A couple of years back I had a young mother of three come in complaining of severe depression, fatigue, and extreme muscle weakness. Little did she know that she was suffering from mold illness.  

She lived on a farm and just going outside to watch her husband mow the fields or feed the animals would put her out for the day.  Her husband had a day job and was constantly having to leave work to care for the children because she would become almost incapacitated. 

It’s all in your head

They had been to a few different doctors and they said she had severe clinical depression and should be medicated.  But the thing was she wasn’t depressed, she knew she wasn’t depressed but outwardly she looked completely capable the doctors just labeled her as depressed. 

One doctor did suggest that her thyroid was the problem but after repeated tests and even after a trial of thyroid hormone therapy, there was still no change in her condition.  

I also performed blood test after blood test.  She was low in iron, so we got her iron levels up.  Her B vitamins were also low so we go those up and she felt somewhat better. 

Now she could walk around with the kids outside but still if anything extra showed up especially extra stressful situations it was like her body gained 100lbs and she couldn’t get off the couch or out of bed. 

The culprit is found

For a little over a year, I had been suggesting that they check their home for mold, and finally out of desperation they tested their home for mold.

And guess what? In the walk-in closet in their bedroom next to their bathroom, they found that the inside of the wall was loaded with mold and it had even crept into the floor of the bedroom.  

They were shocked and immediately moved their family out of their house and into a friend’s rental home. Within 2-3 weeks this mother of 3 was 80% better.  She was shocked, her husband was shocked.  It was like her body had been kidnapped and someone had just returned it to her. 

Mold illness is a chamealeon

I tell this story because it is not unusual.  Mold toxicity is rampant and it comes disguised often as panic attacks, fatigue, body aches, lack of motivation, seizures, chronic illness or allergy-like symptoms. 

One of the most pressing issues I see is that two people can be living in the same home and only one of them has any symptoms.  So, when I mention maybe it is mold they immediately think no way because the other family members feel just fine.

The deal is depending on a person’s genotype or the detox enzymes that are present, one person can feel like they need to go to the ER while another person can feel completely normal. 

Mold doesn’t help any of us accumulate health, but its level of irritation depending on the human can vary dramatically.

How to create an oasis of health in your home:

1. Control your moisture.  This means showers, washers, dishwashers, cooking.  Open windows and use your fans to make sure you are clearing the moisture created from these activities.
2. Have somebody come check your bathrooms, kitchen, and roof for areas of potential leakage, especially if you have had any chronic symptoms that are not remedying themselves.
3. Create opportunities for airflow, open doors, open windows, open closets, get rid of wall-to-wall carpet. Move furniture off the wall.
4. Check your window seals for build-up. Make sure you’re vacuuming regularly to keep dust from building up because this is where mycotoxins live and every time you kick up the dust your body is going to have to fend off those mycotoxins.
5. Check the outside of your house for water that is pooling and for plants that are growing into or right up next to your home.

90% of the time if you do those five things consistently you are very unlikely to have a mold issue, so stay on it.

How to test for mold

If you want to go deeper and test your home, a great place to start is to get an ERMI test from Envirobiomics.  You can do this on your own for around $200.  This is well worth it.

To find out what level of mycotoxins your personal body is dealing with on a regular basis, you can get the Great Plains Laboratory MycoTox Profile.  This is a urine test and is a great way to assess your mycotoxin exposure and decide on necessary detoxification support if mycotoxins are present.

Mold illness is growing and is often overlooked so be sure to share this with family and friends to makes sure they have the knowledge to make the best decisions for themselves and their family.

Have you been affected by mold? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.