An estimated 36% of university students are exposed to mold in their residence

Please consider getting an air purifier for your dorm or college apartment, especially if you suspect that you are living in mold!

More than one in three college students are living in a moldy residence! One study found that an estimated 36% of university students are exposed to mold in their residence.

For the past four years I have been living in a college apartment that was covered in several different types of very serious molds (cladosporium, aspergillus, stachybotrys, chaetomium, etc.). The mold was not visible to the naked eye, and therefore it was only discovered by a Council-certified Indoor Environmental Consultant (CIEC) at the end of January of this year. She found mold under my floorboards, in my insulation, in the ceiling, and coating the interior of my air ducts (check your vents!). Every organ system in my body was impacted by the mold, and it created a chronic inflammatory response (CIRS).

My mold exposure symptoms were very severe:

• Being in my apartment made me feel extremely short of breath, but the feeling dissipated when I left my apartment for extended periods of time.
• The smell of cooking even plain rice would make me throw up.
• I developed horrible facial and body acne that was not helped by any meds.
• My back pain became so severe that I couldn't finish walking up the stairs.
• I experienced debilitating bone and muscle pains all over my body that kept me up at night (and sent me to the ER).
• I could sleep for 14+ hours and I would still feel like I got hit by a truck.
• I was constantly bloated to the point that I looked six months pregnant.
• My fingers were so swollen with nodules that I couldn't type at my job.
• I lost my appetite altogether and was nauseous 24/7.
• I began having allergic reactions to foods that I could once tolerate.

Moving out of mold was the pivotal moment in my healing journey, and I feel 90% better now after leaving my moldy college apartment and beginning to detox. If you can't move out of your moldy college dorm or apartment, please purchase a high-quality air filter or spend as much time outside of your residence as possible.

I am sharing my story to raise awareness and hopefully prevent this from happening to others ❤️

Data source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4772214/#sec3-ijerph-13-00194