SANTIVIA BLOG

Have you noticed feeling sick lately for no apparent reason, especially since you have been at home more than ever before?  Your daily habits haven’t changed, but yet your nose feels more sensitive, and you feel extremely tired or nauseous? 

It could be environmental pollution causing your health problems.

Mould Pollution

Mould (or spelled as Mold) is a group of fungi that thrive in damp surfaces. Moulds multiply by producing microscopic spores, similar to seeds produced by plants. Mould spores can float in the air and settle as dust, and cannot be eliminated entirely from an indoor environment. For mould to grow, it needs a temperature higher than 21 degrees centigrade and at least 70% humidity.  

As many Asian countries are hot and humid, there must be many cases of hidden mould!

The most common places to find mould are in air conditioning systems, carpeting, fabric, upholstery, wood, and areas with high humidity and poor ventilation, such as bathrooms, kitchens, and basements.  Continually wet shower curtains frequently exhibit black mould stains. Hot water hitting the mouldy curtain can cause spores to rise, and you can inhale them.

Mould can usually be seen as a stain with damp patches from water damage. Often you can smell the musty odour, which has a distinctive smell on leather.

Mould Prevention 

Moisture control and adequate ventilation are essential to mould prevention. The affected wet area should be cleaned and dried within 48 hours, after which mould can grow.  

How mould affects health

Moulds are allergens. Inhaling or touching moulds can produce an allergic reaction, an immune response in the body. Inhalation of moulds can cause severe health reactions in some susceptible people. In some cases, toxic spores release a type of toxins called mycotoxins, and chronic inflammation occurs as a result of an immune system gone haywire. 

The primary health issues are respiratory symptoms such as cough, sneezing, nasal congestion and wheezing as well as immune dysfunction. Asthma can occur in susceptible individuals. Some studies have linked early mould exposure to the development of asthma in genetically susceptible children. 

Symptoms can be diverse as brain dysfunction fog, leaky gut and skin rashes. Symptoms can be so unrelated that you have no idea what the cause is.

A clue to the problem is that you leave your dwelling and go and stay somewhere else and you feel much better. You can breathe easier.  It is a prompt to check for mould in your house.

How to detox your body from the mould

• Steam inhalation to clear your lungs
• Take binders to bind to toxins. Binders include activated charcoal, clay, chlorella, pectin. 
• Sweat out the toxins with exercise and sauna. The best detox method is an infrared sauna.

For in-depth information on the subject, see podcast 

For in-depth information on mould toxicity, watch a discussion between two mould specialist doctors Drs. Tom O’Bryan and Jill Carnahan. Both doctors had the first-hand experience, suffering themselves from severe mould toxicity.

Daily Environmental air pollution

Air pollution accounts for an estimated 4.2 million deaths per year due to stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. Around 91% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality levels exceed the World Health Organisation (WHO) limits. While ambient air pollution affects developed and developing countries alike, low and middle-income countries experience the highest-burden, with the most significant toll in the Western Pacific and South-East Asia regions, as displayed by WHO data. 

The primary outdoor pollution sources include vehicles, power generation, building heating systems, agriculture/waste incineration and industry. More than 3 billion people worldwide rely on polluting technologies and fuels (including biomass, coal and kerosene) for household cooking, heating and lighting, releasing smoke into the home and leaching pollutants outdoors.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down in many countries has resulted in a vast improvement in air pollution, which shows the air pollution caused by human’s everyday life and what might be possible with concerted effort to control pollution.

Fires

Fires have destroyed large areas of Australia and beset California and Indonesia. The haze, from fires burning in Indonesia, was until 2020, a common yearly occurrence. Volcanic eruptions in the Philippines and Indonesia in 2020 were another source of air pollution. 

Health hazards of air pollution

Short term: People who breathe in smoke or smoggy air may experience difficulty in breathing and symptoms of asthma.

Long Term: Even small increases in particulate matter in the air can be detrimental to the heart. Pollution impairs the immune system by inducing an inflammatory response and can alter specific genes that affect the production of immune cells.

What steps can you take to defend against air pollution?

• Stay away from the polluted area
• Stay indoors as much as possible
• Wear a high filtration mask
• Use an air filtering machine to bring the air quality in your home to a healthy level
• Grow some indoor plants such as bromeliads
• Sitting in sauna to sweat out the toxins

Air pollution is one of the significant hidden stressors which we frequently confront, affecting our immune system and overall health.  While we cannot altogether eliminate environmental pollution, it’s essential to be aware and take steps to minimise exposure to such toxic pollutants.

As our body is challenged every day by unseen toxins, Santivia Immune should be taken daily to help your immune system defend against them.