mallen- I haven't seen steady improvement yet. But some people do get better right after leaving the moldy environment. certainly, I wasn't going to get any better living in my house and leaving was my only option.
It depends on how extreme you want to go, and on what ends up bothering you.
I would be more strict about anything that you sleep near. If your old house had a mold issue, it would seem wise to at least replace mattress, pillows, bedding, pajamas, etc. Also I'd like to note that you don't have to get rid of things that are coated with toxins that bother you. You can put them in storage. You just have to get them away from your new living space.
Thank you a ton for the responses guys, I am really torn on the idea of getting rid of everything, but mostly it is clothes that I am worried about getting rid of. Just because it would be really expensive for me to replace a lot of clothes, but it seems that both of you have kept your clothes, so that is encouraging.
To both of you though, how has your improvement been so far? JCamp, are you stating that you haven't really gotten any better since moving away from the place so far?
Thanks again for the responses.. I am very eager to move away from here and see if I start progressing, I sure started feeling considerably better while being in a hotel for a week.
One other question, as I feel a bit better having a forum full of people who understand me (since most people think I am just crazy and exaggerating this whole ordeal,)
Do any of you constantly feel as though you are in a dream like state? It's really hard for me to describe, but basically I feel like I am just in a constant daze/dream where I have no real emotion toward things, I am just watching the days pass by aimlessly and too tired to get anything done. A day comes, a day goes, and I sort of feel like I am in a dream almost.. really hard to describe and I wish I could be more clear as to what I mean, perhaps someone else has been through the same and can describe it more accurately than I can.
When spending 6 days in a hotel last week that is one thing that I noticed I didn't feel anymore.. the dream-like state. I felt like I was myself again (though still relatively tired, not AS tired as being here.)
Are you using the antibiotic with the nasatouch? My doc gave me levoxaquin because it attacks strep and staph. He was pretty adamant that if we needed to attack the bacteria in the biofilm or it wouldn't break down. Haven't started yet. I've been waiting to see how the ampho and cheating px go before adding in anything else. I may start tomorrow as I've been on the protocol a little over a week with no major adverse effects. Not sure if/when a herx is going to hit. Sounds crazy but I've been waiting for the herx for a sign this is killing something off!Ok status update on my end.
So I went to see an ENT recently, he was reasonably supportive of the mold theory and CFS. So he had me do a sinus ct scan and also a nasal swab and a sample of the morning sinus backflush to a lab.
The CT showed no evidence of funal hyphae and I haven't heard a positive on the growth of fungi in the swab/sinus fluid yet (but this can take a while).
Sinus structure was normal (i.e. no blockages or abnormally shaped bone cavities that could contribute to disease) but there was mucosal thickening suggesting sinus infection.
What they did find was a heavy growth of Staphylococcus aureus. The ENT couldn't say if the heavy presence of staph would cause systemic symptoms or CFS but that it certainly causes sinusistis/rhinitis and that its presence was significant.
I was given 4 courses of cephalexin to which it is sensitive and it certainly has made a huge difference so far. I'm about 2/3 through and it's not just my nose/sinuses that feel better but I just feel a lot more energetic and stronger all round. Some weird symptoms I had seem to be alleviated. For instance brain fog is much less, memory seems better & it is easier to communicate to people, I don't seem to get static shocks any more and it feels like I can breath much more easily. Orthostatic hypotension also seems to have alleviated.
Sleep is still a mess though and I still get the sense of a heaviness behind my eyes so I'm not convinced the antiobiotics will be able to clear the infection completely (as the Staph is likely to be in biofilms).
But I think I can say that Staphylococcus was contributing to systemic inflammation beyond localized infection in the sinuses. I have made an observation in the past that a large dose of antihistamines had a temporary effect in alleviating fatigue so it may be possible that Staph toxins aggravates mast cells in the mucosal tissues and that is could be contributing to mast cell activation.
In fact Staphylococcus does produce superantigens which is the cause of toxic shock (a form of lethal inflammation). It appears that Staphylococcus has been linked to CFS before in some veterinarian studies - although it doesn't seem like it has received much attention, judging by the lack of citations these 2 papers have received.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11561958
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15129582
There has been a lot of immunological studies on CFS but I don't know if that is in regard to Staph antigens - Not being an immunologist myself I can really answer this but I did find this paper here below that could shed some light on the subject. All in all I think Staph could be something that is causing immune system fatigue and systemic inflammation and is something best eliminated from the sinuses if its presence is found.
The thing is that one third of humans carry Staph so when/why/how does it go from something that is harmless like a benign tumor into an aggressive and invasive pathogen?
Going back to Mold the reason why nothing may have shown up is that possibly any fungal colonization in the sinuses may have been destroyed by the mold protocol I have used for the last 3 months and maybe the Staph is a co-factor that needs to be treated separately. But then I only got a trichothecene result that was just on the detection level (although I understand that can be normal - the test isn't directly quantitative ). I will see my CFS doctor soon and I will get another mycotoxin test arranged and I'll see if he can give me an anti-Staph protocol as I'm certain the staph causes disease in biofilms and I'm not sure how effectively the antibiotics will clear that out.
Chronic exposure to staphylococcal superantigen elicits a systemic inflammatory disease mimicking lupus.
Chowdhary VR1, Tilahun AY, Clark CR, Grande JP, Rajagopalan G.
Abstract
Chronic nasal and skin colonization with superantigen (SAg)-producing Staphylococcus aureus is well documented in humans. Given that trans-mucosal and trans-cutaneous absorption of SAgs can occur, we determined whether chronic exposure to small amounts of SAg per se could activate autoreactive CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells and precipitate any autoimmune disease without further external autoantigenic stimulation. Because HLA class II molecules present SAg more efficiently than do mouse MHC class II molecules, HLA-DQ8 transgenic mice were implanted s.c. with mini-osmotic pumps capable of continuously delivering the SAg, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (total of 10 μg/mouse), or PBS over 4 wk. Chronic exposure to staphylococcal enterotoxin B resulted in a multisystem autoimmune inflammatory disease with features similar to systemic lupus erythematosus. The disease was characterized by mononuclear cell infiltration of lungs, liver, and kidneys, accompanied by the production of anti-nuclear Abs and deposition of immune complexes in the renal glomeruli. The inflammatory infiltrates in various organs predominantly consisted of CD4(+) T cells bearing TCR Vβ8. The extent of immunopathology was markedly reduced in mice lacking CD4(+) T cells and CD28, indicating that the disease is CD4(+) T cell mediated and CD28 dependent. The absence of disease in STAT4-deficient, as well as IFN-γ-deficient, HLA-DQ8 mice suggested the pathogenic role of Th1-type cytokines, IL-12 and IFN-γ. In conclusion, our study suggests that chronic exposure to extremely small amounts of bacterial SAg could be an etiological factor for systemic lupus erythematosus.
Human studies have shown that S. aureus carriage is associated with certain autoimmune diseases such as granulamatosis with polyangiitis, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis through their SAg (22–26). However, to date no direct experimental evidence exists to date to prove that staphylococcal SAg (SSAg) by themselves (without the use of exogenous antigens) are capable of inducing any spontaneous autoimmune disease. Conventional laboratory mice will not be suitable for such investigation because SSAg bind weakly to mouse MHC class II molecules. However, it is well established that SSAg bind more efficiently to human MHC (HLA) class II molecules (27). Therefore, we and others have shown that transgenic mice expressing HLA class II molecules such as, HLA-DQ6, -DQ8 or -DR3, mount a strong immune response to SSAg and are excellent tools to study the immunopathogenesis of diseases caused by SAg (15, 28–35). As several additional knockout mice are available on the HLA-DQ8 background (15), using HLA-DQ8 transgenic mouse model, we explored whether chronic exposure to extremely small non-lethal amounts of staphylococcal SAg by itself can precipitate any autoimmune disease without immunization with any autoantigens.
Are you using the antibiotic with the nasatouch? My doc gave me levoxaquin because it attacks strep and staph. He was pretty adamant that if we needed to attack the bacteria in the biofilm or it wouldn't break down. Haven't started yet. I've been waiting to see how the ampho and cheating px go before adding in anything else. I may start tomorrow as I've been on the protocol a little over a week with no major adverse effects. Not sure if/when a herx is going to hit. Sounds crazy but I've been waiting for the herx for a sign this is killing something off!
I was thinking I read somewhere that brewer doesn't swab for mold colonization because he thinks it is too deep in the sinuses to find. But I may have made that up. I read way too much of this stuff! I could probably benefit from a scan to make sure my nasal structure has no blockages just to make sure this stuff is actually going so where and not just falling back out of my nose. I do know that gray and shoe swabbed my nose about 7 years ago and I don't recall them finding anything.
Glad you found one of your culprits and are feeling better!!
Agreed with you there, I am looking at it the same way, hopefully I get better, but living in the house where I am now certainly isn't going to make me any better so it's at least a worthy variable to test out. Good luck to you as time goes on, I really hope to hear you find the cause and get better.
Well in this instance would I ever be able to be around them if I put them in storage? I mean, if I can never wear the clothes again then it is best to just get rid of them, and ultimately if that is what I have to do then so be it. If that means getting my health back then it is the least of my concerns, I just wanted to find out the general consensus before I went around throwing things away just because. I have a new mattress that I will be sleeping on and won't sleep on/near anything that was part of the moldy house. That is basically what I was planning, thank you a ton for the information. I suppose worst case, if my stuff keeps me sick, then I could get rid of it afterwards? Or would the mycotoxins be all throughout the house at that point causing me to need to move yet again?
Ok status update on my end.
So I went to see an ENT recently, he was reasonably supportive of the mold theory and CFS. So he had me do a sinus ct scan and also a nasal swab and a sample of the morning sinus backflush to a lab.
The CT showed no evidence of funal hyphae and I haven't heard a positive on the growth of fungi in the swab/sinus fluid yet (but this can take a while).
Sinus structure was normal (i.e. no blockages or abnormally shaped bone cavities that could contribute to disease) but there was mucosal thickening suggesting sinus infection.
What they did find was a heavy growth of Staphylococcus aureus. The ENT couldn't say if the heavy presence of staph would cause systemic symptoms or CFS but that it certainly causes sinusistis/rhinitis and that its presence was significant.
I was given 4 courses of cephalexin to which it is sensitive and it certainly has made a huge difference so far. I'm about 2/3 through and it's not just my nose/sinuses that feel better but I just feel a lot more energetic and stronger all round. Some weird symptoms I had seem to be alleviated. For instance brain fog is much less, memory seems better & it is easier to communicate to people, I don't seem to get static shocks any more and it feels like I can breath much more easily. Orthostatic hypotension also seems to have alleviated.
Sleep is still a mess though and I still get the sense of a heaviness behind my eyes so I'm not convinced the antiobiotics will be able to clear the infection completely (as the Staph is likely to be in biofilms).
But I think I can say that Staphylococcus was contributing to systemic inflammation beyond localized infection in the sinuses. I have made an observation in the past that a large dose of antihistamines had a temporary effect in alleviating fatigue so it may be possible that Staph toxins aggravates mast cells in the mucosal tissues and that is could be contributing to mast cell activation.
In fact Staphylococcus does produce superantigens which is the cause of toxic shock (a form of lethal inflammation). It appears that Staphylococcus has been linked to CFS before in some veterinarian studies - although it doesn't seem like it has received much attention, judging by the lack of citations these 2 papers have received.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11561958
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15129582
There has been a lot of immunological studies on CFS but I don't know if that is in regard to Staph antigens - Not being an immunologist myself I can really answer this but I did find this paper here below that could shed some light on the subject. All in all I think Staph could be something that is causing immune system fatigue and systemic inflammation and is something best eliminated from the sinuses if its presence is found.
The thing is that one third of humans carry Staph so when/why/how does it go from something that is harmless like a benign tumor into an aggressive and invasive pathogen?
Going back to Mold the reason why nothing may have shown up is that possibly any fungal colonization in the sinuses may have been destroyed by the mold protocol I have used for the last 3 months and maybe the Staph is a co-factor that needs to be treated separately. But then I only got a trichothecene result that was just on the detection level (although I understand that can be normal - the test isn't directly quantitative ). I will see my CFS doctor soon and I will get another mycotoxin test arranged and I'll see if he can give me an anti-Staph protocol as I'm certain the staph causes disease in biofilms and I'm not sure how effectively the antibiotics will clear that out.
Chronic exposure to staphylococcal superantigen elicits a systemic inflammatory disease mimicking lupus.
Chowdhary VR1, Tilahun AY, Clark CR, Grande JP, Rajagopalan G.
Abstract
Chronic nasal and skin colonization with superantigen (SAg)-producing Staphylococcus aureus is well documented in humans. Given that trans-mucosal and trans-cutaneous absorption of SAgs can occur, we determined whether chronic exposure to small amounts of SAg per se could activate autoreactive CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells and precipitate any autoimmune disease without further external autoantigenic stimulation. Because HLA class II molecules present SAg more efficiently than do mouse MHC class II molecules, HLA-DQ8 transgenic mice were implanted s.c. with mini-osmotic pumps capable of continuously delivering the SAg, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (total of 10 μg/mouse), or PBS over 4 wk. Chronic exposure to staphylococcal enterotoxin B resulted in a multisystem autoimmune inflammatory disease with features similar to systemic lupus erythematosus. The disease was characterized by mononuclear cell infiltration of lungs, liver, and kidneys, accompanied by the production of anti-nuclear Abs and deposition of immune complexes in the renal glomeruli. The inflammatory infiltrates in various organs predominantly consisted of CD4(+) T cells bearing TCR Vβ8. The extent of immunopathology was markedly reduced in mice lacking CD4(+) T cells and CD28, indicating that the disease is CD4(+) T cell mediated and CD28 dependent. The absence of disease in STAT4-deficient, as well as IFN-γ-deficient, HLA-DQ8 mice suggested the pathogenic role of Th1-type cytokines, IL-12 and IFN-γ. In conclusion, our study suggests that chronic exposure to extremely small amounts of bacterial SAg could be an etiological factor for systemic lupus erythematosus.
Human studies have shown that S. aureus carriage is associated with certain autoimmune diseases such as granulamatosis with polyangiitis, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis through their SAg (22–26). However, to date no direct experimental evidence exists to date to prove that staphylococcal SAg (SSAg) by themselves (without the use of exogenous antigens) are capable of inducing any spontaneous autoimmune disease. Conventional laboratory mice will not be suitable for such investigation because SSAg bind weakly to mouse MHC class II molecules. However, it is well established that SSAg bind more efficiently to human MHC (HLA) class II molecules (27). Therefore, we and others have shown that transgenic mice expressing HLA class II molecules such as, HLA-DQ6, -DQ8 or -DR3, mount a strong immune response to SSAg and are excellent tools to study the immunopathogenesis of diseases caused by SAg (15, 28–35). As several additional knockout mice are available on the HLA-DQ8 background (15), using HLA-DQ8 transgenic mouse model, we explored whether chronic exposure to extremely small non-lethal amounts of staphylococcal SAg by itself can precipitate any autoimmune disease without immunization with any autoantigens.
That's great @detts . I wonder if it's a piece part of my issue. Vertigo has been bugging me a lot lately. Is there die-off herxing from staph?
I got all my meds in from ASL. Just have to start them.........