Biotoxin illness (or mold sickness) is one of those illnesses that can be difficult to detect at first. When you start experiencing symptoms you may confuse them with another kind of illness or not pay attention to them. It isn’t always apparent that you have a mold problem in your house or work environment. Anywhere in a building where moisture is present is a place for mold to grow. Leaks in your roof or pipes, a high humidity environment, and a low amount of light or movement are all prime conditions for mold and its associated toxins.

Water Damage and Mold

Many older buildings become water damaged without the damage being visible. As water pools and settles in areas with low light, mold finds the perfect environment to grow along with other contaminants. Other areas where mold can grow include bathrooms, kitchens, and ventilation systems. The combination of toxins that can accumulate in a building along with mold can lead. to biotoxin illness. There isn’t just one fungus or bacterium that is responsible.

Resistant mold, bacteria, and other harmful substances can become airborne and accumulate in your nasal passages in this kind of environment. This can lead to a variety of symptoms that are all considered a part of biotoxin illness. Biotoxin illness is also known as Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS, and there are two main protocols that outline effective treatment methods which we’ll discuss in another blog. One is Dr. Shoemaker’s protocol and the other is the Brewer Protocol. The symptoms of bioxtoxin illness or CIRS may include fatigue, aches, memory and focus problems, headache, sinus problems, coughing, numbness, weight gain, and excessive thirst.

Who is Susceptible?

Not everyone is susceptible to biotoxin illness. Dr. Shoemaker, who developed one of the two popular treatment protocols for CIRS, says that “24 percent of the population is genetically vulnerable to mold toxicity.” This group of people has the highest rate of bioxtoxin illness. A lot of the illness might have to with the body having an insufficient immune response to mold toxins. People with compromised immune systems from other illnesses are much more likely to have biotoxin illness.

One important thing to remember is that biotoxin illness is not an allergic reaction to mold. It is an inflammatory response that becomes chronic in response to the constant presence of toxins (sometimes called mycotoxins) in the environment. You may be genetically predisposed to suffer from CIRS but that doesn’t mean that you can’t prevent or treat it.

At Park Compounding Pharmacy we offer multiple compounds for biotoxin illness including amphotericin B and BEG Nasal Spray. We’ll discuss these treatments in our next blogs on the Shoemaker and Brewer protocols.