r/ToxicMoldExposure

This is a genuine question.

I need some direct help, hopefully from someone who has navigated this process successfully in the past.

*If your internal response is “mold is everywhere,” without understanding the health impacts of toxic mold on immune susceptible people, this post is not for you.

I’ve been hired to help locate a 6+ month rental for clients in the Studio City / Los Angeles area who became significantly ill after long-term mold exposure in their home, followed by a couple of rentals that ended up not much better. The LA rental market is also rough right now because we are still recovering from major home losses from the fires.

Before moving into their current rental, they performed ERMI testing on several prospective homes and chose the cleanest option they found, partly because it was also a newer build. It was borderline on the HERTSMI at 14, but they believed the results might reflect old tenant moving dust rather than active issues.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a much larger problem, with bad shower installs, active moisture issues, and a landlord who does not want to acknowledge the extent of it or follow safe remediation protocol, despite independent inspection, moisture verification, cavity sampling, and lab testing. They are at their wits’ end and cannot go through the process of finding another place themselves again.

So they hired me, and I need to come up with an efficient procedure for finding the cleanest possible house for them to rent. They have a healthy but not unlimited budget, and are looking for something nice, ideally 3+ bedrooms with some privacy and a yard. But we now know expensive does not mean healthy.

Right now my thought is to line up a large number of viewings myself, narrow them down based on smell, visuals, etc., then test the strongest candidates using HERTSMI, then upgrading to ERMI is a property qualifies, and present the final options to the clients. But that was essentially their previous process too, and it still failed, possibly because the testing approach itself was too limited. After ERMI testing 6 previous properties, they still ending up in a problematic house, I feel like I need a more direct or thorough approach. It also can’t become an endless process or we lose prospects.

I do have a mold inspector willing to discreetly look at 1-2 finalist properties, but even that may slow things down too much. Honestly, I wish I could hire an inspector to handle this entire process, but I haven’t found the right person yet.

My instinct is that the best option may be a well cared-for family home where the owners genuinely maintain the property, rather than another furnished “luxury rental” run primarily as a business. Over the winter, they stayed in a couple of those, where very obvious leaks happened during the rains and management brushed it off and refused to do the work to address the issue in any way that would have prevented mold damage, in favor of a little putty and paint, and having a next tenant come in the following week. 

They do not need perfect, and they absolutely do not want sterile. They just need clean enough to begin recovering, which they haven’t been able to do because they’ve had to move multiple times over 5 months. Furnished with some character would actually be ideal so it still feels like a home.

What efficient process would you use in this situation? Are there specific professionals who can handle this type of search from beginning to end?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156713482500142X

Let's break it down:

1- Targeting the fungal cell walls: disrupts structural integrity of the wall, making it porous

2- Penetrates the fungal plasma membrane, causing essential cellular material leak

3- Oxidative stress within fungal cells and excessive stress causing programmed cell death

4- Disturbs the fungal cell cycle: prevents fungus dividing and growing

5- Prevents biofilm formation by reducing the adherence of fungus

Hey everyone, sending so much love to this community. I’m reaching out because I could really use some reassurance and to hear from anyone who has walked this path.

I was doing okay for a while—my mold detox protocol was actually manageable, and I felt like I was sort of handling everything. But lately, things have gotten pretty gnarly. I’ve been hit with these incredibly intense, brutal histamine spikes.
I've noticed that it gets extra intense during hormonal shifts, which seems to have completely amplified everything. It feels like my body is just overflowing with histamine right now and the symptoms are getting rough.

Has anyone else experienced a massive, sudden surge in histamine intolerance or MCAS flares while detoxing mold? Did hormonal changes make it way worse for you too?

I would deeply appreciate any stories, experiences, or words of comfort right now. It helps so much just knowing we aren’t alone in this. Thank you all so much. ❤️

Did it worked?

I left the mold house over a month ago and finally disposed of the last items from the house 2-3 weeks ago. I tried to keep non-porous things and clean things, but ended up contaminating my new place and getting even sicker than before. I bought an air scrubber and got rid of everything and had a cleaning company come. I started taking binders and mold killers and finally started feeling physically better about a week ago, but I continue to feel braindead. I am making countless dumb mistakes at work, I can’t keep track of any appointments, I forget what I’m doing the second start. It’s making me lose my mind.

I’ve always been really on top of things, my brain can just multitask really well (or could). And the job I have relies on the fact that I could do 100 things and stay on top of it all, but I can barely remember a single detail now. Every mistake I make, causes me to sink further into this depression and I’m terrified I’m going to lose my job. I lost all of my things and am living in this empty sterile apartment without the funds to rebuild and I can’t even think?? I’m using lists and reminder and calendar alerts, but nothing is working…I don’t understand what’s happening. I just want to go back to my old self. How long will this last?? Or if you don’t know, any commiserations are appreciated. I hate this.

I feel like im healing, know I am, I was sick for about a year, severely in and out of hospitals, brain fog, memory loss, etc etc, moved out of the house and have been away from .old for about a 7 months by now, feeling WAY better, still get spikes of brain issues but other than that bette than I was, I recently got into the gym, use the sauna, swim, lift weights but I realised my diet and fat were issues, so I wanted to begin losing weight. Heard that mold likes to store in fat and that if I begin losing weight it will spike up again, but I really want to fix myself over this summer, is there any tips on how I can lose fat and not feel like shit from this again, it was traumatizing and I'm afraid of that again.

I moved into my mold free home about a month ago. I have a bed and a small table and a friend gave me this weird little half couch thing. I work at an interior design firm and have connections to nice furniture for cheap and I’ve always love art and just making my home whimsical, but I can’t bring myself to get anything. I thought it was decision overwhelm, but I find myself getting really sad at the thought of replacing anything. And sometimes it’s not sadness, but just no desire. I don’t really have the funds to redo the whole thing right away, but I can’t bring myself to even start. It feels depressing and overwhelming…

Hello

I'm thinking about getting a few cursory tests done to see if I'm still actually dealing with CIRS or if it's something else.

I'm considering getting ADH/Osmolality, MSH, and maybe VIP or C4a. I have the constant thirst/urination still so that's why ADH. I've had my morning cortisol and thyroid checked recently and that was normal. I have the money now to potentially pay for treatment, but testing first would be cheaper. If those come back normal I would consider Lyme testing next.

Any suggestions on which of the classic Shoemaker biomarkers I should prioritize if I want to get just a few tests done?

bought a house in 2023. ever since, my health has been declining and im barely functional with severe brain fog and dissociation, hashimotos, POTS, MCAS, you name it ive probably fricking got it. been working with a functional NP and she tested me for mold toxicity, lo and behold im positive for every strain of mold IGE. Had my house inspected and they found pretty bad mold in the vents and along a wall. I see people on here talking about moving away and tossing all of their belongings just to get rid of the mold exposure. If I pay to get my vents cleaned and the wall demo'd, is there a chance there will still be spores all over my things and I'll still be sick??? Do you fr just have to throw away your whole life and get a new one to heal? I'll be talking to my doctor about it soon but it's just so overwhelming and defeating to deal with. this house was supposed to be my home for a long time and i love it so much. but i cant keep feeling & living like this.

I cross contaminated my new space recently. Within a week, I'm reacting to my new phone. I saw this at my old place but it took me 2 years to find out. The USB c port and the speaker of my pixel phone are open and smelling like Mycotoxins. Any time the phone is in my hand or my body, my throat hurts or my skin burns. Slowly it's progressing to my chest and breathing.

How do I clean it?

I tried using a tooth brush. Did not help. I tried 60% isopropyl alcohol wipes slowly through the speaker area. Still reacting.

Gemini says using compressed air is not recommended. Since it will push the debris in.

Please help.

For people who are mold colonised how and where do you think you became colonised?

Our detached garage fridge got accidentally pressed up against the wall, no one realized it. The wall became moldy behind it(2x4 section) approximately. We called two mold remediation companies, they both told us products to use to kill off spores(same story from both) as we wanted two opinions. We did all that. We were told to use a mold killer, mold primer and paint and see after 30 days if it comes through we’d need to get it remediated further where’d they’d cut the wall and go in and correctly fix it. Both companies believe it’s just on the surface. My husband had never seen mold, so he tried cleaning it thinking it was dirt before alerting me that he thought it was mold. So he used a cloth and now I’m having horrible anxiety he spread spores all over. We have some strollers, an expensive cloth wagon we JUST got, and an extra car seat. We cannot afford to throw away all of our stuff, his thousands of dollars of tools, air compressors, etc. will ozoning our garage get rid of the spores? We have a five stall garage, where two stall in front connecting to a three stall in back by draw door. I’m a worry wart when it comes to mold because our rental place we came from had black mold that I discovered as we were packing to move. I was horribly sick all the time and didn’t understand why till I found that. There’s so much information it’s incredibly scary and daunting to read. I just don’t want our stuff ruined, please be kind because this has been hard on me.