
Short answer: The mold is in your air. You breathe it in, even if you have "removed" or cleaned it.
Long answer:
People contact us for 2 reasons:
- They have visible mold
- They have no visible mold but are experiencing mold-related symptoms
When I ask people in category 1 whether or not they are experiencing health issues, they often answer that they do not know. This is because mold illness is not well understood by most practitioners. There is a compounding effect in mold-related illness in cases where many varying symptoms are happening all at once.
Mold can exacerbate and be exacerbated by other underlying diseases. Even more, 2 people can be exposed to the same amount of mold and one of those people can feel fine while the other is very sick. 25-50% of the population has the genetic pre-disposition (HLA-DR gene) that makes them very sensitive to mold even at low levels. On top of this, once you are exposed to a certain level or type of mold, you can become more sensitive.
Toxigenic mold species like "black mold" - Stachybotrys - have the potential to cause acute mold-related symptoms among a majority of the population. However, any type of mold can be harmful to most people if experienced at high enough levels.
What do I mean by levels? The mold is in your air. Again, this is how mold harms you. Mold spores and mycotoxins are not visible to the human eye, and they are very difficult to get rid of with traditional methods.
Functional medicine practitioners across the world are recognizing that mold can be extremely detrimental for health. Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker was the pioneer in understanding the wide variety of symptoms that can be caused or exacerbated by mold. Not all of these illnesses are created by mold, but an underlying disease is combined with mold the symptoms can severely increase. Common symptoms can include one or more of the following, but note that this is not a complete list:
Brain Fog
Allergies
Sinus and/or upper respiratory issues
Nose bleeds
Cough, shortness of breath and/or lower respiratory issues
Headache and other nervous system problems such as numbness/tingling
Joint pain, muscle pain, stiffness
Fatigue
Exacerbation of symptoms associated with Lyme, auto-immune disorders, multiple sclerosis
Digestive issues including IBS
Anxiety, depression, lack of focus, memory loss
Metallic taste in mouth
Temperature dis-regulation
Blurred vision or itchy/watery eyes
Rash
Fungal overgrowth
Exacerbation of candida symptoms
We can help you get rid of the mold in your house, in your air. But you have to work with someone to get rid of the mold in your body.
Want a solid, reputable company to help you with mold detox for $150-300/month including supplements and text access to a doctor? Check out https://www.moldco.com/. We are not associated with them at all. They are simply awesome.
Here is a collection of mold-related blogs and articles written by another reputable mold company:
https://www.claropure.com/favorite-articles-and-podcasts-on-mold