From my perspective, mold causing ill health (often to the point of disastrously ill health) is such a huge and denied issue words can hardly describe it.
I’ll write about what I know about it personally here and you can decide for yourself what you think.
1. Toxic mold can be visible like what might grow on bathroom or basement walls, ceilings and/or grout, on shower curtains. Or it can be invisible such as that behind paint (even “Kilz” brand paint), inside walls under windows, and inside ceilings, roofing, flooring, furnishings, inside washing machines, even thickly growing inside the upper part of a toilet tank under its cover (worth occasionally looking under any of our toilet tank covers in our space)
2. Toxic mold can cause severe and significant health problems from massive joint inflammations to severe respiratory infections and everything in-between and including mental and emotional problems
3. Contrary to popular belief, toxic mold is not easily remediated with home remedies (for example, bleaching is a temporary and uneven solution). Usually professional, costly remediation services need to be involved to remove the toxicity
4. Testing for mold correctly is a lengthy, expensive project, often involving different types of mold testing techniques and done by specialists, but well worth the cost when considering moving to a different home for example (there are now home DYI mold test kits but it’s unknown to me if these work correctly or not, one can start with them)
5. Unless one can successfully change one’s belief to live harmoniously with mold, the remedy for the body affected is not more vitamins, but instead correct remediation of the mold in one’s space, such as replacing a moldy washing machine, replacing a moldy shower curtain (not just washing it), or even moving away to a different, but mold-free home
A few months ago I was listening to an interview between a film maker and a scientist about a new documentary (and can’t even remember now what documentary or what it was about!)– where the film maker started off the interview with a side track story about his wife.
As a note from me, he seemed about middle age, not that old.
He said he and his wife were living in New York and a few years ago his otherwise healthy wife started having significant joint pain and issues with her legs.
No doctor seemed to be able to diagnose or remedy what was going on and after a couple years the wife’s knees, ankles, feet were so bad she was using special braces and crutches and could hardly walk.
They were out for some errand one day and happened to see a flyer about a new “alt” medical clinic nearby and they decided to go and “give it one more try” to see if anyone could help his wife.
The film maker told about how this new physician saw his wife and one of the first questions he asked her was how she liked her home bathroom.
The wife answered that she didn’t, for the longest time she wanted to remodel it because it constantly had mold growing here and there…. so the physician’s “prescription” was to move (NOT remodel).
Which they did. And the wife no longer has any leg issues, is walking normally, all handled.
One of my sisters lived in Hawaii for many years and said handling mold growth is part of one’s daily acts of living there, such as toweling off every last drop of moisture from bathroom walls and ceilings after every single shower or bath.
Some of her work involved re-upholstering simple chairs and couches for some customers who owned vacation rentals in Hawaii– cushions that regularly would get moldy after awhile and need to be replaced.
One home she was asked to re-do, the owner lived on the mainland West Coast most of the year and didn’t regularly monitor the home.
When my sister went to the home to get started on a project, after only 4 months of being vacant, the rental was so overgrown with mold she quickly closed the door and left.
The owner had to professionally remediate the mold before any other make-ready workers could go in for anything else.
Constantly running, high quality, expensive and professional HEPA air filters are common for living spaces prone to mold growth. See more information about clean air here.
One of my cousins living in Denver had a small rabbit enter from the outside of the home and go down the home’s ductwork and die inside the home that caused mold to grow in the finished basement bedroom closet area.
Her husband was immune compromised and began to have all kinds of odd illness.
By luck, my cousin discovered the visible (and smell of) overgrowth of mold in that closet as she was storing seasonal clothing.
This was about 20 years ago and her homeowner’s insurance covered the expense of remediation (about $30,000 worth then)– but the occupants had to go live with their grown children while the home was being remediated with plastic tunnels blocking off areas, workers in hazmat suits doing cleanups (cutouts, total replacements of wood, drywall, other) and multiple hygienic samples being run to show all clear.
If one researches mold and illness, many of the studies show mold is not just what shows on a surface either.
Similar to asbestos contamination, mold affects ALL the belongings, clothing, books, drapes, furniture, carpeting, flooring ALL in the area has the spores.
For some people, once infected, the remedy for the person living in the area is often to start over, discarding nearly everything, similar to being in a fire.
Bleach, Damp-Rid spray products, Thieves essential oils, HEPA filter air cleaners, dehumidifiers, fans… only go so far.
These days (and even then) most homeowners and property rental insurances will not cover mold remediation and the clause exclusions are very specific.
Even new home builders’ real estate sale contracts often include very specific clauses about no coverage, no warranty for any type of mold issue of any kind.
During some periods of time, lenders would often balk or deny loans on properties with disclosed and/or visible mold issues during appraisal inspections.
Fix & flip homes purchased by investors that were moldy were cash purchases of the lowest prices, that often sat for months at a time before changing hands– and in some cases the investors (bragging) would throw bleach at the issue (does not fix the problem), remodel by painting over what was left with Kilz paint (a special mildew resistant paint that also does not really seal everything) and re-sell these homes skirting all kinds of laws.
In some local areas, homeowners are required by law to disclose to new buyers prior mold issues and show professional remediation and testing-clear receipts to be handed over before closing.
And for the health issues caused by living in mold prone places– once a person is sensitized, these health issues caused by molds can be overwhelming.
I myself had not realized the full extent until the last few years. Thinking back—
The apartment I lived in for 13-14 years in Los Angeles before I moved to Denver had constant blackish areas of mold in the bathroom.
There was no exhaust fan in the unit. There was a small window that could be propped open if I wanted the small courtyard of other neighbors to hear my daily routines…
I had constant health issues in my 30’s and 40’s living there. I met Ray Peat all those years ago because of all my health issues there!
I moved to Denver and ended up living for several years in a new build home that needed it’s windows replaced early on because the installers did not seat the windows properly and they leaked inside the walls when it rained.
I only discovered the leaking and all the water and damp that was running down the inside of the walls under the windows and seeping under the floorboards and carpeting because one day I was standing watching a brilliant thunderstorm and pelting rain across the mountains from a back window standing in my socks by the window– and realized my feet were getting wet!
I did not know how to properly “remediate” anything. I called a carpet installer friend who came and put up huge fans, pulled the carpeting up from windows, he said nothing looked moldy but put up all the fans saying they would stop any mold from forming… the windows were re-installed.
I’ll let you decide what might have grown or not throughout that home over the years.
I didn’t think about this like I said until I started looking back…. but in the last years in that house, my joints, hands, feet, and back continued to get so bad with pain I was constantly on the phone with Peat about arthritis remedies telling him I could hold my hand up in front of my face and literally watch my hands crippling in front of me.
And one of the last homes I lived in before where I am now (and I’ve never been better health-wise than the last couple years here!) I discovered a massive mold issue in its basement about 6 months after I moved in.
Thank goodness I was renting before purchasing and moving in to my permanent home.
I didn’t want to move again so I decided I’d just “handle” it. The landlady, who had owned that home since she and her husband built it in 1973 said she never saw mold in it.
The unfinished basement walls had been painted over but the paint was blistering all over under the paint. The home sits at the end of a water table.
I explained to the landlady that there was probably water trying to push in and advised her about at least looking into re-shaping the outside foundation dirt so water would drain away from the house’s foundation when it rained (standing water was also making it’s way into one corner of basement when it rained!), which she did.
But then I started noticing black mold growing up the corner on top of the paint, about 8 x 10 feet of it at least.
Pointed it out to the landlady who acted very innocent about the issue.
So I setup a good air filter, put on a respirator mask, rubber gloves, hosed it down with bleach and a scrub brush (within a week the mold was back), researched more and put on Thieves essential oils, set up a dehumidifier running constantly, set a small fan to run constantly pointed at it, left the light on 24/7 (apparently so the mold would not be in the dark?), sprayed on Damp-Rid spray– over and over.
The black part “seemed” to keep at bay. BUT.
I started having regular fainting spells. Some days I would be so dizzy I could only sit on the couch and watch everything spin for hours. I broke out with fierce eczema. I would get the worst gut cramping pains I thought I was dying.
And my feet, knees and hands– my hands got so crippled and painful that when I finally moved into my permanent home where I live now, I had to have one of my sisters carry moving boxes, I could hardly pick up a water glass with both hands I wasn’t sure how I would continue.
But even within a very few months of moving, the various and painful issues began to subside– and now, just a year and a half later, ALL those symptoms went away.
I didn’t throw away my belongings, but I’m living in a home now that appears to be mold free, or at least mold reduced.
And I watch like a hawk nothing gets contaminated. I too towel off the entire walls or anything that gets wet from showering every time!
So I put here my experience that it might help others. I think mold could well be the cause of so much suffering and mystery ailments and pains that it boggles the mind.
And unfortunately, it’s so ubiquitous that’s it’s part of most of our daily living experiences and most of us hardly give it a thought when we’re trying to solve illnesses.
I found this article about finding hidden mold that speaks to these issues.
The website sells DYI mold-finding kits we can privately use to detect some mold problems. I have not used these but find these an interesting new possible solution for people exploring mystery ailments and possible mold reactions.
