Home mould survey results and mycotoxin test results

Three weeks ago we had a mould specialist visit our home to conduct a survey. The home is a 1930s typical British semi-detached home with visible mould issues throughout - things like window sills, musty smelling cupboard under the stairs, an old fireplace. Nothing that would perturb a 'normal' person, but my symptoms are worse at home (than at work) so we decided to look in to mould as a contributor to my symptoms.

At the time of posting this thread I am still waiting for results on a urine mycotoxin test via Great Plains Laboratory. Once those are through I will be able to cross-reference the two sets of results.

I've included some interesting sections of the 44 page report here:


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The mould species isolated were the most common air-borne moulds and Toxic mould (Stachybotrys chartarum) was not isolated during this investigation.

The most dominant genera, which were encountered in this study, were the followings;

• Aspergillus Spp.,
• Cladosporium Spp.,
• Penicillium Spp.,

The most dominant species isolated in this study were the followings;

• Alternaria alternata
• Aspergillus versicolor, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus Spp.1,
• Aureobasidium pullulans
• Cladosporium cladosporoides, C. herbarum,
• Penicillium expansum, Penicillium chrysogenum & Penicillium Spp 1
• Yeasts
• 5 unidentified Spp.

The results of the mycoflora monitoring revealed that the concentration of moulds in all the sampling locations is high, when judged on the scale proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), (See Section 5).

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This investigation yielded fungal concentrations at various sampling locations, and replicates ranging from 2870 CFUm-3 to 2980 CFUm-3, indicating that there were reservoirs of mould contamination in the indoor environment

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WHO guidelines

• The presence of certain fungal pathogens such as Aspergillus fumigatus and certain toxigenic fungi such as Stachybotrys chartarum should be considered unacceptable.

• More than 50 colony forming units (CFU) per m-3 of fungi from indoor sources should prompt investigation if there is only one species present.

• Up to 150 CFU per m-3 of fungi from indoor sources should be acceptable if there is a mixture of species.

• Up to 500 CFU per m-3 of fungi from indoor sources should be acceptable if the species present are primarily Cladosporium or other common phylloplane fungi; higher counts should be investigated to ensure there is no indoor source.

---


I am speaking with the mould specialist tomorrow to get a summary in layman terms, but I am interpreting this as saying that the WHO guidelines are that up to 150-500 CFU per cubic metre (depending on species) is acceptable and that ours measured between 2870 and 2980 CFU per cubic metre.

Since the report was taken we have started remediation of the known mould locations.

I have a copy of Toxic by Neil Nathan and am already rotating through the following binders each week: chlorella, activated charcoal, cholestyramine.

Once my LLMD has my mycotoxin results I will discuss a treatment approach with him.

I am interested in any comments people here might have on this set of results. Does anyone have any experience/knowledge of these types of mould, and/or how they treated for them?

Post Edited (eat_more_veggies) : 4/24/2019 3:57:07 AM (GMT-6)

Many of the species named are toxic molds with health effects. If the test was an air sample or an isolated swab sample, don’t feel confident that there is no Stachy. Stachy is heavy in weight and only shows up in air samples if there is significant contamination.

“mould levels would be low because structurally there are no defects in the property, no signs of flood damage, no dampness in walls; no obvious signs of areas that harbour mould growth. So he was "quite surprised" when the tests returned high levels of airborne CFUs.”


But then he said to prioritize cleaning up residual mold.

Isn’t that a contradiction ?
Or am I missing something?

First off its absurd that Aspergillus sp are not considered toxic. They absolutely are. In fact any and all fungus/mold can be toxic, no idea why anyone would claim otherwise.

Secondly you need to get yourself a moisture meter with pins. This is a meter that has pins you stick into the wall and can then detect moisture inside the wall. Its great. Look anywhere and everywhere for moisture. Where there is moisture there is mold and vice versa.

You need to find the source of moisture because I guarantee you there is one, the mold didn't just grow for no reason.

Today I received my mycotoxin test results from The Great Plains Laboratory. You should be able to view them here: https://i.imgur.com/zzc8oio.jpg

I'm interpreting this as positive levels for:

* Ochratoxin (Aspergillus)
* Gliotoxin (Aspergillus)
* Mycophenolic Acid (Penicillum)
* Citrinin (Multiple Mold Species)

My home mould survey result detected reasonably high levels of the following mould genera:

* Aspergillus Spp.
* Cladosporium Spp.
* Penicillium Spp.

I'll take a look at Toxic by Neil Nathan when I get home from work this evening for protocols relevant to these mycotoxins. I am also seeing my LLMD tomorrow to discuss an approach.

Does anyone in the Healingwell community have a view on these results? Things like:

* I am wondering what binder(s) are most useful, and how frequently should I take them? I notice goshawk is on a proprietrary blend of binder.
* What's good for mould-specific detox? NAC, liposomal glutathione, IR sauna all seem to get frequently mentioned

I would note that both the home and mycotoxin tests were 4-6 weeks ago. Since then we have done a lot of clean up of the house, have kept windows/doors open where possible, bought three hepa air purifiers and my symptoms are definitely improving. So it seems removing myself from the exposure is quite effective in itself.

Interested in anyone's thoughts and/or experiences.

Cheers.

Saw my LLMD yesterday. We are shifting focus more to the mould/candida/MCAS side of things. I am to do the following:

* Cholestyramine 4x per day
* Ketotifen 1x at night
* Cromolyn 1-4x per day before meals
* Quercetin 2x per day
* He has also prescribed an anti-fungal called fluconazole.
* Keep detoxing++.
* Maintain Buhner herbs and Malarone 2x per day (morning and evening, and then binders during daytime).
* Keep on a low carb/sugar diet (I've been doing keto for 6 months now)

And I am doing a stool test to see if I do have a fungal/yeast/candida type of infection - if I do we will double down on the anti-fungal side of things by adding nystatin and maybe other things like nasal sprays. He suspects I do have some kind of fungal infection because the level of Ochratoxin A in my mycotoxin test is very high:

https://i.imgur.com/rdz43db.png

(It is literally off the chart lol - "common range" of positive results is 4-20 ng/g creatinine and I am rocking 208.68 ng/g. 🤘)

Everything he is prescribing is talked about in Neil Nathan's book Toxic, so that's encouraging. It's all really new to me still though so got a lot to wrap my head around.

I started it very early on during the acute stage of my illness (approx 4 weeks after infection), before I had a diagnosis. My reason for starting was after researching my symptoms (brain fog, insomnia, anxiety, depression, etc.) I kept reading about inflammation. So my next round of research - "how to reduce inflammation?" - kept pointing towards the role of carbohydrate (particulary those which have a high GI) induced spikes in blood sugar levels contributing to inflammation, particularly in people who are already experiencing high levels of inflammation.

I experimented by doing a 24hr fast and had my best day since getting sick. So then I started introducing low-carb foods again and my symptoms did return, but they weren't as severe. This was with acute untreated (and undiagnosed) Lyme. But the difference was being completely house bound before switching diets to then being able to take short walks to the local park, supermarket, etc. It felt like a game changer at the time - doctors were telling me I was fine and I knew I wasn't, and this was a repeatable technique that resulted in an improvement in my symptoms. I actually suspected a food allergy at this point due to only having the diet improvements to go by.

Once I tested positive for Lyme (approx 8 weeks after infection) I found a LLMD and he suggested that I stayed on the keto diet for the same reasons I already outlined.

I've not been strictly keto for the past month or so - I feel close to remission so wanted to test the waters again, so to speak, and have had no setbacks with adding healthy carbs back to my diet. But with this new focus on mould/candida I'll switch back to keto for a while again I think.

Yup I remember keto flu from my first time around. I had it bad yesterday, it's better today. Should be gone by tomorrow.

G-Ju said...
Silly question...

If your mold test shows Penicillium Spp., could antibiotics made with penicillin cause a flare up of some kind?

I'm in the process of being tested for mold.
Over the last two months (or so) I've taken Bicillin shots, and after that I moved on to 3000mg/day of Amoxicillin. Monday (6/24/19), I stopped everything, and I'm feeling a little better than I was when I was taking them. Hmmmmm

penicillin is mass produced from peptides and is not made from Penicillium anymore. So no, you are fine.

I can't believe I somehow missed this thread. I have posted so many similar things lately!

Veggies, did you do all that remediation yourself?? Did it cause you to relapse? Has your home been re-tested yet?

The molds in my house (judging by ERMI dust samples) were relatively harmless outdoor molds (like many of yours were) and yet my Great Plains levels were very high for ochratoxin A (which isn't produced by anything in my home ... and I barely have left my home in years due to illness). So sometimes it's hard to know whether exposure is continuous or not.

I'm so curious how it's all going for you with the Neil Nathan protocol and other things.

saraeli said...
I can't believe I somehow missed this thread. I have posted so many similar things lately!

Veggies, did you do all that remediation yourself?? Did it cause you to relapse? Has your home been re-tested yet?

The molds in my house (judging by ERMI dust samples) were relatively harmless outdoor molds (like many of yours were) and yet my Great Plains levels were very high for ochratoxin A (which isn't produced by anything in my home ... and I barely have left my home in years due to illness). So sometimes it's hard to know whether exposure is continuous or not.

I'm so curious how it's all going for you with the Neil Nathan protocol and other things.

Hey saraeli,

Sorry I missed this when you posted - I've been feeling a lot better recently so haven't been using the forum much.

Regarding the remediation - we started out with the goal of doing it ourselves (to save money), but things escalated after we found two sources of active leaks in the house resulting in significant black mould hidden behind wallpaper. I can't remember who on the forum said it but they said "if you are suffering from mould exposure at home then there is almost certainly water damage somewhere" and they were indeed correct.

So we ended up getting professionals in to safely remove the wallpaper and plaster right back to the brickwork of the wall, treat with anti-mould chemicals and then inject the wall with dry-proofing. We also fixed the two leak sources:

1) a leaking pipe inside a wall
2) a leaking drainpipe outside the house causing rain water to fall on to the outside wall and penetrate it with damp over many years

The same company will fog our property at the end of the ongoing decorating/renovation work. I'm undecided about re-testing our home when we're finished - it'll depend on how my health is at the time.

Regarding your Ochratoxin A result, that's weird that you have high urine levels but minimal home levels. It could be that you're efficient at removing it from your system, i.e. you don't have systemic issues with it

As for my progress with the Nathan protocol, I am in a really good place. The key to get me to this was adding an anti-fungal to kill colonized yeast/mould, in addition to using binders (chlorestyramine). I did two weeks of fluconazole and it has worked wonders. The improvements came quickly; after about a week. The first week was hell - I suspect a huge herx reaction.

I added the fluconazole (with LLMD approval) due to the comments Neil Nathan made at the recent ISEAI conference: "10% of his patients improved with binders and environmental avoidance. 90% required addressing colonization to improve."

Thanks for the advice. We are intending to fog with MoldKlear from US Enzyme, which claims to "feature all natural ingredients".

That said, given how well I am feeling, we may not do the fogging. We'll see how I go.