Functional Anatomy Archives

Mould, immune sensitivity and a sigh

I would like to share with the bulletin board what I learned about hypersensitivity to mould.

First, there is a difference between children and adults living in mouldy environments. Immune systems of an adult and of an infant are very different. A Norwegian doctor, specialist on yeast allergies and Candida explained on a seminar I attended years ago that the development stage of an infant's immune system can be critical for how that system later behaves. If during that period, the system is exposed to strong allergens, it can develop a strong reaction. He explained about the T-cells, the memory function and other more technical stuff which I now don't recall as well now (but can find out if anyone is interested) as then. The bottom line was, that while all exposure is good and necessary - for the immune system memorises and learns to distinguish between the body and the invaders - overexposure is not good, because it can lead to overreaction or even exhaust the system's capacities. People with immune dysfunction can suffer from overactive or underactive system, or a combination of both patterns.

To illustrate this with my own example, my immune system goes - wham! - with anything that resembles fungus (especially if I am exhausted). Vinegar, blue cheese, you name it. I love blue cheese and wine, and sometimes enjoy this despite the 'punishment' that follows. My mother, on the other hand, who has moved into a mouldy house as a healthy adult, experienced no such problems. She did not have allergies or food allergies of any kind. (But then again, she was not raised on the sugar diet the way I was.) My father had allergies, so there might be a genetic link, too.

The allergen only brings forth what in many ways is an invisible disfunction. Most people do not make this distinction - "am I sick because mould has some bad properties that somehow makes me sick, or do I feel sick because my immune system is making a lot of noise in its reaction to a perceived allergen?" Even worse, not knowing the cause of a myriad of symptoms, a person can worry oneself sick trying to figure out what's wrong. For something is clearly wrong, it's not "all in our heads". Actually, sometimes the immune system will overreact to an extent that it may kill us.

Another example from my own experience. At 15, I went into an anaphylactic shock following a large dose of penicillin (which I had received on a number of previous occasions without any sign of trouble). The reaction closed completely my bronchial tubes, and had I not received emergency medical treatment right away, I would not be writing this post today... The struggle to breathe was horrendous, but what was worse was the strange lack of explanation for what I had gone through. The specialists at the hospital where I stayed for a couple of days (exhausted, with high blood pressure and highly anxious), could not establish the allergy diagnosis, and could not explain the attack. One could probably stick a meaningless label to such a condition "idiopathic hypersensitivity to penicillin", "hypochondriac", hyper- or hypo- something. But knowledge they did not have. Many years later I learned why.

System dysfunctions need system thinkers to be discovered and understood. People with dysfunctioning immune systems look and act normal, yet their reactions to certain environmental substances - or stressful situations - will often (albeit not always) seem abnormal. This will puzzle any doctors used to linear logic and monocausal explanations, who try to figure out complex conditions in 10-15 minutes, and who move from a case to case never making connections. It is the unpredictability of the condition and the unwillingness of interest of the medical community in finding out the logic behind such malfunctioning systems (a logic, that I learned through bitter experience, indeed does exist but solving it is not profitable, ergo who cares?) that prevents us from learning and correcting the thinking.

Dr. Santelmann is of today the only Norwegian MD with a published study on the subject of Candida allergy.
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