Among the CIRS community, there’s much talk about mold avoidance, but not much discussion on how the environment beyond mold can affect people with CIRS and Lyme disease.
My kids, my husband and and I were diagnosed with CIRS 1 ½ years ago and the kids and I started treatment for Lyme disease a little over a year ago. At the time, I didn’t realize how much our environment beyond mold, affected our health. I wrote the blog Do You Need a Perfect House to Heal from CIRS, just about a year ago. I now realize, a perfect house and toxin free environment is not absolutely necessary, but it sure helps with healing. The toxins in our environment can stress our body’s ability to heal itself.
If you are a family suffering from CIRS and/or Lyme disease and you are contemplating moving houses and trying to figure out environmental impacts to your health, this is for you.
In the past year, I have learned how much the environment beyond a moldy house can affect the body’s ability to detox and affect healing from CIRS and Lyme Disease.
- We lived literally under an airport and in very close proximity to a fire retardant carrying plane facility, until about 6 months ago. At the time, we didn’t realize how much the airport exhausts affected our health, but we had an inkling of such. After we left the environment, living under the airport, our energy level increased substantially and fatigue diminished. The toxins from the environment did not burden our bodies anymore.
- Living in a brand new off gassing house can also cause a strain on the body’s ability to detox itself, even when it’s mold free. We have learned this very recently, as we just moved into a new construction house 2 1/2 months ago. I will discuss it in more detail below.
- Fertilizers sprayed by farmers when living near agricultural areas can increase the toxic burden on the body. We sense it, and close windows when it’s obvious something is off in the environment.
- Living near moldy non-cared for buildings in a damp moist cloudy climate can impact the surrounding environment of one’s house. This is mold driven but related to exterior environment, which can affect individuals sensitive to mold. We sense it, and close windows when it’s obvious something is off in the environment. Part of the challenge is humidity driven, I believe, because at higher humidity the mold count in the air is increased. Since we live in a damp, cloudy environment, the humidity is high, particularly at night. Focusing on bringing the humidity down to below 60% with a dehumidifier has helped our environment be more comfortable and less reactive for us. The lower humidity makes a huge difference!
Since living in a brand new construction home about 2 1/2 months ago, we haven’t suffered from mold exposure from our house (We used an Ermi cloth test by Mycometrics), but we started having sleep problems again, more joint pain and increased fatigue. At first, we didn’t put 2 and 2 together. Our eldest son struggled more with brain related symptoms like not thinking as clearly and increased tick type movements. He also had increased random joint pain. Our youngest, suffered from not sleeping well and daily fatigue, which affected everything from mood to behavior. We tried everything to encourage good sleep, but nothing helped. We realized our youngest son’s sleep problems may be related to his inability to detox heavy metals (from our off gassing house) just like last year, which brought the same sleep problems to my youngest son. I wrote about it, in “It’s Not Just Personality”. We put all of us back on Chlorella and a cilantro tincture. It worked. He started sleeping better as did all of us start feeling better.
How did VOC’s from an off gassing house impact us differently than living in a moldy house?
We recently came out of living in a moldy house for about 1 ½ month (A BIG PROBLEM: MOLDY MILITARY HOUSING). We got out of it, thank God. We got extremely sick multiple times there and my youngest son’s breathing challenges returned. Our fatigue in the moldy house was extreme and we had constant colds. VOC’s brought less fatigue, noticeable sleep problems, and some thinking problems, but not the repetitive illnesses like living in a moldy house.
How did we realize VOC’s were a problem in our current house?
Several things helped us realize the VOC’s, from off gassing were a culprit. Our Molekule air purifiers were having off gassing problems, and we suspected we might be having problems too. Our youngest had struggled with sleep problems in the past due to his body’s inability to detox heavy metals at night and he was exhibiting sleep problems again. My skin was also trying to detox itself with increased acne and I was struggling with some fatigue and sleep problems also from our new off gassing house. My oldest son was struggling with not thinking as clearly as normal.
How did we off gas our new construction house?
Besides taking heavy metal binders to help support the body’s ability to detox itself, we started to actively speed up off gassing of our house. We chose to use fans in the most problematic rooms. The closets, which have little air circulation, have taken the most work to off gas. My Chemical Free House blog has great tips on off gassing with fans, using heat to “bake out” the chemicals, etc. Actively off gassing our house has significantly decreased our fatigue. The boys and I feel better by the day.
Often a perfect environment and ideal house is just not possible. We often are forced to do the best we can with what’s available to us. For us, heavy metal binders like Chlorella and Cilantro tincture have helped support our body’s ability to detoxify itself even in a less than ideal environment with VOCs. A whole house air purification system is ideal, but for now we buy a combined carbon and Merv 13 filters from Nordic Pure, made in the USA. This filter placed in the air return vents or hvac unit helps reduce particulates and also collects VOCs. An off gassing house can also be actively off gassed to decrease the VOC burden on our body. If high humidity is a challenge, add a dehumidifier to your house. Focusing on bringing the humidity down to below 60% with a dehumidifier has helped our environment be more comfortable and less reactive for us. We’ve learned our health and the environment is often much more complicated than meets the eye. We are always learning.
There is hope and a future. Knowledge is power. Hope is fuel that keeps you going. We hope this helps you on your journey towards recovery.
My Kids Healing Journey from CIRS and Lyme 