Question:
There is so much I wish to share about the food sensitivities my mother has. But what I want to share is her escalating issues with blood pressure problems after certain chemical exposures, mostly fragrance related, but also the anestia propofol. She becomes incoherent, she gets tremors and her blood pressure shoots to well over 200. She has been hospitalized a dozen times over the past year and a half. She gave the prescribed BP medications a chance for nearly a year, but they caused such terrible side effects and did nothing to keep the BP down after an exposure. Her BP stays at reasonable levels without the medications unless she gets an exposure. The hospital staff usually diagnose her with anxiety or hypertension because they refuse to believe her high BP is caused by a chemical exposure. It’s an exceedingly frustrating situation.
Answer:
It would be very frustrating for your mum and you to have very high blood pressure as her symptom! It is rare compared to reactions to chocolate but even that reaction is not well accepted! And it is hard for your mum to stay away from environmental chemicals when she cannot be certain which are a problem, nor what will come into her environment.
Like other chemically sensitive people she is probably sensitive to her particular group of chemicals. The good news is that many environmental smells are chemically similar to smells in food. They both have what is called an aromatic structure chemically. So if she lowers the smells: aromatic substances in her environment and in her food –her system will cope better with the uncontrollable environmental ones. Aromatic structures includes food flavours, but also artificial colours and many preservatives, and chemicals called salicylates, and amines, and even MSG, which is a flavour enhancer.
As part of all diet investigation it is necessary to minimise all products that have any smells, such as nail polish remover, mint toothpaste and any perfumed flowers.
I developed the idea of the Total Body Load. It shows all the factors that food chemical sensitive people react to. [The detail is explained in my book Are You Food Sensitive?] The important outcome of this is the idea that the more she lowers suspect food chemicals the better she will cope with environmental ones. From a chemical point of view smells in food do not appear to be as strong as some environmental ones, but they have to go into her metabolic system and need to be broken down and the end products excreted. This is often called ‘detoxification’. While the body is managing aromatic food chemicals the extra load of environmental chemicals is just too much.
When your mum goes through the diet detective process which I have developed she will become good at knowing what foods and environmental smells are a right for her.
People’s symptoms to food vary greatly, so to see what I have found about the role of smells causing a wide variety of symptoms you can read the free Article ‘What’s smell go to do with it?’
I wish you well in supporting your mother through this diet investigation process that may make a big difference to your lives.
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