Saturday, December 10, 2016

Mold Related Illness From Water Damaged Buildings

The Issue
Water-damaged buildings are not just stinky, they are a health problem. It is now quite apparent that people who have been diagnosed as having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromylagia, Post Lyme Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalitis or any other similar inflammatory condition who are not being helped by their treatment, should take a look around them and see if they might be living, working or being educated in a water-damaged building

What If You Are Ill From A Water-damged Building
For many people, removing themselves from these buildings will remedy their condition. For others, they can recover faster with treatment. However, for 25% of these people they may have a genetic susceptibility to the mycotoxins, endotoxins and volatile organic compounds found in these buildings that keeps them from removing these toxins from their bodies adequately. This group of people will not recover fully after removing themselves from the water-damaged building and they usually need treatment to recover.

What Causes the Health Problem
These water-damaged buildings contain mycotoxins, endotoxins and volatile organic compounds that are released from the mold and bacteria. Additionally, there may be release of toxic chemicals from the building materials. Depending on the types of building materials and the type of molds and bacteria as well as their stage of growth, the toxins in the air can vary greatly. Volatile organic compounds are released in water-damaged buildings by all three of these troublemakers. So, the person living in a water-damaged building may be living in an environment where tiny bits of microscopic toxins as well as toxic, volatile organic compounds are floating around in the air getting in their lungs and landing on their skin.

How Does This Happen
Almost all modern buildings experience minor to more serious water damage during their life time. Any time a building has a moisture issue that is unattended or is not remediated appropriately it can lead to increased levels of microbial, and fungal agents along with the toxins and volatile organic compounds that they release into the air. This exposes those living, working or schooling in these buildings to unhealthy levels of inflammatory toxins. This exposure can lead to respiratory as well as non-respiratory complaints. The symptoms are quite diverse and you can find a list of them at this link.

Details on Mold/Bacteria And Their Toxins
Molds make both mycotoxins and microbial volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The VOCs are chemicals with low molecular weights  (don’t weigh much compared to other molecules), a high vapor pressure (will vaporize easily like essential oils) and are not very water soluble. This means they will evaporate into the air easily. These volatile compounds that fungi release are alcohols, aldehydes, amines, ketones, terpenes, aromatic, chlorinated hydrocarbons and sulfur-based compounds. They are all variations of carbon based molecules. They usually have some sort of odor.

Fungal VOCs come both from their primary and secondary metabolism. In primary metabolism, they are breaking food down from their environment to use nutrients needed to maintain themselves. This creates fungal VOCs in the process. In secondary metabolism the VOCs are due to competition for resources in a nutrient-poor environment.

In studies, the greatest production of VOC production seems to happen during spore formation (especially terpenes and sesquiterpenes) and mycotoxin production. Mycotoxins are different from VOCs in that mycotoxins are relatively large molecules that are not volatile and do not easily evaporate or “off-gas” into the air. This means what you smell in a “musty” house is the VOCs from mold, bacteria or chemicals and not the actual mycotoxins. However, if you smell fungal/microbial VOCs there are also mycotoxins/endotoxins there and the fungus may be actively making spores. Remember that bacteria and many chemicals in building materials also give off VOCs, it is not just mold. Each of these organisms effect each other as they compete for nutrients in the environment. Additionally, the building materials they are growing on can make a difference in which VOCs or how much VOCs are released. The building material itself gives off VOCs.  There is even a theory that building materials that have some type of antifungal and/or antibacterial chemicals built into them will kill off many of the fungus and bacteria and select for only the strongest to live. Thus creating super bacteria and fungi that end up populating the building when it becomes water-damaged and is not properly remediated.

If you want to know more about mold illness or moldy buildings, let me know by responding at the bottom of this article.

Sunday, December 4, 2016






These bacteria are not the only critters that may be implicated in Alzheimer's disease. There are significant associations between Alzheimer's disease and a variety of pathogens, including Herpes simplex virus type 1, Cytomegalovirus, and other Herpes virusesChlamydophila pneumoniae, spirochetes, and various periodontal microbes. Like Helicobacter pylori, these pathogens are able to evade destruction by the host immune system, leading to persistent infection. 

