Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS): women’s health issue

Luca Roncati ,Maria Vadalà ,Carmen Laurino ,Beniamino Palmieri

doi:10.31083/j.ceog.2020.05.5127

Luca Roncati , Maria Vadalà + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.31083/j.ceog.2020.05.5127

Copy DOI

Abstract

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a controversial, complex, and recurring chronic disturbance resulting from olfactory exposure at low levels to foreign chemicals usually tolerated in the rest of the healthy population, without functional tests capable to explain signs and symptoms of the disorder. Recently, some authors have supported that organic abnormalities in the olfactory sensors and a hyperactive limbic system, combined with peculiar personality traits, can best explain MCS. Epidemiological observations suggest that MCS has a 2-3% prevalence in the general population and that women are more significantly at risk to develop the disturbance; about 80% of affected patients are in fact women between the ages of 30 and 50. On closer inspection, many women present with hyperosmia during two other common female conditions, i.e. pregnancy and menstrual migraine, both accompanied by well known neurovegetative limbic symptoms; therefore, it appears reasonable to include a hormonal imbalance in the pathogenesis of MCS.

Highlights

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), or idiopathic environmental intolerance, is a controversial, complex, and recurring chronic disturbance resulting from olfactory exposure at low levels to foreign chemicals usually tolerated in the rest of the healthy population, without functional tests capable to explain signs and symptoms of the disorder [1]
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), MCS resembles electromagnetic hypersensitivity, because it is characterized by nonspecific symptoms devoid of apparent toxicological or physiological basis and independent verification [2]
MCS was proposed as a distinct entity by the American allergist Theron Randolph (1906 - 1995) in the 1950s; in the years to follow, an association with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, sick building syndrome, Gulf War syndrome, and post-traumatic stress disorder was noticed, with which it seems to share an immune dysfunction and biochemical alterations due to elevated nitric oxide/peroxynitrite mechanism, at the basis of the symptomatology [12, 13]

Summary

Introduction

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), or idiopathic environmental intolerance, is a controversial, complex, and recurring chronic disturbance resulting from olfactory exposure at low levels to foreign chemicals usually tolerated in the rest of the healthy population, without functional tests capable to explain signs and symptoms of the disorder [1]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), MCS resembles electromagnetic hypersensitivity, because it is characterized by nonspecific symptoms devoid of apparent toxicological or physiological basis and independent verification [2].

Results

Conclusion