Toxic mold can affect almost every part of the body. Mold can even grow inside the human body. Wherever it lands and feeds, it can cause an allergic reaction, destroy tissue, or release poisonous mycotoxins with potentially devastating health complications.
The truth is, if mold is present where you live, play, or work, it is affecting your health. You might not notice symptoms for a long time, but the effects of mold are cumulative, growing worse over time.
Mold Allergies
Many people are allergic to mold spores. Depending on the individual’s immune system and overall health, and the sensitivity of the respiratory tract, mold allergies can cause:
- Coughing and wheezing
- Runny nose or stuffy nose
- Headaches
- Sore throat
- Dizziness
- Numbness
- Fatigue and depression
Many people with mold allergies are also sensitive to household dust, which can contain mold spores, but also bacteria, insect parts, fecal matter, and dead skin cells. Mold remediation, or cleaning up the source of mold, often helps diminish the effects of household dust allergies as well.
Mold Infections
Toxic mold is a fungus, and human beings are susceptible to fungal infections. Aspergillus fungus can cause Aspergillosis, a disease that can range from a simple allergic reaction to a fatal disease in which mold growth, called a fungal ball, begins to grow inside the human body, usually in the lungs, but sometimes in other organs. Where the fungus grows, it produces toxins and erodes living tissue, eating away at tissue linings until the organ stops functioning. Aspergillus can produce a mycotoxin that is the most potent carcinogen known to man. Aspergillosis can be fatal.
Mold Poisoning
The most dangerous of molds, often known as toxic black mold, is Stachybotrys Chartarum. Because molds are living organisms, they eat and excrete. Mold eats the surface upon which it grows; some species of mold excrete a substance known as a mycotoxin. The most dangerous mycotoxins are produced by Stachybotrys. They can:
- Cause neurological damage
- Trigger uncontrolled internal hemorrhaging
- Reduce white blood cell counts
- Suppress the immune system
The effects of mold poisoning from Stachybotrys mold can be fatal. Stachybotrys also is a suspected carcinogen. One of the Stachybotrys mycotoxins, tricothecene, is so deadly it has been investigated as a potential agent for biological warfare.
In addition to Stachybotrys, more than 200 other mold species produce dangerous mycotoxins, including:
- Fusarium can infect the eye, skin, and nails. It also can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and excessive internal hemorrhaging. It mimics estrogen in the human body and can attack the reproductive organs.
- Memnoniella is genetically similar to Stachybotrys, but prefers different food substances. Memnoniella releases potentially lethal mycotoxins that can attack the nervous system and the blood.
- Cladosporium can cause skin and nail infections, but its most potentially deadly consequences are to the lungs. Cladosporium can cause swelling and spasms in the lungs and can lead to emphysema.
- Penicillium spores, when inhaled, can cause a serious lung infection that spreads to the liver, lymphatic system, spleen, and bones. Individuals with suppressed immune systems, due to chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS, are most at risk. One of the Penicillium mycotoxins targets and destroys the kidneys.
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