Well, my house is over 100 years old and a small stream runs through the basement :). The bathroom has no fan. So, needless to say, I have a mold issue. Thanks for sharing, Jack.

I'm currently battling mold in my house, thanks Jack for posting the link to the Mercola article. I got some very useful info from it.

I think my mold is Stachbotrys, the most toxic genus of mold contaminants. Everything gets brown spots that eventually coalesce into a uniform rusty-brown color that smells nasty and musty.

I'm very sensitive to chlorine, so I can't use chlorine bleach. So my main weapons have been vinegar and peroxide bleach aka Oxy-Clean. All my pillow cases turned brown...I've been soaking them in bleach and then hanging them in the sun. I think it's in my mattress, my pillows, my chair cushions, my towels, the drywall. What a mess.

My property goes underwater this time of year, so escaping the dampness is impossible. My dad had dementia, and he absolutely refused to fix the leaking roof or leaking kitchen sink. The kitchen cabinets turned into brown slush...I had to replace everything around the sink after I inherited the house, and I must have patched over a dozen leaks in the roof.

Here are some links to articles about mold toxicity, etc...

http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm#Q4

http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=415

I'm not convinced that mold toxicity is the horror that some have made it out to be. Sure, people like me have problems with mold allergy, but I'm skeptical that it causes serious illnesses and neurological problems. That's never been clinically proven.

I'm focused on reducing my exposure so I don't get headaches whenever the humidity goes up. I've got a bunch of things hanging on the clothesline right now in the sun...UV light is fatal to most mold species. They like dark and damp places and don't survive drying out in the sun.

When I contracted this illness I was living on the bottom floor apartment on a concrete floor. When I moved out and we went to move a heavy bureau that had sat there for 4 yrs the entire corner it sat against and the bureau itself were essentially painted with black mold.
I was moving that day so the bureau went in the trash and I called the landlord over and told them I needed to know what I had been breathing in. She said sure but then a week later when I called she said they had replaced the carpet and painted over it so I never knew what it was.
I don't feel it caused my illness...but I spent 14 hrs a day in that bed for 2 yrs and I have to feel it certainly wore my immune system down, and in that way it contributed.
I've been especially careful to avoid mold since....

I recently discovered that my waterbed had developed a concealed leak which soaked the base. On taking it apart I found mold everywhere. I found it strange that I had not noticed the smell but figure it was because, a) it built up slowly and I am not out of the house enough to de-familiarize myself to the ambient air and notice it and b) it was sealed in, confining the smell.

Having got rid of the bed, I have noticed a significant improvement in my energy levels - despite the fact that I'm sleeping on the couch till the new bed I've ordered arrives. (Which is not good for my neck or back and makes it too awkward for me to use my CPAP machine.)

I'm in no way cured and know that wasn't the cause of my illness, which predates my living here by many years. Still, it does explain the gradual worsening of my condition since I moved here.

Hello Jack,
Thank you for this post. I too learned a lot from it.
This topic has come through here a few times. I've posted that I've
had to clean my place up quite a few times to deal with mold. My
doctor has sent me home with mold plates to test my house. I'm
pretty sure there's a website Citri-Safe.com where you can order the
plates if you wish to look into it further. About 5 years ago the
counts were pretty high , 15-17 in all the rooms. Now, they've come
down to something like 3-9. Anything above 6 wasn't good.
There had been a few roof leaks off and on. Also some
mold under the cabinets in the kitchen. Now, I've had these
repaired. I've gotten rid of a lot of clutter. I use a mister with a
anti mold solution in it and an air purifier. Plus, last winter I
was given sinus prescription nasal sprays. I had nasty headaches when it rains and from the dampness. The sprays helped.
All the things I've done, have helped.
I don't want to over exaggerate what happens either.
At the same time, I do believe it's a serious condition.
Especially when it's coupled with an auto immune illness which we all have. Ritchie says it's not clinically proven. I've read Dr.
Ritchie Shomaker's book, Lyme Warriors, and he has testified at many hearings where people have had to leave their homes and became seriously ill. I don't know all the science side but it did sound like there was a lot of evidence that this was a real 'situation'.

p.s. a couple of typos here:
Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker has written 8 books.
One of them is "Surviving Mold" He has a website by
the same name.
The book I referred to is actually, "Mold Warriors".
The website I sited is: www.Citri-Safe.com

Just to clarify my last post. I'm always a skeptic, but I try never to develop a closed mind. I don't disbelieve that mold exposure can be toxic, especially to people like us who have immune system deregulation.

It's just that I'm not willing to hop on the mold scare bandwagon. Mold remediation is expensive, and I'm suspicious that those who do this kind of work exploit fear, just like exterminators do.

To clarify my statement about "no clinical evidence"...there are two distinct categories of scientific evidence: anecdotal and statistically demonstrated. If a doctor has a patient that gets a headache from listening to hip hop, and he tells a colleague, that's anecdotal evidence that hip hop causes headaches.

But if a year-long study shows that volunteers exposed to hip hop or other pop music for long periods of time develop headaches, that's more acceptable clinical evidence. Keep in mind that this is a fabricated example, I doubt if music causes headaches.

The evidence that mold causes symptoms such as neurological dysfunction and bleeding from the lungs is anecdotal so far. No evidence has shown up that could be quantified or demonstrated a clear link to mold. That doesn't disprove, but it also doesn't prove linkage between mold and serious health problems.

After I cleaned up that horrible mess in the kitchen around the sink and cabinets, and patched all the leaks in the roof, my health did improve. But that's still only anecdotal evidence, my health could have improved because I was no longer trying to be a 24/7 caregiver and run a business at the same time.

So I'm clearly undecided on this issue, if there is such a thing.