***Mold Allergies And The Immune System

Mold allergies are as common as dirt. Perhaps because the mold spores that cause the allergy are in dirt–from sea to shining sea and around the world, and dirt is out to play dirty tricks on you.

Of course, any body of water, such as a lake, produces clouds of mold spores to play havoc with your health. Breathing problems, anyone? How about digestive uproar?

And, as if they didn’t already have enough problems, people with thyroid problems are particularly susceptible to entering the badlands of a mold allergy.

Know for sure that a mold allergy is no small thing. It means your immune system is in a battle, and things will go badly unless and until you jump in with the support your body needs.

Well, now, see, that jumping in to help is the tricky part. Medicine doesn’t look for mold allergies or have anything to help. Well, an allergist will test for mold allergies, but the allergy shots they offer don’t work.

Mold allergies define a do-it-yourself process.

Dealing with mold will never be the easiest thing you ever try to do, but you have to do what you have to do, so go to it. Ignoring a mold allergy is a huge mistake leading to poor health.

Where a mold allergy can lead:

• Chronic sinus problems
• Asthma
• Digestive uproar, in the form of a celiac look-alike
• Breathing problems
• Lung problems
• Inflammation, which leads to all the dread diseases

Also, a mold allergy plays a role in Lyme Disease; you’ll never heal Lyme Disease without dealing with the mold part of it.

So what can we do to fight back? Avoid foods that feed a mold allergy:

• Mushrooms
• Fermented foods and drinks, including all alcoholic beverages
• Cured, smoked or pickled meats
• Vinegar, which includes pickles, olives, capers and salad dressings
• Dried fruits, including dates, figs, raisins and cranberries
• Anything with yeast in it; sourdough and pumpernickel breads are the worst.
• Many fruits, especially grapes and citrus, bring along a bonanza o’ mold.
• Adding to the merriment, when mold has your digestive system dancing the watusi, you’ll read that you should take enzyme supplements. Well, probably not. Most enzyme supplements come from fungus.

Kill the mold:

• Negative ions kill airborne allergens, including mold. You can get room fans that have a negative ion option, and they work. When you first start generating the negative ions in your house, be prepared to spend some extra time with the vacuum cleaner sucking up dead allergens.

  Himalayan salt lamps provide a very attractive way to kill allergens. But success requires you to ignore the instructions about low-wattage bulbs. Salt lamps produce negative ions only when they’re hot to the touch. I use a 40-watt chandelier bulb in smaller salt lamps and a 60-watt bulb for a medium size lamp.

  And if you look on Amazon, you can find all sorts of negative ion generators, including Himalayan salt lamps. They even have some to clean the air in your car.

• Ozone is concentrated oxygen, and ozone generators kill not only mold spores, but also the toxic black mold (left behind from water damage) that can kill you.

  I read that breathing ozone is hard on the lungs, but there doesn’t seem to be any science involved. Most of what gets called ozone is actually made up of all sorts of particulates, which do whack the lungs. Pure ozone is actually used in some medical treatments, although I don’t think I’d sit in a room with elevated, non-regulated ozone levels until I know a little more about it.

  Ozone is probably not any more dangerous to your lungs than mold is, but using reasonable care makes sense.

• Use room filters to clear allergens from the air in your home. And also use vacuum cleaners with HEPA filter bags; bagless vacuums are not for anybody fighting a mold allergy. Any air-borne allergy, for that matter.

• Use hydrogen peroxide with abandon. Many articles about dealing with mold recommend using bleach, but you need to avoid bleach because it beats up on the endocrine system.

I add Oxyclean to every load of wash I do–to whiten whites, brighten colors and kill mold. I mop my tile floors with H2O2, which cleans well and, as a bonus, seems to discourage ants and other creepy crawlies. Shoot, I even wash fruits and vegetables with H2O2. Adding hydrogen peroxide to things I’m already doing isn’t hard work.

Last, and certainly not least: Get a solid nutritional supplement program going. The beauty of both my Pep for the Pooped book and Moving to Health program is my unique focus on supporting your endocrine system with the nutrition it needs.

God is good, Bette Dowdell