I’ve had 3 encounters with mold that have had serious effects on my health.
The first time was when I lived in Victoria, BC. I noticed that I went from needing about 7.5 to 8 hrs of sleep to 10 hours plus naps in the middle of the day!
A friend of mine told me that the cause of this sounded like mold. She came to my house and helped me figure out where it was. It turned out to be the wooden cutting board I was using! We threw it away, and within a week I was back to my old sleep schedule.
The second time was when I lived in Seattle. I had grown a huge bunch of cherry tomatoes that never ripened (it was December and I knew they wouldn’t). Not wanting to waste food, I decided to make a green tomato dish. I developed a lot of stomach pain and weakness and ended up feeling awful over Christmas week.
I had 2 servings in separate meals before I realized they were the source of my stomach pain! At the time, I thought I just had an allergy to green tomatoes. But symptoms continued and I realized that the green tomatoes had been moldy! I took Neem and glutathione to detox and the stomach distress subsided.
Chronic illness is a reason why we must get rid of mold now
But as the months wore on, I noticed I kept getting sick. Before then I had rarely ever gotten sick, and now I was discovering and fighting several pathogens a week! By that point, I had been a healer for several years so I knew how to recover quickly. But still, the increase was disturbing! I was alarmed that I had gone from healthy to immunocompromised in such a short amount of time, and with no apparent explanation!
I also exercise regularly and I started having regular problems with my knees and feet. I’d strain something, repair it, only to sprain something else before the original problem healed. I was injured more often than not, and it seemed just normal activities were now risky to do! I was getting quite concerned. Exercise is my Prozac, and without it, I don’t function well on many counts. I kept moving, but my workouts would often result in pain!
I also noticed random aches and pains throughout my body that I had to address. It seemed too often!
I finally realized that I had developed an autoimmune disease, and my subconscious matched me up with early-stage Mixed Connective tissue disease. It’s a mixture of Lupus, myositis, and rheumatoid arthritis, and more. But those were what I had developed so far. I traced the origin back to the moldy tomatoes! Luckily, once I understood the problem, I was able to stop the autoimmunity and focus on healing from the months of attacks on my tissues!
Mold allows other toxins and pathogens to thrive
The third time I was exposed to mold, I developed chronic sinusitis and a sore throat. I traced the mold to somewhere in my room, and found that my cat had thrown up in a creative place (in a shoe) that I rarely wore! It had been there for a while. I cleaned it up and I thought I had taken care of the problem.
I didn’t know much about the ear, nose and throat at the time, so that was partly what took a while. But my ability to figure things out intuitively is determined by whether I have enough knowledge to ask the right questions.
I didn’t know until I attended a Toxic Mold Summit, the extent of other pathogens that it bring with it, such as bacteria, viruses, mycotoxins, volatile organic compounds, and free radicals. I also didn’t know until I attended a talk by a building biologist that building and furniture must have space to breathe. If something gets wet, it needs to be able to dry off.
I had a cupboard that had lost its legs while moving into my apartment. The bottom drawer of the cupboard had no room to breathe, and I suddenly realized it had bacteria (thanks to the original mold) and was a source of mycotoxins!
At that point, I started to see some very disturbing health issues with my cat and so I immediately hauled the cupboard out to the curb. I’m a big fan of recycling and not creating excess waste in the environment, but I couldn’t pass along my health issues to others! So for the first time ever, I hired a junk removal company to properly dispose of it!
The sinusitis and chronic throat problem took many more hours of healing work over a few weeks (while I learned about how mold affects the ears, nose and throat), before they were finally resolved. But at least the source had been addressed!
Toxic mold can cause an endless number of symptoms
Since then I’ve worked with several clients with disturbing health issues related to mold. One client has optic neuritis and macular degeneration. We released toxins, pathogens, addressed issues with the Qi, and much more. But there were regular setbacks. I traced it to mold in her house and wasn’t effective at stressing to her how important it was to get rid of it ASAP. This is why we must get rid of mold now!
Thanks to mold toxicity, another client developed increasing weakness in his legs, stiffness and cold extremities. Either the mold, bacteria or mycotoxins damaged his immune system’s ability to defend itself and detox from the toxins they introduced.
The toxins in his body ravaged his motor neurons and caused his immune system to attack the cells. The pathogens also compromised his absorption of the nutrients he needed to heal. And they even caused genetic mutations in the genes that make the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein, so that his motor neurons didn’t have what they needed to survive! And finally they left toxic deposits in his tissues. Toxic deposits can make the cells become more toxic and exacerbate the problem! Your cells, just like you, don’t do well when they are in an unhealthy environment!
He ended up having to move out of his house and will likely have to do a substantial remodel to make his house livable and safe!
Mold is toxic and a serious threat to our health.
Why we must get rid of mold now: to make healing easier
Based on my work with her and others, it is clear to me that if your environment is toxic, healing is infinitely harder. And mold, with all the other pathogenic gifts it brings, is one of the biggest sources of destruction to our health and vitality.
It was clear to me after seeing numerous interviews at the Toxic Mold Summit that I was not alone with this perspective. Not only can mold (and its pathogenic infection-mates) cause sinus issues, fatigue, damage the immune system, it can also increase your risk for a huge number of chronic health conditions, including cancer, psychiatric and neurological diseases.
If you suspect that you have mold, do some low-cost testing with a company like Immunolytics. You can buy agar plates (either with them or locally), and put them where you think the mold is. Learn more about how to collect samples on their website here. They are also a good resource for mold eradication.
If the mold is embedded more deeply in the house, it will be wise to consult a building biologist.
In Germany, you can get a Ph.D. in Building Biology.
In Germany, if an architect builds a home that makes people sick, they can go to jail! In the field of Building Biology, they study how to create living spaces that support our physical and mental health. In Germany, there are 85,000 Building Biologists, and one can get a Ph.D in the field! In the US, there are just 600 people with Building Biologist certifications.
Most people in construction and architecture in the US have little or no training in how to keep our buildings safe. Thus, even new homes and apartments often harbor mold! The choice of materials and how they set up during construction can make a difference in whether your building is mold inviting, or mold resilient.
Think you have mold in your environment? Make it a priority to identify where it is, and take the necessary steps to address it immediately. It is one of the most important things you need to do to be healthy!
