The most common black mold symptoms and health effects are associated with a respiratory response. Chronic coughing and sneezing, irritation to the eyes, mucus membranes of the nose and throat, rashes, chronic fatigue and persistent headaches can all be symptomatic of black mold exposure or black mold poisoning.
Overview. If you have a mold allergy, your immune system overreacts when you breathe in mold spores. A mold allergy can cause coughing, itchy eyes and other symptoms that make you miserable. In some people, a mold allergy is linked to asthma and exposure causes restricted breathing and other airway symptoms.
Some people have an immediate reaction when exposed to mold, while others may not experience symptoms for days, weeks, or months.
In some cases, people may experience symptoms of mold sickness immediately after exposure, while others may not notice any effects for weeks or even months.
Perfectly healthy individuals with no history of respiratory issues have been reported to suffer prolonged coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing. This combined with a weakened immune system that long-term mould exposure can cause may lead to even worse conditions like bronchitis.
If you find black mold on your property, there's no need to panic. But black mold presents more health risks to sensitive groups like those with respiratory conditions or immune conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), black mold spores can generate cold- or flu-like symptoms such as: Stuffy nose.
When mold spores are inhaled, immune system cells surround and destroy them. But people who have a weakened immune system from illness or immunosuppressant medications have fewer infection-fighting cells. This allows aspergillus to take hold, invading the lungs and, in the most serious cases, other parts of the body.
Research suggests that when certain mycotoxins are present, acute exposure to black mold can cause neurotoxic, neurological and neuropsychiatric effects. These symptoms are sometimes called “black mold poisoning” and can include cognitive impairment, brain fog, vision changes, confusion, loss of balance and more.
Testing Methods
We use a variety of specialized methods to look for mold toxicity in your body. These methods may include blood and urine tests. We may also perform sputum, sinus, or tissue analysis. These tests are easy and straightforward.
On the basis of current research, black mold exposure is no more dangerous than any other type of mold exposure. It is impossible to avoid exposure to mold — the spores are almost everywhere in the atmosphere. In high amounts or in people with allergies, exposure to any mold may cause allergy symptoms.
While there's no sure way to cure allergic rhinitis caused by a mold allergy, a number of medications can ease your symptoms. These include: Nasal corticosteroids. These nasal sprays help prevent and treat the inflammation caused by an upper respiratory mold allergy.
When searching for black mold, look for circular-shaped spots that are black, dark green or dark brown. Some black mold can also take on shades of orange or have flecks of white within it. Most of the time, black mold has a slightly furry appearance.
Detoxing out mold (after confirming the individual has a clean environment) takes around a year in most cases. For these reasons, working with a professional is necessary.
Urine mycotoxin tests are ideal for testing yourself (and your family members) for mycotoxin exposure. They're absolutely painless, totally non-invasive, and incredibly easy to use.
Mold is also known to cause asthma and life-threatening primary and secondary infections in immune-compromised patients that have been exposed. Toxic mold exposure has also been linked to more serious, long-term effects like memory loss, insomnia, anxiety, depression, trouble concentrating, and confusion.
This is an incredibly important finding! Many patients with memory loss and dementia are actually simply toxic from mold, which is a reversible condition.
There's no proof that mold toxins cause diseases in people, so you don't need to detox after mold exposure. The best way to feel better if you have black mold allergy symptoms is to get out of the moldy environment and avoid any continued exposure.
Surgery can often cure aspergillosis caused by a single fungus ball. Providers also use it to treat invasive and allergic aspergillosis in certain circumstances. Providers usually don't recommend surgery to treat chronic pulmonary aspergillosis.
Can a Mouldy bedroom make you sick? Mold inside your house can make you certainly sick, breathing in mold fragments or spores can inflame the air passages, creating a nasal blockage, wheezing, breast tightness, coughing, and throat inflammation.
Mould will easily grow and spread if the right conditions are present. So, dehumidifiers don't kill mould, but they can help to prevent it from growing inside your home by reducing humidity. However, the best way to deal with it is to get rid of its source.
Use 1 part bleach to 3 parts water, according to Sherwin-Williams. If you don't want to use bleach but do want something other than water, try vinegar, borax or branded products that you can find at a hardware store or home center, which also kill mold.
These symptoms usually first appear 2 to 9 hours after exposure and last for 1 to 3 days. Other affected persons have progressive shortness of breath and cough, as well as weight loss. Work-relatedness may only become apparent over long holidays if symptoms resolve and then recur on return to work.
At the time of exposure, you may not feel any effects of mold but as time goes by you may start to feel like something isn't right. The harmful effects of exposure to mold, especially toxic mold, can show up years later after you've remedied the issue or even moved to a new location.
Black mold can look menacing, but generally is benign. The primary symptoms that could occur would be from inhaling mold, including nasal stuffiness, nasal mucus drainage, cough, and occasionally shortness of breath or wheezing in the chest.