Illnesses Caused By Mold
There link between health issues and mold exposure has increased over the years, with a list of illnesses cause by mold presence in your home lengthy with the most common of these illnesses being asthma and allergies, infections, and mold illness or toxic mold syndrome. Mold fungi can easily grow in your indoor environments and produce mild health symptoms like headaches, cough, throat issues, and other respiratory issues, along with other more significant health problems that can develop over-time as exposure progresses.
Below we are going to discuss the most commonly experienced illnesses caused by mold in your home.
A Detailed Patient History
Everything must start with a detailed patient history. Even if mold is the cause, it may not begin causing symptoms in a noticeable way until the capacity or threshold of the individual patient has been breached. This explains why several people in one household may have vastly different manifestations or severity of symptoms, even though they are ALL living in the same moldy environment. The patients history, when recorded exactly and with attention to the right questions, can often be the first and most obvious indicator of mold illness.
What To Do If You Got Exposed To Black Molds
If youve been exposed to black molds, you should go to an open area with fresh air. You should also observe yourself for any symptoms indicating poisoning or allergic reactions.
If you start developing irritations, a doctor is always the best person to consult. The physician can provide medications and treatments to ease your condition.
Once youre feeling well, you should call professional mold remediators to clean your home. This will stop your exposure to high levels of black mold spores. You should also observe proper hygiene and always be proactive when it comes to water damage since it allows molds to grow.
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What Causes Mold Sickness
The toxins in your system from breathing in mold spores add to the total amount of toxicity in your body. We call this the Total Body Burden. When your burden is high, you start experiencing symptoms many which are seemingly unrelated.
For most people, toxins get flushed out from the body when eliminating waste.
For some, the toxic load is so high that its too much for the body to eliminate them all efficiently. For others, they may have poor detoxification processes or they may even recycle or reabsorb these mycotoxins back, as the body tries to eliminate them. Genetics plays a huge role in this difference from person to person
In short, multiple symptoms happen because, as we say in environmental medicine genetics points the gun, and then the environment pulls the trigger.
Are You Mold Sensitized
Are You Mold Sensitized?
In March of this year, Wonder Makers Environmental, based in Michigan, launched www.moldsensitized.com with the goal of educating consumers, contractors, and health professionals on the health concerns caused by mold. The websites goal is to be the ultimate resource of mold information and contains many articles written by the CEO, Michael Pinto.
Since launching the website, many mold sensitized individuals have been interviewed. Five key lessons can be learned from these interviews.
According to experts featured on the MOLDYdocumentary, 28 percent of the population have genes that make them highly susceptible to mold-related illness. Putting this into perspective, and based on the population of the metro Atlanta area, there are approximately 1.5 residents susceptible to mold sickness.
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What If You Cannot Immediately Find Any Mold In Your Home
Mold can grow in any humid, damp, and warm environment. Often people look to their bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry rooms. However, there are smaller areas in which mold is present such as your coffee maker. The reservoir in most coffee makers is the perfect dark and damp environment ideal for mold growth.
When have you last checked and washed your dishcloths? Dish towels are often damp from use and left to dry in a kitchen . Mold growth on and in the fabric is much harder to clean.
How Quickly Can Mold Make You Sick
There are several types of fungi that can be found in your house, down in the basement, or in the attic. Mold develops when the perfect environment is created, which is usually a combination of moisture, humidity, and organic material. Spores can migrate away from thriving colonies through the air, landing on shoes, blankets, showerheads, or your HVAC ductwork. As it spreads, it releases toxic chemicals called mycotoxins. These are the molecules that lead to illness.
Mold toxicity is considered a biotoxin illness, also called Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. In this severe condition, there is a systemic inflammatory response that occurs after an individual has had intense exposure to toxigenic organisms. These organisms can include bacteria, mycobacterium, fungi, actinomycetes, and other inflammagens. It is common for people to suffer from an illness brought on by living conditions where water damage has occurred, and many of these individuals are unable to develop an antibody or immune response to mold toxins.
Almost everyone will experience some form of illness or response when their bodies are exposed to high enough levels of biotoxins, though each individual has a unique threshold or tolerance. There is no exact timeline for how soon a person will develop symptoms of mold exposure, but as mold spores rapidly multiply, individuals may experience certain discomforts within just a few hours of entering a mold-laden environment.
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What Is Black Mold
Stachybotrys chartarum is a common black mold. It can also be a greenish color. It grows on cotton, wood, and paper products. It sometimes produces toxic chemicals that are found in its airborne spores and fungus fragments.
These are called mycotoxins and are dangerous if they’re eaten. There’s no link to inhaled Stachybotrys chartarum mycotoxins and deadly diseases. But there are risks for people with allergies, asthma, and other hypersensitivities.
There is no evidence that black mold causes symptoms such as fatigue, memory loss, an inability to focus, or a headache. These symptoms have been referred to as “toxic mold syndrome” but are largely due to media hype. Yet some people are allergic to mold. It should always be removed from your home.
Symptoms Of Mold Illness
- Memory problems, brain fog, trouble with focus and executive function
- Fatigue, weakness, post-exercise malaise and fatigue
- Muscle cramping, aches and pains, joint pain without inflammatory arthritis, persistent nerve pain, ice pick pain
- Numbness and tingling
- Light sensitivity, red eyes, and/or blurred vision
- Sinus problems, cough, shortness of breath, air hunger, asthma-like symptoms
- Tremors
- Abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, appetite changes
- Metallic taste
- Weight gain despite sufficient effort
- Night sweats or other problems with temperature regulation
- Excessive thirst
- Increased urination
- Static shocks
See how easily mold poisoning could go unnoticed, or mistaken for other conditions? Yet 30 years of good scientific evidence points to the serious health problem that mold can cause.
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Mold Allergies Asthma And Other Respiratory Symptoms
Whether you already experience allergy symptoms or not, touching or inhaling mold spores may cause you to become allergic to mold. If you are sensitized to mold as an allergen, exposure may cause a range of allergy symptoms, including sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, and eye, nose and throat irritation, according to the CDC. However, you do not need to be sensitized to mold for it to cause medical symptoms.
Exposure to mold and damp indoor environments has been linked to a wide range of health effects. According to the Institute of Medicine , both mold and damp indoor environments have been found to cause coughing, wheezing and other respiratory tract symptoms in otherwise healthy individuals. Those with asthma may experience more severe asthma symptoms when exposed to mold or indoor dampness, including tightness, swelling and mucus in the airways. The CDC also notes that workplace exposure to mold in damp buildings has been associated with new-onset asthma.
How Long Does It Take To Detox From Mold
As you kill the mold and there are less organisms in your body, you will start to feel better. It took my husband six months to become free and clear of mold while it took me a year and a half. Even though I am currently back on my detox regimen due to a new mold exposure, which is another story, I feel good.
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What Causes Mold To Grow Indoors
The conditions present in your home can play a critical role in the formation of mold in your indoor environment, with certain ideal conditions causing mold growth. Moisture is usually the most important condition that needs to be present in the environment since mold cannot grow without moisture in the environment. Additionally, mold will require a food source such as wood, drywall, or cotton to feed on in the environment, darkness to minimize exposure to ultraviolet light, warmer temperatures, oxygen, and time to thoroughly grow and spread within the environment. When all of these conditions are met in an indoor environment like your home, mold will flourish and grow rapidly which can leave for major problems to both your indoor air quality and to the health of those exposed to this mold growth.
Other issues in a home can also promote the growth of mold indoors, these can be normal occurrences in the home that will unknowingly advance mold that is developing in the area. Elevated levels of humidity indoors have been correlated with the growth of mold, as mold feeds off of high humidity levels in the air. Also, poor ventilation will aid in the progression of mold growth indoors since it will create pockets of moist air in the environment for mold to thrive.
Mold Problems in House
Why Are Mold Issues Difficult To Diagnose
Conventional medicine recognizes that mold can cause allergies but does not recognize that mycotoxins emitted by some species of indoor mold can cause a problem, says McElroy. This means that doctors unfamiliar with mold and mold treatment may miss one of the main types of mold reactionsthe chemical and inflammatory reaction. This is for a few reasons:
- There is no gold standard in testing for mold
- There is no standardized treatment protocol or drug for mold toxicity
- There are very limited human-based studies looking at the connection between mycotoxins and human health
- The presentation of mold issues is very different among patients
- Not everyone exposed to mold mycotoxins will have a reaction to them
Its no wonder mold illness can be hard to diagnose. Fortunately, holistic medicine providers consider environmental factors that affect health when evaluating patients and may have additional advanced training in treating mold toxicity.
According to McElroy, one of the biggest challenges with mold is that mycotoxins can cause only some people to launch an inflammatory response. This unpredictable response can go on for years after a long-term exposure in a susceptible individual, she explains.
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How Do I Know Mold Is Making Me Sick
Last year, Wonder Makers Environmental, a company based in Michigan, launched a website, www.moldsensitized.com with the mission of educating consumers, contractors, and health professionals on the health concerns caused by mold. The websites goal is to be the ultimate resource of mold information and contains many articles written by the CEO, Michael Pinto.
Since launching the website, several mold sensitized individuals have been interviewed. Many lessons can be learned from these interviews.
According to the MOLDYdocumentary released earlier in the summer of 2015, 28 percent of the population have genes that make them highly susceptible to mold-related health issues.
Where Is Mold Found In A Home
A research study found that Stachybotrys preferred a very high relative humidity within wallsapproximately 97%which indicates that relative humidity could be an important risk factor . For black mold, you may consider smaller microclimates that may harbor such humidity levels: sweating pipes, under sink cabinets, front loading washing machines, standing water, roof leaks, damp cars, windows with condensation, etc. Generally, common places to check for mold growth include the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room.
However, humidity alone is not the only requirement for mold growthmold requires nutrients to grow. Any environment that has nutrients like cellulose or other organic matter can harbor mold if the humidity level is right. To further enable mold growth, an environment that has poor air flow and minimal disruption is ideal. For example, you can find mold on wallpaper, furniture, drywall, overly-packed bookshelves or overstuffed closets.
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How Can I Be Exposed To Mold
People are exposed to molds every day, usually by touching or breathingthem. Because molds naturally exist outdoors and indoors, living in a totallymold-free environment is practically impossible. As molds grow, spores can bereleased into the air where they can be easily inhaled. People who inhale largenumbers of spores may get sick. Possible health concerns are an importantreason to prevent mold growth and to clean up molds in indoor environments.
How To Know If You Have Black Mold In Your House
Mold isnt always visible. If you can see mold, its only a sign of the real potential health risk, which is the harmful types of unhealthy levels of mold in the air of your home or workplace.
Airborne mold is all around us in both the outdoors and indoors. The types and amount of mold is what determines the potential health risk. Most of us are typically accustomed to the varieties and amounts of mold present in our outdoor environments.
Healthy indoor environments will have mold conditions similar to or better than those in the surrounding outdoors. Over time, because of moisture , many indoor spaces develop unhealthy types and/or unhealthy levels of airborne mold that can be harmful to you or your pets.
These signs will help you know if you possibly have unhealthy mold conditions in your house:
- Allergic symptoms
- A damp or musty odor in one or more places
- Frequent headaches
- The air in the home feels different
- Your house has been flooded or currently has leaks
- You previously tried removing mold yourself
Take note of how you feel in and out of the house. If the symptoms disappear or decrease when youre out and about, then you might have a mold problem, yes, even if you cant see mold.
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What Is Water Black Mold
The scientific name of black mold is Stachybotrys Chartarum. It is a fungus that lives in moist places. If you look carefully, you can see greenish-black color usually grows on damp surfaces. We can also find them in our water bottle. Continuous moisture for a long time is the leading cause of a black mold infestation. This kind of species needs from 8 to 12 days to grow.
What Causes Black Mold
Molds are an important part of our environment. They decompose dead plants and animals. All types of mold will grow if the conditions are right. Mold grows and spreads quickly in the right conditions, which include:
- Moisture level at or over 70%
- Adequate food source
- Oxygen
- Temperatures that range from 40 to 100 degrees F
Mold can grow anywhere in your house that provides these conditions. The most likely places mold will grow are:
- Anywhere that there has been a water leak.
- Damp rooms without adequate ventilation, such as bathrooms.
- Basements where humidity tends to be higher.
- Any areas with a lot of water condensation.
- Any areas where flooding has occurred.
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How Do I Know If My Cough Is From Mold
Mold allergy causes the same signs and symptoms that occur in other types of upper respiratory allergies. Signs and symptoms of allergic rhinitis caused by mold allergy can include: Sneezing. Runny or stuffy nose.Signs and symptoms of asthma include:Coughing.Wheezing.Shortness of breath.Chest tightness.Apr 3, 2019
Visible Dark Rings And Spots
One of the early signs that mold could be lurking in your home is the appearance of dark rings or spots on the ceilings or walls. Even if these spots arent mold per se, they may be indicative of water damage or pooling water, which is a recipe for mold growth.Dark rings on your ceiling? It might be an early sign of black mold.
If you see anything like this in your home, its best to mop it up as quickly as possible and clean the area using disinfectants. If you cant access the area, get an inspector to do it for you. Be sure to check other areas as well, since there could be more widespread water damage.
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