A final factor in judging where chemicals are likely to cause reactions is that of ‘chemical load’ or overload of the system. The load effect is also known as the ‘cocktail effect’. People with chemical sensitivity often appear to react to a wide range of chemicals and their tolerance to specific chemicals can vary. Sometimes they will react to a given chemical and at other times they can tolerate up to a certain amount. One explanation for this may lie with the body’s mechanisms for detoxifying chemicals. From studies of toxic exposures, it has been shown that exposure to two or more chemicals can be much more harmful than exposure to one alone, the reason being that if the same enzyme is required to break down the chemicals, there can be an inadequate supply of the enzyme, and of the catalyst or cofactors needed to help that and other chemical processes in the body. The chemically sensitive person’s ability to cope with chemicals in their environment may, therefore, depend on their overall ‘load’ of chemicals (and hence demands on their enzyme systems). This is perhaps the reason why a tiny extra amount of chemical load can often be enough to take a chemically sensitive person over their tolerance level and cause reactions.
The load effect is important when thinking about what chemicals might cause you to react. Some chemicals are more troublesome than others and consistently cause problems, but your overall load of chemicals may aggravate the situation by overloading your system.
This is why, when talking about avoidance of chemicals below, it is often good to try to reduce your overall load of chemicals, as well as to avoid chemicals to which you know you are specifically sensitive. Reducing overall load can actually improve your tolerance of specific substances.
In addition, some people cross-react to chemicals, that is their bodies recognise substances that are chemically related and react to them.
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