UPDATE on: Re: Looking for ADVICE & SUGGESTIONS regarding Stachy testing...

[Guest guest]

> This is a frustrating experience. I don't know what to do or

believe.

> I just want to get/be well. They definitely didn't seem too clued

in to the toxin part of the mold issue and apparently testing for

toxins is WAY more expensive than testing for mold spores. It sounds

like the fact that there really aren't any standards for how many

spores are typical/normal makes it harder to interpret the test

results and make sense of them.

>

> Signed: Get Rid of Mold

Yes. That's the problem.

The tests don't yield relevant information that can be used to act

as a guide for action.

This should be obvious to anyone with just a quick review of the

characteristics of mycotoxin production.

For example, when researchers tried to assess Stachy toxicity by

isolating and culturing a strain, they found it was not toxic at all.

Turns out that Stachy doesn't even bother to produce toxins at all

unless it senses the presence of a competitor.

And of course, there is the complicating matter of potentiated

toxin production according to different substrates.

The bottom line is that even the same species of mold can produce

spores of widely varying toxicity from the very same colony.

And even if you DID find the most toxic ones and test those alone,

it STILL wouldn't give you useful information about the ambient

levels of the total spore burden.

But even if you blanketed the entire structure to measure total

mycotoxin load, it STILL wouldn't tell you anything about OTHER

exposures.

There can be no useful " standards " for toxicity measurements under

these circumstances.

That's why I've been spending all these years saying that these

tests mean nothing to me and that if I had relied on the advice

of " experts " who keep insisting that they have an comprehension of

this problem, I'd still be sick as a dog.

These " experts " aren't even close to understanding the complexities

involved, and their advice is not only insufficient to address the

problems of people living at an extreme level of reactivity, their

advice is actually counterproductive and misleading as well.

It runs you around in circles until you wind up back where you were,

and still wondering why their advice doesn't make sense.

It's because it doesn't.

Think of the people who are reactive to peanuts that I mention in

Mold Warriors. None of the conventional testing or concepts

of " Where you will find peanuts " and " How much is enough to cause a

reaction " applies to them.

Same thing for people who are extreme mold responders.

Well, " G.R.o.M " ,

Sounds like you are starting to get a sense that " mold experts " are

fairly clueless about your situation.

Believe yourself! Your own perceptions must be your guide.

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