MCS, Toxic Mold, Sick Building Syndrome, and Chronic Fatigue SyndromeWritten by Thomas Leo Ogren
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She then confessed that she had tried to clean up all this mold, several times, using soap and water. Afterwards she had felt even sicker. I suggested that she explain all of this to landlord, and immediately move out until it was fixed. She did explain it all to landlord, but she did not move out. The landlord hired someone who supposedly cleaned it all up but she just got sicker and sicker. One day a few weeks later she called me up again. She was crying and told me that her doctor said that she had MS. The symptoms she was having certainly did seem like multiple sclerosis but I didn’t think that was her problem. As we talked she would lose it, stutter, slur her words, forget what she’d just said. She said that she’d had to take a leave of absence from her job since she just couldn’t work any more. When I asked her what she was doing instead of working, she said she was mostly just lying in her bed. It was about all she could do. “That bedroom,” I told her, “is killing you.” I called her back later and got her husband on phone. He was now starting to feel kind of sick himself. “Look,” I said, a little angry now, “ get hell out of there! Leave that apartment and do it tonight. Pack a few things, go to a motel and check yourselves in. Tomorrow you can tell your landlord what you had to do. If they won’t pay for motel bill, I’ll help you find a lawyer and you can sue him. They moved out of apartment that night and into a nearby motel room. He took some time off work and two of them just hung out at motel, watching TV, eating in a restaurant around corner, and they slept a good deal. The landlord (I think he was finally afraid of a lawsuit) did agree to cover their motel bill while this was being figured out. On phone I advised her husband that he ought to start looking for a new apartment. He told me that he was starting to feel more “like himself again,” and agreed to look for a different place to live. They stayed at motel for two weeks and by time they moved into their new apartment she too was starting to feel a little better. I insisted that her husband move everything from their old apartment himself. That all their clothes, everything, had to be thoroughly cleaned before he brought it into their next place. I didn’t want her to even walk in that door again, and she didn’t. As I write this now, it has been just over two years since they moved out of that mold spore-ridden apartment. Little by little she started getting better, slurring of words stopped, disorientation stopped, eventually all symptoms disappeared. Two months after they moved she went back to work. Six months later she felt so good she started taking night classes at local college. They are now both working full time, both are taking advanced computer classes in evenings and they are doing great. There’s been no more talk about her having MS either.
Thomas Ogren is the author of Allergy-Free Gardening. Tom does consulting work on landscaping for the USDA, county asthma coalitions, www.Allegra.com, and the Canadian and American Lung Associations. He has appeared on HGTV and The Discovery Channel. His book, Safe Sex in the Garden, was published in 2003. In 2004 Time Warner Books published his latest book: What the Experts May NOT Tell You About: Growing the Perfect Lawn. His website: www.allergyfree-gardening.com
| | How much food is really enough?Written by Darryn Aldridge
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3. Don’t serve at table: I saved myself a lot of grief by taking action on this point. While it is very nice to have a table full of food served in nice dishes, for people coming to terms with their weight, this is a huge no no. The temptation that a table full of food presents to you will tempt even strongest of wills. Remove temptation by making sure that all food is portioned at time of serving in kitchen. You will be more likely to have seconds if food is sitting on table staring at you, invitingly, than if you have to leave table and go to kitchen. 4. Cleaning up: So you’ve done all right things so far and now it is time to clean up after your meal. We are now presented with another brilliant opportunity to overeat again. I love picking at food when I am putting it away. I could actually finish all left overs at this point and not even realize what was happening! Try and get a member of your family to clear away any of left over food before you tackle dishes, or put leftovers straight in fridge after serving to resist ”dishes overeating”. Most of these issues surrounding weight gain are just bad habits that have formed over years. Simple steps are often all that are needed to help break these bad habits and form better ones. All it takes is some self control and desire to get ball rolling towards a more fulfilling and healthier lifestyle.
Darryn Aldridge is the co-author of a step-by-step, "tell it and show it how it is" guide to permanently losing weight and keeping it off forever! Visit his web site at http://www.diet-ebook.com and sign up for a free weekly newsletter,filled with helpful tips and useful information.
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