Musings about getting recognition

Here in the USA and, I assume, many other countries, MCS is not accepted as a diagnosis by most doctors. However, I have realized that certain aspects of it are. This makes me wonder if calling it a syndrome rather than an illness might help.

One of the problems with getting the mainstream medical community to accept MCS as a diagnosis is that it affects so many different organ systems. Also, it affects different people in different ways. Making it even more complex is the fact that different chemicals can affect one person in different ways. For example, some perfumes give me a headache, some cause nausea, and others give me respiratory symptoms.

Now, here is an example to show what I mean when I say that parts of MCS are accepted: I was having severe sinus symptoms and was sent to an allergist. When I told him that I am chemically sensitive, he responded, "what does that mean?" I explained. He examined me and tested me for common allergens which came out negative. He diagnosed me with chronic non-allergic rhinitis and explained that means that things that I breathe in are causing the symptoms. Then he said that could be where the reaction to fragrance chemicals comes in.

Here's another example: I have asthma. My primary care physician, who does accept MCS, does accept that fragrance chemicals can trigger an asthma attack.

The examples show that mainstream doctors who do not accept MCS do accept that fragrance chemicals can do certain bad things to the human body. If we can put together enough examples of single-system effects like these, maybe we can start to get the medical community to look at this syndrome.