 If
you have just inadvertantly breathed in a green powder, rinse
your sinuses out with salt water that is as hot as you can
tolerate it. The ratio of salt to water should be 1 teaspoon salt to 1
pint water. You should use good quality sea salt, but it is better to
use table salt for now than not do it at all.
If you have some 20-mule team
Borax, you can add a quarter teaspoon to the salt water. Ideally you
would use a jala neti pot
for this purpose. It is designed for saline nasal irrigation and will
be more comfortable and easy to use than anything else. If you don't
have
one, you can use a teapot, infant nasal syringe or anything else that
can get water into one nostril and out the other.
Jala
neti/saline nasal
irrigation
isn't hard or unpleasant, but it may be difficult to learn it under
duress. Be sure to lean forward over the sink while you are doing it so
the water doesn't backwash into your esophagus or bronchial tube. When
you have finished rinsing out your sinuses as best you can, come back.
 The
green mold powder is probably spores from the mold penicillium. It is
the most common
powder-forming kitchen mold. It is actually
edible (as most molds are) and
wouldn't have done you any harm if it landed on food that you eat. It
is the same mold you eat when you eat blue cheese.
The danger
in breathing molds primarily is
not that the
mold is toxic, per se, but that it is a "seed" that may be able to
plant itself somewhere in your body that has a moist,
nutrient-rich environment and grow.
We
all breathe in mold spores every day and our bodies have evolved to
deal with them. Most likely, your immune system will keep it from
causing any major damage. However, it is possible that it can get some
footing in the mucus lining in your sinuses, where the immune system
cannot reach. For that, you need saline nasal irrigation or jala neti,
which is basically pumping salt water through your nose. It's not bad
and only takes a minute once you get used to it.
Possible Scenarios
What are the possible outcomes of breathing mold powder, what
are
the circumstances that would make it more likely and what can be done
for each? (Keep in mind that I am not a professional, and this is just
the collection of information I have gathered from researching this
topic.)
Going from best to worst:
1.) All the powder will be trapped by the mucous in your sinuses and
will eventually be discharged with nasal mucous in the ordinary way.
This would be most likely to happen in the circumstances that your
breathing has always been easy, never blocked, and you throw colds off
easily or rarely get colds. To encourage this, buy a neti pot and
good-quality full-array sea salt and continue saline nasal irrigation.
2.) Some of the powder
will be
trapped by the mucous in your sinuses but will gain a foothold in the
sinuses and become what is referred to as a "non-invasive fungus". It
doesn't get into your body, but it gets in the way of your
breathing. People with deviated septums are prone to
experience
this sometime during their lives regardless of whether or not they have
breathed
in mold powder. It is what affects people who use forced air or CPAP
breathing
devices to help with their breathing. Practice jala neti (saline nasal
irrigation) once or twice a day.
3.) Filamentous fungi. The spores, or even one spore, could grow into a
filamentous fungus that would grow through your body with as little
bulk as a transparent biofilm or a line of single cells.
This is not accepted by orthodox medical science. My
theory is that if a mold spore gets a foothold somewhere in the body
such as the sinuses, it can then grow into any nook and cranny it
finds, creating what I believe is a biofilm.The immune system attacks
it where it finds it, the result being what is recognized by the
orthodox
medical industry as an "auto-immune disease". Because
the biofilm is so thin it is hard to see, they
believe that the body
attacks itself . In a way, this is what I think is part of a "most
likely" scenario after breathing in mold powder. What will happen now
and in the immediate future is nothing, but someday if you get a candida infection, a touch
of arthritis or a bit of chilblains in your hands, it may have its
roots back in the long-forgotten day you breathed in mold powder. You
can read more about my theory of malignant biofilms and what to do
about them at arthritis
4.) If
it were to make its way into your lungs and get a hold there, symptoms
that would appear over time are: breathing difficulties, chest
tightening, coughing, shortness of breath and/or asthma.
5.) Penicilliosis. Some of the spores that are trapped in the mucous
grow into
your body using any space that is not protected by your immune system.
This produces a disease called penicilliosis. It is more likely in
people with compromized immune systems and it is a common
opportunistic infection in people with AIDS. This can produce failure
of any organs that are affected. Morgellon's Syndrome occurs when the mold or fungus has grown to such an extent that it forms fruiting bodies that begin the process of reproducing by extending out of the body to expel spores.
A measure
of
how well your immune system functions is how easy you catch whatever is
"going around" and how long it
lasts:
1.) Almost never get colds: very healthy
2.) Colds only last a week:
good immune system
3.) Colds last a month or more: compromised immune system.
Of
course, this could be skewed by your environment. If you have
allergies, you may also be more susceptible to mold spores.
To
test if anything is "happening" after breathing in mold powder, stay
aware of your breathing. If it starts to feel more blocked, or more
difficult, then perhaps something is growing in your nasal passage that
is causing a blockage. Later on, the development
of excess mucus could be both a sign of fungal infection and your
body's way of trying to get rid of it. Jala neti will help clear it up.
A few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide in each ear anytime you feel a cold
coming on will also help to keep any growth at bay.
I
would also suggest to anyone exposed to mold in this way to be careful
about never living or working in completely airtight buildings and to
always breathe fresh air as much as possible. Live in a "mold-free"
environment.
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Some
other "mold-unfriendly" things
you could try and then use your own
bio-feedback to determine if it is doing any good are:
Breathe
in hot steam (like from a facial sauna). Add
some pine
needles to it if you like.
Use
an ozonator,
but use carefully. Do not stay in a room while the generator is
running, but use it to kill microbes in the room while you are not in
it. Ozone burns living cells; the
idea
is
to burn the fungus cells but not your own.
Take, drink or eat goldenseal anything.
Take a teaspoon of baking soda (sodium
bicarbonate, not
baking powder)
or finely ground vegetable ashes mixed in water once or twice a day. (The theory is to alkalize the
body, making it inhospitable to mold).
Add molybdenum
as a nutrition supplement to your diet.
Oil
of oregano; a few drops in a drink every day, and/or a tiny bit placed under the nostrils just before sleeping.
Fluconazole (Diflucan
in the US). Diflucan is a drug and
can be dangerous. See Issues below.
Aromatherapy:
Gather from the woods or your physic garden any of the
body-purifying plants listed, put in a ceramic or glass bowl of water
and set in a slow
cooker set on high by your bed to breathe in the vapors overnight:
oregano, sage,
lemon balm, juniper, pine needles etc. Essential oils can also be used.
Put a few drops of tea tree essential oil
on the skin
just under your
nose or just inside nostrils before going to sleep.
Boron or 20-mule team Borax
(See Issues below).
Wear a
face filter
mask. It can help prevent any of the mold's friends and
relatives from coming along and helping it once it settles into your
system, which helps out your immune system, leaving it free to tackle
the original mold infection.
Breathe
fresh air
by keeping the doors and windows open as much as possible, or live
outdoors whenever there is an opportunity.
Iodine
in neti pot.
Some people use iodine in neti pot for sinus infection. Put about 10
drops Lugols per quart of water and teaspoon of sea salt.
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Issues
Fluconazole, called
Diflucan or
Trican in the U.S., once sold over the
counter but now prescription. Is used to treat penicilliosis and
aspergillosis in dogs.(Penicilliosis and aspergilliosis both refer to
the disease state of being parasitized by a mold, either the green mold
powder penicillium to which this page is mostly directed, and
aspergillus, another kitchen mold. Although this page is mostly
directed to breathing in green mold powder, it is likely that the same
remedies could be applied to breathing in the black aspergillus mold
powder, or the powder of any other spore-forming mold.) Fluconazole is
sold under other names for veterinary use. It
is sold over the counter in some countries and there appears to be a
lively gray market in the stuff in countries where it is controlled,
especially if they border on countries where it is available without
prescription. It is called Alfumet in Mexico. Because fungus cells are
more like human cells than bacteria or viruses, substances that can
kill funguses can be dangerous to humans and should be used cautiously.
Can cause birth defects
in unborn children,
so should not be used if there is any chance you are pregnant.
Berberine
Closest herbal remedy to fluconazole. Main ingredient in goldenseal
preparations.
Boron
and Borax
Kills
mold and fungus. There is a dispute about its toxicity. Some say
it is poisonous and others say it has a toxicity ratio slightly greater
than table salt. The US government says that 18 mgs of boron a day is
safe, some in the alternative health community say that ingesting a
quarter teaspoon a day of Borax (yes, the laundry soap) is safe. (I put
a quarter teaspoon of Borax into a liter of my homebrews and sip it
throughout the day. It has a sweet taste and so far I have
found
no ill reactions.) It is used as a suppository to cure thrush
infections,
and in the cosmetic industry as an eye wash, so presumably it can't be
that toxic if it is merely held in contact with mucous
membranes
and eventually washed out rather than being swallowed or ingested. I
have added some to my neti saline nasal irrigaton and it seems to work
about the same as salt with no bad reactions.
Prescription
drugs:
Nizoral, cromolym
sodium, fluconazole and itraconazole. (Ketoconazole and metronidazole
are antimyotics similar to fluconazole but more apt to affect human
cells than fluconazole. They are used for aquariums and other
veterinary use and can be purchased without a prescription.)
Disclaimer:
The
information on this site is
provided for
informational
purposes only and if followed is done so solely on the initiative of
the reader.
 Working
with edible kitchen mold
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by Raymond
Dextreit. 
by Andrew W.
Saul
by Stephen
Harr Buhner
