Mold allergy

What is a mold allergy?

Molds are microscopically little organisms which appear in a large number and consist of many cells. The allergens aren't the mushrooms himself but the spurs which are handed in into the air and further spread by the wind from the mushrooms for the propagation. These mushroom spurs or also sometimes fragments of mold organisms can trigger allergic reactions, if they are breathed in. The illness symptoms aroused by mold spurs can appear both year-roundly and seasonally.

Portrait of molds

Mushrooms are no plants but also no animals. You form a group of your own in the empire of the organisms. Molds consist of a mushroom network and reproduce with the help of spurs. Allergies can be triggered on two ways:

1. frequent:
Photo of the allergens over the respiratory tract (for example at mold attack in the bath) 2. very much rare:
Photo of the allergens over the food (in food also in the context of the production)

Of the numerous known mold ways about 20 to 30 as triggers are merely known of allergies. Molds are microscopically little organisms which appear in a large number and consist of many cells. The spurs of the mushrooms are different in size, form and color at the different mold ways. Molds grow e.g. on scrolling heaps, compost, firewood stacks and under leaves everywhere there where it is damp and organic material is available. Typical mold sources into apartments are damp walls, damp places behind wallpapers and textiles, weatherboardings and glazed tile walls, air conditioners, mattresses, upholstered furniture, house plants hydroponics furthermore (primarily). Among other things there is a good chance for higher concentrations of mold spurs in rooms not aired for a long time, in addition in rooms with a generally higher atmospheric humidity (bath, toilet) in cellars and in greenhouses. One finds the certain climate prerequisites (warm temperature and high atmospheric humidity) required by molds for their growth about into apartments by lacking ventilating, unfavorable furnishing, by condensed water formation and similar. Mushroom attack on building materials can be removed durably only with difficulty. As a rule, wallpapers, finery and joints must be cleaned deeply. Serves as the most important measure for the prevention of the mold growth sufficing let some air in primarily to places which badly are accessible by furniture etc..

The most important mold representatives and their occurrence:

Alternaria Flour, fruit, vegetables, window frame
Aspergillus Cotton, upholstered furniture, foam material mattresses, wallpapers, bathrooms, cellar
Penicillium Citrus fruits, food, rubber seals, upholstered furniture
Mucor Leather piece of furniture, be whirled up by the lawn-mower much.
Aureobasidium Sheets, bathroom, kitchen
Botrytis Strawberries, grapes, nuts
Fusarium Ground, grass, grain
Phoma Stick spot
Neurospora Bread mould
Cladosporium Greenhouses, refrigerator, joint masses


Which symptoms are there?

  • Sneezing attacks and cold with strong watery secretion ion and blocked nose by swelling up the muscous membranes
  • Conjunctivitis itching, eyes which are reddened and watering and photosensitivity increased
  • Cough and difficulty in breathing up to asthma amounts (amount like, serious difficulty in breathing with narrowing of the respiratory tract)
  • Reaction of the digestion section in the form of diarrhea, flatulences, vomiting, colics
  • Arthritis, fever, allergic Vaskulitis photo allergic Exanthem, tiredness and concentration difficulties

Diagnosis position

  • With the symptoms which the patient describes (case history), i.e. where and when the troubles appear?
  • Skin tests
  • Antibody proof from a blood test

Tips for mold people suffering from an allergy

You should take the following tips to heart for their living space and particularly your bedroom:
  • Look for mold sources and remove these.
  • Respecting glazed tiles and wood veneer in the bath as well as behind cupboards primarily on stick spot formation.
  • Remove all molds by carefully cleaning with suitable means and completely exchange objects like moldy wallpapers, shower curtains or pot flowers. At an extensive mushroom attack of the walls a proper rehabilitation by an expert is required.
  • Carpeting should be banished completely at least from the sleep area.
  • Do in the bedrooms without dust collectors! Velours, curtains are included (better: Window shades or light curtains which you frequently clean or can wash), open bookshelves, potted plants, and others.
  • Airing well and keeping dry all rooms always. The room temperature should be C at 18-20 °, the relative atmospheric humidity between 40 and 50% . feel mites and molds no longer so comfortable through this with you.
  • Carpets and carpetings as well as upholstered furniture should be cleaned regularly and cleaned thoroughly (recommend themselves wooden and leather furniture -- they are easy to clean and don't offer mites and molds any day room).
  • Fit the rooms out with furniture as few as possible so that little dust which carries the allergens/spurs due to the air can accumulate.
  • Move furniture away a little of the walls so that the air can circulate behind this.
  • And dust pieces of paper should leave you to a not allergic person or use a breathing mask the vacuum.
  • Air cleaners are recommended with ULPA filter to the further reduction of the interior allergens.
  • Don't leave any garbages openly.
  • Store fruit and vegetables in the refrigerator.
  • Consuming food as freshly as possible and avoiding unnecessary storage lifes.
  • Coming plant parts and compost into contact at gardening on this which are eighth and not died too intensively (molds happen everywhere e.g. on moldy sheets, trees, in the ground).

Medicinal treatment

  • Antihistaminic(spray, tablets, drops)
  • Mast cell antiroll bars (cromoglicic acid)
  • Cortison (spray, tablets)
  • Beta Sympathomimetic

Vaccinating therapy

At an allergy against the mold Alternaria there is e.g. the chance of cure by allergy vaccination with a new allergen preparation standardized molecularly. Question your allergy specialist to this!


These informations may be considered a substitute for a piece of medical advice in no case. The content of health-illness.com doesn't can and may be put into any case to make diagnoses or carry out self medical treatment independently.


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