Thanks for the thread gottathink!
There are a few things that I've been doing to keep mold at bay in the house, especially in areas where humidity is common (bathrooms, kitchen, washing machine, etc).
- Keeping the bathroom, kitchen and washing machine as dry as possible. For the bathroom, I saw a tip that I find very useful if your bathroom has smooth surfaces. The tip is to dry the bathroom area with a windscreen puller after taking a bath, just to help it dry faster as maintenance. I use one like this:
I leave it in the bathroom and we dry the area after taking a bath. Of course, it's always good to open windows and allow the air to come in, mold doesn't like that, but, usually bathrooms have a tiny window, so... I find that by helping it with a windscreen puller, it gets dry quicker.
- Similar to the above, when looking up how to clean mold or prevent it from growing in bathrooms, I came across hydrogen peroxide and I saw a video (which I can't find now) where a lady suggested spraying hydrogen peroxide on the bathroom walls and doors, leaving it for a few minutes and then drying it with a windscreen puller, in order to prevent mold from growing in that area.
Having learned that things such as
hydrogen peroxide, boric acid, vinegar and sodium bicarbonate are all good to fight mold in the house, I have something like a spraying routine around the bathroom, kitchen and washing machine. I don't combine those things, just use one for some time, then the other, etc... I have the idea that that might prevent those critters from getting used to the cleaning substances
People usually use chlorine and I've used it sometimes too, but I don't like it because it makes my eyes and skin itchy even when using small amounts.
Now, I think it is important not freak out about cleaning too, so, how I view it is that I do weekly maintenance with those sprays and a more heavy duty clean up with some rubbing just every once in a while. I know this might be common sense and taught within families, but in my case, no one had taught me that, so I found those cleaning tips very useful and I'm posting about them just in case they are useful for someone else.
Also, I think that we can't expect to live in a sterile environment, that's a fight we won't win and as these critters are part of our environment and even have their own function. Also, there's been some theories saying that too much environment sterilization can affect our immune system's ability to fight off these things. So, my thinking is that a clean environment is of course common sense, but without freaking out about it, doing what we can to keep mold and parasites at bay, for sure, but taking care of our bodies in parallel so that we can fight off infections and eliminate toxins properly.
I think there are some protocols that have already been posted in different places on the forum that deal with eliminating toxins and pathogens, so perhaps it would be good to collect those threads too and post them here. I might be able to help with that. Also, we know that diet is important to help the body heal and be strong.
One thing that I've come across while looking for other things was bentonite clay. I found that there have been studies with it that suggest this is good to help eliminate mycotoxins that come into our body due to exposure to some types of mold. It is mostly used for animals, but there are lots of people who use it as well.
Bentonite clay is a popular home remedy for removing impurities from the body. This article explores the evidence behind 11 alleged health benefits of this clay.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
I don't really have a precise protocol for it now (perhaps others who have used it can share their experience) but, from what I could gather,
it is important to have the elimination pathways working properly when you use binders (bowel, kidneys, etc) so that you can actually properly eliminate whatever the clay binds to. So, it's important to work from different angles. Also, there's some concern that some binders can bind to nutrients too, so people usually warn against taking these for prolonged periods of time. What I think, is that it can be used for some time, then pause, take supplements, eat healthy, do other things to keep the body strong, and then do it again if necessary, and so on.
Here's a review on some of the benefits it seems to have:
From old times, the human kind has used clays, externally or internally, for maintaining body health or treating some diseases. Meanwhile there are few scientific articles reviewing the beneficial effects of clays on body function. Bentonite clay is one ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Of course, more research is needed but I just wanted to share about it here since it might be one more way to help our bodies eliminate the toxins that are produced by mold.
And of course, if you haven't seen this video, I think it is very informative on the issue of mold toxicity:
