Multiple chemical sensitivity

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Multiple chemical sensitivities, also known as environmental intolerances, is a poorly understood and often disputed syndrome which is described using the following criteria:

  • The symptoms are reproducible with repeated chemical exposure;
  • the condition is chronic;
  • low levels of exposure (lower than previously tolerated) result in manifestations of the syndrome;
  • the symptoms improve or resolve when the incitants are removed;
  • responses occur to multiple chemically unrelated substances; and
  • symptoms involve multiple organ systems.[1]

Genetic basis

People diagnosed using the 1999 consensus statement criteria[1] have significant differences in some drug-metabolizing enzymes and other enzymes involved in detoxication.[2] These findings, which require replication, point to an unequivocal somatic and toxic basis to multiple chemical sensitivities.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 (1999) "Multiple chemical sensitivity: a 1999 consensus". Arch. Environ. Health 54 (3): 147–9. PMID 10444033[e]
  2. McKeown-Eyssen G, Baines C, Cole DE, et al (2004). "Case-control study of genotypes in multiple chemical sensitivity: CYP2D6, NAT1, NAT2, PON1, PON2 and MTHFR". International journal of epidemiology 33 (5): 971–8. DOI:10.1093/ije/dyh251. PMID 15256524. Research Blogging.