Environmental Mold Concerns

For those not aware of our Mold Symptom Therapy Guide website, let this “Rewriting Mold” series serve as a reminder of both what we offer our patients and what we offer the general public in terms of understanding mold toxicity illness.  Over the coming weeks, I will be reviewing and reposting sections of our Mold Symptoms Therapy website one or two at a time.  It has been over 3 years since I first wrote this 30 plus page guide and posted it online.  A few things have changed since 2020 (yes, an understatement), but the basic principles emphasized in 2020 continue with minimal change.

As this provides me an opportunity to update any advancements, it also offers the opportunity for you to ask questions and even contribute to edition number 2 of the Mold Guide.  By leaving comments and questions, I can identify areas where I can offer even more to patients and the public in terms of education and empowerment over mold.   Please take 2-3 minutes to be a part of helping others restore healthier more abundant lives with your questions and feedback.  You can leave comments on Facebook or our website not only for each week’s section, but any section off the website which I have not addressed yet.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

Immediate Environmental Containment

Before long term changes in one’s physical health can occur, the newly diagnosed patient must first address short term environmental needs. These include finding the source of the mold and removing it or finding a new living situation. Without these initial steps, both short- and long-term recovery is limited.

We have decisions to make, particularly when the mold originates in our own home. Given the critical requirement of avoiding mold in order to recover, this step cannot be ignored or neglected.  Given the unique situation of each affected individual, only general principles can be provided here.  When we work with patients, we discuss each situation and help guide decisions to fit their unique needs.  After hearing from patients about what they found in their living environment, we help them make decisions on what they can do or what they need a remediator to do.

 

Principles of Early Containment and Supportive Measures

• Determine the environmental source and severity
  1. Ask questions of your environmental exposure history
     • Consider home, work, gym, school, church or other locations.
     • This especially includes HVAC systems.
     • Have you seen mold or signs of moisture?
     • Do you smell musty odors when returning to a location?
     • Do you notice symptoms only in certain locations?
     • Do any locations have a history of water intrusion?
     • Ask the same of your vehicles.
  2. Use the ERMI and HERTSMI environmental test where appropriate
  3. Mold plates purchased at home improvement stores are a waste of time
  4. Online professionally evaluated mold plates have limited utility only when we direct you to do so
     • Estimate mold toxin severity from tests on patient, symptoms, and environmental testing

• Proceed with remediation (see below) and decontamination
  1. Decrease clutter to lower dust and prepare for remediation
  2. Plan out pre-remediation steps with remediator
  3. Have the remediation performed
  4. Further decontaminate personal belongings
• Retest the remediated environment
  1. Use the ERMI and HERTSMI test again according to Post-Remediation protocol (see your visit notes for instructions)
  2. Or sometimes air sampling by remediator is sufficient
  3. Remediators generally do not like ERMI/HERTSMI post testing as the test is very sensitive and sometimes requires them to do more work
  4. The ERMI/HERTSMI does not need to be perfect on retest, BUT at least you should see significant improvement
• Consider other possible environmental exposures
  1. Workplace/School/Church Buildings
  2. Big box stores
  3. Transportation spaces (vehicles, RVs)
  4. Other frequented spaces
• Consider wearing a mask in public spaces
  1. We all hate this after 2020
  2. But, sometimes this helps like sunscreen
     • A mask will lower the short term inhalation exposure when such an exposure is unavoidable
     • A mask will not serve for hours and hours or days of exposure

• Institute supportive food habits
  1. A temporary gluten free diet
  2. Address obvious nutritional deficiencies
  3. Limit foods that have higher mold content
     • Aged cheeses
     • Cheap coffee
     • Dried fruits
  4. Take care with long term storage of grains
  5. Monitor intake of high histamine foods

These are general principles that must be personalized and handled with care. More than one step will be happening at a time in order to support both environmental containment and the physical needs of the body.  Once lab tests and other diagnoses become clear, the instructions become more personalized.  In the early phases, many things need to happen, and we work to help the patient and family figure out how to walk their particular path to recovery.

---

Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.