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Mold toxicity and mental illness

Q: Can undiagnosed mold toxicity cause mental illness in humans?

Krishna: I myself worked on the toxins produced in food by the microorganisms, especially the mold. I didn't work on the toxicity in humans, though.

But I read innumerable papers on mold toxicity. Different molds produce different symptoms, some might even cause mental illnesses (5). Exposure to mold can cause neurological problems, increased anxiety and depression, and cognitive deficits.

These toxins - we call them - Mycotoxins - are secondary chemical metabolites of different fungi. They are natural contaminants of foods too. They are capable of causing disease and death in humans and other animals.

Dietary, respiratory, dermal, and other exposures to toxic fungal metabolites produce the diseases collectively called mycotoxicoses. Mycotoxicoses are examples of “poisoning by natural means”. The symptoms of a mycotoxicosis depend on the type of mycotoxin, the amount and duration of the exposure, the age, health, and sex of the exposed individual, and many poorly understood synergistic effects involving genetics, dietary status, and interactions with other toxic materials. Thus, the severity of mycotoxin poisoning can be compounded by factors such as vitamin deficiency, caloric deprivation, alcohol abuse, and infectious disease status. In turn, mycotoxicoses can heighten vulnerability to microbial diseases, worsen the effects of malnutrition, and interact synergistically with other toxins. These fungal metabolites constitute a toxigenically and chemically heterogeneous assemblage that are grouped together only because the members can cause disease and death in human beings and other vertebrates. Some 300 to 400 compounds are now recognized as mycotoxins, of which approximately a dozen groups regularly receive attention as threats to human and animal health. Mycotoxicoses are the animal diseases caused by mycotoxins and mycotoxicology is the study of mycotoxins (6).

Then inhaling fungal spores can also cause toxicity.

Researchers exposed mice to mold spores three times per week. Three weeks into the study, the mice exhibited no physical symptoms. However, the subjects were prone to significant memory deficits and anxiety.

Their basic hypothesis is that mold inhalation, like bacterial infection, activates an innate immune response triggering microglial activation with resultant behavioral dysfunction(5).

Mold toxicity can cause various illnesses (1,3). Patients can exhibit mold-induced psychosis best described as toxic agoraphobia.

Varying degrees of mold effects were also reported depending on the exposure time and amount (2).

However, according to some , toxic mold based illness is a very prevalent and under diagnosed condition that can manifest in many different ways, including with symptoms that are exclusively psychiatric, such as depression, anxiety, attentional problems, brain fog and insomnia. Vulnerability to mold toxicity is only present in 25% of the population, who in most cases, have a genetic predisposition which inhibits their clearance of biotoxins. A family can all be living in the same house with mold growth, but only one family member will become ill. This is because that person is the only one with the genetic vulnerability (4).

Mold allergies and mold toxicity are not the same illness. Mold allergies are due to mold spores that are inhaled and cause hay fever like symptoms. This is different than toxic mold, which is due to the volatile toxic vapors produced by mold that can cause a chronic inflammatory response, (CIRS), an auto-immune reaction caused by poor clearance of bio toxins in vulnerable individuals.

Memory Issues, focus/concentration Issues, word recollection Issues, decreased learning of new knowledge, confusion, disorientation, mood Swings, appetite Swings, hallucinations were also reported (4).

A number of rare and obscure diseases have also been hypothesized to be possible mycotoxicoses. The research work is still going on and several of these fungal metabolites have identified with definite adverse health conditions.

However, once the diagnosis is made, this is a very treatable condition.

But your usage of the words “undiagnosed mold toxicity” baffled me. Once you get symptoms, doctors try to diagnose the conditions and their causing agents. Otherwise it becomes difficult to treat anything. Only until the diagnosis is made, it remains undiagnosed.

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