What is Mold?

Jen was exposed to toxic levels of more than 5 kinds of Aspergillus & Stachybotrys Chartarum; two of the most dangerous kinds of toxic mold, among others.

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Photograph courtesy of the Electron Microscopy Center at North Dakota State University. (via The American Phytopathological Society)

Occasionally, especially when inhaled in high concentrations, the spores can grow inside the dark, warm, moist conditions inside the human body. Here, they not only grow at a rapid rate & can attack the immune system, but they release chemicals called mycotoxins, which pose the real danger to the human body. The most dangerous of these are the neurotoxins, specifically the ochratoxins produced by aspergillus & trichothecenes produced by the stachybotrys, which also feeds on muscle. These neurotoxins can produce symptoms such as headaches, chronic fatigue, difficulty concentrating, muscle weakness, muscle spasticity, full body tremors, migraines, dyskinesia, fibromyalgia, cancer, infertility, miscarriages, and hair loss, organ damage, just to name a few.

Aspergillus & stachybotrys, the two most dangerous molds that Jen was infected with, are fungi that occur virtually everywhere in the world. They normally live on dead animal or plant material. In this role, it is vitally important to the environment and for the recycling of organic material necessary for life. It produces microscopically small spores that are extremely light and float easily in the air, which is how the spores spread and mold grows. Most of the time, when people inhale small amounts of spores, their immune system recognize the spores as foreign invaders and they are destroyed.