In 1983, the World Health Organization formally recognized a condition called “Sick Building Syndrome.” They wrote that patients exposed to water damaged buildings may “..suffer from symptoms of illness or feel unwell for no apparent reason. The symptoms tend to increase in severity with the time people spend in the building, and improve over time or even disappear when people are away from the building.” In their original document paper, they highlighted a variety of allergic symptoms - dry, irritated watery eyes, runny or stuffed nose, sore throat, occasional rashes, and headache, fatigue and poor concentration.
We’ve come long way in our understanding of how mold causes disease since 1983, but unfortunately, too many doctors (who should know better) are trapped in the past with the outdated idea that mold just causes minor allergy problems. Here’s the truth:
Many patients with mold exposure develop problems that go far beyond runny noses - these patients are plagued by a variety of symptoms. Crippling fatigue, severe depression, brain fog and anger are quite common. Many develop chronic pain, and other patients show signs of neurologic damage through symptoms of tremors, neuropathy and even seizures.
A paper was published in 2009 that described 105 patients who had been exposed to visible mold in their home and compared them to 202 healthy controls, who had not had mold exposure. Both groups were put through a battery of neurophysiological tests - including measurements of reaction time, balance, grip strength, color perception and other tests of visual processing. Memory and cognition were analyzed. As mold has been known to cause asthma these patients had their respiratory function tested as well. Last but not least, their psychological wellbeing was assessed through a validated questionnaire.
What did they find?
The researchers found significant deficits and abnormalities in those exposed to mold compared to those who were not exposed.
After all the assessments were done, the average patient exposed to mold had around 10 different abnormalities, compared to just 2 in the control group.
Making the study even more fascinating, was that they also looked at a group of patients who had been exposed to a variety of chemicals, but let’s focus on the results of the mold group for this article. In the graph to the right you can see the frequency curve of total abnormalities in the mold group (A) compared to the control (B) and chemical exposure groups (C).
The mold-exposed patients performed significantly worse on the physiologic tests, with weaker grip strength, longer reaction times and poorer balance. Cognitively there were deficits in vocabulary, and worse recall on the memory tests. They were worse at solving problems and completing a pegboard puzzle. The mold exposed groups were statistically more likely to experience fatigue and confusion.
Although a detailed inventory of symptoms was not the goal of this paper, the author of the paper commented that memory flashbacks, unusual behavior, staring, twitching and sensory hallucinations were frequent among the mold-exposed patients and were much higher than in the control group.
In the table below, I highlighted those areas in which mold patients were found to be statistically different compared to the control group.
Psychological Abnormalities after in Mold Exposure
The patients who were exposed to mold had much higher scores for depression, anger, tension and confusion. In the table below, you can see that mold exposed patients were roughly twice as likely to experience these psychological symptoms.
Neurological Problems in Mold Exposure
Neurologic problems were very common in these 105 adults with mold exposure:
52% of mold exposed patients had symptoms of peripheral neuropathy
75% had problems with a finger to nose test indicating cerebellar problems
49% had ataxia (balance issues)
30% had abnormal cerebellar tests
32% had problems with fine motor control
25% had dysmetria (coordination issues)
18% had tremors
Healing from mold.
If you have been exposed to mold and are sick, I hope that this article helps you to understand that your symptoms are not in your head.
You are not alone, and many patients have found healing. I’m one of those patients.
Being made sick from mold was the worst thing to ever happen to me. I became angry, depressed, chronically fatigued, brain foggy and confused. I was afraid and the treatments that I saw work on other patients were not helping me.
Although my health is not perfect, mold is no longer a problem. It’s not always easy, but you can get past this and reclaim your life.
Next time, I’ll describe how I help my patients heal from mold.
Would you like more information, or to schedule an appointment?
Reference:
Kilburn KH. Neurobehavioral and pulmonary impairment in 105 adults with indoor exposure to molds compared to 100 exposed to chemicals. Toxicol Ind Health. 2009;25(9-10):681-692. doi:10.1177/0748233709348390