All About Eve

I first heard about Eve many months ago when I was perusing videos about MCS on Youtube. I saw her video link entitled “How to Detox your Body Tips – and MCS Recovery.” Eve was the first person I had found who had recovered and was sharing in detail just how she recovered.

I soon watched all of her videos she has on her Youtube channel, Eve’s Pot of Gold. Her intro video recalls how she initially became sick and the steps she took to become well. Her story is very similar to mine in how she became sick, and it was the first time in a long time that I too believed I could recover.

Eve developed her wellness plan through her own research on the Internet. Medical doctors were of no help so she became the architect of her own health.

Her plan for recovery includes a wide variety of healing modalities, but the foundation of her program is detoxification, based on the principles recommended by Dr. Sherry Rogers. Dr. Sherry Rogers has written many books on MCS, including Detoxify or Die, Tired or Toxic and the E.I. Syndrome. The program that Dr. Sherry Rogers outlines in her book include use of daily sauna, coffee enemas (which is also part of the Gerson Therapy) and a detoxification “cocktail” of glutathione, Alpha Lipoic Acid and Vitamin C.

Eve also discusses gut health, nutrition, supplementation, living in a non-toxic home, emotional health, stress reduction and physical fitness. She even offers Zumba and personal training online through video chat. This is a short list of the health topics she addresses. She updates her website and Facebook page daily with new information to help others detoxify, strengthen their immune systems and get well.

I get emails from a lot of people who are newly chemically sensitive. They are afraid and upset that the life they once knew is gone. I know they are looking for help and hope, and one of the first recommendations I make is for them to read Eve’s pages and watch her videos. Her story of recovery is what gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get back to taking charge of my own health, and continue to detoxify on a regular basis. I was stagnating in my efforts and I quite often felt like I was doing all this for nothing.

I hope Eve’s story will inspire others that you can get well and you can recover from MCS. I have always believed MCS can be reversed if the body is given what it needs in order to be able to heal. Detoxification is peeling back the layers of toxicity our bodies have become mired in through living in this modern chemical world.

Detoxification Tips:

How to Do a Coffee Enema:

You can find more info at her website, Detox the Body MCS. She also has a very active Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DetoxTheBody.

Eve is not a medical doctor (nor am I.) Everything she posts is based on her own personal experiences and neither she nor I are offering medical advice. Everything you choose to do in regards to your health is done at your own risk.

Green Renovating Part Two – Healthier Insulation

The next green step my fiancé and I needed to think about was what type of insulation to use. The home we’re renovating had no insulation in the walls and regular fiberglass insulation in the ceiling. My fiancé removed all of the existing fiberglass insulation and found someone to come and take it off our hands.

During my online research I first came across eco-friendly insulation from recycled scraps of denim. I contacted a local showroom that carried this insulation called Ultratouch Denim Insulation, by Bonded Logic. I was able to get a sample and immediately knew this was not going to work for me. The insulation is easy to handle and does not itch like fiberglass insulation. According to their website Ultratouch contains no chemical irritants and requires no carcinogenic warning labels compared to other traditional insulation products. (It also) contains no harmful airborne particulates eliminating health concerns regarding particulates in the surrounding environment.”

This is great that there’s another option besides traditional formaldehyde laden insulation, but as soon as I put that sample of Ultratouch to my nose, I knew I was having a reaction. Each individual fiber is treated with a boron-based fire retardant. I can’t say for sure if that was the offending agent, but I started to sneeze immediately. Quickly my sinuses became irritated.

After a quick trip to Lowes, I came across Safetouch, by Dow Chemical. This is a polyester based insulation that is NOT treated with chemicals, is not fiberglass and is safe to touch and handle and breathe. I slept with a sample by my bedside and felt confident I had found my insulation.

Fortunately for us, we bought every batt they had in stock because about a week later we found out that Dow discontinued the product. I was so disappointed. I spoke with a customer service rep at Dow who said it just wasn’t cost effective enough to keep manufacturing. That is such a shame.

Here is the back kitchen wall insulated with Safetouch.

Now left with having to find insulation for the ceiling (Safetouch did not come in R-30), my fiancé and I choose GreenFiber. GreenFiber is made of non-toxic cellulose insulation, 85% of which comes from recycled paper fiber. GreenFiber is also treated with boric acid. “The boric acid flame retardant used in GreenFiber Insulation is infused in the natural fibers of the cellulose. During a fire, the retardant melts and holds the heat until the cellulose fibers char. The cellulose then becomes a layer of carbon protection, because the charred fibers won’t burn. The density of GreenFiber Insulation prevents the passage of flames and hot gasses, so fire does not spread as readily into GreenFiber -installed walls or ceilings, and GreenFiber Insulation restricts the amount of oxygen available to support combustion.”

I grabbed a small sample and did not react, so we bought enough to finish insulating the ceilings.

A couple of other eco-friendly insulation options are EnGuard GlassFree Polyester Insulation and Ecobatt by Knauf Insulation. Like SafeTouch, EnGuard is a 100% polyester batt insulation that does not contain any glass fiber, formaldehyde, VOCs or other harmful additives. Unlike SafeTouch, EnGuard contains 50% recycled content from PET plastic beverage bottles.

Ecobatt is primarily made from sand. According to their website, “ECOSE Technology works by converting natural organic materials into an inert polymer through a proprietary process to create an exceptionally strong binder that bonds glass wool insulation fibers together. ECOSE Technology delivers superior environmental sustainability, reduces embodied energy, and contains no phenol, formaldehyde, acrylics or artificial colors.” The binder they use is made using rapidly renewable organic materials, instead of the conventional non-renewable petroleum-based chemicals used in traditional binders.” Since the process is “proprietary” I could not find any more information on the composition of the binder used in this process.

Costco is selling Ecoblanket by Knauf Insulation. Here’s a picture I snapped a few weeks ago.

The only personal experience I have is with SafeTouch and GreenFiber. For more information on Ultratouch, EnGuard and Ecobatt please visit their websites linked here.

UPDATE:  EnGuard Insulation

I was fortunate to have purchased all of the SafeTouch Insulation Lowes had in stock when it was time to insulate my home with a non-toxic option.  SafeTouch is no longer available and had purchased the remaining stock.  I spoke with Dow Chemical, the company that manufactured SafeTouch and they said the reason it was discontinued was simply because it was not profitable enough.  That is a real shame since it is such an amazing insulation.  It is mid-January and I only need one space heater to keep my little home comfortable.

In the future though, if I do need another insulation option, I will be going with EnGuard Insulation.  As I stated above, like SafeTouch, EnGuard is a 100% polyester batt insulation that does not contain any glass fiber, formaldehyde, VOCs or other harmful additives. Unlike SafeTouch, EnGuard contains 50% recycled content from PET plastic beverage bottles.

I contacted the company and they sent me a free test sample.  Unlike the denim insulation, EnGuard had NO smell whatsoever.  I slept with the sample next to my bed on my nightstand for several weeks and had no adverse reactions of any kind.  I would feel completely confident recommending this insulation.

Visit http://enguardinsulation.com/ for more information.

Green Renovating Part 1

I wrote in an earlier post that my fiancé and I were renovating a property we just purchased this year. Because of my chemical sensitivities, my fiancé has had to use as many non-toxic building materials as we can find.

When we first bought the home it was in bad shape. It was an older home (pre-1972) so we were fortunate to do not have to deal with more toxic materials like OSB. Because the previous tenants didn’t know how to properly vent the wood-burning stove to the outside, the entire interior of the house was saturated with smoke.

Here are the steps he’s done so far in order to transform our home into a more eco-friendly safe haven:

The first step was stripping the house down to the frame. My fiancé had to gut the entire interior of the house in order to get rid of the smoke damage, which was everywhere.

Here’s a picture of one corner of the gutted house. You can see that the frame is made of solid boards and 2 x 4’s. No OSB (oriented strand board).

The next step was to replace the damaged sub floor with untreated pine boards. Because of soft spots in the areas that did not need to be replaced, my fiancé installed PureBond formaldehyde free ¼” plywood on top of the pine boards to give the sub floor more strength and stability while he worked in the house. PureBond uses a formaldehyde free, soy-based adhesive in their hardwood plywood. We bought ours from Home Depot. This is the plywood we’re going to get when my fiancé starts building the kitchen cabinets. That’s right, my man’s gonna build me my kitchen cabinets.

Stay tuned for part two when I talk about eco-friendly insulation options.

MCS Renovations

I’ve been away from this blog for several weeks, but with good reason. My boyfriend and I just closed on a piece of property in the country that we will soon be renovating. Because of my chemical sensitivities I need to make sure that everything is as non-toxic as possible. The two houses we acquired are in bad shape, and I mean BAD. One house will be bulldozed to the ground but the other house can be renovated. Unfortunately due to the fact that the previous tenants/squatters didn’t know how to use a wood burning heater, the entire house is saturated with smoke. I told my boyfriend to gut everything.

So now we’ll soon be buying materials. The first thing I need to look into is chemical free insulation. I’ve been reading a lot about UltraTouch, cotton insulation made from recycled denim jeans. I’ll report back with my review of this product.