A new Perspective of Immune Function - the Synergy Factor
by Don Richard Paladin
Someone sent me part of the original Simon study (1) research on the immunological profiles of the MCS patients done at the University of Washington. Basically they did not find anything except decreased interferon-2 in some of the people with MCS. I won't revisit the debate about that research. [I believe that MCS is T-cell system mediated rather than antibody mediated. I also believe that for some our antibody mediation mechanism may be suppressed. ]
I often look for relationships and patterns in my investigation of this phenomenon. When I first became chemically sensitive (now over 19 years ago), I quickly learned that mainstream allopathic treatment (DRUGS) was not going to work for me. I quickly started using the Asian healing practices...particularly Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). If one thing this illness did for me, it helped me learn so much about myself and my relationship to the universe in which I live. Over the years, besides the weekly treatments with acupuncture and other treatments, I also bought many books on the Eastern healing practices. I have to admit, that there were some books I had to read three times or more and still did not quite understand what was being written. However, if one keeps up at it long enough, one eventually starts to understand a system that may have been difficult to understand.
Out of my experience and treatments, I developed a great sense of respect for Eastern thought and healing practices. I found that Easterners really understand the global picture much better than we in the West who often focus very effectively on reductionistic details. I believe someday with the unification of both views of healing, we (humanity) shall arrive at an understanding that will help us resolve many of the problems we presently have.
The point I was trying to make by giving this back ground is that I long ago learned that the dynamic pattern of my illness indicated that I would have weaknesses with lower immunity (antibody mediated) and have extreme excess with my upper immunity (over active t-cell). I recognized this pattern in myself over 12 years ago. My Chinese diagnosis would be ---excess upper burner, deficiency of middle and lower burners....don't worry about the terms). So when I had an immune assay and found that my T-cell (both t-helpers and t-suppressors) were abnormally high and my b-cell (antibody and interferon) levels were abnormally low, I was not surprised. It fit into the pattern that my acupuncturist had diagnosed with different terms in a different way.
I took that immune assay after my exposure to pesticides in my classroom---my worst human experience ever. My physician wrote that I had both over activated immunity and suppressed immunity. I once told a conventional physician about the lab results...and he only focused in upon the fact that I was not having antibody mediated allergic responses...and that lab test only verified what he believed about MCS. He never said anything directly. I could feel what he thought by his response and looking at his face.
And here is where the two byte logic of Western thought has been the greatest obstacle to finding answers and solutions to many of the problems that plague humanity. We over-focus on the either/or of dualistic thinking. In China they recognize that the immune system is bimodal (and/or) --there is a feminine and a masculine system that work together to protect the whole body. In the West we recognize that there is a humoral and cellular system but we see them as one complete system with specific focused detail responses. We haven't learned the precise nature of the global part of this unified immune system.
Allergists recognize that the antibody mediated system can specifically label and produce antigens to protect the body. For them, allergy is purely a one on one response. For every allergen there MUST be an antibody mediated antigen. They do not, however, understand that there is likely a global mediator probably related to the t-cell system that generalizes to a class of environmental triggers. [Of course, pesticide and other toxic chemicals are not antigens they are poisons.]
I will use myself as an example to explain what I mean. When I first became formaldehyde sensitive, I could tolerate a number of things I can no longer tolerate. Over the years my sensitivity broadened and deepened. One of the things that bothered me was all the sizing in clothes. However, during those first years, I could go to most department stores and tolerate the environment. There were hundreds of products that were in the store that did not cause a reaction unless I was in my home with them. A new shirt was a perfect example of this. I did smell the offensive smells on it...but I did not have triggered symptoms (My lungs always ached first). If I took it home and put it on without washing it, I could not stand the odors. I would also have lung symptoms.
"But why, "you ask. Here's my spin on it. When I would bring the new shirt home that I reacted to, I would not be able to wear it until I washed it several times in baking soda to get rid of the sizing and other chemicals. I was always surprised at the different level of tolerance in different places. Then as I more greatly understood the Chinese cosmological paradigm, I realized it was that my body has a global awareness label. It could actually generalize to a group of chemical combinations. I found that many of the chemicals I could not tolerate were aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene ring); and, that when I was home in my more moldy environment that my level of tolerance greatly decreased. Environmental Physicians call this a toxic "load" problem. Basically our immune systems are so overloaded that they react. But there is much greater odor loads in a department store than in my home. When I learned about the synergistic effect of toxic chemicals, it made complete sense to me. This had been my daily real life experience for years. By reducing the combined load of gases (no scented products, no mold, no toxic chemical, etc.), I could function more effectively in my environment. [I believe that our bodies have labeled a class of chemicals we cannot easily detoxify and so as a mechanism of protection develop a physiological and emotional reaction to the environmental trigger. We learn to avoid the environmental trigger to prevent the reaction.]
So with this understanding all these years that I have a powerful over active upper immunity and weaker lower immunity, I waited for the research to prove my personal hypothesis correct. I also keep looking for research that documents the general pattern energy dynamics we are all in on this planet. In Chinese medicine they focus in upon energy and getting energy to move to be in balance. To say that those of us with any chronic illnesses are "imbalanced," should be obvious.. When I read research, I keep looking for the global pattern that reflects where I believe I am (and we are). [For those of us with a strong t-cell mediated response mechanism, it is possible to not recognize a single chemical in isolation as an environmental trigger. This has been documented in much of the research done using the allergy model to look for a biomarker for MCS. We need our real world toxic soup that makes us ill. Never let a researcher test your tolerance to a single chemical in isolation if you tend to react differently to the same chemical in different environments. This suggests you have a different immune profile than a person with antibody mediated allergies.]
When I read that researchers had discovered that Asthma was t-cell mediated response to environmental triggers...I knew the conventional wisdom was getting closer to understanding what I have understood for a number of years. On Dec 17, 1998 MSNBC reported:
"An asthmatic gets sensitized to an allergen, such as dust or mold or dander, and makes lots of T cells in the lungs," she said. "These make the cytokines [IL-4 and IL-13], which then link up with a certain receptor, named the IL-4 receptor alpha. This, in turn, revs up the cells to release more cytokines and the process perpetuates." IL-4 receptor alpha is found on the surface of both the cytokines and the cells that make up the lung tissue.
It is not known why some people have the T cells in their lungs, but it is believed to be linked to a genetic predisposition, Corry said.
"The most exciting part of the new research is that we found that just two cytokines and a receptor are of central importance to causing the signs of asthma," Grünig said. "The complex disease comes down to its simplest form.".
It was even more exciting for me to see Cindy Duehring review in Our Toxic Times and Luke Curtis review in The Human Ecologists about the relationship between elevated antigen-specific T-cell antibody binding molecules and chemical sensitivity. In Colin Little's (et al) research in Australia, the research demonstrated that 20 solvent-sensitive (intolerant) subjects had significantly higher concentrations of T-cell antibody binding molecules (TABMs) to benzoic acid as compared to 16 controls (3). Even though this is relatively preliminary research, it again fits into the pattern I have believed from my understanding of TCM was the problem. I don't know that all people with MCS will have this pattern. It may be like the research related to PON1 deficiency. In the case of PON 1, only those with a predisposed pattern will reflect a greater intolerance for organophosphate and similar nerve gas agents.
How does this all fit into the bigger picture? First, we must look at the imbalance as it is reflected in the whole. It should be no surprise that many chemicals implicated in triggering Toxic Induced Disorders like MCS, asthma, cancer, etc., are immunosuppressive. Also add to the mix many chemicals that mimic hormones and are capable of disrupting the endocrine system, and we have a major health crisis on this planet caused by those who simply cannot see the forest for the trees. They have not intentionally created synthetic products that may mimic hormones and disrupt the endocrine system.
I don't know about you, but it scares me that many of our scientists and doctors are unable to see relationship between systems and living things. They can create a product that smells like a flower but haven't figured out that such odors were created for specific biological functions. Our scientist may have unwittingly created all kinds of new synthetic products that simply add to the great biological imbalance that is presently going on.
I am ever hopeful that those with
the wider vision and greater intelligence will prevail. We are in
this together. Although
there is definitely a digital immune
response , researchers must come to recognize and understand an
analog immune response in which there is global recognition of
environmental triggers. We are in this together. The pattern of
MCS is not understood because there is not yet an understanding
or the importance of synergy.We must persist and help educate the
unaware.
References
1. Henry Stockbridge, A Case-Control
Study of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS); Results of
Immunologic Tests, Thesis for partial requirements for a Master's
degree, University of Washington, Seattle, WA July 30, 1992
2. Dec 17, 1998 MSNBC , (http://www.msnbc.com/news/224664.asp) This link has expired.
3. Colin Little et al, Clinical and
immunological responses in subjects sensitive to solvents. Archives
of Environmental Health 1999;54 (1):6-14