Can Mold Make You Sick?

Mold is a type of fungus that can be found indoors, outdoor and even in your food

• Mycotoxins are toxins that are produced by mold

• Mold can make you sick. It has short term and long term consequences

• Mold could be hiding in your home without knowing it

• Penicillium, Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Alternaria, Stachybotrys are the most common types of mold

• Common mycotoxins include: Aflatoxins, Ochratoxin, Patulin, Fumonisins, Zearalenone, Nivalenol/Deoxynivalenol

Your home is your safe space. However, many homes may not be as safe as we think. Unfortunately, hidden mold in your home could be damaging your health. Can mold make you sick and contribute to long lasting effects? Absolutely.

Since you may be unaware of the mold growing in your home, you could be chronically exposing yourself to mold and mycotoxins.

Not only could mold hidden in your home be dangerous, but mycotoxins found in food sources could be just as harmful.

Let's dive into how mold could be impacting your body without you even knowing it!

What are Mold and Mycotoxins?

Mold is a type of fungus that can appear in various colors from black, white, orange, green to purple. It can live anywhere indoors, outdoors, and even within your body!

Molds grow easily in warm, damp, and moist environments and can reproduce by releasing lightweight spores in the air. 

Common Types of Molds

• Penicillium

• Cladosporium

• Aspergillus

• Alternaria

• Stachybotrys

Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by certain molds and can be found in food. They can appear in several different crops and major ingredients in foods like cereals, nuts, spices, dried fruits, apples, and coffee beans. 

These mycotoxins can grow either before harvest, on the crops, or even afterward in storage, under warm and damp conditions. 

Common Types of Mycotoxins

• Aflatoxins

• Ochratoxin A

• Patulin

• Fumonisins

• Zearalenone

• Nivalenol/Deoxynivalenol

Different Mold Exposures

Food Sources

Mycotoxins can commonly be found in your food. According to the United Nations, more than 25% of food may be contaminated with mycotoxins. This is mostly from grains and corn, or food that is stored over a longer period of time.

When you ingest these mycotoxins constantly, your body can't keep up with eliminating them. As with most types of toxins, your body can naturally eliminate them when they are in small amounts. However, when you are regularly exposed, your body can't keep up! 

Ultimately your body gets backed up, and the non-eliminated toxins can then circulate throughout your body and can damage your cells.

Environmental (indoor & outdoor)

We spend the majority of our days indoors, right? While you can be exposed to mold outside, the negative effects of indoor mold exposure could be even more apparent. Mold can grow within just 24-48 hours in damp conditions. 

People don't realize just how common mold is within our homes. Some studies show that upwards of 50% of homes have dampness, mildew, or mold. 

What's alarming about this is that many people are completely unaware of this, contributing to and exacerbating their health issues.

Colonization in the Body

If you’ve been wondering, “can mold make you sick?”, the answer is yes, and this is how. Once these molds are inside your body, the mold acts as a parasite. It feeds on your body, growing and spreading its colonies. 

As it grows and spreads, it releases mycotoxins, which are poisonous toxins to your body. When these mycotoxins start causing damage to your cells, that's when you start seeing significant consequences to your health.

These toxins can enter your body and cause havoc on your bodily functions. When the body isn't functioning properly, it may express it with short-term symptoms and even chronic health conditions. 

Here are some health issues that could result from mold and mycotoxin exposure.

Symptoms of Mold and Mycotoxin Exposure

• Upper and lower respiratory issues

• Asthma

• Immune system suppression/dysfunction

• Rashes

• Brain fog

• Chronic fatigue

• ADHD

• Insomnia

• COPD

• Depression

• Cytotoxicity/Cancer

• Neurological symptoms

• Chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS)

• Mitochondrial toxicity

• IgE-Mediated sensitivity

How Does Mold Affect the Body?

While the level of exposure can affect the severity of mold/mycotoxin damage, your genetics also play a role. Depending on your genes and early childhood exposures, your body may be hit harder by mold. 

For example, if you have the MTHFR mutation, your body may have a harder time eliminating those toxins, allowing them to cause more damage. 

You could also have a genetic susceptibility to mold toxicity. Roughly 25 percent of the population have an immune response gene, named HLA-DR (human leukocyte antigen). If you have this, your body may have more difficulty excreting mycotoxins, making it more likely that your body will respond to mold.

Other aspects that may increase mold impact include:

• Other microbial infections (like Lyme Disease)

• Nutrient deficiency (due to poor diet or inadequate absorption)

• Genetics – MTHFR, HLA-DR mutation

• Level of alcohol and drug use

• Other autoimmune or degenerative diseases

• Method of exposure: Inhalation and ingestion are the most common

When mycotoxins invade your body, they can harm your cellular health by interfering with pathways and damaging your cells' structure. They cause oxidative stress, apoptosis, cell death, DNA damage, and cell cycle arrest. When your cells don't work correctly, it can lead to a series of problems -acute and chronic.

Here are some more mechanisms of how mycotoxins can harm your body:

• Infections

• Autoimmunity

• Oxidative stress

• Toxicity

• Allergies

• Inflammation

• Carcinogenicity

Mold Impact on Immune Health

How Your Immune Response Works

The immune system can recognize common mold characteristics and can nonspecifically defend against them. Your immune system can also identify specific mold components called antigens. This is part of your adaptive immune response.

White blood cells (aka lymphocytes), specifically, T-cells and B-cells, carry out adaptive immune responses. 

T-cells activate a cell-mediated immune response and directly combat the foreign mold antigens. In doing so, the T-cell may kill any toxic or infected host cell. It may even send signals to activate macrophages, which engulf the invader (toxin or debris) itself.

Activated B-cells produce antibodies. These antibodies are proteins called immunoglobulins, which circulate in your body. They can attach to the foreign antigens, inactivating the mold biotoxins. As a result, the biotoxins can no longer bind to receptors on host cells.

Impact of Mold on Immune Health

Chronic mold exposures have been shown to induce changes in inflammatory and immune system responses to specific subjection to mold and mycotoxins. White blood cells that have been exposed to mold have significantly higher chemokine and cytokine levels (biomarkers of inflammation).

Mold exposures may even increase sensitivity to commonly inhaled microorganisms. This means that the particles you regularly inhale could actually cause more damage and increase your risk of secondary infections or enhance your sensitivity to allergies.

When your body is continuously battling these toxins and trying to compensate for the damage done by the mold, it can put your immune response into overdrive. This can ultimately lead to a compromised immune response, leaving you more susceptible to viruses and infections. 

Mold toxins have immunosuppressive properties, and ongoing exposure can even destroy your immune system.

How to Reduce Mold Exposure

• Get functional lab testing performed to see if your body has accumulated mycotoxins

• Have a professional remove the mold from your home if it is contaminated (doing it yourself could cause the mold to release spores, heightening your exposure even more.

• Consume a low-mold food diet- eliminate processed foods, sugar, GMOs, and foods that might contain mold themselves

• Invest in a high-quality air system (air filter and dehumidifier for damp areas)

How to Reduce Mold Damage

• Support mitochondria health

• Increase antioxidants to combat oxidative stress and cellular damage

• Keep a close eye on function lab results to see if levels are balancing out with lifestyle changes

• Personalize supplementation to boost your immune health and detoxification processes

Since many conventional doctors aren't trained to look and test for these possibilities, it's crucial to get care from a functional medicine provider to ensure this isn't getting overlooked.

Dr. Jaban Moore is a Functional Medicine Provider who specializes in chronic diseases and difficult cases. If you are struggling with a chronic illness, please reach out. Mold exposures could be impacting your health and inhibiting you from recovering and healing. Make an appointment to get started. You can give the office a call at (816) 889-9801.