How To Get Tested For Mold Exposure – Those musty smells in your basement could indicate the hidden culprit behind your chronic health problems: mold.
Mold is a fungus that can be found both outdoors and indoors. When certain species grow in your home or workplace, you may develop a mold-related illness.
How To Get Tested For Mold Exposure
Unfortunately, the symptoms of mold poisoning are often non-specific, such as fatigue, intestinal problems, memory problems, and muscle aches. Therefore, it is easy to write them off for other reasons. Also, you don’t always know when you’ve been exposed to toxic mold. (1)
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Because of these factors, mildew often goes unrecognized and can become a barrier to managing complex chronic health problems. If mold is your evil culprit, it’s important to identify it and deal with it. (2)
You may have heard of mold allergies. But mold poisoning, also known as chronic mold, can cause problems beyond a typical mold allergy.
Mold allergy symptoms are limited to the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin (eg, runny nose and itchy eyes). Allergic reactions occur when your immune system overreacts to fungal spores – inactive forms of fungi. They are light and easily float in the air under the radar. (1)
In contrast, mold is caused by indoor mold growth that produces toxins that cause a variety of and widespread symptoms in your body.
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Water-damaged buildings contain mold toxins. This damage can be the result of any type of water intrusion, such as flooding, leaking pipes, or melting snow. Even everyday activities, such as taking a shower without good ventilation, are dangerous. A warm, humid environment also increases the risk of mold growth. (2)
Many molds have many different species or subtypes, and some are more problematic than others. (3)
Toxic mold can occur in any type of building. The most common problems are the ones you spend a lot of time with, such as at home, school, and work. Studies show that up to 50% of buildings in North America and Europe can be affected by water. To be safe, it is better to suspect that a building has a mold problem than to assume that there is none. (5, 6)
The reason for fear of mold is not the fact of its existence, but the toxins it produces. The two main types of toxins are mycotoxins and microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Mold Exposure Symptoms
Mycotoxins get on mold spores or pieces of mold so they can travel through the air. In contrast, mVOLs move easily through the air on their own because they are gases. (4, 7)
You breathe in, swallow, or touch these mold toxins. Also, mold can colonize inside you and produce mycotoxins. This is a terrible idea. (7, 8)
Mycotoxins are toxic chemicals that are produced to defend their territory from other microbes. But mycotoxins can be very harmful — even in small amounts. (9, 10)
In fact, scientists say that mycotoxins are more harmful than pesticides. There is also the opinion that some countries tried to use concentrated doses of mycotoxins in biological warfare. (10, 11, 12)
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In addition to the effects listed above, mycotoxins can also damage your kidneys, lungs, and mitochondria. (4, 6, 14)
Remember that musty smell you associate with mold? The reason for this is MVOC. In contrast, mycotoxins are usually odorless. (13)
MVOCs not only stink, but some of them are toxic. Part of their toxicity is related to the formation of harmful free radicals. (13, 15, 16)
However, don’t assume that if you don’t smell anything musty, then there is no mold problem in the building. Toxic mold can also hide without smell. (4)
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Black mold is a well-known villain in the mold world. All mold is bad, but this mold is notoriously ominous and ominous. Dark, sad and bad. Greenish-black in color, it grows and spreads, slowly spewing black poison along with dirt into any area.
Black mold has a name as villainous as its reputation. Although most of us know it simply as black mold or toxic black mold—an apt description—its official scientific name is Stachybotrys chartarum. From time to time it makes headlines for “black mold poisoning”. (1, 17)
Stachybotrys is a saprophytic fungus, meaning it feeds on dead or decaying organic matter, much like a bloodsucking vulture in fungal form. Black mold can grow on many surfaces, but it especially likes damp places and things that contain cellulose. Cellulose is found in building materials, binding glue, cardboard, ceiling tiles, fabric, paper, polyethylene film, wall panels and wood.
This means that you will often see black mold creeping up your walls, which are often made of mold-resistant drywall. But be careful: black mold can also affect your books, clothes, documents, furniture, bedding and photos. (18, 19)
Warning Signs Of Mold Exposure Often Ignored
Because Stachybotrys loves moisture, if your home or workplace has experienced a flood, leak, or excessive condensation, black mold may take this as an open invitation to move. Identify symptoms of mold poisoning.
Stachybotrys is sneaky—sometimes it’s in your air conditioner or under the floorboards, where you won’t even see it. And there are all kinds of diseases or conditions you can get for your hospitality, from the unpleasant to the deadly. Black mold can lurk in the dark, waiting to infect you with its nasty toxins.
One of the biggest problems with black mold is not only its high degree of toxicity, but also its persistence. Stachybotrys is an evil superhero, the survivor is strong and relentless. It grows anywhere in the world, even in extreme conditions.
Research shows that even a very small amount of exposure to black mold can still cause illness. Its spores can sometimes remain toxic for decades after passing through the gastrointestinal tract. Stachybotrys is not bothered by the cold and will survive the winter, and the heat does not bother him either.
Mold Toxicity, Mold Illness, And Chronic Symptoms
In fact, if you want to kill this superman of the mold variety, you’ll need hot kryptonite—black mold can withstand temperatures of up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. (19)
Stachybotrys is associated with damp building diseases and sick building syndrome (SBS). The two conditions are very similar and both predict illness after being in a certain building for a long time. But in the case of SBS, the cause of the disease is not obvious (for example, invisible mold). (18)
Some of the most common symptoms of black mold exposure are conditions of the immune, nervous, and respiratory systems, including allergic reactions, cellular damage, and inflammation.
Stachybotrys can cause asthma, airway obstruction, cognitive impairment, lung disease or pulmonary bleeding, and pneumonia. In fact, approximately 22 million people in the United States have asthma, and approximately 4.6 million of them have suspected asthma caused by exposure to dampness and mold. (18)
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A study conducted on rats showed that black mold can damage DNA. Both people and animals died from the effects of black mold. Stachybotrys is so harmful that some scientists have coined a new term for its epidemic. As such, you may sometimes see many and varied symptoms caused by black mold all under the single heading of Stachybotryotoxicosis. (18, 19)
To test the dangers of inhaling black mold toxins, researchers injected Stachybotrys particles into the nasal passages of mice. The result was irritation, swelling and atrophy in the nose and above the brain. Similar results were found when studying the lungs of rats and mice. When animals were injected with black mold spores, they developed lung inflammation and bleeding, and many did not survive the study. (18)
In several well-documented cases, horses and other livestock that inhaled Stachybotrys or ate food contaminated with it became very ill. In mild cases, symptoms include swollen lips, conjunctivitis, mouth ulcers, and nasal irritation. As conditions worsened, the animals experienced blindness, blood problems, bleeding, irritability, impaired motor activity, lung congestion and inflammation, and in many cases, death. (18, 19)
Animal handlers have also been affected, either by directly touching mold-contaminated feed or by inhaling the toxins while handling it. They experienced symptoms such as nosebleeds, cough, fever, low white blood cell count, mouth sores, skin sores, sore throat and chest tightness. (19)
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In one well-known case in the 1990s, 37 infants in greater Cleveland, Ohio, were diagnosed with pulmonary hemorrhage, and 12 of them died. These cases were not isolated, and many other children experienced similar symptoms before and after. Although this has not been proven, many believe that exposure to black mold and inhalation of its toxins is the primary cause. Young children with underdeveloped lungs are particularly susceptible to Stachybotrys respiratory toxicity, which has also been observed in studies of rat pups that tested the lungs. (18, 20)
Because there are many symptoms of mold
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