- Uncategorized
- January 6, 2010
Allergies & Environmental Illness
by BioVeda of Bethlehem
According to WebMD
Environmental illness can occur when you are exposed to toxins or substances in the environment that make you sick. These health hazards may be found where you live, work, or play.
Maybe you have headaches that only occur on weekends. Or maybe you began to feel sick and got a rash after moving into a newly built home. These symptoms can be caused by exposure to toxins. For example:
Those weekend headaches may be caused by a broken furnace leaking carbon monoxide.
Materials in new buildings may cause nausea and rashes. And the paper that makes up the outside layers of drywall promotes mold growth. Exposure to these molds may cause symptoms and could lead to asthma attacks.
What causes environmental illnesses?
Any amount of exposure to these toxins can cause environmental illnesses. For example:
Chemicals in cigarettes are known to cause lung cancer.
Exposure to asbestos , an insulating material found in some older buildings, can cause tumors, lung cancer, and other diseases.
Wood-burning stoves and poorly vented gas ranges can cause breathing problems.
Unsafe drinking water from a rural well polluted with pesticides or other poisons from a nearby industrial plant could cause allergies, cancer, or other problems.
Certain chemicals in the workplace may cause sterility, mainly in men.
Lead poisoning can cause health problems in children. It can also cause high blood pressure, brain damage, and stomach and kidney problems in adults.
Symptoms of Environmental Illness
Environmental illness is difficult to diagnose and most doctors do not even know what to look for. In addition to the typical allergy symptoms of asthma, congestion, intestinal and skin problems, the symptoms of environmental illness may include a long list of other perplexing problems. One or more of the following symptoms may be present:
puffiness under the eyes
dark eye circles
nose-rubbing
allergic eye wrinkles
red earlobes
red Cheeks
spacey “out-of-it” look
glassy, glazed eyes
eczema or atopic dermatitis
hives or other rashes
skin scratching
wiggly legs
dramatic change in writing
change in speech
increased pulse
change in breathing
increased fatigue
headaches
asthma
throat clearing and clucking
pain in muscles, legs or joints
abdominal pain, gas
nausea, diarrhea, constipation
bladder problems
ear inflammation or chronic ear infections
hearing problems
sinusitis
food cravings
bad breath
facial tic
twitches
moodiness
depression
irritability
hyperactivity
withdrawal
aggression
focus, memory or learning problems
Of course, there can be other reasons for all of the above symptoms, but many doctors do not even consider chemicals, foods or other allergens as a possible cause of a child’s problem. The child could easily be labeled with ADD/ADHD, a learning disability, or any number of diseases. This could set up a child for endless medications and struggle.
Dr. Rapp, author of Is This Your Child? (a NY Times best seller) has written a fully documented, 600 page book entitled Is This Your Child’s World? How You Can Fix the Schools and Homes That Are Making Your Children Sick. This book is a wake-up call for parents, teachers, school administrators, doctors and other health practitioners, including everyone who cares about the future of our children. Is This Your Child’s World? provides detailed information that explains how to approach certain aspects of Environmental Illness, including diagnostic testing and treatment.
Detecting the Source of Environmental Illness
Detecting the source of a child’s problem includes highly detailed record-keeping of symptoms and the substances to which the child has been exposed. Dr. Rapp’s “Big Five” approach is a simple, systematic, inexpensive and fast way to pinpoint exactly what is causing your child’s problem. This involves comparing five variables before and after an exposure. Changes in a child’s behavior, appearance or physiology should alert parents that something has gone wrong. The key question to ask is: What was smelled, eaten or touched just before some change became evident? Compare these five variables before and then ten to sixty minutes after an exposure. Food reactions could take fifteen to sixty minutes to become apparent. A reaction to dust or molds can occur within an hour.
1. How does my child feel, behave, and remember?
2. How does my child look?
3. Is there any handwriting or drawing change?
4. Is there asthma or a breathing problem present?*
5. Is there a change in the pulse rate or rhythm?**
* Use a Peak Flow Meter if wheezing is a problem. Note a drop of over 10 to 15 percent
** Check for a pulse increase over 20 beats per minute or a change in pulse rhythm.
Treatments and Solutions
A new revolutionary treatment called Neurological Stress Reduction Therapy or NSRT provided by an FDA cleared device called The Bax 3000 has been getting to the root cause of chemical, food and enviornmental sensitivities and in many cases completely reversing the sensitivities such that the patient simply does not react with symptoms anymore. Sound interesting, please visit our main website and research for yourself. On our website you may read and watch many testimonials of inspirational success stories.
www.biovedawellness.com
Dr. Rapp also includes five chapters in Is This Your Child’s World? on what we can do about an environmentally sick school or home. She presents answers for air-quality problems, indoor and outdoor chemicals, food and water, lead, asbestos, pesticides and carpet chemicals. There are a wealth of resources provided for protecting the health of our children as well as fast, easy, practical tips for parents, teachers and school administrators.
I completely agree and align myself with Dr. Rapp’s statement: “We urgently need to address these issues by recognizing the causes and removing them, and by more quickly and effectively treating the individuals who have already lost their health and learning ability. We must do this immediately, for the sake of present and future generations.” She goes on to say that our current challenge is much more than increased dust and molds. It’s the “seventy thousand chemicals that presently permeate what we eat, breathe, touch and smell. We can no longer wait for our government to protect us.”
Doris J. Rapp, M.D., FAEM, FAAA, FAAP, is a board-certified environmental medical specialist and pediatric allergist. She was clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the founder of the Practical Allergy Research Foundation in Buffalo, NY and past president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine.
2 Comments