What is Mold Fatigue?

Many people are aware of the most common mold symptoms: respiratory issues, coughing, sneezing, headaches, and rashes. Fatigue is not usually considered a part of that list, but it should be.

People suffering from constant mold exposure can feel chronically ill, tired, and painful without ever knowing the cause. Reducing mold is the only way to reduce the allergic reaction someone has to it.

Mold fatigue is a real condition. It can interfere with your everyday life, work, and family time. Fortunately, mold fatigue is reversible. When there is no more mold exposure, the symptoms gradually fade on their own.  

In the following sections, Pure Maintenance of Central Illinois discusses how mold can make you tired, as well as some signs of mold in a home so you can recognize and remove mold as soon as it becomes visible.  

How Mold Leads to Fatigue and Exhaustion

We know that breathing in mold spores can lead to respiratory symptoms. This is a pretty clear connection. On the other hand, it may not seem clear at first how mold can cause fatigue, so let’s look into this cause-and-effect relationship.

Here are a few ways mold leads to feelings of tiredness:

• Respiratory issues including respiratory infection, pneumonia, and the common cold reduce the amount of oxygen that makes it to your lungs. Low oxygen reduces brain function and creates a feeling of sluggishness.
• Mold allergy symptoms can prevent you from sleeping or sleeping well. Lack of sleep carries into the next day. People who don’t sleep well sometimes resort to stimulants to keep them awake during the day, which prevents them from sleeping the next night, creating a vicious cycle of sleeplessness.
• Secondary sicknesses (bronchitis, sinus infection, pneumonia) zap your energy as well. This can be due to a lack of oxygen, as described above, or as a side effect as your body fights off the infection or illness.
• A new theory suggests a connection between mold exposure and depression. Depression is still being studied. As new causes and treatments are revealed, it has come to light that environmental factors such as mold exposure could be to blame.
• There is also thought to be a link between mold exposure and autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. There are a few studies concerning this link at present, but we are sure to learn more in the coming years.

Just one of these things could be causing mold fatigue, but when more than one of the circumstances are present, their effects could be compounding, resulting in unreasonable levels of exhaustion in you or a family member.

Signs of Mold

Signs of mold in a home or other structure can show up in the building itself of as allergy-like symptoms in people and animals.

The following list is the most common signs of mold, in no particular order:

• Fatigue – For the reasons we explained above, mold exposure can make you tired for no apparent reason.
• Other mold allergy symptoms – Sneezing, stuffy nose, and itchy, watery eyes are just a few mold allergy reactions. Headaches and skin rashes are others.
• Visible mold growth – Seeing a mold colony is a dead giveaway. You can remove small amounts of mold in the bathroom or kitchen with bleach and a paper towel (or anything that can be thrown away), but a large mold colony in your garage, attic or basement will probably require the help of a mold removal team.
• Water damage or water leaks – Moisture is the main cause of household mold. Condensation, steam, and spills can also lead to mold. Mold spores need water and food to survive. Food is virtually everywhere in our homes, so moisture of any kind is the magic ingredient that causes mold to reproduce and spread.
• Musty odor – Mold is known to give off an earthy, musty odor. It’s easy to recognize in a home or a room that is rarely used, but much harder to identify if you are in and out of the area frequently. If there seems to be a household odor that you can’t get rid of, don’t ignore it or try to cover it up. It could be a sign of mold that you can’t see.
• Discoloration of surfaces in your home – Mold can be many different colors, including black, greenish, purple, pink, orange, and white. It also has a variety of textures depending on the species. Therefore, mold may not always look the way you expect it to.

Mold Testing in Central Illinois

Mold fatigue isn’t just aggravating. It can be downright debilitating. Severe cases of mold fatigue cause people to sleep excessively, can affect their performance at work or school, and may even hinder their ability to complete basic care tasks.

Household mold is common, and it often causes an array of symptoms in people and pets. If all other possible causes of fatigue have been reduced, it’s likely that you are tired all the time due to mold fatigue. If you are experiencing extreme fatigue, talk to your doctor about the possible causes, and include details about your home, as they may point to a mold allergy.

The only way to end these allergic reactions is to remove the opportunity for mold exposure.  To be sure that all mold in your home is removed, you need to have professional mold testing done.

Pure Maintenance of Central Illinois can test every area of your home, including common areas for mold like the basement, crawl space, and attic, to determine if there is mold and, if so, how much. From there, they can recommend a removal strategy and timeline that suits your family best.

You can remove small amounts of mold yourself, but you have to follow strict safety practices so you don’t expose yourself and the rest of your home to even more mold.

Mold removal services from Pure Maintenance of Central Illinois are guaranteed, and they are safer for your family, pets, and home due to the expertise of the team members handling the removal.