Mysterious Mold Part 1

Mold is so mysterious.  I’m sure you’ve seen it creeping along your window sills and tile grout, growing on old food in the fridge or that you left out, possibly in your clothes washer (especially the front loadings ones) and maybe even in your shower.

The lingering question in the back of your mind is – “is that mold toxic?”

Most people have heard that “black” mold is bad mold, but doesn’t all mold look black?  

The World Health Organization’s report about the Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality shows that approximately 50% of houses in the U.S. have dampness (water leakage or damage, bubbles or discoloration of floor coverings, visible mold growth on walls/floors/ceilings) or mold.

Not all molds produce mycotoxins, the actual toxic particles that can cause serious health issues.  Mycotoxins can be produced by different species of mold that are not always black.  Essentially, the color of the mold to the naked eye does not tell you anything about whether it is toxic or not.  With over 100,000 species, testing for mycotoxins is the only way to tell if the mold is harmful (keep reading for more on testing).

Mold toxins pose a serious health threat for about 25-30% of the population.

Those who have a genetic predisposition to developing Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) or Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) are at risk for becoming very ill when exposed to mold.

Some people have such a severe sensitivity that within 15 minutes of being in a toxic mold infested room or building, they become ill – have trouble breathing, break out in hives or rashes, become nauseous etc.

But even if you don’t have the genetic risk factor, mold can be a problem for you.  The exposure to mycotoxins (especially over an extended period of time) weighs on your immune system, making your more susceptible to other illnesses, burdens your liver and all of your other detoxification organs.

Mold related sickness goes all the way back to biblical times. It can be traced all the way back to the Old Testament of the Bible where it is was known as the “plague.”

Mold plagued me, it lead to high estrogen and eventually Hashimoto’s.

Unfortunately, mold related illness often goes overlooked or misdiagnosed because conventional medicine doesn’t acknowledge that mold can make you sick, and even most functional medicine practitioners aren’t well versed on how to handle mold toxicity.

Along with a lack of education, getting a diagnosis for mold-related illness is challenging because the symptoms often cross over with other conditions.  Symptoms of mold sensitivity can include:

• Aches, asthma and sinus issues
• Difficulty concentrating, brain fog and dizziness
• Eye and throat irritation or flu-like symptoms
• Chronic fatigue, headaches and mood swings
• Rashes, weight gain and night sweats
• Frequent urination, weakness and tingling/numbness
• Hormone imbalances, menstrual irregularities and autoimmune disease

One of the signature signs of having a mold-related sickness is being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder (which can be caused by mold exposure) or some other chronic condition, which doesn’t get better with treatment.  

Two other signature signs of mold toxicity are frequent urination, since our body is trying to eliminate the toxins all of the time, and being electrically charged, meaning that you shock almost everything you touch.

In this week’s video I explore various ways you can test yourself and your environment for mold toxicity to see if it might doing a number on your health.

As I mentioned earlier, you can’t tell if mold is toxic just by looking at it or based on what color it is.  The only way to tell if mold is toxic and whether it’s having an effect on you, is by testing for it.

Before you dive into hiring an expensive specialist or raising a ruckus at work about toxic mold, there are a few cheap and easy screening tests you can do first…

The Visual Contrast Sensitivity Screening Test – mold toxins can affect neurological function and thus vision.  This is an online test to measure your vision contrast.  If the test is positive, it can be an indication of mold toxicity.  If the test is negative you can’t rule mold toxicity out completely, my test was negative but I did have other indicators for mold illness.  For about $15 this might be a good place to start, and it’s a cheap way to measure healing progress once you start treatment for mold.

ERMI or HERTSMI Dust Test – one of the problematic aspects of mold toxins is that they become airborne, known as mold spores, and they can become embedded in porous surfaces, thus contaminating the whole home or building.  This simple at-home test looks for remnants of mold spores.  You simply dust different surfaces with a cloth, send the samples to the lab and about $200 later you have a report letting you know if mold spores (and the volume of them) are living in your environment.

ImmunoLytics Home Mold Test – this at-home test also looks for airborne mold spores but has the advantage of testing separate rooms, surfaces and pets. You can test up to 4 locations for about $150.  The report also includes a consultation with a mold specialist to review your results with recommendations for your particular situation.  Even if the type of mold that comes back on this test is not “toxic,” it can still be an indication of dampness.  Where there’s dampness and other mold there can be more mold.  This test can be a validate the reason to hire a professional to explore more.

Nasal Swab – mycotoxins are a type of biotoxin which can result in something known as MARCoNS in the nasal passages.  MARCoNS are found in many patients with mold exposure, chronic lyme disease and biotoxin illnesses.  This at-home nasal swab tests is approximately $90, easy to do and can be an indicating factor for mold illness. However, if the results come back negative for MARCoNS, that doesn’t quite mean you’re in the clear, especially if you are still symptomatic and have other positive test results.  I was negative for MARCoNS but had other bacterial and fungal overgrowth in my nasal passages and other positive mold markers.

Doctor Ordered Blood Markers – these might be a little bit tricker to get, but if you can convince your doctor to order them you just might be lucky enough to have insurance cover the cost and they will provide direct insight into how mold might be making you sick.  Some of the most important mold blood markers include C4a, C3a, MSH (melanocyte stimulating hormone),  TGF Beta 1 (Transforming growth factor Beta receptor 1 and VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor).  These blood markers will show the inflammatory response that is occurring in your body as a result of biotoxins.

There’s no such thing as an all-inclusive test for mold toxicity.  Knowing if mold is making you sick means looking for correlating factors such as…

• Known water damage or a leak
• Having symptoms
• Doing a combination of tests with a combo of positive indicators

If you have at least two positive correlating factors then mold just might be a problem.

In my case, I knew there was a leak in our house, I wasn’t feeling like myself and my hormones were a mess, and my ImmunoLytics and ERMI test came back positive for mold spores.  

Based on all of these signs, I invested in a professional mold testing specialist who confirmed we had toxic mold in our home.  These results led me to doing the mold blood markers and my numbers definitely weren’t right.  

Once I had confirmation that mold was a problem, I was able put together a strategic plan to remove it from my environment and heal my body.

Stay tuned for next week’s Mysterious Mold Part 2 when I dive into more detail about how to heal from toxic mold exposure!