31 Symptoms of Toxic Mold Exposure

Toxic mold is a nasty, unwelcome guest in our homes and our bodies. I’ve written about where it can show up in your home, and it’s time to talk about the havoc it can wreck on the body.

Mold can make people and animals sick through exposure to biotoxins. Biotoxins are toxins that originate from a biological source. Mycotoxins are the biotoxins produced by fungi, meaning that the mycotoxins and bacteria released by mold can cause biotoxin illness. If some of these terms are unfamiliar, use this post as a resource.

Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)

Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) is a condition that results from exposure to biotoxins, including those found in toxic mold. The biotoxins cause an inflammatory response for multiple systems of the body, leaving people with this condition managing a wide array of symptoms, some of which are pretty standard in modern times, like fatigue and bloating.

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker began treating for CIRS in 1996 and has devoted his practice to addressing biotoxin illness in patients since then. It is widely accepted from his research that an individual needs to have the HLA-DR or HLA-DQ gene in order to be susceptible to biotoxin illness. The providers I see for treatment ran genetic testing to determine that I do indeed have those genes. It’s estimated that 25% of the population have these genes, too.

It seems that there is a new school of thought, however, that this is inaccurate. If this was true, pets wouldn’t be getting sick from water damaged buildings since they don’t have HLA genes (HLA stands for Human Leukocyte Antigen). It will be interesting to see if this finding changes the diagnostic criteria over time.

This PDF explains the diagnosis and treatment of CIRS in-depth, and is housed on Dr. Shoemaker’s website. For the brief overview, to be diagnosed with biotoxin illness or CIRS, you need confirmation of exposure to toxic mold, lab testing, and symptoms in at least eight of the 13 clusters below:

One

• Pervasive fatigue

Two

• Sensitivity to light
• Muscle weakness
• Body aches
• Headaches
• Decreased capacity for learning new information

Three

• Decreased ability to remember things
• Difficulty with word finding

Four

• Decreased ability to focus

Five

• Muscle cramps
• Muscle and joint stiffness in the morning
• Joint pain

Six

• Unusual pain
• Tingling
• Skin sensitivity
• Tremors

Seven

• Congestion of sinuses
• Shortness of breath

Eight

• Excessive thirst
• Confusion
• Cough

Nine

• Increased urination
• Difficulty regulating body temperature
• Changes in appetite

Ten

• Mood swings
• Night sweats
• Blurry vision
• Redness around the eyes
• Ice-pick pain

Eleven

• Numbness
• Stomach aches
• Diarrhea

Twelve

• Disorientation
• Metallic taste in mouth
• Teary eyes

Thirteen

• Vertigo
• Static shocks

Other Common Symptoms

These symptoms aren’t used for diagnosis based on Dr. Shoemaker’s model, but many people experience them. These are also all symptoms I experienced over 5 years on a regular basis before I had any idea they were indicative of something concerning:

• Nose bleeds
• Heart palpitations
• Food allergies/intolerances
• Bloating
• Insomnia- feeling “tired but wired”
• Static shocks
• Hormone imbalance
• Autoimmune responses

Differential Diagnoses

Biotoxin illness is often misdiagnosed for three reasons. First of all, functional medicine practitioners are primarily treating for this condition currently, so the average general practitioner isn’t going to have knowledge of CIRS to diagnosis it. Secondly, most people haven’t heard of CIRS and we live in a society where the point of mainstream medicine is to manage symptoms instead of treating them as meaningful communication from the body about what’s not working. Third, the symptoms are so common, broad, and scattered. Here are some common diagnoses that don’t include addressing biotoxin exposure:

• Fibromyalgia
• Parkinson’s
• Alzheimers
• Anxiety
• CFS

Dr. Shoemaker’s website references differential diagnoses a bit more in depth. Visit that resource here.

My Experience

Personally, I’ve experienced the majority of the symptoms listed in the 13 clusters over the past four years. I simply thought that it was my normal, until things got significantly worse. In late 2019, I was hardly sleeping. I’d always chalked it up to anxiety and being busy. I worked three jobs on the regular and had just finished grad school while planning my wedding. Life was pretty miserable without sleep and constantly breaking out in hives for “no reason.” And then I really hurt my back from muscle weakness. I ended up in the emergency room and couldn’t walk for a week because the pain was unbearable at 31 years old. Then came the vertigo, and then the weight gain. I gained 20 pounds within weeks after I wiped up mold in the rental house my husband and I were moving out of. All of these health concerns, even though I’ve eaten paleo and been active, lifting weights regularly, for nearly a decade. From there, the brain fog and fatigue seemed to sucked the joy out of life for me until I started treatment for CIRS.

I’m still learning about CIRS (and definitely still on the road to recovery), but I’m happy to share what I know and love learning from others, so please let me know your questions and thoughts in the comments.

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