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My body is rebelling against me
Sep. 17th, 2012 06:36 pmI was unhappily surprised yesterday by the discovery of yet another chemical allergy - something that, upon contact with my skin, will make me break out in the most unholy itchy raised bumps. I wonder if its the same thing that's included in most commercial sunscreens.
Ugh.
Let us tally the various known list of things that my body refuses to either come into contact with or allow me to digest/consume safely.
1. Gluten
2. Casein
3. unnamed chemical one
4. unnamed/unknown chemical two
5. unknown chemical three
Once I figured out the first two, and eliminated them from my diet and the products I use (lipstick, shampoo, lotion, etc.) I felt much better. As a matter of fact, when I got rid of the second item (recently) I started getting completely out of the feeling of occasional foggy brain, etc.
Since my last physical I have almost completely eliminated my use of analgesics. Huzzah!
The unknown chemicals are the worst, because the products potentially containing these chemicals aren't required to list their ingredients.
I still am of the opinion that the food allergies related to proteins was probably triggered by a five year period where I was drinking city tap water that was heavily laced with chlorine.
Wastewater Treatment Process
immediately followed by
Drinking Water Treatment Process
Apparently, the apartment I was living in at the time was located relatively close to either of the treatment facilities (at least that was the reasoning that people I talked to then were using) and that was the cause of such high chlorine levels. Maybe the two facilities (pictured above) were back to back and the "effluent" from the waste treatment facility literally poured into the drinking water treatment facility. Look, none of the facilities were so close that I can recall either seeing or smelling them from where I lived, but this was just a supposition that people had. And maybe our treatment facilities over-treated with chlorine at the disinfection stages. Who knows?
BTW: Anyone else notice the overlapping and recurrent use of chlorine in the process? The water I was drinking all through that time period pretty much smelled like pool water when it first came out of the faucet; and there is only so much off-gassing that will occur when you leave jugs of water uncapped on the counter for 48 hours before consumption/refrigeration.
Before anyone can pipe up with "you could've drank bottled water" - those were the "destitute student years" and I couldn't even spare the petrol to go a couple of towns over to fill up drinking containers from the local/free spring water spout. In addition, I know for a fact that my area doesn't have any of the fancy, more expensive technologies in place like reverse osmosis filtering that removes the chlorine before the water is put into the outgoing pipes. Nor are we an area that is serves by rainfall fed reservoirs.
Chlorine denatures proteins - and the molecules can bond into stuff and make it more poisonous as well as doing other free-radical-like damage at the cellular level. Maybe, just maybe, it can trigger stuff that people are genetically disposed to by creating certain conditions when bodily homeostasis is disturbed by its presence. I remember chlorine having a lot of deleterious effects in my organic chemistry and biological science classes.
Right now, I am just glad that my primary source of drinking water is from my own well. And I am thankful that I am no longer a destitute student; that I can afford the kinds of food that I need to eat to sustain my life. Melodramatic much? Really, on the food front, I am pulling myself out of the bear pit trap that most people find themselves in when they first discover they need to go GFCF: eating all the fatty stuff without realizing it is fatty, those Glutino pretzels for instance (combined with much too many scoops of hummus. Too many eggs as a protein source (I was hooked on the convenience of eating about 3/4 of the Protein Bistro Box at Starbucks for a while: HB egg, red grapes, apple slices and PB). Not enough veg. The list goes on, really.
I am learning though. The whole "required lifestyle change" situation can be taxing for any individual - and I am experiencing the typical amount of the agita.
Well, that's enough blathering. I have some mango mahi mahi to put in the skillet and sauté and some random veg to prepare to go with.
LLAP LJ People!
Ugh.
Let us tally the various known list of things that my body refuses to either come into contact with or allow me to digest/consume safely.
1. Gluten
2. Casein
3. unnamed chemical one
4. unnamed/unknown chemical two
5. unknown chemical three
Once I figured out the first two, and eliminated them from my diet and the products I use (lipstick, shampoo, lotion, etc.) I felt much better. As a matter of fact, when I got rid of the second item (recently) I started getting completely out of the feeling of occasional foggy brain, etc.
Since my last physical I have almost completely eliminated my use of analgesics. Huzzah!
The unknown chemicals are the worst, because the products potentially containing these chemicals aren't required to list their ingredients.
I still am of the opinion that the food allergies related to proteins was probably triggered by a five year period where I was drinking city tap water that was heavily laced with chlorine.
Wastewater Treatment Process
immediately followed by
Drinking Water Treatment Process
Apparently, the apartment I was living in at the time was located relatively close to either of the treatment facilities (at least that was the reasoning that people I talked to then were using) and that was the cause of such high chlorine levels. Maybe the two facilities (pictured above) were back to back and the "effluent" from the waste treatment facility literally poured into the drinking water treatment facility. Look, none of the facilities were so close that I can recall either seeing or smelling them from where I lived, but this was just a supposition that people had. And maybe our treatment facilities over-treated with chlorine at the disinfection stages. Who knows?
BTW: Anyone else notice the overlapping and recurrent use of chlorine in the process? The water I was drinking all through that time period pretty much smelled like pool water when it first came out of the faucet; and there is only so much off-gassing that will occur when you leave jugs of water uncapped on the counter for 48 hours before consumption/refrigeration.
Before anyone can pipe up with "you could've drank bottled water" - those were the "destitute student years" and I couldn't even spare the petrol to go a couple of towns over to fill up drinking containers from the local/free spring water spout. In addition, I know for a fact that my area doesn't have any of the fancy, more expensive technologies in place like reverse osmosis filtering that removes the chlorine before the water is put into the outgoing pipes. Nor are we an area that is serves by rainfall fed reservoirs.
Chlorine denatures proteins - and the molecules can bond into stuff and make it more poisonous as well as doing other free-radical-like damage at the cellular level. Maybe, just maybe, it can trigger stuff that people are genetically disposed to by creating certain conditions when bodily homeostasis is disturbed by its presence. I remember chlorine having a lot of deleterious effects in my organic chemistry and biological science classes.
Right now, I am just glad that my primary source of drinking water is from my own well. And I am thankful that I am no longer a destitute student; that I can afford the kinds of food that I need to eat to sustain my life. Melodramatic much? Really, on the food front, I am pulling myself out of the bear pit trap that most people find themselves in when they first discover they need to go GFCF: eating all the fatty stuff without realizing it is fatty, those Glutino pretzels for instance (combined with much too many scoops of hummus. Too many eggs as a protein source (I was hooked on the convenience of eating about 3/4 of the Protein Bistro Box at Starbucks for a while: HB egg, red grapes, apple slices and PB). Not enough veg. The list goes on, really.
I am learning though. The whole "required lifestyle change" situation can be taxing for any individual - and I am experiencing the typical amount of the agita.
Well, that's enough blathering. I have some mango mahi mahi to put in the skillet and sauté and some random veg to prepare to go with.
LLAP LJ People!
