1/ Housing:

QUESTION: I live on Oahu and we have a history of mold toxicity. We are all healed now but we are preparing to purchase a home and wasn’t sure if you could help with mold toxicity “prevention” or if you have any helpful resources on Oahu.

ANSWER:

If you have found you have the genetic predisposition for CIRS/mold illness, and suffer from the effects of CIRS, you will need to live in an untainted environment in order to maintain recovery. Begin by asking the current owners if there has been known water damage, and then proceed with a thorough visual investigation of the home for any telltale signs of prior water damage. Testing the home via an ERMI or HERTSMI-2 is also highly recommended. The older the home, the more chance it has had water damage and has a contaminated environment. Buying a newer home without water damage, and then proactively maintaining and cleaning the home would be the ideal. If a home has had water damage, stringent remediation efforts then become necessary.

If you do not have the genetic susceptibility for CIRS/mold illness, which some people with generalized “mold toxicity” do not, then concerns about particulates and organism inside homes can typically be answered by using IAdapt Air air filtration units from Air Oasis. Each unit will clear 2000 cubic feet per 12-hours.

In order to find out if you do indeed have the genetic susceptibility, following the Shoemaker Protocol™ testing and diagnosis pathway will inform you. Because it is a multi-system/multi-symptom condition, it requires several labs and tests to confirm diagnosis, including GENIE genetic testing.

Get started now by checking your symptoms with the convenient online Visual Contrast Screening test. The VCS screening give you an initial pass or fail, and you will receive a print out to show your practitioner. If you receive a “fail” on your VCS, we recommend following up with a Shoemaker Protocol™ Practitioner.

2. Kilz floor coating

QUESTION: After we remove carpeting and clean the subfloor, is it ok to coat the surface with Kilz?

ANSWER: If the subfloor has been damaged, I recommend using Kilz. Given the lack of significant cost for Kilz, I suggest its use.

3/ Klebsiella pneumoniae:

QUESTION: I have Klebsiella pneumoniae in my nasal passage ways. Do I need to eradicate this organism?

ANSWER: No. Gram negative rods can be normal flora found in upper airways.

4/ Mast cell activation:

QUESTION: My doctor has prescribed medications to treat mast cell activation but I have questions whether the diagnosis is accurate.

ANSWER: I would suggest that you would consider having GENIE done if nothing else for the panel for histamine that gives you two genes, HDC and CCL5, that will cause every nucleated cell in the body to make excessive histamine. The problem is not mast cells it is the vast majority of people with excessive histamine and it is gene activation for histamine by all cells with nuclei.

5/ EMF sensitivity & mold

QUESTION: Does mold cause EMF sensitivity?

ANSWER: No, we have no data confirming EMF sensitivity. Static shocks is a phenomenon due to salty or sweat on the skin and not having to do with untoward EMF.

6/ Mold in automobiles

QUESTION: My car had a leak that was unknown to me for over 3-months before I discovered that underneath the floor mats. It doesn’t smell musty and the carpet cleaned up to look like new. There were no visible signs of mold.

ANSWER: Testing for fungal contamination of cars is problematic. Given 3-months of leakage I would use the room sanitizer made by Air Oasis. This device fits into the cigarette lighter and can be run over night without running down the battery and will clear the indoor environment of the car within one week or so.