Total Load Concept

In her book "Chemical Sensitivity" Dr. Sherry Rogers emphasizes the importance of looking at the whole picture of a person's life rather than the symptoms only. Remember the key words: conjugates (chemical groups like glutathione which detoxify the body) and xenobiotics (foreign chemicals). She also emphasizes there is a wide range of individual vulnerability.

"A person with chemical susceptibility can become depleted of conjugates if he persists living in an environment that overburdens his detoxication pathways. The man who has a headache and difficulty concentrating at work when using a particular solvent will be less likely to recover if he has recently painted or carpeted his home. His xenobiotic detoxication capacity may become overloaded and even exhausted."

Dr. Rogers further explains that a diet of alcohol and processed foods will hinder his recovery.

This is why the concept of total load or total body burden is so crucial to recovery and why many of us with severe mold exposure must alter our entire lifestyle in order to heal.

Dr. Rogers takes issue with the traditional medical approach. "You can readily appreciate how parts of the currently operational medical model or paradigm need to be changed in order to successfully treat the victim of chemical sensitivity. Chemical sensitivity does not follow the rules of drug-oriented medicine. Right now, drugs and surgery are the current mainstay of treatment for most diseases. But give a drug (a foreign chemical that is metabolized by the same P-450 system) to a person with an already compromised system, and you make him worse. The already overloaded system is further stressed and new symptoms emerge. So treatment of these patients frustrates physicians."

I love Dr. Rogers' conclusion in this book. It makes a great conclusion for today's entry.

Now is an "exciting time in medicine. For at no other time have patients, through reading and education, had such an important and crucial role in determining their wellness."