Toxic Black Mold Poisoning Diagnosis

You have determined you have many of the toxic mold symptoms.

You have done air quality testing on your home and office and they show high levels of toxic mold spores.

Blood or urine testing is the third step in diagnosis of toxic black mold syndrome.

Many times, in the past, I have just made a diagnosis of toxic mold syndrome based on a patient's symptoms and demonstration of toxic mold in the patient's environment. And I still do this clinical diagnosis quite a bit, mostly due to the costliness of diagnostic testing.

But, I now feel that diagnostic testing might be worth the extra cost.

I used to believe this step of diagnostic testing to be not really essential, mainly because the diagnostic testing was new and many were not really sure of it's accuracy.

I now feel that the tests out there are accurate enough to be used with confidence.

On the down side, it is often hard to find a doctor that will do these tests and then it is even harder to get your insurance to cover them.

But, on the plus side, testing does have its advantages, one being a sense of closure, that this is really what you are dealing with and psychologically this can be a huge help for the patient as well as family members struggling to believe that their loved one is not crazy.

If you do get a doctor that will work with you in trying to obtain the blood samples then, possibly the easiest test to try first for determining black mold exposure is the Stachybotrys IgA level (blood test).

The stachybotrys IgA blood test may be the most sensible test to start off with. Most doctors can order it from local labs and I believe it is less expensive than the urine mycotoxin test. Since it is a local lab test it is more likely to be possibly covered by insurance.

The other test that is easy and probably more accurate than the stachbotrys IgA is the urine mycotoxin test.

The drawbacks of the urine mycotoxin test is that it is very expensive and it is not covered by most insurances.

Also, this test is only offered by a few laboratories that I know of which are Realtimelab.com and Biosignlabs.com. I have used realtimelab.com for my patients. All of my patients exposed to toxic mold had high levels of mycotoxins in their urine.

Another way of determining if toxic mold is likely, is testing of certain blood parameters. Also, these blood parameters can be used to monitor progress in detoxification of the mold toxins. Biotoxins in the body activate the cytokine system which sets off a cascade of inflammatory responses. I have found these tests to be difficult to use in that they have to be done by certain labs, and many are unavailable in most labs and they are expensive and often yield results that are not definitive.

I recently had a patient come back with a positive stachybotrys IgA level. My patient was greatly relieved to have these results as they helped her grasp that mold toxicity was the cause of her symptoms and not some other dread disease. It also helped her with her relationship, as her condition being caused by toxic mold, now had more credibility in her partner's eyes.

Keep in mind that according to studies, IgA levels are not always a reliable method of determining toxic mold exposure and they do not hold up in a court of law. So do not be disheartened if your level comes back normal even though you think you were exposed to toxic mold. It could have been another toxic mold besides stachybotrys or it could just be that you are one of the negative responders. In this case I would recommend testing your urine for mycotoxins.

So, first try the stachybotrys IgA blood test, then if it does not come back positive try the urine mycotoxin test.

According to several sources, I have heard that urine mycotoxin levels do hold up in a court of law. Another diagnostic test used for toxic mold syndrome is called the Visual Contrast Sensitivity test (VCS). This test can be done online for a minimal fee of 8 dollars per test and I highly recommend it. Follow the link below:

www.chronicneurotoxins.com

www.schoolmoldhelp.com

www.AAEM.com