Perfumes, bah humbug

I sneeze when exposed to pollen, perfume, or some cats,and during allergy season, my chronic nasal stuffiness morphs into asthma. Often it is a combination: during hayfever season, things I could normally tolerate cause problems.

I found cortisone based nasal spray worked fine, and during allergy season, a cortisone lung inhaler as prevention.

An alternative (which I use here in the Philippines) is anti histamines, but they make me sleepy, so I keep the dose to a minimum, mainly at night, and run my airconditioner for sleeping: even when it is cool, I use the air con fan and a hepa filter in the aircon. 

and I develop nervousness and dermatographia when I eat too much at salad bars, foods with nitrates, bagoong, or eat too many big macs. So I avoid such things, which is easy here in the Philippines.

But at women's conferences, they make a big deal of this: no perfumes especially. Well, since perfumes were first made to cover up body odor, or to attract men, I can't figure out why women would overdo perfumes at feminist converences anyway.

Well, this Science daily article claims:

One in four Americans suffer when exposed to common chemicals...University of Melbourne research reveals that one in four Americans report chemical sensitivity, with nearly half this group medically diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), suffering health problems from exposure to common chemical products and pollutants such as insect spray, paint, cleaning supplies, fragrances and petrochemical fumes.

well, this found all the "green" enemies of course, leaving out the "organic" stuff like bagoong and pollen.

But you know, most of us never went to a doc to get diagnosed for such things, and I had less than a half dozen patients with "multiple chemical sensitivities" as a diagnosis (and most of them were neurotic women).

The study also found that 71 per cent of people with MCS are asthmatic, and 86.2 per cent with MCS report health problems from fragranced consumer products, such as air fresheners, scented laundry products, cleaning supplies, fragranced candles, perfume and personal care products. In addition, an estimated 22 million Americans with MCS have lost work days or a job in the past year due to illness from exposure to fragranced consumer products in the workplace.

again, asthma? Really? or is this from pollen, cigarette smoke, etc.

so 22 million Americans lot days from work because of perfume?

really?

Sheesh. just take a Clariten and work on, ladies.

and I say "ladies" because I suspect they are neurotic ladies.

Every couple of years, there is a new fad explaining why they are neurotic and you get studies like this.

and I have all of these problems: Neurosis, allergies, sensitive to "chemicals" (e.g. sneeze with perfume), hypoglycemia (and have the GTT to prove it).

Like my aches and pains from arthritis, you cope.

But why do I think this is a study to prove the evils of modern chemicals? In this case, perfume:

To reduce health risks and costs, Professor Steinemann recommends choosing products without any fragrance, and implementing fragrance-free policies in workplaces, health care facilities, schools and other indoor environments.

I should note that in Idaho, where dry skin was a problem, I did have a lot of people who itched from perfumed soap and/or fabric softener in their clothing. But again, I didn't see this as much in areas where the humidity was higher.

so why does the article annoy me? Because it "medicalizes" ordinary aches and pains.

We went into medicine to treat the sick, not to treat ordinary aches and pains and minor stuff that most people in the past managed to live with, without making a "federal case over it", as the saying goes.

But then, the expresssion "don't make a federal case about it" no longer applies given the huge expansion of federal law to punish trivia.