Finding A Mold Problem
MDH does not recommend mold testing in many cases, especially as the first response to an indoor air quality concern. Instead, careful detailed visual inspection and recognition of moldy odors should be used to find problems needing correction. Efforts should focus on areas where there are signs of liquid moisture or water vapor or where moisture problems are suspected. The investigation goals should be to locate indoor mold growth to determine how to correct the moisture problem and remove contamination safely and effectively.
Treating Mold Allergies Or Exposure
Allergy shots and oral medications, including over-the-counter antihistamines, may be recommended or prescribed to treat mold toxicity. Detoxifying the body from the effects of mold toxicity is best performed with a multi-pronged approach.
Holistic medicine is also useful in treating mold poisoning, particularly by employing therapies that harness the bodys natural healing processes. These natural processes can help to trigger antioxidants and act in combatting toxicity.
When Should I Visit My Doctor
You should visit your doctor if mild symptoms persist and resist regular treatment.
For example, if your allergies are worsening and you dont find relief with your favorite, time-tested allergy medicine, then you should call your doctor.
If you are experiencing any moderate to severe symptoms, schedule an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.
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How Do You Know If Mold Is Making You Sick
Are you sick and suspect it might be from mold?
Determining whether exposure to mold is making you sick isnt always easy.
Each persons body is affected by mold toxicity in different ways. Some experience constant migraines and headaches, shortness of breath, brain fog, fatigue or even depression.
Since symptoms differ from person to person, they may not be quickly associated with mold exposure. Many people suffering from mold illness struggle to get a proper diagnosis and investigation.
Its common to think my house is clean it cant be mold! However, mold comes in many forms. In this article, well share what toxic mold is, the signs and symptoms, and how it can be treated.
How Do You Test For Toxic Mold Exposure
All in all, there is no simple way to diagnose mycotoxin illness, says McElroy. But testing is typically the first step. She prefers to start patients with at-home tests and also recommends a home inspection by a certified mold inspector. should only be ordered, in my opinion, once the environment is evaluated for the source of mold, explains McElroy. The most direct way to test for mold toxicity is a urine test that measures for metabolites of mold and mycotoxins as well as glutathione levels . That said, as McElroy explains, I never place the entire diagnosis of mycotoxin illness on tests alone. Why? Because mold tests have some major drawbacks, including:
- False negatives and false positives are common
- They are not covered by insurance
- You cant test all toxins there are hundreds
- The levels found on tests dont necessarily correlate with the severity of symptoms
These tests clearly arent perfect. In fact, McElroy says she has seen patients who were really sick have almost nothing show up on the test while the healthy spouses of those same patients register values off the charts, so having a clinician thats willing and able to do some extra investigation into symptoms of mold and toxic mold exposure is key.
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Mold Toxicity And Lyme Disease
Mold illness causes many of the same symptoms as Lyme disease. Both trigger systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation leading to symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, headaches, joint pain, and anxiety.
When tick-borne infections and mold toxicity occur together, the mold illness must be addressed before the tick-borne infection can be treated successfully. Mycotoxins suppress the immune system making it difficult to effectively treat Lyme disease and co-infections.
Symptoms Of Mold Toxicity
The most common symptoms of mold exposure are a stuffy nose, itchy skin, and red, watery eyes. However, people who are allergy sufferers can suffer respiratory symptoms or have an asthma flare-up.
Prolonged exposure to toxic mold can have the effect of memory loss and confusion. The patient may also experience muscle cramping, anxiety, and difficulty breathing.
If you have a pulmonary or lung condition, it is extremely important to avoid exposure to mold. Mold will exacerbate symptoms that exist with conditions like asthma, COPD , and cystic fibrosis.
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Is All Mold Toxic
Mold is not the only pathogen that grows from water damage. Fungal fragments, spores, mycotoxins, bacteria, mycobacteria, actinomycetes, VOCs, and other biotoxins can also form in damp buildings. These pathogens combine to produce a toxic soup that can lead to a multi-systemic and multi-symptomatic illness.
Not all mold is toxic, but many mold species from water-damaged buildings produce mycotoxins. It is the indoor concentration of mycotoxins and the rest of the toxic soup that can contribute to chronic debilitating symptoms.
Removing Mold From Your Home
Resolve any issues causing mold growth, and throw away anything affected by mold or contributing to mold growth that you cant clean.
- Wear protective gear. As youre dealing with the moldy area, cover yourself with a mask, gloves, goggles, and rubber boots. If youre cleaning a lot of mold, you can also wear disposable clothing or a mold-resistant suit.
- Ventilate the room. Open all doors and windows to increase ventilation.
- Sort and discard. Remove any objects from the area that havent been touched by mold growth. Throw away any items that cant be cleaned.
- Replace moldy housing materials. Cut away and replace mold-damaged drywall, ceiling tiles, and carpet.
- Scrub and disinfect. Cover and scrub nonporous surfaces affected by mold with bleach, a fungicide, or detergent and water, then dry them. Dont mix cleaning products together.
- Address any water issues. Make sure any water problems are fixed and the area is dry before you renovate the room.
You cant prevent all mold, but you can reduce the amount in your home. Here are some dos and donts for managing mold and keeping it from growing indoors.
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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.
I Found Mold Growing In My Home How Do I Test The Mold
If you can see or smell mold, a health risk may be present. You do not need to know the type of mold growing in your home, and CDC does not recommend or perform routine sampling for molds. No matter what type of mold is present, you should remove it. Since the effect of mold on people can vary greatly, either because of the amount or type of mold, you cannot rely on sampling and culturing to know your health risk.
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What Is Mold Toxicity
You may have heard of mold allergies. But mold toxicity, also called chronic mold illness, can cause problems that extend beyond common mold allergies.
Mold allergy symptoms tend to be limited to your eyes, respiratory tract, and skin . Allergic reactions happen when your immune system overreacts to mold spores dormant forms of the fungi. Theyre lightweight and easily float through the air, under the radar.
In contrast, mold illness results from mold growing indoors that produces toxins that trigger varied and widespread symptoms throughout your body.
Water-damaged buildings harbor mold toxins. This damage can result from any water intrusion, such as flooding, leaky pipes, or melting snow. Everyday activities like showering without good ventilation are a danger as well. Warm, humid environments also increase mold growth risk.
Several molds have many different species or subtypes, and some of them are more problematic than others.
Examples of the different insidious mold types include:
Toxic mold growth could happen in any type of building. The most problematic ones are those where you spend a lot of time such as homes, schools, and workplaces. Studies suggest that up to 50% of buildings in North America and Europe may have water damage. Just to be on the safe side, its better to suspect a building has a mold growth problem rather than to assume it doesnt.
A Qualified Environmental Lab Took Samples Of The Mold In My Home And Gave Me The Results Can Cdc Interpret These Results
Standards for judging what is an acceptable, tolerable or normal quantity of mold have not been established. Sampling for mold can be expensive, and standards for judging what is and what is not an acceptable quantity of mold have not been set. The best practice is to remove the mold and work to prevent future growth. If you do decide to pay for environmental sampling for molds, before the work starts, you should ask the consultants who will do the work to establish criteria for interpreting the test results. They should tell you in advance what they will do or what recommendations they will make based on the sampling results. The results of samples taken in your unique situation cannot be interpreted without physical inspection of the contaminated area or without considering the buildings characteristics and the factors that led to the present condition.
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How Do You Treat Mold Toxicity Symptoms
Right now, youll see a lot of experts recommending handfuls of supplements and strict diets but the reality is, we just dont know for sure if these are the right treatment approach, says McElroy. Instead, she recommends the steps below. You might be surprised to see that killing the mold is only one out of five. Thats no coincidence! As McElroy explains, I often dont focus on killing mold since most symptoms are due to the immune response, not the mold itself. Instead, she starts with simple lifestyle steps and utilizes non-pill practices to achieve a state of better immune health , including:
What Happens When You Inhale Mold
Breathing in mold spores is the most common way for mold spores to enter your system. Individual spores, unlike colonies of growth, are invisible to the naked eye. This makes it nearly impossible to know if you are ingesting spores into your nasal passages and letting them take root down in your lungs. Though mold will grow on old or decaying food, most people wont purposely eat a rotten tomato or moldy piece of bread. Penicillin is a form of mold that can be ingested, but this only occurs under the guidance of a physician for anti-microbial and wellness purposes. Toxicity levels are more likely to occur through inhaling the spores and creating a buildup that the body can no longer fight.
The body commonly processes toxins out of the body when it eliminates waste. Mold spores arent the only toxins your body has to eliminate, but inhaling heavy doses of mold spores can put a burden on the bodys natural toxin elimination system. When the toxic load gets too high, the body cant detox. Instead, the mycotoxins may be recycled back into the body or reabsorbed until the body can try again. The toxic threshold varies by individual.
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How Common Is Mold In Buildings
Molds are very common in buildings and homes. Mold will grow in places with a lot of moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been flooding. Mold grows well on paper products, cardboard, ceiling tiles, and wood products. Mold can also grow in dust, paints, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric, and upholstery.
The most common indoor molds are Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus. We do not have precise information about how often different molds are found in buildings and homes.
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Black Mold Exposure Mold Poisoning:
These are molds that are green or black in appearance. The most common species of the black mold isStachybotrys chartarum. It has been speculated that many black molds are toxigenic, which means they release mycotoxins that are particularly harmful to people with preexisting conditions.
When these mycotoxins begin to accumulate in the body, it may lead to a condition known as mold poisoning which affects the upper respiratory system adversely.
Common mold poisoning symptoms are the same as that of mold allergies. People who are suffering from asthma or any other chronic lung disease, these mycotoxins will make their condition miserable. They will exhibit severe symptoms such as:
After becoming conversant with the health issues caused by molds, its high time to discuss how doctors test for mold exposure.
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Natural Ways To Deal With Black Mold Symptoms
If you already see or smell black mold, remove it immediately and thoroughly.
If youre experiencing black mold poisoning, there are thankfully some natural ways to help with your black mold symptoms, including:
1. Raw Garlic
Raw garlic has amazing antifungal abilities, which is just what your body needs when it has been exposed to black mold. Garlic helps to kill off fungi, molds and yeasts. Two to four grams of fresh garlic per day, or 600 milligrams to 900 milligrams of garlic tablets daily, is recommended for toxic mold exposure.
2. Activated Charcoal
Activated charcoal can be taken as a supplement for mold cleansing. Most people dont think about mold living in their bodies, but it can, and activated charcoal is a potent natural treatment. It traps toxins in the body, allowing them to be flushed out so the body doesnt reabsorb them. Activated charcoal is made from a variety of sources, but when used for natural healing, its important to select activated charcoal made from coconut shells or other natural sources.
3. Chlorophyll
Its so much more than a green pigment found in plants. Im talking about chlorophyll, which has shown an ability to protect DNA from damage caused by toxic molds like aflatoxin. Chlorophyll also has antibacterial and antifungal properties, making it a highly recommended part of any healthy diet, but especially one that is looking to fight black mold symptoms.
4. Cut Down or Cut Out Sugar
5. Identify the Moisture Source
6. Fix the Source
What Happens If You Eat Food With Mold
The thought of eating something moldy likely makes you want to gag. Most of the time, this is the only symptom youd get after eating moldy food. If somethings not right with your immune system and you eat something moldy, you might experience symptoms like:
- If you are allergic to mold, those allergy symptoms may be triggered also
If you notice mold on your food that you dont want to throw away, consult the USDAs guide on handling moldy food.
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Other Diagnoses That Influence Labs & Symptoms
In conclusion, mold illness can be frustratingly difficult to diagnose, but is refreshingly responsive to treatment, especially when a patient is willing to do what it takes to remove themselves from the exposure. Unfortunately, finding a doctor or medical practitioner who knows about mold and who will look to a patients environment for the cause of their symptoms is still the exception, rather than the rule. Wanting to help you close that gap is the main impetus for me writing this article today. If nothing else, you can print out this list of tests and take it to your primary care physician and ask that they run the labs necessary to begin compiling information from which to make a diagnosis. The abovementioned labs and proper testing of your environment can lead you to some pretty conclusive evidence that mold is or is not the cause of your symptoms. Should you wish to work with me directly, I currently offer phone consults. You can contact me through my site www.thebodynexus.com and by going to the Medical Consults section on the Services page.
Questions? Comments? Responses to this article or suggestions for future topics? Write to us below or email us at .
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What Kind Of Doctor Do You See For Mold Exposure
First, you should consult your primary care physician or family doctor. They will decide whether you need to be referred to a specialist.
Doctors who specialize in mold exposure and treatment are usually allergists or infectious disease physicians.
If your sickness is in your lungs, however, you may be referred to a pulmonary physician.
Additionally, if you suspect that you were exposed to mold through your workplace, then your general practitioner may refer you to an occupational physician.
Because mold symptoms and exposure can vary so much from individual to individual, your general physician is the best first step to personalize your treatment.
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I Heard About Toxic Molds And Black Molds That Grow In Homes And Other Buildings Should I Be Concerned About A Serious Health Risk To Me And My Family
There is always a little mold everywhere in the air and on many surfaces.
Certain molds are toxigenic, meaning they can produce toxins . Hazards presented by molds that may produce mycotoxins should be considered the same as other common molds which can grow in your house. Not all fungi produce mycotoxins and even those that do will not do so under all surface or environmental conditions.
Mold growth, which often looks like spots, can be many different colors, and can smell musty. Color is not an indication of how dangerous a mold may be. Any mold should be removed and the moisture source that helped it grow should be removed.
There are very few reports that toxigenic molds found inside homes can cause unique or rare health conditions such as pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. These case reports are rare, and a causal link between the presence of the toxigenic mold and these conditions has not been proven.
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