A 42-year-old Australian woman discovered that her constant sneezing was the result of a mold infestation in her home in Sydney, Australia, and was eventually diagnosed with dementia, even forgetting her own name.
According to the Australian website News, the wet weather that has plagued Australia’s east coast for the past 18 months has many residents worried about how quickly mold can take hold indoors – and how difficult it can be to get rid of.
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The problem is that not everyone knows where the problem is until the situation is out of control. This is the case with Australian Amie Skilton, who is part of the 25% of the population that has a genetic vulnerability to mold toxins, which means that exposure to dangerous fungi triggers an inflammatory response in the body that can even damage some organs.
According to the website, she was 37 years old when she moved in 2016 to her current apartment with her husband. At the time, she was “perfectly healthy”, even participated in a nine-kilometer half-marathon, was in the US to attend two conferences and gave 39 speeches in the six months before the move.
“My brain was fine and my body was fine,” Amie Skilton tells the News. What she and her partner didn’t know was that the bathroom’s waterproofing was lost after a renovation and, as a result, water leaked under the floor every time the shower was used.
“I started getting sick, visibly sick, about two months later. It may have taken a while because it was summer and it was very sunny, we always had the windows open and we never noticed there was a leak”, tells the Australian to the website.
The result was that the hidden mold generated a “systematic breakdown” in Amie’s body. “The first symptom I noticed was allergies, including chronic ones, and I gained about 10 kg out of nowhere. I’m a nutritionist and I’ve always had the same weight my entire life. I gained 10 kg in a matter of months and had very serious fatigue”, reveals the Australian.
Over the course of a few months, his brain functions also began to decline. She had problems concentrating and at work, the News reveals. When she was at the height of her illness, she was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed her with Alzheimer’s disease type three, also known as “Alzheimer’s by inhalation”.
As the problem progressed, simple things like leaving the house became a chore because I forgot where my keys were, and when I found them an hour later, I had lost my phone.
“Some days I couldn’t figure out how to dress. I would look at the clothes and I was very confused about how to wear them”, says the Australian. But the scariest symptom was when she couldn’t remember her own name.
“I went to fill out a form one day and I was looking at the box that asked for my name and I was like, ‘What is it again?’ I was looking at the question, looking for him,” Amie Skilton tells the News, adding that it was a terrifying moment to forget something so personal.
As she and the doctors she consulted were not aware of the mold problem in her house, the tests did not show the expected results. Amie says the problems arising from this type of fungus are a type of condition that few healthcare professionals are trained to deal with, which means most people end up being misdiagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia because they are similar symptoms.
According to the Australian, even the blood tests were not enough to show what was really happening.
The possible link between her health problems and mold came after the Australian read a post made by a friend on social media.
She called hydraulic firefighters, but did not have the proper response. Only after hiring a construction biologist was she able to diagnose the fungus infestation in the apartment.
After confronting the realtor, he discovered that they had known about the leak for five months.
With the mold confirmed, Amie Skilton was able to perform specific tests for certain inflammatory markers, and found that a particular group of genes ended up triggering the so-called human leukocyte antigen system.
“It was 100% clear that not only was the place leaky and moldy, but my immune system also reacted in a specific way due to my genetics.”
Five years later, Amie is living in a leak-free home in northern New South Wales, Australia. According to News, her brain function has returned to normal, she has regained energy and is no longer suffering any of the horrible symptoms caused by mold.
In addition, Amie Skilton has become a qualified technician for residential mold analysis and intends to use her knowledge to help others. In fact, one of her clients had such a severe reaction to exposure to the fungus over time that she was in a coma for three years.
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