Ask: Is this VALID?
How to tell if recommendations and claims are legit!
A few months back someone asked a question. I answered. Here is that conversation:
INTERESTING REPORT FROM A MOLDIE! IS IT TRUE?
What I have learned in my mold education journey is this. There are thousands of molds and mold is inescapable, it's everywhere, and people react to different types of mold. My son got sick in Florida, but the molds in Arizona definitely worsened him which tells me that the desert environment and molds are far worse for him than those on the east coast. I have never reacted to allergens until we moved to Arizona. Now that we are back on the east coast, I am normal again.
My Response
The science. Let’s use science to figure out what is right and what is wrong about this.
What FB “support” groups, and other "sources" such as naturopaths, blogs, vlogs, youtube, nutritionists, instagram, and functional medicine self-published books, ALL get wrong is reliance upon individual stories, what are often called anecdotes, and lack of actual environmental conditions; much like the several contradictory ones shared in the quote above.
Sometimes, the only thing the “support” groups support is misinformation - it all sounds great or scary or helpful. But not from the point of view of the experts in the SCIENCES. You will notice, if you inquire of those that “support”, few are well-versed in the science and methodologies that determine accuracy, reliability, and validity. Fewer still are even educated in the sciences that underpin the health factors and environmental conditions that are related to the illnesses they are looking for answers to.
California? Florida? Arizona? East Coast (lol that's about 2100 miles long and 4 climate zones!)
Mold and Fungus - absolutely everywhere. Not just 100 thousand species, but estimates of 400,000 and counting. Fungi are a necessary part of the ENTIRE planet ecosystem. Not just in basements or on old rotten lemons or wet leaves in the autumn. There are molds which are symbiotic with plants and trees.
Not all fungus is mold. All molds are fungus.
Mold - the kind we are concerned about are filamentous fungi living in buildings because of moisture (liquid water or vapor and humidity).
Allergens are not mycotoxins.
Mycotoxins are not volatile organic compounds (VOC's).
Allergy is not chronic inflammation syndrome, but inflammation is one symptom of allergy.
Mycotoxins - over 300 have been confirmed. And, many species of molds produce many mycotoxins. Almost all mold that produces mycotoxins does so at diffeent times under different conditions, to the point that predicting, or connecting, one toxin to one species is nearly impossible.
Microbial volatile organic compounds - mVOC's - are from fungus and bacteria - there are over 1200 chemicals identified and catalogued. These come from the active growth (i.e., metabolism) of these organisms. They are in every class of organic chemicals - alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, etc. VOC's behave like gas; individual molecules in the air.
Mycotoxins do NOT behave like a gas.
They are too heavy, as far as molecules go. They cling to the parts of the mold, to the cells that make up the filaments. The filaments are a strand only one cell thick - one cell connected to another, like a string of beads. That is very tiny. The mycotoxin molecules, attached to the outside of the cell walls, are much much much smaller.
Source - molds WILL live "everywhere".
The species that are in Arizona homes are the same as those in Florida or California or Maryland. But, the conditions can be slightly different - humidity, temperature, food source, materials, etc. But, there is consistency. You can replicate conditions and thus replicate production of mycotoxins and allergens that can cause a response.
Cause of Inflammation
There are so many more chemical compounds in the homes that can cause the inflammation that we should not always and only blame the mold. Sometimes, like the account of the 2x4 with no growth, something else is probably causing the reaction.
RESEARCH and PROOF.
Too many people blame mold but have no proof - scientific proof - of the source and exposure. Of course, this is costly. And no one has had funding to do proper quality research. And no single individual is willing to sample properly.
Expertise
Too many "mold testers", and "mold practitioners" and "mold remediators" have never had a proper education on environmental and exposure science and methods of data collection. Nearly all (90%) have not had more than a couple day "class" or a few hour online session, yet they self proclaim their expertise.
Science - it's important.
Stop doing "your own research" about mold and illness and remediation. INSTEAD, do some searching (not “re”searching) for honest actual expertise - who has it and why. Learn that some "research" is horribly flawed but is promoted by charismatic, authoritative-sounding "doctors". Learn that “certifications” are NOT qualifications! Neither are licenses They are merely documents telling you someone sat in a class, or paid a fee. Be cautious. Credential is different than Qualification. AND, real science education, from a school that confers real degrees, is almost always REQUIRED to confirm the knowledge behind any claim of expertise. SCHOOL. SCIENCE. Physics, chemistry, biology, epidemiology, research methodology, data analysis, statistics, physiology, anatomy.
ASK
Sometimes, simply questions will reveal a LOT about what is behind the claim of “expert” or “knowledge”.
Ask, why does a man who had his medical license revoked still receive accolades and followers?
Ask, why does a single lab get to promote their expensive test yet no unbiased organization will validate that test.
Ask, why do practitioners who can't tell you the difference between, and importance of "concentration" and "loading factor" when discussing exposure assessment.
VALID
Ask, is this VALID?