We have clients contact us many times to ask about what in their home or office could be making them sick
You can’t always diagnose by symptoms alone. Blood tests, allergy tests, and assessments of mould levels in your home may all be needed to specifically diagnose mould-related illness.
To test for mould allergies, you can talk to your doctor to do one of the following tests:
- Skin Prick test. This test uses diluted amounts of common or suspected allergens, such as moulds found in the local area. During the test, these substances are applied to the skin in your arm or back with tiny punctures. If you’re allergic, you develop a raised bump (hive) at the test location on your skin.
- Blood tests use a sample of your blood to examine for the presence of mould antibodies
- ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) is a test that detects and measures antibodies in your blood. This test can be used to determine if you have antibodies related to certain infectious conditions like HIV, Lyme disease, rotavirus, squamous cell carcinoma, syphilis, varicella-zoster virus and Zika virus.
- RAST (radioallergosorbent) test can measure your immune system’s response to mould by measuring the amount of certain antibodies in your bloodstream known as immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. A blood sample is sent to a medical laboratory, where it can be tested for evidence of sensitivity to specific types of mould.
- The MELISA (Memory Lymphocyte Immunostimulation Assay) test can detect allergies to chemicals, toxins, and mould, including toxic mould such as Aspergillus and Penicillium. Like the skin test the MELISA test detects allergies by applying allergens to the sample and identifying whether there is a heightened reaction. Also like the skin test the MELISA test does not measure the amount of a mould’s toxins or allergens in a person’s body, only whether the person has an allergic reaction to that mould.
Preparing for your appointment
You can take steps to ensure you cover everything that’s important to you during your appointment. To help you get ready for the discussion with your doctor.
- Write down any symptoms you’re experiencing as well as where you were and what you were doing when the symptoms started.
- Make a list of all the medications, vitamins or supplements you take, and bring that list with you to your appointment.
- Make a list of the cleaning products you use.
- Write down any questions you have for your doctor.
- Be ready to answer questions like
- What are your symptoms?
- What seems to trigger symptoms or make them worse?
- Are your symptoms worse during certain times of the year or certain times of the day?
- Do your symptoms flare up when you’re in certain locations, such as outdoors or in your basement?
- What medications do you take, including herbal remedies?
- What other health problems do you have?
- Do other members of your family have allergies? What kinds?
- Are you exposed to mould, dust, fumes or chemicals at work?
- Do you know if you have mould in your home?
Treatment
The best treatment for any allergy is to take steps to avoid exposure to your triggers. However, moulds are common, and you can’t completely avoid them.
Follow your doctors advice but know that not all doctors are fully aware of the latest in mould removal. The doctors will suggest methods to treat you.
SAN-AIR recommends that you treat your triggers.
Your key steps are
1. Identify your triggers. These may be visible to you or you may only be suspicious of certain things and not able to prove what the source is.
- Test your environment for mould – starting from rooms where you can see it or in places where you feel bad.
- In cases where you need to know the exact type of mould, send the results of our test kits back to us and we can advise the costs for more specific testing to identify the type of mould you have
- Away from home, if you frequent certain places at work or elsewhere test these places
- What types of potentially allergenic plants are in close distance to your home, windows, doors
2. Clean your indoor environment from mould with SAN-AIR
- Clean with natural products. Do not use toxic chemicals SAN-AIR will safely clean your indoor environment. Safe for you, your family, your pets.
- SAN-AIR has food certification, so can be used in any food preparation areas
- SAN-AIR has been interdependently tested as an effective commercial grade disinfectant
- SAN-AIR uses all natural ingredients
- With the natural and safe combination pack, get started now, don’t wait.
3. Take steps to reduce your exposure to mould
- Sleep with your windows closed to keep out outdoor mould. The concentration of airborne mould spores tends to be greatest at night, when the weather is cool and damp.
- Wear a dust mask over your nose and mouth to reduce breathing mould spores if you have to rake leaves, mow your lawn or work around compost.
- Avoid going outdoors at certain times, such as immediately after a rainstorm, in foggy or damp weather, or when the published mould count is high.
