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Toxic Teacher Syndrome: Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
A 25 year old women begins her new career as a 2nd grade school teacher. After many of years of preparation, this new educator is ready to serve the public and help her young students learn how to read and write.
Beginning in a newly renovated school is an extra bonus which makes our new teacher proud that she became part of the educational system. Everything is moving along fine.. she couldn't be happier! Three months pass by and our teacher has noticed that her concentration is just not right. She has been getting a little "edgy." Definitely not like her. Her husband is concerned that maybe she is pushing herself a little too much and encourages her to simply slow down and pace herself. As the weeks go by, she begins experiencing headaches over her eyes and the back of her head. The headaches are now occurring more frequently a minimum of 3-4 times a week. Six months into the school season and her symptoms are getting worse. In addition to her headaches, lack of concentration and irritability, she is now having insomnia, cries over nothing and has noticed an unusual tingling in her face, hands and feet. Concerned, our once "excited" trainer of children decides to see her family physician. After a brief consultation and a basic physical evaluation, her physician is confident she is again just overdoing it and recommends she lighten her work load. In the mean time, she is prescribed Xanax, a mild tranquilizer to settle her nerves. Feeling reassured that nothing is seriously wrong, our teacher returns to her young students and pushes on. Another three months pass and this time our once highly motivated teacher is only a "shadow" of herself. It takes every ounce of energy to get started in the morning. She is having greater difficulty preparing her school assignments and simply is just exhausted! In a state of desperation she is referred to a psychiatrist. He diagnoses her with depression and prescribes an anti-depressant and also recommends counseling. After two emotional years of trying an assortment of anti-depressants and hours of counseling, our young teacher is stuck in a nightmare.. a web of medical labels... depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress ... just name a few! Is It Possible Something Has Been Missed? Every year thousands of teachers are afflicted with a condition that simply "zaps" the life right out of them. Most physicians are at a total loss to understand what is behind this mysterious illness. Unfortunately, many people are looked at as hypochondriacs and continue to suffer year after year.
The Diagnosis By a stroke of luck and a lot of prayer, our school teacher stumbled on a medical article that "painted" an exact picture of her health challenges. She was amazed to find that she was not alone and that thousands of other teachers were experiencing the same problem. She was able to find a physician who was trained in making this difficult diagnosis and learned that she was suffering with something called "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)." Some physicians have coined the term "The Toxic Teacher Syndrome" due to the numbers of teachers suffering with the same symptoms. What is MCS? Chemical Sensitivity is not a new term. It has been around for many years. The diagnosis MCS was researched by allergist Theron G. Randolph, M.D. (1906-1995). Dr. Randolph discovered that many of his patients became ill from chemical substances that were normally considered safe at the recommended dosage. In the 1950s, Dr. Randolph concluded that people were failing to adapt to modern-day synthetic chemicals. As more research was done on the effects of MCS, doctors suggested that the immune system is like a barrel that continually fills with chemicals until it overflows and symptoms appear. Potential chemical toxins include:
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