Successes and failures treating chemical sensitivities

nutritional therapy, supplements, symptoms and conditions
(Last updated July 2022.) I first noticed that I was reacting to some chemical substances around 2002, when I developed splitting headaches from paint used in my apartment, even the low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) stuff. Around the same time, wearing mascara and lipstick became unbearable. My eyes would become blurry and my lips cracked. My lips were pretty much blue from low iron so the no-lipstick look did not suit me. Vitamin B6 a brief success Several months of taking vitamin B6 got rid of the reaction to paint, and eventually I could wear my usual drugstore mascara and lipstick again ... for a few months. Luckily I was able to find health-food store versions that I continue to tolerate. (The reaction to paint never returned, actually.) In 2014, toward…
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Six months using a sea sponge tampon alternative

self-experiment
W A R N I N G: Graphic lady-parts talk follows! Please, Lord, don't let me accidentally post this on my writing client's WordPress account, or 5,000 muscle car owners in Texas will get a nasty shock. In addition to the Niagarrhagia I documented last year, I've also been plagued by steadily increasing pain during my periods that started to get distracting a few years ago. It originally started a decade ago, but once I switched to organic tampons it went away for several years. This isn't the usual cramping pain, but a something-has-gone-very-wrong inflammation kind of pain. And of course a series of exams and fancy-ass tests with beeping, blinking machines revealed nothing. For a while the pain would start several days into the period. Then it started at…
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