Sensitive People

“Sensitive is the New Strong”– Anita Moorjani

The Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI) is a validated questionnaire for chemical intolerance and the most widely used screening instrument available for personal use. Researchers and clinicians around the world use the QEESI to document symptoms and intolerances. People who use the QEESI find it helpful for self-assessment. It’s also a useful tool for you to take to your doctor to explain your exposures and symptoms. Developed by University of Texas San Antonio.
People who survive with environmental sensitivites are literal warriors. They have learned to be resilient, independent and adaptable in the face of unfathomable challenges. Their perspectives are valuable to a global community that is heading into an uncertain future.
Have you noticed all the “Free and Clear” products in the laundry products aisle? That’s because there is a growing market for fragrance-free products.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is recognized as a “newly emerging disease” in Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Japan-— all countries that provide all their citizens with health insurance.
Chemical sensitivity, as in headaches in response to fumes or fragrances, is extremely common all over the world. Studies surveying citizens in Sweden, Australia and Korea found that between 7.5% and 33% of respondents self-reporting a “general odor intolerance.”
It’s not that hard to imagine There are now 80,000 new chemicals in our environment (USA) since World War 2 (since when they repurposed chemicals and munitions from the war sector to the agricultural sector.)
This study found 287 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of infants. This data is from 2005. What is it now?
“In the United States, a national prevalence of 12.8% medically diagnosed MCS, 25.9% self-reported chemical sensitivity, and 27.5% either or both, was assessed by this survey (See Table1). Compared with previous studies,⁴^,⁵ the prevalence of diagnosed MCS has increased over three times (2.5%, 3.9% to 12.8%) and self-reported chemical sensitivity has increased over two times (11.1%, 11.6% to 25.9%) in a little over 10 years.” It is common and becoming more prevalent. The doctors at ISEAI.org are seeing more and more of it every year.
It is very likely that the health problems you and your loved ones already have are informed on some immeasurable level by this ubiquity of chemicals.
It is worse in the United States than in other industrialized countries for unknown reasons. Take in this entire report, especially page 6.
In 2019, the World Health Organization listed the Ten Threats to Global Health, listing Air pollution as #1 on the list, saying “Nine out of ten people breathe polluted air every day. In 2019, air pollution is considered by WHO as the greatest environmental risk to health.”
Take a moment to read this Atlantic article about uncovering the root cause of 70 bald eagles dying in Arkansas in 1996. It took them 25 years (an entire human generation) to uncover the cause of the deaths. Spoiler: It was a novel biotoxin created by a collaboration between a blue-green algae, an invasive water plant and the chemical they used to try to kill it. Note that complexity.
Now consider for a moment the approximately 1% of the worldwide population, 17 to 24 million people, who suffer from ME/CFS, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome [14]. Millions of people just spent those 25 years in bed while scientists solved that one mystery about the bald eagles. Our current scientific approach has not demonstrated efficacy in understanding the staggering complexity of how environmental destabilization shows up as human illness, or how to reverse it.

Now to the pathophysiology of what happens inside a body that has gotten sensitized to all these chemicals:
It often is associated with Mast Cell Activation, which is a physical degranulation of cells that exist at the intersection of your nervous system and your immune system. During this process, they release histamines and up to 100 other cytokines.
Here is the list of possible symptoms:

Swelling
Itching
Rashes
Inflammation
Vomiting
Headaches
Chronic pain
Flushing
Diarrhea
Constipation
Fast heart beat
Low blood pressure
Fatigue
Fainting
Sweats
Abdominal pain

An illness, injury or massive mold exposure can kick this off. It is extremely difficult to “turn off,” thereby requiring a lifestyle of avoidance of the substances that cause these reactions. When I say “requiring,” I mean it is totally mandatory and non-negotiable if one wants to be functional and productive.
Where can you go to avoid 80,000 chemicals? Proximity to wilderness turns out to be crucial. You have to go “back in time” to the dwindling places that have not yet been polluted. This is why creating specially designed low-chem housing is also crucial.
MCS absolutely has a genetic/epigenetic underpinning, being informed in real time by a person’s genetic ability to clear toxins through various pathways (sulfation, methylation, glucaronidation) using genes such as MTHFR, CYP450, SOD, GST, PON and NOS. “Metabolic parameters indicating accelerated lipid oxidation, increased nitric oxide production and glutathione depletion in combination with increased plasma inflammatory cytokines should be considered in biological definition and diagnosis of MCS.”
We are just now getting to an era of being able to measure real-time epigenetic responses to environment with Dr Shoemaker’s GENIE test. It’s not perfect but it’s a breakthrough. This test doesn’t look at your predispositions, it reveals which genes are actually activated and expressing in that moment.
And there’s your sixth chromosome, which holds a whole bunch of human leukocyte antigen factors that govern your innate and adaptive immune responses.
Your Innate (old, non specific) and Adaptive (new, specific) immune systems can “slip away” from each other and stop communicating well. Th1 dominant and your innate immune system flares and tends towards autoimmunity. Th2 dominant and your allergies go haywire. Didn’t know that could happen? It does.
If someone has a history of trauma on top of these genetic vulnerabilities, (and who doesn’t?) the autonomic nervous system can become permanently altered. This means the vagus nerve creates disrupted cell signaling that can impair the parasympathetic function, making it almost impossible to calm down or sleep deeply.
“Approximately 47 percent of the U.S. population, 150 million Americans, suffered from at least one chronic disease, as of 2014.[3] Almost 30 million Americans are living with five or more chronic diseases.[4]”
By 2023, that jumped to 6 in 10 Americans who have a chronic illness. And in the United States, that means in 2023 your health care coverage on average costs $6,032 annually—five times higher than for people without a chronic condition. (1)
After 30+ years of Alzheimer’s research, Dr. Dale Bredesen has concluded that no less than 50% of people who struggle with impaired cognition are dealing with a toxic component (5 elements: infections, organic and inorganic chemicals, heavy metals, mold toxins and viruses.) Yes, it is reversible, but you need to understand it before you can address it.
The Alzheimer’s Association is aware of the scope of the problem (Check out page 11 of this report.) But the enormous sums that have been spent on 400 failed drug trials reveals that they still don’t understand the etiology.
There were over 47 million people worldwide in 2015 suffering from dementia and that is projected to rise to 76 million in 2030 and 145 million in 2050. (pg.13) Half of those people have a toxic component (even though 9 out of 10 are breathing polluted air.)

Sensitive people sometimes must resort to living on the edge of survival, sleeping in vehicles, which is why they are included in the category of marginalized populations. When they have housing that is designed for them, their health can rebound and they can resume their lives as productive citizens. There is a decades-old alliance between sensitive people and natural building for this reason.

We are just starting to understand that HSPs, Highly Sensitive People, may be more vulnerable to developing environmental illnesses.

Listen to this podcast for a first-hand story of a farmgirl from Illinois growing up to become a doctor. She survived cancer, Crohn’s and mold. Jump to 45:50 to hear how she learned that she was an HSP– a Highly Sensitive Person.

Reading List for Sensitives

TOXIC by Dr Neil Nathan
Through the Shadowlands by Julie Rehmeyer
Sick by Porochista Khakpour
The Sensitives by Oliver Broudy
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron, PhD
Sensitive by Jenn Granneman and Andre Solo
13 Films that Sensitive People will Love
What Is a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
Are you Sensitive? Highly Sensitive Person Self-Test.

Reading List for Sensitives

Research on Pollution and Gender

Share this: