Still Sick After Mold Remediation? Here's Why

You did everything right.

You found the mold. You hired the remediation company. They set up the containment, ran the HEPA filters, ripped out the drywall, rebuilt your walls. You got the clearance testing. Everything passed. Your house is "clean."

But you're not better.

Maybe you've even been to your doctor. They ran some blood tests. They did a mold allergy panel. Everything came back normal. "You don't have a mold problem," they told you. "Maybe it's stress. Have you considered anxiety medication?"

If this is your story, I need you to hear something: you're not crazy. And the tests your doctor ran almost certainly can't detect what's actually wrong with you.

I know this because I lived it. For twelve years, I went from doctor to doctor, more than thirty of them, spending over $250,000 trying to figure out why I was so sick. The tests kept coming back normal. The treatments never worked. And all along, the problem was mold that had colonized inside my body and was flooding my system with mycotoxins, something no standard medical test was designed to find.

You Don't Have to Be Afraid of Your House

Here's what I want you to understand before we go any further: if you had professional remediation done correctly, with proper containment, HEPA filtration, removal of contaminated materials, and clearance testing, there's a good chance your house is actually fine now.

The problem isn't necessarily your walls anymore. The problem may be inside you.

This isn't meant to scare you. It's actually good news. Because while you can't easily fix a house you're not sure about, you can treat your body once you understand what's happening. And treatment exists that actually works.

But first, you need to understand why every test you've taken has come back "normal" and why that doesn't mean you're healthy.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Standard Mold Testing

The tests most doctors order for mold have almost nothing to do with whether mold is actually making you sick. This isn't a conspiracy. It's simply that most physicians weren't trained to understand the difference between mold allergy and mold toxicity, and the tests they learned to order only detect one of those things.

Mold Allergy Tests (IgE Panels): The Wrong Question Entirely

When your doctor orders a "mold test," they're almost certainly ordering an IgE antibody panel. This test measures whether your immune system produces an allergic response to mold spores, the kind of response that causes sneezing, watery eyes, and typical allergy symptoms.

Here's the critical distinction most doctors miss: mold allergy and mold toxicity are completely different conditions.

A mold allergy is an IgE-mediated immune response to mold spores themselves. It's like being allergic to pollen or pet dander. Some people have it, some don't. You can live in a moldy house for years and never develop a mold allergy.

Mold toxicity is what happens when mycotoxins, the poisonous compounds that certain molds produce, accumulate in your body and cause damage to your organs, brain, and immune system. This is a toxic response, not an allergic one. It can happen to anyone exposed to enough mycotoxins, regardless of whether they're "allergic" to mold.

Research published in the Archives of Environmental Health by Dr. Andrew Campbell and colleagues found that while mold-exposed patients showed significantly elevated IgG, IgM, and IgA antibodies compared to healthy controls, the IgE antibody levels showed almost no significant difference between sick patients and healthy people for most mold species tested. [1]

In plain English: the standard allergy test your doctor is running is designed to detect something most mold-sick people don't have.

You can have zero mold allergies and still be devastatingly ill from mycotoxin exposure. The IgE test will come back "normal," your doctor will tell you mold isn't your problem, and you'll be sent home with nothing but confusion and ongoing symptoms.

Urine Mycotoxin Tests: Seriously Flawed

If you've gone beyond your regular doctor and found a functional medicine practitioner, they may have ordered a urine mycotoxin test. These tests measure the presence of specific mycotoxins being excreted in your urine, and they're heavily marketed to people who suspect mold illness.

But here's what the marketing doesn't tell you: there is no FDA-approved urine test for mycotoxins, and the CDC does not recommend these tests for diagnosing mold-related illness.

The CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health published a formal warning about these tests, stating that "mycotoxin levels that predict disease have not been established" and that these tests "are not approved by FDA for accuracy or for clinical use." [2]

The fundamental problem with urine mycotoxin tests is they can't distinguish between mycotoxins you inhaled from a water-damaged building and mycotoxins you ate for breakfast. Mycotoxins are naturally present in many common foods, including coffee, grains, dried fruits, cheese, wine, and nuts. Research has found detectable mycotoxins in the urine of virtually all healthy people tested, with no mold exposure whatsoever.

When that test comes back "positive" for ochratoxin or aflatoxin, it might mean you have a serious mold problem, or it might just mean you had coffee and oatmeal that morning.

Even more problematic: research shows people with certain genetic variations (HLA-DR haplotypes) may store mycotoxins in their tissues rather than efficiently excreting them. This means the sickest patients, the ones whose bodies can't clear these toxins, may actually show the lowest urine levels. A "negative" result could mean you're healthy, or it could mean your body is holding onto the toxins that are making you sick.

The OAT Test: Indirect at Best

The Organic Acids Test (OAT) is another popular test in functional medicine. It measures organic acid metabolites in urine that can suggest fungal activity in the body, markers like those produced by Aspergillus species.

The OAT can be a useful piece of the puzzle, but it has significant limitations for mold illness specifically. The fungal markers it tests are indirect. They suggest that fungal activity may be occurring somewhere in your body, but they don't tell you:

• Which specific mycotoxins are present
• How significant your exposure has been
• Whether your immune system is actively responding to mycotoxins
• Whether the source is environmental mold or just gut yeast overgrowth

Multiple factors besides mold exposure can elevate these markers, including certain foods, supplements, and metabolic conditions.

The OAT can point you in a direction, but on its own, it can neither confirm nor rule out mold illness.

ERMI Testing Won't Give You the Answer Either

And then there's the ERMI test, the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index. Many mold-aware practitioners recommend this to assess whether your home is still contaminated.

But the EPA, the agency that developed ERMI, explicitly states it "is a research tool and is not recommended for use except as a research tool." They've further clarified it has "not been validated for routine public use in homes, schools, or other buildings."

If your remediation was done correctly and your house passed clearance testing, ordering another ERMI test isn't going to give you new information. It tests settled dust, which reflects historical mold presence over months or years, not whether your current environment is actively making you sick.

If you're still sick after remediation and you're confident the work was done properly, spending another $300-500 on an ERMI test is probably just delaying the answer you actually need.

What's Actually Happening: The Mold Is Inside You

Here's the part that changes everything, and the part most doctors have never heard of:

Mold can colonize inside your body.

When you breathe in mold spores over weeks or months, especially if you have a compromised immune system or certain genetic vulnerabilities, those spores don't necessarily just pass through. Some of them can take up residence in your sinuses, your gut, and your respiratory tract. Once colonized, the mold doesn't need your house to keep poisoning you. It becomes its own mycotoxin-producing factory inside your body.

Research published in the journal Toxins examined this phenomenon in detail. The researchers found that patients who developed chronic illness after mold exposure "continued to have the presence of mycotoxins, which can be detected in the urine" even after they had left contaminated environments. Their hypothesis: "the mold may be harbored internally and continue to release and/or produce mycotoxins which contribute to ongoing chronic illness." [3]

The sinuses are the most likely site for this internal colonization. A landmark Mayo Clinic study found positive fungal cultures in 96% of patients with chronic sinusitis, a staggering percentage that suggests most chronic sinus problems have a fungal component that goes unrecognized and untreated. [4]

The researchers found that mold colonizes the sinus mucosa and forms biofilms, protective structures that shield the fungus from both the immune system and antifungal medications.

This explains something that baffles most doctors: why some patients don't get better just by leaving the moldy environment. They're not imagining their symptoms. They're not being dramatic. They've carried the problem with them inside their own bodies.

The proximity of the sinuses to the brain makes this particularly concerning. Inflammatory cytokines produced by sinus colonization can migrate along the olfactory nerve directly into the brain, contributing to the neurological symptoms, including brain fog, memory problems, anxiety, and depression, that so many mold patients experience.

The Testing That Actually Works

Dr. Andrew Campbell has published over 90 peer-reviewed studies, 19 of them specifically on the effects of molds and mycotoxins in humans. His work has appeared in journals including Archives of Environmental Health, Scientific World Journal, and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. [1][5][6] He's treated more than 10,000 patients with mold-related illness.

His approach to testing is fundamentally different from what most doctors do, and it's based on a simple principle: test for the immune system's actual response to mycotoxins, not just for mold allergy or mycotoxin excretion.

The key is testing for IgG and IgE antibodies specifically against mycotoxins (the toxic compounds) rather than against mold spores (what standard allergy tests measure). This is a critical distinction.

Here's the logic: if your immune system is producing antibodies specifically against mycotoxins like satratoxin, ochratoxin, or aflatoxin, it means your body has identified these toxins as a threat and is mounting a response. This indicates significant, ongoing exposure, not just trace amounts from food.

Unlike urine tests, which are heavily influenced by what you ate that morning and how efficiently your body excretes toxins, antibody testing reflects your immune system's sustained response to a real threat. And unlike mold allergy tests, mycotoxin antibody testing looks at the actual toxic compounds that cause illness, not just whether you sneeze when you smell mold.

This type of testing has shown that many patients who test "negative" on standard panels are actually mounting robust immune responses to mycotoxins. It helps differentiate between people who have had incidental exposure (everyone, since mycotoxins are everywhere in small amounts) and people whose bodies are actively fighting a mycotoxin burden significant enough to cause illness.

Test Yourself First, At a Fraction of the Cost

If you've had professional remediation done and you're still sick, here's the reality: spending more money on environmental testing probably isn't the answer.

Another inspector. Another ERMI test. Another round of air sampling. Each one costs $300-$1,500, takes weeks to schedule and complete, and if the remediation was done correctly, probably won't tell you anything new. Meanwhile, you're still suffering, still searching, still spending.

There's a more direct path: rule mold in or out by testing yourself.

Blood testing for mycotoxin antibodies typically costs a few hundred dollars, a fraction of what another round of environmental testing and inspection would cost. It gives you actionable information in days, not weeks. And most importantly, it measures what actually matters for your health: whether your body is actively fighting a mycotoxin burden.

If the test shows elevated antibodies to specific mycotoxins, you have an answer. You know the problem is in your body, not just in your house. You can stop tearing apart your walls and start treatment.

If the test comes back clean, you've ruled out one of the most common, and most commonly missed, causes of chronic illness. You can redirect your energy elsewhere without spending thousands more dollars chasing environmental mold that may not be the issue.

Either way, you get clarity. And after years of normal test results that don't match how sick you feel, clarity is everything.

Treatment Actually Exists

Here's the part that gives me hope to share with you: once you identify internal mold colonization or mycotoxin burden, treatment exists that actually works, and it doesn't take years or cost tens of thousands of dollars in supplements.

Trust me on the supplements part. I spent over $30,000 on supplements that practitioners told me would help with mold. Binders. Detox protocols. Glutathione. Charcoal. Clay. You name it, I tried it. And while some of them may have helped marginally, none of them addressed what was actually wrong: I had mold colonized in my body that was continuously producing toxins. You can't supplement your way out of an active infection.

When internal colonization is the problem, antifungal treatment, prescribed by a physician who understands mold illness, can make a dramatic difference. Addressing the fungal colonization directly, rather than just trying to bind and excrete mycotoxins, leads to significantly better outcomes. Many patients notice improvements within the first couple of months, not the six months to forever that supplement-only protocols often require.

This was my experience. After twelve years of suffering and over $30,000 on supplements that did nothing, I finally found treatment that addressed what was actually wrong. Within weeks of starting proper antifungal treatment, I felt better than I had in over a decade.

The difference between treating the source (the colonized mold) versus treating the symptoms (trying to bind mycotoxins) is the difference between turning off a faucet and trying to mop up water while the faucet is still running.

Stop Chasing Your Walls

If you're reading this, you've probably spent a lot of time, money, and emotional energy focused on your environment. Every creak makes you wonder if there's hidden mold. Every musty smell sends you into panic. You've become afraid of your own home.

I want to offer you a different perspective: if professional remediation was done correctly, your house may be fine. The problem might be your body, and that's actually good news.

Treating your body is more straightforward than tearing apart your walls again. It's faster. It's less expensive. And it's more likely to actually make you better.

You've been searching for answers in your environment. It's time to look inside yourself.

The Bottom Line

The standard medical tests for mold, including IgE allergy panels, urine mycotoxin tests, and OAT markers, weren't designed to detect what actually makes most mold-sick people ill. Mold allergy tests measure something most mold-toxic patients don't have. Urine tests can't distinguish mold exposure from breakfast. OAT markers are indirect and unvalidated for mold diagnosis.

If you've had remediation done and you're still sick, the answer probably isn't another environmental test. It's testing whether the problem has moved from your walls into your body.

The research is clear: mold can colonize internally, particularly in the sinuses, and continue producing mycotoxins long after you've left the moldy environment. This explains why so many patients don't recover just by moving or remediating: they've carried the source with them.

Blood testing for mycotoxin antibodies can identify this internal colonization quickly and affordably. And once identified, working with a physician who understands mold illness and can prescribe appropriate antifungal treatment has helped thousands of patients finally recover.

You don't have to stay sick. You don't have to stay afraid of your house. You just need the right test, and the right treatment.

Not sure where you stand? Take our free Mold Symptom Assessment to get a better picture of whether mold might be contributing to your health issues.

Sources

1. Campbell AW, Thrasher JD, Madison RA, Vojdani A, Gray MR, Johnson A. "Neural autoantibodies and neurophysiologic abnormalities in patients exposed to molds in water-damaged buildings." Archives of Environmental Health. 2003;58(8):464-474. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15259467/

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. "Dampness and Mold in Buildings: Questions and Answers." CDC/NIOSH. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/indoorenv/mold.html

1. Brewer JH, Thrasher JD, Straus DC, Madison RA, Hooper D. "Detection of mycotoxins in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome." Toxins (Basel). 2013;5(4):605-617. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23580077/

1. Ponikau JU, Sherris DA, Kern EB, et al. "The diagnosis and incidence of allergic fungal sinusitis." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 1999;74(9):877-884. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10488789/

1. Campbell AW, Thrasher JD, Gray MR, Vojdani A. "Mold and mycotoxins: effects on the neurological and immune systems in humans." Advances in Applied Microbiology. 2004;55:375-406. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15350804/

1. Gray MR, Thrasher JD, Crago R, et al. "Mixed mold mycotoxicosis: immunological changes in humans following exposure in water-damaged buildings." Archives of Environmental Health. 2003;58(7):410-420. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15143854/

1. United States Environmental Protection Agency. "ERMI: Environmental Relative Moldiness Index." EPA.gov. https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/mold-assessment-remediation-professionals

1. Mendell MJ, et al. "Respiratory and allergic health effects of dampness, mold, and dampness-related agents: a review of the epidemiologic evidence." Environmental Health Perspectives. 2011;119(6):748-756. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21269928/

This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider about testing and treatment options.