Dr. Diane Mueller explains that fogging clears airborne mycotoxins but doesn't kill hidden mold behind walls. Fogging before remediation can trigger inflammatory reactions and make inspection harder. Use it only after removing the source, since roughly 50% of U.S. buildings contain mold.
Hey everybody, Dr. Diane Mueller here. We're talking about fogging your house for mold and if it works or not. This is such a common question that comes up because one of the biggest things that I find that people want to do, which makes perfect sense, is to avoid moving or remediating their home. Not only are these things crazy expensive in many scenarios, they are also very exhausting to do when you are already suffering and struggling so much. And it is an almost impossible-feeling hill to climb when you are feeling the way you are and you are then told that you have to move out of your home. So it's no wonder that so many people decide to go the route of trying to fog their house in order to eliminate mold. Now, here's what I've seen with some of the fogging methodologies, and this is information that both comes from my 15 years clinical experience of watching clients and patients that have fogged, as well as talking to mold inspectors and remediators that I deeply trust. One of the biggest things is that Fogging has been shown in studies to clear the air of mycotoxins. Now that sounds great when you first think about it. However, if you still have active colonies hiding somewhere, what fogging is not going to do is it's not going to kill the source. It's not going to get behind the drywall, get under the cabinets, get into all the places where those spores actually are and kill the source. So the problem is that if you do not actually kill the source, it will still be off-gassing those mycotoxins. I have seen situations with fogging where it has caused such insane mass cell activation syndrome for people. So I've seen situations where people have tried to fog their house, and because of the strength of the materials that are used in the fogging process, they find that they then start quirks into everything because their air having the components in it now which are actually inflammatory to them. So that is a risk people take. I've also seen so many times where people fog their house and they don't feel better because again, it's not getting to the source, but because it has been fogged, it actually makes it more difficult for the inspector to find the source, costing them a lot more money in the end. Where I have seen fogging to actually do good benefit is in a later part of the process. So, if you do decide to remediate your home and you eliminate the source, then at that point, once the source is gone, then fogging can help to clean the air and to eliminate any remaining fragments that are in the air and on surfaces that people may be reacting to. It is the hardest conversation I have in my clinical practice is telling people that their home is making them sick. It is the number one reason, number one thing that people do not want to look at. And I get it. I have lived in two moldy homes that I have had to move out of. The one home, I was a second mold exposure I got, and I was feeling great in this home for a while, and then all of a sudden just started getting really crazy symptoms. And it took me a couple months before it just kind of clicked in. I was almost in denial, even doing the work I do, that it was actually in my house. And a couple months of, of experiencing these crazy symptoms and a lot of neurological problems and depersonalization, I sat up in bed after another almost restless and incomplete sleep one night, and I just had the thought that went through my head, which was, oh, this is definitely mold, this is definitely mold. I called a friend that morning, I packed a bag, I moved out into my friend's house immediately, and within a week I was feeling better. And sure enough, when the inspector went into that house that I was renting at the time, they did find mold behind the wall in the shower. So the owner did completely renovate that, which was an amazing and unusual thing. I still wound up moving out of that particular house, but that is an example. I tell you that because I just get it, you know. I just get how deeply impactful this is and how hard it is to look at it, how, you know, deregulating it is. But I just cannot even tell you the numbers of times that I see that The moment that people take this seriously, they start to actually heal. Now, another thing to understand is 50% of the buildings in the country have mold in them. So it's very easy for people to be like, well, I'm going to leave my house to see if I feel better and go stay at a hotel or go stay at a friend's house or family member's house and think like, okay, well, if you're not better, that means there's not mold, that your house is fine. While many people do feel a change in their health upon leaving a moldy house within the first week, sometimes it can take a full month to notice the difference. In addition, because 50% of the houses in the United States tend to be moldy, and this is also very, very common all over the world— I just had a patient get back from Germany and talked about how many places she was over there that state that she stayed in that were moldy and found mold on the walls, etc., etc. And I find this a lot with patients who live or who travel around the world. So point being is that there are so many different places around the world that have mold in them that just because you leave your house and go stay someplace else and that place you don't feel better in doesn't necessarily mean that your house is fine. It's very easy to just jump from one moldy house to another. So I hope this answers your questions about fogging and about pros and cons and when it's useful and when it's not. Again, one of the biggest worries I have for people is that they fog too early on in the process, and then it makes the work of the inspector much harder. Thank you all for listening. Please do take my free quiz at getwellquiz.com. You'll find that also in the show notes. At getwellquiz.com, you can find a quiz that will give you answers as to what lab tests you may not have had done yet that are important to get done, as well as ideas to take to your doctor to self-advocate to make sure that you are getting the best test that you need. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe. See you next time.
What are typical symptoms especially neurological ones for Lyme disease HIGHRES
