Other Studies Confirm The Benefits Of Hyperbaric Oxygen And Hbot For Mold Exposure And Toxicity
Another 2002 study looked at the use of hyperbaric oxygenation on 10 patients with invasive aspergillosis, where the traditional treatments were amphotericin B and surgery. Unfortunately, this modality of treatment still came with an unacceptably high mortality rate. The 10 patients, most presenting with rhinosinusinal infection with hematologic malignancies, received treatment with HBOT along with traditional care. Six of the 10 patients were infection free within three months of the first treatment. As a result, they concluded that HBOT is a valuable tool in treating this devastating condition.
HBOT and Hyperbaric Oxygen Improve Attention SPan Associated With Mold Toxicity
For more information on HBOT mold exposure and toxicity, click HERE to fill out our online request form.
Reducing The Risk Of Mold Exposure And Removing Mold In The Home
The best way to avoid mold toxicity is to reduce your risk of exposure and this starts at home. There are many ways to reduce the possibility of mold in your home. They include:
- First, address any potential water leaks. This includes plumbing problems or leaky roofs. Second, fix leaking pipes and make roof repairs. In addition, let any areas that receive water damage from the leaks dry completely. Use fans if possible.
- Increase the airflow in your home. For example, open windows and allow fresh air to come in. Above all, ensure that air can circulate throughout the entire home. This may mean moving furniture away from the walls, allowing for full air circulation.
- Install or repair broken exhaust fans in the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry room. This helps reduce increased moisture levels.
- Check that you have adequate insulation and ventilation in your attic and crawl spaces.
- Clean and dry carpets, bedding, and furniture within 24 to 48 hours of exposure to water damage.
- Vacuum and dust on a regular basis to help remove mold spores from carpeting and furniture.
- Check all your windows for signs of water droplets or condensation. Immediately dry the water and check the window seals. Finally, repair as necessary.
- If you live in a humid climate, consider a dehumidifier to reduce humidity levels.
How Can I Prevent A Relapse
Mold spores can be found just about anywhere, whether inside or outside. However, you can take preventative measures to ensure they dont breed into larger, toxic colonies. If there are water leaks in or around the house, have them repaired immediately. Dark, wet environments and plenty of organic material create the perfect home for mold growth. Keep your attic and basement or crawl space dry and free of moisture. Consider bringing in an environmental professional and having an ERMI mold test done every so often to evaluate your home for the presence of mold. There are DIY kits that can be purchased, but these results arent always accurate.
If you suspect that you have been exposed to mold, either because you have found mold in your home or you have had nagging symptoms similar to the ones discussed, make an appointment with your healthcare provider. As you make a plan to remove mold from your home and prevent future relapses, team to have the mold problem removed.
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Remove Bad Fats From Your Diet
Fats are an essential part of a healthy diet, but depending on the quality, they can either be nourishing or highly inflammatory. Healthy fats are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, lower inflammation, help you detox, and heal your cells.
Unhealthy fats to avoid include:
- Factory farmed animal fats like tallow or lard.
- Farmed fish, or large wild fish like tuna, catfish, king mackerel, sea bass, and swordfish.
- Factory farmed animal dairy like milk, yogurt, cheese, cream, regular butter, and soy milk.
- Peanuts .
- Refined vegetable oils and processed synthetic spreads like safflower, soybean, sunflower, corn, and cottonseed oils, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, margarine and shortening.
What Are The Symptoms Of Aspergillosis
Symptoms can range from mild to severe, depending on the type of aspergillosis.
Pulmonary aspergillosis might not cause any symptoms, especially in the early stages. If the disease progresses, symptoms may include:
- Coughing, sometimes accompanied by mucus or blood.
- Bloody cough or massive bleeding from the lungs.
Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis may cause:
- Coughing accompanied by mucus or blood.
- Wheezing or worsening of asthma.
- Fever.
- Increased mucus or sputum secretions.
- Inability to tolerate exercise or asthma brought on by exercise.
Many patients with asthma or cystic fibrosis already experience respiratory symptoms similar to those caused by an allergic reaction, so it may be difficult to detect ABPA in these situations. Sometimes, a worsening of symptoms such as coughing and wheezing is the only sign that the person is experiencing an allergic reaction.
If the allergic reaction recurs over time, and the lungs become inflamed repeatedly, damage to the lungs and central airways can occur. Recurrent allergic reactions may cause scarring of lung tissue and widening of the central airways, a condition known as bronchiectasis.
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Hbot Mold Exposure And Mold Toxicity
Mold and mold toxicity have been hot topics in the news for the last decade or so and with good reason. While research continues to look at the effects of mold on the body, many organizations, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, agree that living and working in a building with mold damage increases your risk for respiratory and neurological complications. Diagnosing and treating mold toxicity can be a difficult task and many traditional treatments offer little relief. However, new studies show that the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, helps reduce symptoms of mold exposure and toxicity.
How Can Aspergillosis Be Prevented
Due to the prevalence of aspergillus mold in the environment, it is very difficult to avoid exposure. It is best to avoid locations with excessive amounts of dust or mold, such as construction sites or compost piles. People with weakened immune systems or mold allergies should avoid activities such as gardening or lawn mowing. If exposure to airborne dust or mold is likely, considering wearing a face mask or N95 mask. In some cases, your doctor might recommend the use of an antifungal medicine to prevent infection.
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 10/09/2019.
References
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How To Detox Your Body From Mold
Mold is an insidious problem that is a growing concern in the modern health world. This mold isnt the kind that grows on food, but rather the biotoxic black mold that grows behind the walls and floorboards, and wreaks havoc on the human body. This type of mold is a silent killer that is triggering a host of hormonal problems, and driving autoimmune disease. Today we will explore the symptoms, how to test for and safely remove mold from your home, as well as your body.
Mold Toxicity Symptoms To Watch Forand How To Heal If Exposed
If hearing the words mold toxicity immediately sends shivers down your spine, youre not alone. Getting sick from mold exposure is something we might find interesting on our favorite medical showbut its not something any of us want to experience firsthand. The good news? Symptoms of mold and toxic mold exposure can be combated if you know what to look for.
Mold-related health problems are very real and affect many people every single year. To make matters more complicated, mold issues are often misdiagnosed, undiagnosed, or left untreated in conventional medicine. So, lets break down mold toxicity, what that really means, and how Parsley Health takes a holistic and science-based approach to treating mold toxicity symptoms.
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Identifying Mold In Your Body
20-30% of people cant respond to toxic exposures of mold from water damage and excessive mycotoxins found in food.
If you suspect that you are already experiencing symptoms of mold exposure, steps must be taken in removing mold from the body. You can first confirm the presence of mold in the following ways:
- VCS Test: The VCS Test is an online visual test that can help confirm the presence of biotoxic illness, as well as possible symptoms caused from mold and mycotoxin exposure.
- Blood testing for mold: The C4A compliment detects recent mold exposure, while the TGF-Beta 1 is indicative of longer-term mold exposure.
- HLA DR/DQ: This gene is located on chromosome number 6, and it encodes a protein called an MHC Class II protein. Testing for this gene can reveal your genetic susceptibility to biotoxin illnesses.
As hinted at above, your genes play a large role in your bodys response to mold and mycotoxins. The HLA DR gene helps the immune system respond to environmental threats. It is estimated that 20-30% of people do not respond well to toxic exposures of mold from water damage and excessive mycotoxins found in food.
Diagnosis Of Mold Toxicity
The conventional medical community is slow to acknowledge that chronic mold-induced illness is common. However, many functional and foundational medicine practitioners have expertise in mold toxicity and CIRS.
A common and simple test for mold toxicity is a urine mycotoxin test. Excreting an elevated level of mycotoxins is a sign of mold illness. Still, if your body is holding onto these toxins, your level may be falsely low.
Some functional medicine doctors also check specific immune system and inflammatory markers via blood tests. Examples are C4a, TGF Beta-1, and MMP-9. Elevated levels of these markers dont prove you have mold illness, but they contribute to the evidence.
Urine mycotoxin and inflammatory markers are best considered in the context of other signs and symptoms of mold illness. These include the following five areas:
The more of these criteria you meet, the more likely it is you have mold-related toxicity. And if you meet all five criteria, its more likely your mold illness is advanced and longstanding.
For more information, watch this short video on mold toxicity testing and its availability. The video mentions two labs that offer urine mycotoxin tests. These are Real Time Laboratories and The Great Plains Laboratory.
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Removing Mold From Your Home
How Does Mold Enter Your Body
There are several ways in which mycotoxins can enter your body:
- Breathing When inhaling, spores, and mycotoxins come in contact with our respiratory system.
- Eating Ingestion is another common way of pathogens entering our body, especially if the food has been sitting on your counter for some time.
- Skin contact Mycotoxins can enter our bodies even through dermal absorption, especially if there are cuts and wounds on the surface.
Mycotoxins mostly enter our body when inhaling, and the mucous membrane in our nose is there to stop it. However, when the air concentration of these molecules is high, like in mold-infested rooms or a wet sauna, they can get past our mucus membrane and invade our upper respiratory tract and lungs, causing infections and irritations. And once mycotoxins come in contact with your blood, they can travel anywhere. They have been detected in many tissues and organs, urine, cancerous breast tissue, breast milk, spinal fluid, lymph nodes, kidneys, and it looks like the sinuses are the primary mold harboring places. Molds can also be found in brain tissue, and the effects are infections of the central nervous system.
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What Medical Tests Are Available To Determine If I Am Allergic Tomold
There are medical tests to determine if you are allergic to a particularsubstance, such as mold. These can be performed on skin or blood. Skin testsare considered more reliable than blood tests to determine allergic reaction toa substance. Skin tests yield results more quickly, are less expensive thanblood tests and are generally considered more sensitive. If an individual hassymptoms year-round, which may indicate an indoor allergy, skin testing may berecommended.
Blood testing called the RAST test can be done to showif you are allergic to a substance. The RAST test detects levels of antibodiesto particular allergens. The test is expensive to perform and results areusually not available for about two weeks.
How Is Aspergillosis Treated
Treatment options include oral corticosteroids, antifungal medications, and surgery.
- Oral corticosteroid drugs: Solid or liquid oral medications may be prescribed to treat allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. These drugs reduce inflammation and prevent respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing and coughing, from getting worse. Some of the most commonly used drugs are prednisone, prednisolone, and methylprednisolone.
- Antifungal drugs: These medications are generally used to treat invasive pulmonary aspergillosis. Voriconazole is currently the drug of choice because it causes fewer side effects and appears to be more effective than other medications. Amphotericin B or itraconazole are also effective in treating infection. Caspofungin is sometimes used in cases where the infection is resistant to the other antifungals. Antifungal drugs are sometimes used along with oral corticosteroids when treating ABPA. Antifungals can cause serious side effects, such as kidney and liver damage.
- Surgery: Surgery may be necessary in cases when aspergillomas are present and cause serious problems, such as excessive bleeding. Antifungal medications are usually not effective against aspergillomas, so surgery is recommended. Embolization may be an option to block blood flow to the artery supplying blood to the lung cavity where the fungus ball is located. This will stop the bleeding, but it may recur later.
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How To Kill Black Mold With Bleach
Killing Black Mold with Bleach work well on a hard, non-porous surface and will kill nearly any type of mold spore that it comes in contact with.
Eliminating Mold with Bleach is also very cost effective.
However, bleach does not get to the root level of mold growth in porous type items such as tile grout , wood and cement block.
Have you ever wondered why mold stains keep coming back to the same area so if it does you know you may have an issue inside the wall of black mold spores living there.
Never mix bleach with ammonia This is extremely dangerous and will likely produce Toxic Chloramine Fumes or Vapors.
Never mix bleach with vinegar Combining these two mold cleaners together will not give you a better cleaning agent to work with.
Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds And Other Sources Of Vocs
MVOCs are found in water-damaged homes. However, their role as a marker for mold contamination and as a significant cause of human illness is still being elucidated. Mold VOCs have remained difficult to measure. Even when deliberate mold contamination occurred in a climate chamber, only 9 VOCs were detected and the authors concluded that even under those favorable conditions the MVOCs are hardly accessible and were not a reliable indicator of mold growth in water-damaged indoor environments . One study of 23 homes showed a higher level of certain MVOCs in basements compared to the main floor of the house although overall MVOC levels did not significantly differ . A Japanese study evaluated MVOC exposure and clinical symptoms . It found that the presence of MVOCs and airborne fungi was only weakly correlated and that higher levels of the MVOC 1-octen-3-ol increased irritation of the nasal and ocular mucosa. Offgassing of VOCs, such as formaldehyde, from water-damaged building materials can also pose a risk to health .
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Bleach Is The Best Method For Mold Clean
If youve found mold in your home and are worried about expensive testing and remediation, you might be tempted to find a do-it-yourself solution. Do not attempt to clean it on your own. Hire a certified contractor experienced in mold remediation.
While your first thought when attempting cleanup in your home may be to kill the mold and sanitize the area with the most powerful chemicals possible, do not use bleach or other strong chemicals on mold. In fact, its usually not possible to sterilize a moldy area. Mold spores will remain and begin to grow if supplied with moisture, especially on porous surfaces.
Bleach is formulated to work on non-porous surfaces. If you try to clean a porous surface, such as drywall, with bleach, it may sanitize the surface-layer, but it will not penetrate to the roots of the mold within the drywall. Water from the bleach will seep down to these roots, however, which will supply the mold with the moisture it needs to grow. It may appear that youve fixed the problem, but the mold is now thriving deep within the porous surface and will return stronger than before.
Finally, if youre already sick from biotoxin exposure, skin contact with bleach or inhaling its fumes will only add to your bodys burden. Instead of bleach, reach for supermarket 6% vinegar , which effectively kills mold and its underlying roots.
Will A Dehumidifier Kill Mold
Mold will stay dormant in the air or even on surfaces it really needs excess moisture to help it grow. So, to answer your question, dehumidifiers do NOT kill mold, but they do slow it growing it by reducing humidity. If you have a mold problem in your home, dont wait. Mold spreads as long as it has a water source.
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