What You Don't Know Can
Harm You
MUCKY MOLD
When you have a bunch of
symptoms and you can't seem to identify any cause, you might consider something that so tiny
it's almost impossible to see, and that something is mold. An incredible
variety of health problems - some of them seemingly unrelated - can have mucky mold at their
root.
So you can better understand what you're
dealing with and what to do about it, here's a short review for you - common questions and
important things to know.
What is
mold?
Molds, (sometimes
spelled"moulds") are fungi that grow many-celled threads, or strands or filaments
called hyphae. There are well over 100,00 types that have been identified. Luckily only a
few cause problems for people, but those few can cause big problems, while another few, penicillin, for example,
have been of considerable benefit.
What does mold get from our
bodies that allows it to grow?
Mold loves environments
rich in water, oxygen and nutrients along with a favorable temperatures, going dormant in
temperatures below 40F or above 100F, and waiting until
the temperature returns to their liking. They like dead organic
material like paper, wood and fabrics, but they can also extract what they need to grow from
some synthetics like adhesives or paints. Some molds can get enough moisture to grow from humid
air (relative humidity above 70%). Of course, our human bodies have
all of these qualities.
How does
mold get into your body?
Mold can enter your body
through a wound or be inhaled into your lungs.
How does mold cause us bodily
harm?
Once inside it
starts growing by branching out from its tips (called '
''hyphal growth'). See
the image at the right and you can imagine how
a mold entering your
lungs can cause major problems with breathing
Then as it grows it
invades blood vessels causing hemorrhages and death of tissue
cells. If it continues growing, it can spread to other
sites.
Some molds also cause
illness by producing toxins that damage cell
tissues (called a
mycotoxin). And some stimulate the immune
system, causing an
allergic reaction.
How would
I know if I have a mold problem?
One way is to
suspect a mold problem by the symptoms harmful molds can produce. For
example,
Short
term mold symptoms can include:
Headache
Shortness of breath,
labored breathing
Unexplained bodily
irritation, including rashes, itchy skin.
Sensitivity to
light.
Runny nose,
congestion, sinusitis.
Coughing, throat
congestion.
Vision problems
(eyes red, sore, dry, blurry or watery.
Sneezing.
Long term
symptoms can include:
Tiredness, fatigue.
Headaches,
migraine.
Achiness, pains or fever
(including in ears, sinuses, joints and muscles, swollen glands) or other symptoms
of infection.
Breathing problems,
including wheezing, shortness of breath, asthma attacks, chronic
bronchitis.
Neurological symptoms such as loss of short or
long term memory, speech problems, unexplained changes in personality and
mood.
Nose bleeds.
Coughing up blood or blackish
debris.
Loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, weight
loss, diarrhea.
Hair loss.
Skin rashes, open skin
sores.
How
bodily mold problems might be addressed:
Many practitioners have used mold's
hyphal growth process against the little buggers. When hypal growth occurs, the mold
also secretes an enzyme inside its cell that works outside its cell (called
exoenzymes).
Here's how it works:
the person experiencing the mold problem takes digestive enzymes, only
instead of taking them with meals, which would aid the digestion of food, the enzymes
are taken on an empty stomach, where they can circulate through the body, apparently
coming in contact with the growing ends of the strands or filaments and digesting
them.
A strategy for dealing with allergic symptoms caused by mold involves
various homeopathic remedies such as Allium
Cepa, butterbur and biminne.
After the mold seems to be cleaned up, the next task at hand is to repair
the tissue involved. For this a combination of herbs and nutrients can be
used. For example, to support lung tissue repair, one combination (designed by
MediHerb of Australia for that specific purpose), includes herbs such as fennel,
Chinese skullcap, Malabar nut tree leaf, Grindelia herb and Turmeric
rhizome.
Health practitioners have employed some or all of these strategies with
good results, so even though you might have a mold problem in your body, you don't
have to keep having
it!
"A bit of mould is a
pleiad of flowers;
a nebula is an ant-hill
of stars."
Victor Hugo, Les
Miserables
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