The Canary Report

Environmental medicine expert says women’s health is environmental health

Posted on Nov 29, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Susie Collins

Lisa Nagy, MD: Women are four times more likely to exhibit symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Chemical Sensitivity than are men.

Lisa Nagy, MD, reports on Women’s Health is Environmental Health: Avoiding Common Toxic Exposures. “There has been tremendous and hostile resistance to educating doctors on the dangers of environmental illness and toxic mold, generated mainly by the fields of Occupational Medicine, Public Health, Allergy, and Psychiatry,” she writes. “As a new delegate to the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), I introduced a resolution calling for increased awareness about the environmental illnesses and implementation of a one-hour Continuing Medical Education course on Chemical Sensitivity.”

She argues that the reason environmental illnesses are not taken seriously in the medical establishment is because there are far more women than men who have them.

I firmly believe that one reason that environmental illnesses are not taken more seriously is because it is chiefly women who develop them. Many women experience cognitive and mental health problems along with environmental illness. When they go to the doctor, they may suffer from mental or cognitive impairment, but their behavior actually results from being environmentally ill. Too often, physicians focus on women’s mental health symptoms and insultingly recommend psychiatry, when these patients actually need an environmental medicine specialist. When toxicity is treated, mental and physical symptoms can dramatically improve or disappear.

Dr. Nagy was recently appointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Working Group on the Scientific Understanding of the Effect of Chemicals on Human Health. She is founder and president of the Preventive and Environmental Health Alliance. She is doing incredible work on a national level toward having all physicians educated about environmental illnesses.

Link to Dr. Nagy’s website.

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Tags: Chemicals, Environmental Health, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Policy