Testing for Mycotoxins in Your Environment
Image of Seattle Center with reflecting windows
Last week, I discussed briefly a way to assess for mycotoxins present in your body. Today I want to address the often larger, more complicated problem: mold toxins in your environment. And by environment, I mean your home, vehicle, and workplace.
The WHO estimates that somewhere between 10-50% of buildings across North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, and India have dampness problems. A further study from Sivasubramani et al. notes that between 15-40% of North American and European homes have a fungal growth problem.
When I mention this finding to patients and colleagues alike, its often met with surprising shock. The water damage is often insidious, behind walls or hidden beneath carpet or fabric. The damage may be a trickle over many years, or as a result of a single flooding or other inclement weather event.
Assessing your home, vehicle, or workplace is a challenge. There are various means of testing and mold inspection companies can assist in determining where in a home, car, or workplace the damage may have occurred. Like everything, it’s possible to miss things and not all mold inspection companies are the same. It’s vital to work with an accredited and well respected company. The one you pick should be transparent with their work, guide you through their process as it happens, offer laboratory findings and results in an understandable form, and connect you with the proper professional for next steps. As a member of ISEAI (International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness), I recommend Indoor Environmental Professionals (IEPs) within our organization where we aim to “reduce the human suffering caused by environmentally acquired illnesses through clinical practice, education, and research.”
There are other tests available directly to consumers like the ERMI, Environmental Relative Moldiness Index, which determine and quantify molds present. Other tools like the HERTSMI-2 (Health Effects Roster of Type-Specific Formers of Mycotoxins and Inflammagens – 2nd Version) is a scoring index to determine relative safety for entry into a new space (like a new home, apartment, or vehicle) or it offers insight to a space post-remediation.
Even with all of the testing and findings, I encourage my mold biotoxin sensitive patients to pay attention to their symptoms as they enter a new space or a recently remediated space. Due to their increased sensitivity, most develop a sixth sense about a space, so if they have that or develop an acute flare in symptoms, follow that intuition.
Working with an adept healthcare provider is essential for managing this journey, and it is truly a journey. Combining the testing the patient and environments directly is my preferred way of assessing the overall situation and what ways to best support patients. In this way, your provider should be your health champion in not only removing you from mold exposure, but also improving your health.
