t work, he could still have implant surgery. What did he have to lose?
Like some other patients with nerve damage, Lionel was extremely sensitive to the medication. The first injection of only a small dose of the drug brought him a very satisfactory erection— and brought a big smile to Terry’s face.
It took several office visits to determine the best amount of medication for Lionel, and to make sure he didn’t suffer any side effects. Then he and Terry were ready to try the shots at home. Terry was eager to learn the technique, so both of them learned how to give the injections. In fact, the couple later reported that giving the shot had become Terry’s job.
As long as Lionel keeps his regular checkup appointments to make sure the shots are working well for him and not causing any problems, he should be able to continue the shots for an indefinite period of time. But because the injections are so new, at this point we don’t know the possible long-term side effects and complications.
Will the shots provide a permanent solution for patients like Lionel? Right now, it’s just too soon to make such a prediction. As we pointed out earlier, repeated injections can cause scarring in the penis, and scar tissue will not expand like normal tissue. So it’s conceivable that scarring from long-term use of the shots could actually prevent a man from being able to get an erection.
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