MCS: The Illness Crippling Australians, Dismissed by Doctors

‘An estimated one million Australians suffer from MCS, an extreme allergy to everyday chemicals in cosmetics, air fresheners and cleaning products. While some Australians have chosen to end their own lives rather than live with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Australia’s medical authorities continue to reject calls to recognise the condition as a disease.

“Patients get told time and time again, that it’s simply in their head.”

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While most doctors are reluctant to diagnose patients with MCS, GP Dr Christabelle Yeoh is more sympathetic. She claims, “There is plenty in the literature now to show that these chemicals are really adversely affecting our bodies from our immune system, to our mitochondria, to our gut microbiome, to our nervous system.” And attempts to have MCS officially classified as a disease in Australia have been rejected by medical authorities.

In 2010, a federal government report recommended standardised criteria be developed to diagnose MCS. But in the years since it appears that little has changed.’

More: MCS: THE CONDITION THAT AFFECTS ‘ONE MILLION AUSTRALIANS’ BUT IS DISMISSED BY DOCTORS