Mold Toxicity
Exposure to environmental toxins, such as mycotoxins from moldy conditions in buildings, poses a risk to your overall health.
Is it Mold Exposure?
Does it feel like your body is suffering from a variety of seemingly unconnected symptoms? It could be due to an inflammatory response your body is mounting due to mold exposure. More specifically, most people diagnosed with chronic inflammation triggered by black mold have heard that “mold can make you sick.” However, many fail to connect their years of poor health and the water damage in their basement or attic, behind their kitchen sink, or in their car.
What is Mold Toxicity?
Toxins released from molds, known as mycotoxins, can trigger a systemic inflammatory response. Mold refers to different fungi that grow in moist and humid environments.
Mold spores travel through the air and settle in humid places, which is how they take root in your kitchen, for example.
Indoor mold is most commonly found in bathrooms, basements, and kitchens. Once there is water damage left undisturbed for a 24-hour period, mold has the potential to grow and take hold.
What’s dangerous to your health is that mold releases both spores and mycotoxins, which can be inhaled, and these two things are responsible for mold toxicity.
Spores can trigger an immune response for some individuals, while mycotoxins are toxic to all people – but especially to people who might be genetically predisposed to difficulty in clearing these toxins from their bodies. Individuals with a genetic predisposition generally develop CIRS, or chronic inflammatory response syndrome.
Mold Toxicity Symptoms
Mold toxicity symptoms include those you would commonly associate with seasonal allergies, such as the following:
- Wheezing/shortness of breath
- Rash
- Watery eyes
- Runny nose
- Itchy eyes
- Coughing
- Redness of the eyes
However, prolonged exposure for individuals with a genetic susceptibility to mold toxicity can cause neurological symptoms like the following:
- Joint pain and inflammation
- Memory problems, brain fog, trouble with focus
- Fatigue and weakness
- Muscle cramping, aches, and pains
- Persistent nerve pain
- Numbness and tingling
- Headaches
- Migraines with increased light sensitivity
- Tremors
- Vertigo/Dizziness
- Abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, appetite changes
- Frequent colds and cases of flu
- Chronic/frequent sinusitis
If you experience these symptoms and struggle to find relief, you may suffer from mold toxicity.
10 Warning Signs of Mold Toxicity
Mold toxicity can be difficult to identify – here are ten warning signs of mold toxicity to help you determine if your symptoms are truly related to mold exposure or something else. In either case, working with a mold toxicity specialist in Chicago is beneficial to get to the root cause of your symptoms.
The first indication of mold toxicity is represented by an immune response and involves symptoms like a runny nose, itchy skin, or shortness of breath. An inflammatory reaction represents the second indication.
To determine if your house has black mold, look for the following warning signs:
- Your nose picks up a musty smell
- You see dark rings and/or spots from water damage
- You find that the paint on the walls is bubbling
- Your unventilated attic has lumps in the insulation
- Your eyes become watery and irritated
- Your skin itches and burns
- You experience headaches or mood changes
- Your asthma gets triggered
- There are soft areas in your hardwood floor
- You experience the inflammatory symptoms associated with mold toxicity
In some cases, you may have to hire a mold remediation contractor to determine the true extent of mold in your home.
Mold Toxicity Treatment
Treating symptoms related to mold exposure starts by speaking with a health professional who recognizes the symptoms associated with mold and then testing for it.
At Peak Health Institute, we have years of experience diagnosing and treating illnesses related to mold exposure ranging from simple allergic reactions to CIRS. Our functional medicine practitioners and mold toxicity specialist in Chicago can detect the presence of certain kinds of molds in a person’s system by using urine and blood testing.
Mold toxicity treatment includes avoidance through environmental and dietary overhauls, supporting detoxification pathways to cleanse properly, supplements, and other regimens dependent on the patient’s health history.
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