Nutty Massage and Flaming Oils

A client wants to come in who is allergic to everything. I mean everything. And as desperate as she is for a massage, she is willing to take a chance on hives in hopes of getting the pain out of her hip.

First, we talk on the phone. What detergent do I use? What oil? Where do I do my laundry? All-cotton sheets?

Ok, I use clean and clear hypo-allergenic everything detergent and organic, cotton-only sheets, wrinkles and all. Oil? Anti-inflammatory plant oils, no additives. I know where my sheets have been because I do my own laundry. Quaint, I know. Most clients probably don’t even notice it or care. But I do.

This lady with the thousand questions has chemical sensitivity syndrome, something that is rare but becoming more common as people react with additives in foods, detergents, clothing, computers, etc

She is allergic to lots of things the result of spending years working in a chemistry lab developing pharmaceutical products. It is not known what exactly started the problem, but she reacts to everything from latex gloves to baby powder to fragrance oils to silicones and parabens.

I first ran across this sensitivity syndrome when I worked at a newspaper. A couple of firefighters who had fought a chemical-ridden fire had developed a weird batch of symptoms, seemingly allergic to everything. They were presumed to have been sensitized to chemical additives through exposure to toxic smoke with the chemicals.

Their illnesses were controversial, largely because some people didn’t think they were sick at all, but reacting hysterically. As they did have a definite extreme exposure to toxic chemicals, they eventually won their disability cases.

Occasionally I’ve had folks come in for massages with specific allergies to things such as nut oils – almond and peanut – and a few additives. Once I had two brothers who were allergic to other plant and mineral oils but were just fine with almond oil.

One of the things I have learned is to respect people’s accounts of their allergies and run as anti-inflammatory an office as I can. I even keep a 50-ingredient super-glide lotion handy because I have a former football player who swears it is the only one that doesn’t give him acne.

Go figure.

As a massage therapist, I figure I’m there to give massages, not comment on the worth or oddity or politics of what people react to. Now, there was a time the soap-opera actor told me he couldn’t have any back acne and handed me a tube of K-Y….