Can Mold Give You Anxiety

When Should You Suspect That Mold Exposure Is Causing Symptoms For You

If your home or office has had water damage or water intrusion and nothing was done to remediate it within 24-48 hours, its likely mold has grown. Mold can grow with very little moisture, so make sure small leaks are repaired and damp areas like bathrooms, showers, and windowsills are well ventilated and cleaned regularly.

You may have experienced a time you stayed in a hotel, a friends house, or perhaps your basement and smelled a musty odor. That odor is often caused by microbial volatile organic compounds which are not thought to affect our health in a negative way. This musty odor, however, is a red flag that mold growth is present.

There are many companies that will come to your home and test for the presence of mold spores. One of the most popular mold testing methods is to collect air samples indoors and outdoors and compare them. The indoor mold count should be less than outdoors. Unfortunately, air testing for mold is limited in its effectiveness and can lead to false negative results since it only provides a brief snapshot in time of which mold spores are present.

One of the better, more effective, tests for mold is the Environmental Relative Mold Index which is available at Mycometrics or EMLab P& K. It analyzes a sample of dust from the home using a DNA-based method for identifying specific mold species. This test also has its limitations, but overall is a good test to start with.

If You Suspect Black Mold Poisoning Get A Free Consultation With A Mold Removal Specialist:

• Its a free service so why wait? A mold removal specialist will give your home a thorough and detailed inspection in order to find all of the mold present, even hidden mold, which can be inside walls or in other hard to find places.
• It is critical to remove all of the mold in your home anything missed will grow back and cause continued health issues for your family.
• Once the inspection is complete, the mold remediation specialist will give you a detailed cleanup plan. This will help you decide if the cleanup is something you can handle on your own.

Follow the link for a list of local Mold Remediation Contractors.

How Are We Exposed To Mold

Mold needs organic matter to feed upon and moisture in order to grow. When growing conditions are right, mold releases spores and volatile organic compounds into the air, which may make some people feel sick.

Mold spores may be breathed in or absorbed through skin. Mold can also grow on food and may be hazardous if ingested.

You May Like: How To Clean Black Mold On Shower Grout

You May Like: What Kills Mold In House

Types Of Mold Sickness: Signs And Symptoms

Mold exposure has the potential to cause adverse health effects. Many people start researching mold sickness when they are faced with a set of symptoms that have no apparent cause. They begin to wonder, are they being affected by something in their environment? There is a wide range of mold-related illnesses, some of which are difficult or even impossible to diagnose. Below, we discuss the different types of mold sickness and the symptoms associated with each condition.

Can Mold Give You Depression

Many people are aware that mold has an adverse effect on our health and wellbeing. In the last few decades, statistics for allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions have increased at an alarming rate. But one of the reasons for that increase is that our modern living spaces promote a sterile and closed-off environment .

Also, we are cleaning with more harsh chemicals and increasing the amount of moisture and dampness in our homes. In the last two years in particular, since the start of the pandemic, more people are staying at home. This means we are showering, cleaning, and spending more time in our homes thus increasing the amount of moisture in our living space.

Most of us are aware of the danger that mycotoxins from mold can have on our health. Of course, not everyone gets sick from mold. Some people have a genetic sensitivity that predisposes them to mold illness . But as of yet, research hasnt been able to clearly identify who those people are and exactly why theyre so sensitive. Nonetheless, research shows that mold illness has increased exponentially over the last several decades .

Recommended Reading: How To Get Rid Of Yard Mold

How Long Do Mold Symptoms Last

The tricky thing about mold exposure is that its different for each person. The amount of time mold exposure symptoms persist depends on:

• What type of mold they are exposed to,
• How long the exposure has been,
• How well their bodies eliminate toxins

Those who process toxins well can see their symptoms disappear as quickly as a few days.

Others who eliminate toxins slowly can experience symptoms for much longer. They could be ill for months or even years after the source of mold is eliminated.

Can Mold Cause Bladder Problems

4.2/5molds cancause symptomsurinarycausediseaseurinary

If they come into contact with mold, they may experience symptoms, such as:

• a runny or blocked nose.
• watery, red eyes.

One may also ask, can mold cause neurological problems? Human exposure to molds, mycotoxins, and water-damaged buildings can cause neurologic and neuropsychiatric signs and symptoms.

Keeping this in view, can black mold cause bladder cancer?

There is no evidence linking indoor exposure to black mold or any other type of mold with cancer. Mold is associated with other health problems, though. In high concentrations, or with long-term exposure, mold can aggravate allergies and asthma, and cause upper respiratory symptoms.

Can Candida cause urinary problems?

Yeast infections occur due to an overgrowth of the Candida fungus, while UTIs result from bacterial infections in the urinary tract. Yeast infections cause itching, pain, and odorless vaginal discharge. UTIs, on the other hand, cause urinary symptoms, such as a frequent urge to urinate and painful urination.

You May Like: How Can Mold And Mildew Affect Your Health

Mold And Shortness Of Breath

Kids with asthma, allergies and other breathing conditions often have high sensitivity to mold.

As such, when they come inhale spores in the air, they may experience shortness of breath or any one of these symptoms:

• Skin rashes or irritations
• Chest tightness

In some cases, overexposure to mold may cause your little one to have a higher risk of catching a cold or flu.

Critically, kids with compromised immune systems or chronic lung illnesses may even get serious infections in their lungs when exposed to mold.

Mold And Emotions: Not Just In Your Head

So many struggling people enter our doors searching for answers to chronic mental health problems after having been told it was just all in their heads. Many other providers had advised them to accept the fact of lifelong medications and lifelong symptoms. Some of them had heard from therapists and counselors that they just had to get over it. Then we discovered that mold toxicity lay under the layers of anxiety, depression, obsessions, compulsions, insomnia, panic attacks, and other neuropsychiatric complaints. Many cry at this point of freedom, freedom from being blamed for or imprisoned by a diagnosis of its all in your head.

Okay, while the diagnosis by other providers is not just in the sufferers head, something else is in their brains, mold toxins. But so many dismiss mold as being everywhere and therefore since others dont have the same symptoms from the same exposure, mold toxins cant be the problem. Or they say, it is only the black mold that makes people sick and just throw some bleach on it. Reality tells us that most people do not have significant effects from mold toxins. Most does not mean all however.

Recommended Reading: How To Remove Mold Stains From Carpet

Is Mold Linked To Anxiety Depression And Night Sweats

According to the information from Pacific Ridge , mold exposure and inability to detoxify mold and mycotoxins from your body is detrimental to your health, especially the health of your brain. In fact, chronic brain fog is a big sign that some kind of biotoxin like mold is crossing your blood brain barrier and causing inflammation and other havoc. Other BIG mold symptoms include anxiety, panic, and night sweats. Yes, your anxiety and depression may be linked to mold exposure. And your night sweats may not be early menopause they could be a result of exposure to mold! When I was in my early thirties, I started to suddenly have night sweats. I was so perplexed. I thought I am way too young to be going through menopause! Thankfully, one of my instructors at my nutrition school suggested it may be mold in my bedroom. Sure enough, there was mold in the corner wall close to my pillow and as soon as it was remediated, my night sweats went away!

Is everyone sensitive to mold? No. But now that we have more advanced testing to detect mold in our environments and in our bodies, a lot more people are mold sensitive than previously thought!

There are many tests that can indicate mold or other biotoxin illness. For example, a couple of tests that you can request from your primary care physician include ADH and osmolality. ADH and osmolality are usually low when there is mold or other biotoxin exposure. If osmolality is low, replenishing with electrolytes can be very helpful.

Mold Exposure To The Brain

The brain can have direct exposure to mold when the mold or mycotoxins are inhaled into the sinuses.

The pituitary glands are adjacent to the brain and can provide direct access to the brain causing toxicity without being in your bloodstream.

Penetration into the sinus tissue is more common than ingesting mold or absorption through the skin. Chronic fungal sinusitis is a common ailment that impacts almost 60 million people in the United States. However, there is a much darker side of this phenomenon. The nose has a very rich vascular network with direct access to the brain and pituitary gland. Because of that, it is much more sensitive than the other senses. The pituitary is the control center for eight of the bodys most important hormonal systems. Whether it is mold, mycotoxins, or even candida, the sinus walls adjacent to the brain and pituitary glands can provide direct access to the brain causing toxicity and may cause both cognitive and motor function symptoms as well as impacting the bodys hormonal systems. Mycotoxins that remain in the body are also known to be stored in fat and can be released later if that fat is burned. Brain exposure in this manner is unlikely going to appear in a mold diagnostic test of urine.

Toxins can affect nearly any aspect of your body as the pituitary is the control center for eight of the bodys most important hormonal systems.

Also Check: How To Prevent Mold In Basement Apartment

Symptoms Of Peripheral Neuropathy

No matter the cause, the symptoms of this condition can include:

• Loss of sensation and/or itching in the hands and/or feet
• Moderate to severe nerve pain in the extremities
• Muscle weakness in the limbs
• Burning sensation in the hands and/or feet
• Sensitivity to touch
• Lightheadedness

People who have this type of neuropathy may also have trouble walking or experience heat intolerance, dizziness, and increased sweating. They may also have changes in their blood pressure and problems going to the bathroom. Here is more about the neurological symptoms of mold exposure.

Besides mold exposure, there are a variety of medically-related reasons why patients may have neuropathic symptoms, including conditions like lyme disease, diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, shingles, hepatitis C, Epstein-Barr virus, liver disease, alcoholism, benign tumors and growths, and cancer. Since peripheral neuropathy is often a sign of a serious illness, it is important to see your doctor right away if you think you have it.

Donât Miss: Bathroom Ceiling Mold

Toxic Mold And Psychiatric Symptoms

This is an excellent post by my client and expert Dr. Judy Tsafrir. There is a great need for further understanding the mental health impacts of toxic mold. If you suffer from the psychiatric symptoms of mold or have further questions regarding this topic please contact Dr. Judy from her website

Originally Posted:

Illness related to mold exposure is something that I had heard of, but did not take to heart until recently. This fall I started Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training which required a daily home practice. I set up my yoga props in a cozy corner of the carpeted finished basement and practiced there for at least an hour every day. Kundalini Yoga often involves long deep breathing as well as a rapid breath pattern called Breath of Fire. After about two weeks of inhaling the basement air, I began to feel an overwhelmingly heightened sense of anxiety, profound depression and began to wake up multiple times throughout the night. There were no other symptoms. I was baffled as I could identify no obvious precipitant.

Read Also: Can Mold Travel From One Apartment To Another

Could Mold Be Affecting Your Mental Health

Posted

Contributed by: Jane Sandwood

What does mold toxicity look like?Mold toxicity can manifest in different ways in people. Its more commonly linked to physical problems, such as difficulty breathing, fatigue, and headaches, but research shows that it can present itself in a psychiatric way, too. This includes brain fog, depression, anxiety, problems concentrating, and insomnia. Some people present just physical or psychiatric symptoms, while others can get a mix of the two. This means that people are seeking and receiving treatment for a mental illness that only exists because of their exposure to mold. Research has also found that a vulnerability to mold toxicity is present in 25% of the population, which is often due to a genetic predisposition. Due to this, a family can be living in the same home and only one person presents symptoms.

Understanding the link between mental health illnesses and mold exposure can help a huge amount of people assess whats causing or exacerbating their symptoms. Eliminating mold exposure can help peoples health to improve all-round, but its important to remember that it can take several weeks for this to be seen, depending on how much mold has built up in the body.

Recent Posts

Mold Illness Is Traumatic

Were on the same page. If I may, Id like to rattle on a bit more about this topic in the hopes that others may find it useful.

From my experience, there is very real psychological trauma that results from Biotoxin Illness. Severe sleep deprivation, major neurotransmitter imbalances, dramatic hormonal swings, remodeling of the brains physical structure and chemistry, debilitating fatigue and pain, all at levels that are equivalent to being beaten ruthlessly with a steel pipe on a daily basis for years on end will most definitely scar the psyche.

If we somehow manage by the Grace of God to find a way to heal our bodies, its my contention that most of us will remain, both at conscious and unconscious levels, highly attuned to our attacker Biotoxins and their related inflammagens. Even if were physically better, re-exposure to even minute levels of Biotoxins, as is inevitable, will very likely produce a strong fight-or-flight response. This would be true for nearly any victim who is forced to confront his or her brutal attacker the psyche is going to freak out to varying degrees.

• Muscle weakness, spasms or cramps

You May Like: What Is Blow Molded Plastic

Can Mold Cause Ear Infection

originally posted November 6, 2013

Conventional wisdom says mold is everywhere, theres nothing you can do about it, and its not harmful. Yes, it is true that mold is everywhere since it is natures way of breaking down dead matter. However, contrary to common belief mold is in fact harmful in multiple ways. It has been linked to sinus problems, allergies, food allergy, gluten sensitivities, ear infections and even autoimmune diseases. The good news is that you can do something about it.

First, lets look at how mold impacts the body. There are two types of problem that mold presents. The first impacts people with a predisposition to be mold allergic or sensitive. These are folks whose body reacts to the mold by producing IgG antibodies that tells their white blood cells to attack the mold by producing cytokines. The second problem is that of Mycotoxins, a poisonous substance produced by molds commonly known as Black Mold or Toxic Mold. Mycotoxins are dangerous to everyone as they can damage your bodys vital organs. We will only focus on the first problem in this article.

What Should I Do If I Have Any Of These Symptoms Of Mold Exposure

Your first port of call is your doctor. He or she can rule out other health problems that might be causing your symptoms. Know that a physician cant diagnose mold exposure using just blood or urine tests. Youll need to have your home or workplace inspected by professionals. You might think that you can simply check with your family or colleagues to see if they exhibit similar symptoms. But unfortunately, some people are more sensitive to mold than others. So you might develop symptoms and the guy in the next cubicle is none the wiser.

Your doctor will prescribe a program of treatment. But there are things that you can do to help:

• Don a protective mask and gloves to clean any visible mold in your home.
• Report the mold to the building manager if its in your workplace.
• Keep on top of mold growth to stop it from releasing as many spores.
• Run a dehumidifier in the bathroom or kitchen to make them less attractive spaces for mold to grow.
• Once youve removed the visible mold, have your air ducts cleaned regularly.

If youve recently had mold removed from your home call Fresh Aire Duct Cleaning at 275-5556 or contact us online to schedule a duct cleaning service in Los Angeles! You need to make sure youre not simply transmitting mold spores around your home.

Categories

You May Like: How To Clean A Bathroom Ceiling

You May Like: How To Know If You Have Mold In Your House