The serious impact environmental mould can have on your body
In Sydney where I live, one third of buildings, including homes, are mouldy. If you live in the tropics, this percentage would likely be greater.
This means they're water damaged, either by one or more flooding events; water leakage either past and present; old buildings that are no longer water resistant and may have water creeping up their walls; buildings that are built on sandstone; or even new buildings that have suffered water damage during the building process. Some moulds like Fusarium and Aspergillus, can also be found in foods like corn and grains, which in turn produce mycotoxins.
Why does this matter?
Because mould can impact your health in a SERIOUS way. You can become chronically ill, and even die from it.
This is because one in four people have a gene where their body can't get rid of the mould they ingest through breathing largely, as well as the toxins the mould produces. This gene can be identified from a test for the coeliac gene, which is then put into a calculator. This is me. But even if you haven't got the gene, the presence of mould will impact your immune system, weakening it over time and making you susceptible to yeast or fungal, bacterial and viral infections, and more.
But importantly, it’s not mould alone that's the problem. Even more so it's the harmful substances it breaks down in your environment such as paints, wood or anything that's porous or semi-porous. To be specific and scientific, mould fungi produce mycotoxins.
These mycotoxins along with the mould itself impact everyone’s health negatively, but if you have the mould gene, your body can't create antibodies to them. This means your body keeps trying to attack and overcome them, which over time leads to a chaotic inflammatory response that cascades across every system, potentially leading to serious illness.
Symptoms can include headaches and migraines, fatigue, difficulty breathing, eye irritation, sore throat, chronic sinus problems, rashes, joint swelling and pain, frequent static electric shocks, vertigo, sleeplessness, cognitive decline, depression, disorientation or confusion, sudden weight gain or loss, chronic fatigue, asthma, skin reactions and more. It can also lead to other conditions such as autoimmunity, mast cell problems and other chronic illness.
I’m not trying to scare anyone, but rather to raise awareness about this sometimes serious, but often missed health problem. I have personal experience with this after moving into an old water-damaged house. I was struck down with it badly because I work from home, and in time, so were my husband and pets. My husband developed an autoimmune skin condition, my dog developed an autoimmune arthritis, and my cat was diagnosed with severe hyperthyroidism, which I felt as related.
What was most frightening was that while my health rapidly declined, I lost 7 kilos in a week and was unable to function, I had no diagnosis. I'd never even heard of mould illness before. This took several months to get and only because I had a switched on integrative GP. Often people will be sent to different specialists, missing the underlying cause, and never fully recovering because the mould and mycotoxins are not detoxed from their body.
Dr Ritchie Shoemaker, an American doctor and researcher, was the person who identified mould illness calling CIRS or Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. This is controversial as some doctors, while recognising mould is dangerous, do not believe in in mould illness. Shoemaker also developed a protocol where an external binding agent is used to allow the elimination of mould and biotoxins from the body. This can be attempted with natural binders and herbs too, but may not be enough for some people.
What should you do if you have mould in your home or work place and have the CIRS gene?
First, you need to either remediate the water damaged building immediately or move away from the mouldy environment. In addition, it's important to dispose of anything porous and semi-porous as it will be contaminated with mould DNA that can reinfect a new, relatively mould-free environment. Anything non-porous must also be cleaned thoroughly, but if it still smells, ditch it
Next, take a biolfim disruptor to break down the protective coating on the mould and biotixins. Avoiding high mould or high amylose foods, and sometimes going on a low histamine diet, can be supportive during this critical initial phase
Also take a binder to help carry out and eliminate the mould and biotoxins from your body through your stools. This takes at least 6 months, possibly longer with a natural binder
In addition, you'll need to support your lung barrier to function better and heal as this will have been damaged and become 'leaky', allowing toxins into your body that are normally kept out. This includes by using antioxidants and vitamins. The same goes for other epithelial barriers like your gut
Many people have Marcons too, an antibiotic resistant nasal passage staphylococcus infection, that can be dealt with using either a pharmaceutical or natural spray and by healing the rest of your body
Finally, you'll need to modulate your immune tolerance. This includes by improving microbiome diversity, healing intestinal and nasal barriers which mould damages, and calming specific immune cells like T-Cells.
Once this is complete, your hormones, genes and nervous system also need to be rebalanced.
Exposure to mould and mycotoxins also creates chronic sensitivity to them through immune system B-cell antibodies that create memory B-Cells. Sometimes people reduce these through mould desensitisation therapy.
What amazes me is how common mould illness is. I regularly meet people who have suffered from it, even if they never get a diagnosis or know its name. One sales woman I met a while ago told me about how she and her young son became very ill after moving house. They both ended up having surgeries. Instinctively, she realised it was important to move away from the mould and she insisted on a house with a concrete base. Another colleague's mother became ill but wouldn't listen to her daughter's suggestions that her mouldy house might have something to do with this. It wasn't until she required lung surgery for what was believed to be a cancerous mass, that she took notice because it turned out not be to be cancer but a mass of mould spores.
I’ve written about my story here and how I began healing here. If you’re looking for more information and research, check out Dr Shoemaker’s website. There’s also a film called Molded available for free if you search for it online.