16. Can Your Home Contribute to Your Chronic Symptoms?

Practical Nontoxic Living with Sophia Ruan Gushée

Sick building syndrome (SBS), or sick house syndrome, consist of various nonspecific symptoms that occupants of indoor areas experience.

Symptoms of SBS include headaches, dizziness, chronic fatigue, nausea, irritation (of eye, nose, throat, or skin), difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to odors, allergies, cold, flu-like symptoms, increased incidence of asthma attacks and personality changes.

Author of Organic Lifestyle Made Easy: How To Create A Chemical-Free Household One Step At A Time, Angela Cummings was a stranger who emailed me years ago. She reached out as a fan of my work, expressing interest in writing for me. I was very intrigued that she had discovered that her home had made her and her son sick.

Having read about symptoms associated with toxic exposures from what makes up our homes and the things we buy for them, I was excited to talk to someone who had personal experience with this, especially because Angela was able to empower herself to recover and heal.

Having met people of all ages who suffer from various chronic symptoms, I suspect that considering the health of our homes could help many. Most people just don't know that their homes and household items can contribute to health issues.

For Angela, conditions she experienced included sinus and ear infections, itchy feet after walking barefoot on her carpet, swollen feet after walking barefoot on newly installed composite wood floors, feeling sick after using her wood-burning fireplace, and feeling not well after painting walls.

Other symptoms that Angela had?

• Earaches
• Swollen glands in the neck
• Dizziness
• Chronic fatigue
• Exhaustion

In this podcast, you'll hear Angela say, "I had a lot of symptoms, I just didn't understand what the cause of the problem was."

If you or someone you know have unexplained chronic symptoms, then maybe something you hear in this podcast might inspire you to consider the health of your home. You'll hear how Angela tracked her and her son's pattern of symptoms to discover which home exposures were making them sick.

And, please keep in mind a new online program I'm launching in April 2019 called Home Detox 101. It lays out easy ways you can detox your body burden by choosing simple tips to detox your indoor air, drinking water, sleep, house dust, and more. Through short videos and a menu of options, this is meant to welcome you onto a pleasant path of detoxing your home for healing spaces.

For now, check out my conversation with Angela. By the way, this was recorded years ago. Since then, Angela has helped me with articles about detoxing our homes. You can find these free resources—along with the transcript to this podcast—at NontoxicLiving.tips. And please visit Angela's website Occupant Wellness through which she helps people live healthier, more comfortable lifestyles.