Generally speaking, books do not cause a mold allergy problem. As long as the books are dry that is.
Water damage is likely to cause a mold problem, unless the books are promptly dried out. More often, a damp environment is the source of the problem.
People frequently have problems with mold when they store books in a damp basement. A damp basement is a major source of mold in homes, which is likely to drive your allergies into overdrive.
Even if you do not have an allergy, you want to avoid mold damage to your books and exposure to toxic mold.
Avoiding Mold in Books
The best way to deal with this problem is not to have it! Here are some tips to avoid mold in books:
- Do not store books in the basement, unless the basement is dry.
- Never place a cardbord box of books directly on a cement basement floor, no matter how dry the basement. Concrete wicks up moistuer and will likely cause damp books resulting in mold and mildew in the books.
- Use a dehumidifier to keep humidity low and mold in basement to a minimum.
- Line storage boxes with plastic (e.g. garbage bag) to keep out dampness. Take care that you do not make holes through the bags!
(Visited 6,019 times, 1 visits today)
This section is devoted to solving mold problems, or avoiding mold problems completely.
Mold is a health risk for everybody, not only people with allergies. If you have an allergy to mold, this section will be all the more interesting to you.
You can scan the list of articles below to solve the specific problem you have, or read all of the articles to avoid having these problems in the future.
Feel free to suggest additional subjects to be included in this section. Either leave a comment, or use the contact form.
(Visited 12,479 times, 1 visits today)
Ochratoxin
Ochratoxins and Mold
Ochratoxins are a class of mycotoxin produced by some types of mold, including some species of aspergillus and penicillium. Ochratoxins are carcinogenic. Molds that produce ochratoxins are therefore particularly dangerous toxic molds.
There are three types of ochratoxin: A, B and C. Ochratoxin-A is the most commonly occurring myotoxin in food. Ochratoxin-B is rare, and type C has never been encountered in natural products.
The molds that produce ochratoxins can grow on cereals (such as corn, barley, wheat, and oats), peanuts, coffee, grapes, dried fruit (e.g. raisins) and wine.
Some studies indicate a high level of ochratoxins in house dust (Romer Labs).
This toxin can accumulate in the body. This of particular concern when eating meat. The problem appears to be of greatest concern with pork.
Ochratoxin Mold Symptoms
The effects of ochratoxins produced by mold do not seem to have been carefully studied in humans, which is strange, given its importance as a toxin. The following list is compiled from a number of websites, including the ones listed in the External Links section.
- Kidney problems
- Kidney failure
- Reduced immune function (in animals, not confirmed in humans).
- Cancer
External Links
(Visited 7,950 times, 2 visits today)
For some, myself included, sleep deprivation and allergy symptoms go hand-in-hand.
Lack of sleep is a common complaint. Besides the direct symptoms caused by allergies, lack of sleep, caused by allergy symptoms, causes fatigue. The more fatigued you get, the more stressed you become, which affects your sleep … etc.
[click to continue…]
(Visited 8,178 times, 2 visits today)
Jim asks:
hi!
I have allergy for peanuts (all kind of nuts), soya, curry, mustard and leguminous plants. so I wonder if you know what I can and can’t eat.
Yours sincerely/Jim
[click to continue…]
(Visited 5,669 times, 1 visits today)
The mold section is starting to expand. There is now a better definition of mold. There will soon be more about mold and food, and how mold affects indoor air quality.
A section on how to reduce mold in the home and other enclosed spaces is also planned.
All this to help you manage your mold allergy and stay healthy!
Other subjects that we plan to cover in the future:
- Household mold
- Mold inspection
- Mold removal, mold clean up
- Mold testing
- Toxic mold, toxic mold testing
- Black mold, black mold removal
- How to get rid of mold
- Mold prevention
… and much more, so stay tuned!
Now is a good time request information about mold. This will help guide what content relating to mold is written and posted first. Leave a comment attached to this article, or send a message using the contact form.
(Visited 2,522 times, 1 visits today)
An elimination diet is used to determine what food of foods are causing allergy symptoms or other undesirable effects.
The basics behind an elimination diet is that you remove any suspect food from your diet for a period of time – long enough for the food protein to clear from your bloodstream. Then reintroduce foods one by one, with a delay between each food of several days. This allows you to correlate a specific food with specific sets of symptoms.
Internal Links
(Visited 37,757 times, 1 visits today)
Like any food, it is possible to develop an allergy to barley.
There may be a correlation between a wheat allergy and a barley allergy. If you are allergic to wheat, be sure to test for a barley allergy also. There is no need to assume you are allergic to barley in this case as it is not universal.
You may know you have a barley allergy because you have had an allergy test, or because you have used an elimination diet to determine this.
If you have not used one of the the methods above, why do you think you might have a barely allergy?
If it is because you are tired after drinking beer (or because you have other symptoms caused by drinking beer, besides the obvious ones caused by alcohol) there is another, more likely causes of your symptoms.
Yeast is a common culprit. Many people are allergic to yeast. Suspect yeast before barley as the source of your problem, but do verify if barley is or is not a problem.
For information about avoiding barely, see Barely Allergy – Avoiding Barely.
Internal References
(Visited 71,132 times, 1 visits today)
Environmental Health
Broadly, environmental health describes how your immediate environment affects your health. For those concerned with public health issues, this includes such divers subjects as food, water and air pollution.
For the individual, it has more to do with the air you breath and the level of stress caused by noise or other environmental-based effects. Food and water are important too, but as an individual you have more control over what you eat and drink, so these types of issues are dealt with separately on this site.
Environmental health, as far as this site is concerned, deals primarily with air quality, and usually indoor air quality. This includes factors such as dust, mold, pollution and chemical contamination released from synthetic and composite materials.
Bad indoor air quality is more or less the definition of a sick building.
Internal Links
External Links
(Visited 3,437 times, 1 visits today)
This section contains articles about food allergies. See the table of contents below for individual articles.
(Visited 19,356 times, 1 visits today)