Need advice from a mold specialist - mold is effecting my health

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I keep getting ring worms, athletes feet, and jock itch over and over again. I learned that they are all caused from the same fungus - Trichophyton rubrum. I am sure it's coming from our bathroom walls. The vent doesn't vent the moisture out very well and the upper walls and ceiling get mold forming on them. We paint over it, but it seems to come right back through the paint. Or maybe more is just forming ontop of it, not sure.

I have a mysterious health issue that I believe is caused by this mold. The doctors have not been able to help me with it. I get extreme chills and my skin feel really numb like when you come in from being outside in the cold - that thawing out feeling. I would have to crank the heat up just to sleep, and even when I'm hot and sweaty under the covers and it's 79 degrees Fahrenheit in the room , I still have chills in my body. Super sensitive to the slightest breeze.

I thought maybe I had an infection of some kind, so I started taking 1,000 mg of garlic twice a day since it's a natural antibiotic. And I discovered that when taking it, the chills are no where near as bad. The garlic definitely helps. And when I stop taking it, the extreme chills return and the numb, burning - thawing out feeling returns as well. I think I must be breathing in mold spores from this mold, and one of the symptoms of that must be cold chills. The chills are very bad - I lose a lot of sleep over it.

I'm hoping a mold specialist will read this and tell me how to kill this fugus in the bathroom for good. What would I use to kill Trichophyton rubrum and keep it from coming back? Will a mix of bleach and water kill it, or would I need something else? Can you paint over it with something? What would I use to paint over it? Would it stop coming back if I put a fan in my bathroom after we take a shower to help dry the moisture on the walls?

Thanks

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@kuurt,

I'm not a mold specialist but I can tell you a few things based on general mold knowledge.

First, bleach will kill the mold on the walls, but it'll also stink up the house and too much of it isn't good to breathe. So you may have to mix a solution of bleach and water, but it'll definitely kill any mold/fungus it touches. Also, if you've got mold on the visible surfaces of the walls then you've probably got it inside the walls as well, and you'll need to expose it in order to kill it. You also have to remove the conditions (moisture) which cause the mold to grow in the first place, or it will simply grow back. You may need a professional mold remediation service to get rid of the mold if it's extensive.

I can also tell you that it's extremely unlikely, if not impossible for the mold on your walls to be in any way related to the fungus on your skin. They are two entirely different things with different life cycles and growth condition. About the only thing they have in common is they both like moist conditions.

As for the fungus on your skin, there are two main things which will address it, anti-fungal sprays from the pharmacy, and more importantly, keeping your skin dry and exposed to the open air. The best thing you can to do get rid of the skin fungus is to blow dry your skin after any baths/showers and make sure to keep those areas dry (any way it takes). Also wash your clothes and sox frequently (you may even want to throw out all the sox and start fresh with new ones).

Good luck. I hope you feel better.

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@rosborne979,

I don't have a problem getting rid of the athletes foot, jock itch, or ring worms - I have some antifungal cream that gets rid of it very quickly. But, I only started getting this stuff on my skin after I moved in with my dad. Every since I moved in with him I've been getting them over and over.

I figured it was coming from the mold in the bathroom because you here people say that athletes get jock itch from the "moist" locker rooms. So, the moldy bathroom would be the moist spot in our house and it's also moldy. Plus, one doctor I saw told me that mold could be causing my chilling, even though I believe he did a test and said he didn't find anything.

I recently started drying off with a blow dryer after drying off with a towel, when I get out of the shower, but it hasn't really been enough time for me to say whether or not it's helping. So, maybe I'm getting the chills from the mold in the bathroom and I'm getting the fungus on my skin from not drying off enough when I get out of the shower.

I figured bleach and water might kill the mold on the wall, but I have read online that it won't kill all molds so I wasn't sure. There is a very good possibility that it is in the walls or in the plaster of the walls as well, but I would hate to have to replace that because it would be expensive and I've been told by a guy that test for asbestos that it's possible that it could have lead or asbestos in the plaster walls as well. I already have lung problems so I didn't really want to risk that.

I was hoping I could just kill the mold on the surface and paint over it with something that the mold inside the walls can't penetrate through. If there is anything like that.

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@kuurt,

Athletes foot fungus is typically transferred by wet shower/bathroom floors from foot to foot. The best way to deal with that is to clean the bathrooms thoroughly and frequently with a bleach based cleaner. And keep things dry and ventilated. Molds and Fungus don't grow in dry/clean conditions. Your Dad's probably got athlete's foot too, so you might want to give him some of the anti-fungal cream and get him cured as well. If you can get both of you cured and then clean the bathroom floor and keep things dry you should be rid of it (until one of you visits a gym locker room and doesn't wear sandals and catches it again and brings it home again).

The mold on your walls is a different issue. Unfortunately you can't "encapsulate" it by covering it with paint. The tiny little tendrils can grow through almost anything, and the microscopic spores will still get into the air and find their way back into the house. You might improve the situation temporarily by cleaning it and painting, but unless you dry everything out permanently it'll probably come back.

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Need advice from a mold specialist - mold is effecting my health

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