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Comment by ccampbell | Hacker News Reader

Mold is being remediated in my house as I type this. My wife and I have been dealing with insidious symptoms for years (brain fog, joint pain, anxiety, muscle stiffness, balance issues, neuropathy, increased ADHD, and more). Only recently did we discover that there was black mold (Stachybotrys chartarum) in both our bedroom and in the air supply trunk located after the air handler. The bedroom mold was caused by an inactive leak that must have been there before we ever bought the house. The air handler was due to poor installation alongside high humidity.

We’ve already noticed a huge decrease in symptoms about 10 days after the air handler was pulled.

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Wow, that is kind of terrifying! How did you find the mold?

I've seen about every doctor possible and finally got a diagnosis of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). The doctor said many of his patients suffer from mold. He recommended a whole home mold inspection.

The inspector only discovered mold in the air handler itself, which isn't too uncommon. We could have just cleaned the handler coils but decided to pull the entire thing just to be sure. Only after it was pulled did we see about a 15 foot long stretch of mold going directly into our ductwork.

In the bedroom we were replacing our carpet with hardwood floors and discovered a 10 foot mold stretch behind the baseboards.

You might want to try and rule out Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) while you're at it. There is a huge overlap in symptoms. Bear in mind the Beighton score has high a false negative rate and the difference between HSD and hEDS disappears whenever you look at the stats closely. It appears that many mold and lyme disease symptoms are triggers for pre-existing hEDS.

Yeah, I have EDS hypermobility also. Surprisingly, my joint stability and muscle strength already seem better just being out of the mold.

You might have some better luck with hEDS specific treatments, low dose naltrexone, low dose modafinil, supplemental T3 hormone, weightlifting if you can, metformin and a very low sugar diet. And perhaps supplemental Test and HGH.

I can confirm that mold causes joint pain. I even had increased anti-CCP antibodies that correlated with my joint paint. Sadly there was no treatment for me because RA diagnosis is not possible without joint swelling. The only thing I can do is to avoid mold. When I avoid mold, I have no joint pain and also my antibodies are normal again. It’s scary to know that mold is slowly destroying my joints.

I think my real problem is MCAS but doctors don’t seem to know or treat it.

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