Chemicals and Christians: Compassion and Caution is the most comprehensive book on MCS that I have ever read. This book is a fantastic way to gently share the toxic chemical problem with church leadership, friends, anyone!
Why not catch up on some reading while stuck at home? Grab a copy, read, and start sharing now. 🙂
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
Thanks to Erik Johnson, Mold Pioneer and Warrior, I realized I have mis-communicated on a very important truth, in my book.
(This book, MCS: Banished from the Human Race, which happens to be free this week.)
I wrote: “By contrast, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is humanly impossible to overcome.” I didn’t mean that at all! LOL I meant the main SYMPTOM of CFS–as in extreme fatigue–cannot be pushed through. If one tries pushing past the energy trouble, when experiencing it, it can cause terrible crashes, increased symptoms, and worsening of the illness. Some have been made very, very ill by trying to do more than their body was ready for.
The symptom of fatigue is not like, for instance, pain. People can push through pain. They can ignore headaches, work despite muscle pain, take care of themselves even with digestive problems, function even while suffering all kinds of awful symptoms.
But the “fatigue” of CFS pretty much stops one dead in one’s tracks. Like being handcuffed or hogtied and sometimes gagged. That is how seriously impacting it can be.
On the other hand, CFS itself as a syndrome CAN be overcome!!!!! Through extreme (sounds bad but it’s not) mold and chemical avoidance.
To learn more, click on Erik’s name, read more on Paradigm Change, read the books listed there, read my blog, etc.!
I will try to get these into the book soon, but edits take a while in turnaround time. In the meantime, I wanted you to know! 🙂
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
Notice my title is grammatically incorrect; it should read: How to Rear Great Kids. But I did it to make a point: don’t make little things into big things! Sure, it’s great to encourage your kids to do their best in school, activities, life. Positive motivation is usually very effective, assuming the relationship is good.
But in the end, who really cares if my title says Raise or Rear? Besides OCD grammarians. LOL Just kidding since I tend to be one myself!
My sweet Mom told a story about my very early childhood that motivated me to set aside my tendencies (like being an OCD grammarian) and raise my kids with …. LOVE. Just like she did.
So:
Focus on training your child to care about people, not be perfect in every little thing.
and two more thoughts:
Idea 2. comes from I Corinthians 13. Applying it means looking at their perspective, their thoughts and ideas, their concerns.
Be fair. Be generous. Own up to your mistakes and bad choices. Be the type of person pleasant to be around, and this helps them want to be around you. 🙂
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
I sat cross-legged on my bed, beyond exhausted, very sick, frustrated, looking for answers. One of the mold remediation companies said they wanted to use a fogging solution, and I wanted more information about the product, so I called the company.
I started asking questions. He started answering.
He said NEVER use their product on live mold in a house. What? He is cautioning against buying what he is selling??
He said, “Killing mold is like killing a rat and then leaving it in your wall.”
Suddenly visions of us spraying mold, bleaching mold, painting Kilz over mold flooded my head.
“The mold breaks down into smaller pieces that are more easily inhaled but still toxic.”
I felt elation at first–I finally knew why I was sick and had slowly been getting sicker!!! I KNEW. Then a confusing mix of emotions, but at least we could now proceed with the knowledge that we had needed.
We ended up leaving the house and our stuff less than a week later. We salvaged a few things later on (mostly glass, metal, DVDs, and Legos), photocopied papers, etc.
As we began to evaluate the situation, we began to realize I needed to get away from even outdoor mold, the humid area, and the pesticides used on fields causing basically a toxic cloud over a large area. We stopped off in Missouri for a month (we knew we couldn’t stay 🙁 ) and my pain levels were almost too high to bear.
We landed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and within days I felt better than I had since moving into the mold house.
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
It was from a source I normally trust. It was from a source that if the truth were understood, they could make an impact. It was upsetting, but I told myself I would not get upset. Would NOT get upset. Then I got upset.
They said Rachel Carson’s getting DDT banned was bad. They set up a false dilemma fallacy argument that DDT is the only way to stop people from dying from malaria (it is not). They said that the bad effects of DDT have been disproven (they have not, not by a long shot. I guess they are believing the flawed studies.)
Evidence is fairly overwhelming that DDT in the environment is not a good idea, for a number of reasons.
I am very fatigued from life and fighting the contamination in my house (which could be some kind of bacterial toxin or something else but also could be indoor DDT or a related substance, judging by where it came from), so please forgive me, I am not going to footnote my findings. Many are fairly easy to find on the internet, though.
DDT thins the shells of bird eggs. It negatively affects the liver and the reproductive system. It probably causes cancer. It accumulates in fatty tissue. It can cause vomiting, tremors, seizures, anxiety, extreme restlessness, extreme muscular weakness. The levels of the breakdown product of DDT (DDE) are found to be four times higher in Alzheimer’s patients than in the average population.
Okay, I’ll footnote one article. 😊 This was too good not to quote:
“Although DDT produces serious functional and morphologic changes in virtually every organ of the body (2, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18-22, 24, 28, 30-33, 38-40, 42, 44-49, 51-61), among its most disturbing and debilitating manifestations are those of the nervous system….The incredible carelessness with which this lethal compound is now used by the public has no known precedents….The relationship would undoubtedly have been detected much earlier, however, were it not for the tremendously wide variation in sensitivity to DDT in the general population; Certain individuais [sic] appear to be able to tolerate large cumulative doses without apparent ill effect; others are so sensitive that mere traces of DDT can set off an almost immediate reaction of the type described.” (Biskind, M.D. and Irving Bieber, M.D.)
This is why I say Rachel Carson saved my life. She almost single-handedly got DDT banned. What if she had not? I have been close to death from the cumulative effect of toxins and toxicants more times than I can count. What if, instead of being cut off and still persisting in the environment to an incredible degree, DDT was used for years and years after Carson’s book? How much more of the environment would be contaminated by this stuff? Even if the current contamination of my house is something else, I know that my broken and weak body could not handle much more than it has been handling for years.
Thank you, Rachel Carson.
Biskind, M.D. and Irving Bieber, M.D. “DDT Poisoning: A New Syndrome With Neuropsychiatric Manifestations.” American Journal Of Psychotherapy. (1949). p261. 8/25/19. http://whale.to/a/biskind11.html.
This is going to be a great event.. I wish I could be there in person. Even if you cannot go either, you can spread awareness by clicking “Interested” on the event or donate money to the artist’s campaign. Her work is beautiful on several levels.
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
Recently a friend showed me this website. I really love it. Almost every day, I lie back, close my eyes, and listen to these relaxing sounds. The way you can change the strength and combinations of noises for a unique experience is so cool.
https://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php
If you can, donate and get the extra access because it is super fun.
These are also good to fall asleep to.
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
One day when our oldest was about 2 years old, he was bored and I had a mound of dishes to wash, so I told him I would tell him a story.
My mom had mailed me some pretty, lavender, rubber gloves to use for washing dishes, so I decided to tell him a story of the lavender gloves–from the gloves’ perspective.
I wove this long, tangled saga of the gloves’ life, how they were bored on the shelf, happy in Mimi’s grocery cart. How they were scared in the dark while traveling in a box to Indiana. How they loved being used in my kitchen. He listened with rapt attention, so cute.
Then he asked, “Was that story true except for the faces?”
I was fascinated. I had not described faces on the gloves, but if they were thinking, talking, scared, smiling, of course they had to have faces. 🙂 I felt like his question let me into his mind–that he had pictured faces. 🙂
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
Two weeks after graduation from university, I married my best friend.
I was 22 years old, young and full of optimism. I wanted to build clientele of piano students, but I knew that would take time. So I decided I would sign up to substitute teach in five different school districts in the St. Louis area. I knew it would be a challenge in many ways–keeping order and discipline of the children/teens, thinking on my feet when walking into unknown classrooms with random lesson plans left behind, even just finding all the schools on the map and getting there on time. I was called for many subbing jobs around 6am, expected to be at school by 7:30 or 8.
Like my mother, I was gifted with clear skin, young-looking face, and slender body type, so I looked like I was still in high school. This would sometimes trip me up, since I did not carry a lot of authority by looks. However, I dove into my new part-time job with enthusiasm.
The more days I was called to substitute teach, the more I fell under both the appeal (high energy, adrenaline-producing interaction with kids whom I loved getting to know) and the stress (discipline, a school where the kids did not even respect the principal).
Some days were particularly bad. No one wanted to listen. I did not yet understand the climate of the one school (the one where the kids did not even respect the principal). I was frustrated, sad, and felt like I was failing. One day culminated in one student drawing an unflattering caricature of me, complete with an arrow in my back.
I held it all in and then cried on the way home.
But I kept thinking, But my husband loves me. It does not matter that these kids hate me. It does not matter that I failed today. I know who is important, and that is my best friend. The rest of those mean kids can just leave me alone, because my husband loves me dearly. I will run into his arms, and he will hug me, and we will have a nice supper and evening together.
This is how we are with God. Even if every last human being rejects us and we fail and we are despondent, we always have a place in God’s heart. We can always run home, broken and bruised, to God, where we are safe and loved.
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
In many mold and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) groups, the idea of treating the illnesses with brain retraining often comes up.
Before I go on, let me make the connection between the program in the article below about young Cherry from North London (Lightning Process) and the program that seems to be popular in mold and MCS groups.
“The Lightning Process is based on the philosophy that participants with diseases like ME, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain or depression can train their brains to overcome their physiological disease by thinking positive thoughts about their health, and counteracting negative ones by establishing ‘new neural pathways’.” https://www.meaction.net/2019/01/23/the-effects-of-graded-exercise-therapy-and-positive-thinking-on-a-young-girl-with-me/
“Techniques used in the Dynamic Neural Retraining System™ are based on neuroplasticity therapy, which rewires the limbic system to build more functional neural pathways.” https://retrainingthebrain.com/how-the-program-works/
New neural pathways are the goal of each.
While I believe much good can be done treating stress, anxiety, PTSD, and depression, the retraining programs cannot do much good for the physical side of these illnesses beyond the measure of relief from stress reduction (which CAN be significant for some people).
So some people in the groups say, “Well, why not just try it?”
Because these programs can also do harm, and it is hard to know before hand what will happen.
The problem is that some are more susceptible from harm from these programs than others, just as some are more likely to be helped.
Some risk factors for harm, I believe, are: Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), high body loads of toxins (which is very hard to tell), and compliant and highly-motivated people because their natural humility may cause them to believe others and ignore their own bodies’ warning signs of physical (rather than emotional or stress-related) problems.
Some people with mold illness and MCS get ME/CFS and some do not. Those who do not have ME/CFS, IMHO, are less likely to suffer bad effects from brain retraining programs.
Poor Cherry’s life was ruined by trying to establish new neural pathways.
“’Cherry was really angry and confused because they made it seem like it was her fault that she had not recovered,’ said Cherry’s mum. ‘She was young. She felt confused because she had always put her heart and soul into everything. She can’t speak for herself now but she feels very angry at how the Lightning Process played with her mind and made her doubt herself.’
“Four years after attempting to override her system with willful physical and mental exercise, Cherry, now 21 years old, spends 24-hours per day in a darkened room, 100 percent bed bound, too weak to speak or swallow, and surviving on a feeding tube.
“’It seems innocuous – how can gentle exercise or good thoughts possibly be dangerous?’ Cherry’s mum said. ‘The problem with the disease is that you can do massive damage to your body systems, but it often doesn’t show up until months later….’ (emphasis mine)
“Research shows that people with ME [same thing as CFS] have an abnormal physiological response to exercise. Studies show that after exercising people with ME have reduced blood flow to the brain and heart (Neary et al., 2008; Peterson et al., 1994), reduced oxygen uptake in hemoglobin (Miller et al., 2015), reduced oxygen utilization (Snell et al., 2013, Vermeulen & Vermeulen, 2014), and abnormal gene expression related to immunity, metabolism and the nervous system.
“Two-day exercise testing (CPET) shows that patients cannot perform the same activity two days in a row, whereas healthy, deconditioned people tend to do better on the second day than the first. The test measures metabolic products and does not rely on the patient’s effort.”
This means our very efforts at life–at metabolism and energy–are compromised. Reduced blood flow to the brain and heart are fine–said no one, ever.
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
