IS YOUR HOME MAKING YOU SICK?

Leaks, damp and poor ventilation in old or poorly built new homes are being fingered for a growing health concern: mould.

- GLYNIS HORNING

Six years ago, Adene Nieuwoudt became sick overnight. ‘It was like a light switch from one day to the next! I was only 38, but suddenly I couldn’t walk 200m without a rest. I felt hungover and weak. And I developed histamine intolerance – I couldn’t eat cheese or cured meat or drink wine without feeling terrible.’

Doctors were perplexed. One eventually had her tested for Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid gland. ‘It came back positive. But on treatment my symptoms grew worse.’

Adene read up about autoimmune diseases and turned to integrative doctors, who combine conventional and alternative medicine and therapies ‘to stimulate the body’s natural healing response’ (as the South African Society of Integrative Medicine puts it). ‘A common thread was to eat lots of fruit and veg, free-range meat, and no artificial anything or legumes, as they can be inflammatory,’ Adene says. After six months, she felt ‘significantly better’, and her blood tests showed no more trace of Graves’ disease. ‘But I still didn’t feel like myself’.

In May 2023, Adene had what she calls ‘a lightbulb moment’ when she read the book Toxic by Neil Nathan, an American family practice and pain management doctor. ‘I downloaded and read it in one day, and there it was: if you have histamine intolerance, the chances that you have “mould toxicity” are 80%.’

Although nothing in Adene’s old family farmhouse smelt mouldy or damp, she went for a ‘mould urine test’ the next day. She was waiting for the results when she spotted a damp patch at the bottom of a passage wall, and her husband found a leak in the kitchen on the other side. ‘He and a handyman dismantled the kitchen cupboards and there was black mould everywhere. My urine test came back just days later showing high levels of ochratoxin A, a mycotoxin caused by fungi. I had mould toxicity!’