This is a something that I personally have battled. Here’s my story.

It was 1994 and I was expecting my third child in July. My husband was very concerned about raising three kids in a two bedroom home so the search was on for a 3 bedroom home for our expanding family. The first week of May, I declared the house hunt to be officially over, as making an offer on any home we found would put us moving too close to the birth of our 2nd son. However, my husband came home with just “one more house that you have to see to believe.” Sure enough, the previous sale on the three bedroom two bath ranch with a fenced yard and a separately fenced inground pool had fallen through and the home was miraculously back on the market. It was definitely a fixer upper but that was to be expected. After all, most of the homes in our price range were “fixer uppers”.

As I had predicted… we closed on the house the week before the baby was due. That week, while I was in the hospital, my family and inlaws were moving us into our new home.

I tell you this part of the story so you’ll understand why I wasn’t alarmed that first winter when I spent the entire heating season absolutely exhausted to the point of being ill. In my exhaustion, I totalled our car and am grateful that I didn’t do more harm to my children. Still, I plugged on. I worked and cared for my children despite my complete depletion of energy. I was also battling SEVERE headaches. When I spoke with my doctor, he prescribed antibiotics to kill the supposed sinus infection which was causing the headaches and depleting me of my energy. However, I was also patted on the head and told that part of being a working mother of three is a feeling of exhaustion.

Because I was so ill, my husband and I hadn’t embarked on one of the most pressing home improvements our new home needed which was new windows and doors. However, we had paid to have the furnace cleaned and inspected when we purchased the home, so it was a fluke that our furnace went out in March of the following year. Our old furnace guy had packed up and moved to Arizona so I found a new company to come fix our furnace.

When the new furnace guy got to work, he found the top of the furnace welded shut. It turns out the previous company hadn’t performed the cleaning or the inspection we’d paid for them to perform. Not only that, but the build up in the furnace was causing our home to be filled with poisonous CO gas! Had we replaced our windows as we had planned, it’s possible we could have died from the exposure! The furnace repair man told me that if someone had spent 30 minutes in the room where the furnace was, they would have been dead.

Turns out it we were lucky. Our exposure to Carbon Monoxide didn’t trigger the more severe MUSES (Multisensory Sensitivity).

The web site Multiple Chemical Sensitivity web site has a great article on Treatment of Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

We now have CO alarms placed strategically throughout our home. Because we live in Florida now, when we’re without electricity and have to use our generator, we make sure to keep the generator running outside in a well ventilated area away from open windows. I’ve also read that running more than one exhaust fan at the same time can also cause a build up of CO within the home, so when one bathroom fan is running, the other isn’t! The same goes for the kitchen exhaust fan.

Carbon Monoxide is so dangerous because you can’t see it, smell it or taste it.  If you’ve been battling the flu “all winter” be sure to have your home checked for high Carbon Monoxide levels.

My oldest son (16) has suffered from intermitten killer headaches for quite some time now.  Since my husband’s mother has a long history of migraines, I just assumed that my son had "inherited" the condition from my husband’s side of the family.

<!–adunit–> Within the past year, my son has also been struggling with acne.  So, I purchased Murad skin products, which included a multivitamin.

This morning, as I was reading the Sunday paper, there was an article about how vitamin B2 (riboflavin) can reduce or even eliminate severe headaches.  Come to think of it, my son hasn’t had a severe headache since he began taking his mulitvitamin.  I went to check the label and sure enough, the multivitamin sold by Dr. Murad contains 735% of the RDA for riboflavin. 

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s website:

Unlike other B vitamins, riboflavin is not found in many foods, so the most common cause of deficiency is lack of dietary intake, especially in the elderly. Symptoms of riboflavin deficiency include fatigue; slowed growth; digestive problems; cracks and sores around the corners of the mouth; swollen magenta tongue; eye fatigue; soreness of the lips, mouth and tongue; and sensitivity to light. Riboflavin is an important nutrient in the prevention of headache and some visual disturbances, particularly cataracts.

The web site goes on to state:

Precautions

Because of the potential for side effects and interactions with medications, dietary supplements should be taken only under the supervision of a knowledgeable healthcare provider.

Absorption of Vitamin B2 is best when it is taken with meals.

Riboflavin does not appear to cause any serious side effects. Possible reactions to very high doses may include itching, numbness, burning or prickling sensations, and sensitivity to light.

Taking any one of the B complex vitamins for a long period of time can result in an imbalance of other important B vitamins. For this reason, it is generally important to take a B complex vitamin with any single B vitamin.