Friday, March 24, 2006
Mold and Health
How many ways can mold affect your health? Probably more than any of us realize. When my daughter began having memory problems, she was only in her thirties. Others in her work place were also experiencing neurological losses such as neuropathy, and they began to refer to this place where they spent so many hours every day as the "sick building". After years of complaining, they finally succeeded in getting management to have the area checked out by experts, and black mold was found inside the walls and ceilings, possibly from water leaks. This group was allowed to move out, but others were moved in, without getting rid of the mold.
This started me thinking about the neuropathy (nerve damage) in my feet that had puzzled doctors for over a decade. Usually neuropathy is the result of long-time alcohol abuse or as a complication of diabetes, neither of which I had. Then I remembered the smell of mold in my bathroom during rains. The mobile home we had lived in for eleven years was tightly skirted, so rain water that found its way underneath could not dry fast enough, making the perfect spot for mold to grow. The neuropathy which had been slowly progressing up my legs had begun to recede after we retired and moved away.
Next came a neice with an almost fatal lung problem. Several people in the hospital where she worked came down with the same symptoms, plus brain tumors and other diseases from which some died. She has not been able to obtain her own medical records there nor the results of testing done on the building, although one source told her that when they punched a hole in the wall, black mold oozed out.
One man who came home from Vietnam sick from an unknown source had little help from the VA, so started doing his own research and found that his illness was caused by mold in the jungles there. Further, he says that lung cancer is not caused from tar in cigarettes, but from mold that forms when tobacco leaves are soaked in sugar water to improve the taste.
I don't know what kind of proof he has, but it got me thinking about my late husband's long bout with fungus throughout his body. Doctors tried everything they knew to do, and when a medicine was developed for fungus problems in AIDS patients, his doctor thought sure it was the answer to this long-standing dilemma. It would knock the fungus back for awhile, but eventually he would have to take another round of the very expensive pills, especially after using anti-biotics for other problems. Perhaps smoking cigarettes containing mold was what prevented a cure of this miserable condition that started years before we moved into the mobile home. He died of lung cancer four years ago. Tar or mold? Something to think about.
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
This started me thinking about the neuropathy (nerve damage) in my feet that had puzzled doctors for over a decade. Usually neuropathy is the result of long-time alcohol abuse or as a complication of diabetes, neither of which I had. Then I remembered the smell of mold in my bathroom during rains. The mobile home we had lived in for eleven years was tightly skirted, so rain water that found its way underneath could not dry fast enough, making the perfect spot for mold to grow. The neuropathy which had been slowly progressing up my legs had begun to recede after we retired and moved away.
Next came a neice with an almost fatal lung problem. Several people in the hospital where she worked came down with the same symptoms, plus brain tumors and other diseases from which some died. She has not been able to obtain her own medical records there nor the results of testing done on the building, although one source told her that when they punched a hole in the wall, black mold oozed out.
One man who came home from Vietnam sick from an unknown source had little help from the VA, so started doing his own research and found that his illness was caused by mold in the jungles there. Further, he says that lung cancer is not caused from tar in cigarettes, but from mold that forms when tobacco leaves are soaked in sugar water to improve the taste.
I don't know what kind of proof he has, but it got me thinking about my late husband's long bout with fungus throughout his body. Doctors tried everything they knew to do, and when a medicine was developed for fungus problems in AIDS patients, his doctor thought sure it was the answer to this long-standing dilemma. It would knock the fungus back for awhile, but eventually he would have to take another round of the very expensive pills, especially after using anti-biotics for other problems. Perhaps smoking cigarettes containing mold was what prevented a cure of this miserable condition that started years before we moved into the mobile home. He died of lung cancer four years ago. Tar or mold? Something to think about.
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
