Act Now: DIY Activities to Address Mold Symptoms

By Cesar Collado

The Most Severe Symptoms from Toxic Mold can debilitate a patient to the degree that quality of life is severely compromised. Mold can impact the body in several different ways, depending on the person. There is no predictive means to determine how severe symptoms from mold can be for an individual.  There are four  different ways that mold can impact the body:

Allergenic Mold:

This includes itching, sneezing, stuffy nose, and mucous production.Allergenic symptoms may not be debilitation.  Fungal skin infections may also occur.  In this case, the reaction may be considered allergenic in the immune system reaction, but the infection may be pathogenic and spread beyond the skin.

Pathogenic Mold:

There are many pathogens that cause illnes when mold finds an ideal environment with moisture and food so it can reproduce at infectious rates.  The result could be fungal growths or colonies in sinuses and lungs.  With pathogenic mold or mold mycotoxins, the body will respond the same as it does with other pathogenic diseases.  Pathogens also include virus and bacterial infections.

Toxigenic Mold:  

Toxigenic mold is when a pathogenic mold species produce and release mycotoxins assecondary metabolites. Mycotoxins can be ingested, absorbed through skin, or inhaled. When toxigenic molds are found, immediate action must be taken by yourself or professional mold remediators with proper removal equipment, as well as by physicians to determine the required detoxification protocol.

Systemic Mold

A very common example of this is Candida, a single cell yeast present in the majority of people’s microbiome. Candida overgrowth can result in infections such as thrush, vaginal yeast infections, and toenail fungus.  Invasive Candida infections can occur in the blood. The yeast gets into your bloodstream and spreads to other areas, such as your eyes, heart, brain, and kidneys. It’s a common healthcare-associated infection and can cause life-threatening complications.  Invasive aspergillosis can spread to other body parts and must be proactively avoided by immunocompromised patients.  Finally, there have been cases of candida auras reported in the media. C. auris can cause invasive candidiasis (fungemia) in which the bloodstream, the central nervous system, and internal organs are infected. It has attracted widespread attention because of its multiple drug resistance. Treatment is also complicated because it is easily misidentified as other Candida species.

 

Illnesses Associated With Severe Symptoms

Mold and mycotoxins become harmful for the 25% of the population that have the HLA-DR genetic predisposition to mold and mycotoxins.  For this subpopulation, their bodies immune systems do not recognize and neutralize the pathogen. Illness can me manifested in several ways.  These symptoms of toxic mold can be debilitating.  Misdiagnosis from these symptoms can be costly and take time and multiple referrals to reach

Chronic Sinusitis and Respiratory Infections

Sinusitis and bronchitis can be fungal infections that are caused by antibiotic usage and are difficult to treat. Antibiotics kill the bacteria that keeps the fungal balance in the microbiome.  This allows fungi to grow.  Fungi are extremely resilient and require very potent medicines with sever side effects of their own.  The result is a continuous cycle of recurring sinusitis.

Immune System dysfunction and inflammation.

This occurs when the body’s immune system gets into over-drive and attacks your own body.  This can cause inflammation throughout the body and result in many chronic diseases.  These include heart disease and autoimmune diseases.

Central Nervous System Dysfunction

These symptoms, for many, are the scariest of the most severe mold symptoms. These are the most alarming symptoms for mold sensitive people.  They have a debilitating impact on patients.  Mycotoxins are potent neurotoxins that can be inhaled and reach the brain directly via the sinus tissue adjacent to the blood-brain barrier.  The diagnosis of these symptoms is challenging and often incorporates numerous expensive imaging diagnostics.

Debilitating neurological symptoms include:

• Chronic pain/fibromyalgia
• Extreme Fatigue
  

  Brain image diagnostics

• Headache
• Brain-fog
• Memory loss
• Loss of motor function control
• Dizziness
• Depression and anxiety
• Compromised cognition that can impact functionality

 

 

If you are mold sensitive and find evidence of mold in your home, the ideal solution is to immediately have professionals address testing and remediation.  Pursuing a medical diagnosis will take time and require blood and imaging testing and multiple referrals.  Chronic Symptoms are chronic. This means that symptoms persist for a long time or constantly recur until something changes.

 

Act Fast with DIY solutions

There are actions you can take prior to seeing a physician or mold professional.  DIY fogging has the potential to make your home temporarily safe while waiting for inspections, Dr. appointments, services, or contractors. This can also help prevent you from experiencing the most severe symptoms of toxic mold.

• Perform a DIY inspection on your home. Look for obvious problems using your sense of smell and visually inspect for mold and moisture problems.
• Perform DIY Mold Testing using an affordable testing approach.
• Affordable Mold Testing Plates and Mold Swabs. Immunolytics test kits provide the best tools and instructions to test visual mold with swabs and surfaces and air with mold test plates.  They also provide free help line to speak with professionals to help execute or interpret the detailed lab report provided.  Cost: $100+ for multiple tests.  You can buy visual plates for $3 or additional plates or swabs for lab analysis for $33/Test or swab. Learn more about the comprehensive report provided by ImmunoLytics for each test
• DIY Hot Fogging: Hot Fogging with Haven fog is the preferred DIY fogging solution which can be done immediately, regardless of your status with physicians. The fog fills each room to the degree that all surface areas are treated, and the fog also penetrates cracks and crevices.  Read more about the science of hot fogging HERE.  Follow fogging with Small Particle and Dust Clean-up  to remove debris.  Read more about the importance of cleaning dust and small particulates HERE.
• DIY Misting by HavenMist is another alternative. The aerosol delivery of HavenMist will reach all areas misted and will decrease mold spore counts significantly.  The mist, however, is not as comprehensive in coverage of all surface areas and air volume as the hot fogging.

 

HavenFog Video

 

 

Haven Fog DIY Video

There are many different diagnostics required to identify a mold sensitivity and problems with your home.  There are medical diagnostics that can require numerous doctor visits, referrals, and lab and imaging diagnostics.  There is also mold testing and diagnostics.  In doing so, you will be exposed to mold contaminants in the air on surfaces.

Safety Precautions to Avoid Severe Toxic Symptoms

To avoid a significant mold exposure, always take safety precautions by purchasing safety equipment available at the local hardware store (PPE).

 

You should always follow any fogging or cleaning with Small Particle and Dust Clean-up.  Fogging without removing debris is very helpful, but does not fully address the removal of dangerous mold debris. Fogging with HEPA vacuuming, and cleaning of all surfaces is supported by the EPA. Read more about dust and small particle management importance HERE.

Test Your Hypothesis

Hypothesis testing is a primary means to begin scientific investigation.  The investigator designs an experiment to answer a fundamental scientific question.  In this case, “will decrease mold exposure impact my mold symptoms.”  Both removing yourself from the home for a period of time or fogging can be seen as legitimate experiments to make the conclusion that that mold in your home is causing the symptoms.

This is invaluable information to both mold remediation professionals and physicians.  Most importantly, if symptom relief occurs immediately while you continue to work with physicians to support detoxification.   Feeling better also emphasizes your personal need for indoor air quality (IAQ).  Air purification will be necessary to ensure your home space has acceptable IAQ when at home, especially while sleeping. Sleeping is the time where most healing of the body and brain occur.

This article does not de-emphasize the need or importance of mold professionals and physicians to achieve wellness.  It simply provides an immediate option that might tip the scale on the existence of mold in your home or any mold sensitivity diagnosis.