Multiple Chemical Sensitivity:

2004 -- MCS -- The Poisoned Web, By Don Paladin

The obstacles to understanding Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) provide mankind an opportunity to extend its knowledge about health and scientific issues. It also provides us all an opportunity to learn to listen to the wisdom of our bodies as we interact with the nature around us. As a former educator, the issues of learning and understanding become the context through which I filter the issue of chemical injury. We need to recognize the problems before we can find a solution There are a variety of perspectives on this issue. This paper has mine. Once we come to accept that although there may be some psychological overlay to MCS, it is an affect, the symptoms, of reactions to acute and/or low level chemical exposures. I attempt to explain what I see as the problems in preventing understanding of the issues and then suggest some explanations and direction for action. Ultimately, open, independent search for truth and understanding about chemical injury will be beneficial to us all.

2000 -- MECHANISMS OF ACTION OF ADDICTIVE STIMULI, Toxicant-induced loss of tolerance, By Claudia Miller

Abstract
Drug addiction and multiple chemical intolerance (abdiction) appear to be polar opposites—the former characterized by craving and dependency, the latter by aversion. However, when the two are viewed in juxtaposition similarities emerge, revealing a common underlying dynamic, one which appears to be a new paradigm of disease. TILT, or toxicant-induced loss of tolerance, bridges the gap between addiction and abdiction and has the potential to explain a variety of illnesses, including certain cases of asthma, migraine headaches and depression, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and “Gulf War syndrome”. This paper argues that both addiction and chemical intolerance involve a fundamental breakdown in innate tolerance, resulting in an amplification of various biological effects, particularly withdrawal symptoms. While addicts seek further exposures so as to avoid unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, chemically intolerant individuals shun their problem exposures, but for the same reason—to avoid unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. These observations raise critical questions: do addictive drugs and environmental pollutants initiate an identical disease process? Once this process begins, can both addictants and pollutants trigger symptoms and cravings? TILT opens a new window between the fields of addiction and environmental medicine, one
that has the potential to transform neighboring realms of medicine, psychology, psychiatry and toxicology.