Where To Live With A Mold Allergy

Hi Andrea and Everyone,
I live in Indianapolis and even though many comments above say mold suffering is reduced after a freeze, mine is worst during the cold winter! I dream of salt water and beaches. This beach environment seems to be calling to me. I am currently treating with diet changes and herbs from my Chiropractor which help quite a bit. Now I am not foggy or lethargic anymore.

Just spent the weekend in Kansas City where I felt fine! The minute I left the airport back here in Indianapolis I was hit with extreme nausea and a headache. After one night’s sleep in my apartment, I have the painful sore throat and irritated sinuses again.
I wonder if I have to get rid of all my belongings – letting go of the past. This seems too drastic.

Love and Light to All of Us and Our Healing.

I suffered from chronic headaches, sinus and bronchial infections, asthma, lethargy, bone and joint pain, vertigo, inability to walk without support (i.e., holding onto walls), weakness all over, open sores and scarring on my arms and legs, etc., for 4+ years. I was under doctor’s care throughout, living on antibiotics, steroids, and pain killers. I tried every type of natural remedies, vitamins, herbs, etc., to no avail. Doctors only treated my symptoms. One doctor stated she could see how sick I am, but didn’t know why. No one could understand why I was so sick and gaining so much weight. I had been a lifelong walker, a tennis player, and aerobics exerciser. I had been a very positive person until I began to get sick. I began to stay at home more often due to the chronic illness and fatigue, and to avoid the judgements of others. I knew nothing about mold.

One day, I found a pair of shoes covered in mold. I knew nothing about mold other than what you might see on a loaf of bread. So, I threw the shoes out. Sometime later, I mentioned the shoes to someone and she exclaimed, you’ve been sick, it could be mold. She suggested I contact the Health Department. A representative came to my home and began pulling heavy furniture from the walls, all covered with mold. Under my bed, on the mattress. Mold is airborne, it seeks warm moist places, like your nose, mouth, and ears. It enters your body and your lungs. It permeates your skin. It was causing all of my illness since I moved into this home. The mold was under the paint on all the walls and under the carpet. It was all over my home and out of sight. I had moved into this home 4 years prior when my illnesses began.

I was told to get out of the home immediately, leaving everything porous behind. I lost all my furniture, clothing, shoes, sheets, electronics, bedding, etc. Basically, all I took with me was non-porous, i.e., glassware (after thorough cleaning). Yes, it gets into your electronics (TV, microwave, radios, clocks, etc.).

Long story short, after about a week out of the mold environment, most of my symptoms disappeared. I could walk again. What I still suffered from was daily headaches, asthma, and sinus infections. I later learned after several trips to head surgeons, that getting out of the mold environment would not cure the severe sinus disease caused by the mold. However, I was given a 99% chance that sinus surgery would cure the sinus pain, infections, headaches, and asthma. I had the second worst sinus disease that the surgeon had ever seen. He didn’t understand how I lived one day with this disease, much less 4+ years. The surgery was a success and everything disappeared almost immediately, including the asthma.

It should be mentioned that I had no history of any of these illnesses prior to moving into this mold ridden home.

Please understand that leaving almost everything behind is the surest way to ensure you don’t take even one contaminated item with you to your new home that can contaminate your new home. Also, remember, you can’t see mold spores, and they are airborne. Seeing the mold comes long after the damage is done to you and your family. Also, remember, not everyone in the household will get sick, making it difficult for others to understand why you’re sick.

One last thought is that to this day, I do not believe that mold remediation is effective. It is temporary at best. My recommendation is get out, leave it all behind you, and start a new life without the horrific illness that comes from living with mold.

I wish you all the best of health and happiness.

Hello Everyone. I now live in Florida, but I lived in Nebraska for forty years. I would suggest trying Papillion, NE or Lincoln, NE. I lived in Lincoln for over 20 years and did not have any problems with mold or air quality. The air quality is great in Nebraska and the cost of living is reasonable compared to Colorado. Lincoln and Papillion are rating very high on the US quality of life rankings.

Hello, I moved from Austin Texas to get away from airborne mold. I first moved to Salt Lake City, and for several months the change was good. Then the heavy snows that year made the following spring and summer very bad for mold. The mold was in the high range every day for at least 6 months. I progressively got very sick and finally had to move again. This time I moved to St George Utah, which is on the southern border of the state and it borders Arizona and Nevada. The mold is always in the low range here so that is great. I developed a new allergy to dust and dander which is bad here in the fall and winter months. I’m still glad I’m here rather than Texas. They do have plenty of seasonal allergies here that affect me all year long, but I have a chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Disorder, so that is always going to be an issue for me. Hope this information can help someone. St George also has extremely low pollution, I read that it’s in the top 3 cities for clean air in the US. Air pollution is a killer – It shortens people’s lives. Another tip – try using an old school antihistame and see if it helps – it’s called Nasalcrom, which is over-the-counter (also can be ordered on Amazon – the brand is HealthGuard on Amazon, and it’s called Cromolyn Sodium Nasal Solution, USP. You can also get a prescription for the oral type – it is in small vials that you mix with water and drink it – no taste – this has made a measurable improvement in my life. The other name for it is Cromolyn Sodium. Some people who have breathing problems get the type of cromolyn sodium that can be inhaled (prescription). If you think you might have something more serious than a typical allergy, check into these 2 conditions: Histamine Intolerance and/or Mast Cell Activation Disorder (MCAD). There are also facebook groups for these conditions where you can learn more, and plenty of websites too. My suffering is much more tolerable now and it’s also nice to know what is wrong with you. I can’t afford a functional medicine doctor or an Integrative doctor, but those doctors will be able to help when the traditional allergist is at a loss for what is wrong with you. Three allergists that I saw didn’t know what was wrong with me. I did test positive for plenty of allergies but I was sicker than I should have been. Hope all this helps someone!

I actually got mold poisoning from a building in Flagstaff, AZ but surprisingly outdoor levels of mold are low there and with it being at high elevation its generally extremely dry except the place I was living in had a bad roof leak so not even a dry climate would fix that. I will say I did the best in southern Arizona near Sierra Vista in a clean dry house in the high desert where you can usually open the windows constantly and mostly year round due to mild climate, also they got occasional hard frosts which helped kill off mold but since it was so dry there I don’t think it was too much of an issue there plus due to elevation the air is more dry and less condensation than in Phoenix. I found buildings in Phoenix AZ to be so moldy and set off my allergies constantly because everyone lets their AC’s run 24/7 and never let their evaporator in their AC unit let air dry at least once every few days I think that’s why its a huge contributor to mold problems there. I used to live in Ogden, Utah and I ended up moving because of the local air pollution, toxic dust from the salt flats and higher outdoorr mold than I was used to in AZ set off my headaches unbelievably bad. I then moved back near my hometown of San Diego, CA. Outdoors it seems great especially in the rural areas but the buildings are very old and most are very mold prone due to the extremely high ambient humidity. I feel like its a constant battle to keep mold at bay here. You can leave used clothes in a hamper for a few days and can guarantee mold growth. Also most nights a cool sea breeze causes a damp dew to saturate everything with humidity. I think its a big problem living near the ocean IMO. I’m hoping to move back out to the high desert again away from major urban centers I think its the best place for a mold avoider granted you have the right building to live in.

oh my lord okay I heard one positive location Lincoln, Nebraska and one positive solution: leave everything behind. Wondering if there is a mold-free shelter in Lincoln to which my son and I can move?
Blessings and prayers to this issue; obviously we as the human race need mold-free building solutions.