Blood Test for Mold Illness
Written by Dr. Diane Mueller
Blood Testing for mold illness is not clear cut. Many times, the medical community runs antibody tests for mold illness. Antibody tests look for your immune reacting to certain types of mold. The idea is, if the immune system is not reacting, the molds are not present.
There are several problems with this sort of approach. Firstly, there are many different types of molds that cause problems for the human body. Often if these types of immune tests are run, they are not looking for all the different types of molds that could cause symptoms.
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Secondly, mold illness for most people is not a buildup of mold spores in the body (although this can happen). Instead, mold illness is a buildup of toxins from mold. When genetically susceptible people are around mold, they breath in their toxins. Due to their genetic anomaly, their immune system cannot recognize the toxin and therefore cannot remove the toxin. The toxin will not show up on the common testing that is done looking for the actual mold. Therefore, someone can have a mold toxin build up and wind up being negative on the test.
There are a few blood tests that help to indicate if someone has mold in the body. Firstly, an HLA-DR can be run. This test will let your clinician know if you have the genetics for not being able to properly identify mold toxin build up in your body. When you get the results back from this test, they will look like a bunch of mumbo-jumbos. You can sort through the results, but putting them into a genetic calculator which can be found at myhousemakesmesick.com.
When you put this information into the calculator, it will tell you an answer. If you get a result that says you are mold suspectable or multi-susceptible, this means that you do have the genetic anomaly where your body does not recognize mold toxins. If you do not have this genetic anomaly,
mold toxins could still build up, although it is much, much less likely.
Besides the HLA DR test, you can run a TGFB1 or an MMP9 test. These are inflammatory markers that are highly correlated with mold illness. Mold is not the only thing that will elevate these markers, but if you have the symptoms of mold illness (see our blog Black Mold Symptoms), the genetics and elevations of these markers, it is highly likely that your symptoms are caused by mold illness.
Another testing option is called the urinary mycotoxin test. While this is urine and not blood, it tests for the specific mycotoxins (mold toxins) in urine. Our favorite company for this is Vibrant Wellness because it is the most thorough test on the market at this time.
Keep in mind at our medical clinic that most of the people we find do not know that they have even been exposed to mold.
While the urinary test tells a lot, it is important to know how to properly evaluate and interpret the test. You see when a healthy person walks into a moldy place, it is normal to find mycotoxins (mold toxins) in their urine. This is a normal part of the detoxification process that occurs when a healthy person encounters mold. Therefore, just because someone has mold toxins in their urine, does not mean that they have mold illness. Now, if someone has a lot of mold symptoms, and they have mycotoxin elevation in their urine, one can make a hypothesis that the symptoms are likely coming from the mold toxin build up and therefore work on treating the mold.
Also check out the blog on Black Mold Symptoms to learn about some of the problems with standard testing that is done on houses to see if black mold is present in the house. If you are positive for mold in your body, it is best to know where it is coming from. If you are living or working in a moldy environment it can be difficult and usually impossible to heal while you are living in the environment. There are a few companies that offer testing for your home or office space. Mycometrix and Envirobiomics are two quality companies. You will want to get an ERMI or HERTSMI completed to evaluate for mold. The Panel 7 by envirobiomics is more expensive but is the most thorough. That test looks not only for mold toxins but also for the presence of certain types of bacteria that can release toxins and can also be found in water damaged buildings.
The biggest thing with blood tests for mold illness is that you need to be an advocate for yourself to get these done. Most medical professionals are not yet versed on mold illness and how to test and treat for it properly. Therefore, most people will need to find a specialist that works with mold illness in order to get the right testing completed for proper evaluation and treatment.
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Mold Illness and Lyme Disease are Often Misdiagnosed as Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Depression,
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