Re: Re: sensitivities to odors - was muscle cramps

[Guest guest]

As a matter of fact I do react to strong odors and perfumes and fragrances. Can't use Pinesol at all, or be in a room where it is being used. I get a severe headache within a minute or two, and if I haven't moved away from the odor, I'll get a migraine. Both conditions always affect my upper GI as well, so the next meal I'll eat will cause more severe symptoms than usual. And my nervous system is off-kilter for a day or two, which also affects my entire digestive motility. So, something of a vicious cycle.

From what I've read about migraines, digestion and the connections to the nervous systems, this is a fairly typical reaction. That brain/gut/blood connection at work.

It is annoying, of course; and the people I live with tend to get cranky when I have to keep saying no to certain soaps and cleaners and perfumes [sigh]. My coworkers also suffer a bit as I have to leave the area when someone wearing a strong perfume or aftershave comes in (I work in a library).

So, it seems almost normal to me that you would feel heartburn following an exposure to a strong odor. Did you know there are abdominal migraines? You might be getting an abdominal migraine as a reaction to a strong odor while my migraines surface in my brain.

I just have to limit my exposure to strong odors and fragrances, regardless of the source. My experience has been that synthetic fragrances always trigger a worse reaction than natural sources, but I still avoid strong odors whenever and wherever I can.

My experience in the past six years, since my upper GI dysfunctions materialized, has been that everything tends to have an impact on my digestion [big sigh of resignation...]

Kim M.

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I hope you don't think I'm being intrusive, but do strong odors (like pine-sol) give you heartburn when you're in the area where someone has cleaned with it? They do me. My husband cleans with it, and he doesn't understand why I object to it so much! Lysol spray bothers me, too. I feel like if it's giving me heartburn, couldn't it be affecting my digestion, too?