Dr. Jill Crista, a naturopath doctor and nationally recognized educator on illness associated with mold and mycotoxin exposure, has recovered from mold herself. In her provider training course, she asked "Are you missing mold illness in your patients?" My answer is yes--I've missed the diagnosis all along not only in my patients but also my father and myself.
I used to work in a building that smelt musky as soon as I walked in. I used to feel so exhausted after work that I was unable to complete my notes before I went to sleep. Because I only worked every other day, I had to make up my notes the next day. I did not realize it was the building that made me so tired until I moved to another location. I felt like a different person with more energy and better memory. Looking back, I recalled many roof work done on the previous building after heavy rain. Once the roof leak was so bad that the rain seeped in through the window and splashed on my acupuncture bed which was placed next to the window. I bet many people had similar experience at work, at home or at a store seeing a bucket on the floor to catch that flood on a rainy day. That workplace, that home, also that store are called "water-damaged building" (WDB) which Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, a primary physician and a pioneer researcher in biotoxin illness, linked to an illness called Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS). I have to admit that only after I read about the symptoms of CIRS did I have that Aha moment: no wonder there are a group of my chronic pain patients who seemed to have inflammation but we do not know what is the cause of the inflammation. We doctors would send these patients to see various specialists: rheumatologists, infectious diseease doctors, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, even dentists. But after dozens of blood work, imaging studies or even endoscopies (hopefully no surgeries or pulling the tooth), there is still no answer about the cause. I started to screen my patients for mold using Dr. Crista's Mold Questionnaire and Dr. Shoemaker's Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) test as well as some urine tests. I found many of my chronic pain patients used to live or are currently living in a WDB which made them sick with CIRS symptoms.