HOW CAN YOU DETECT MOULD ALLERGY? SEASONALITY
You may have already recognised your own pattern of symptoms from the description above of what moulds are and where they are found.
Skin prick tests are reasonably reliable in diagnosing mould allergy. You can ask your GP for referral for such tests. Other ways of detecting mould allergy are to:
• analyse the seasonal pattern of your symptoms
• compare the pattern of your symptoms to high mould situations
Although some moulds are found year round, especially indoors, there are periods of the year when their concentrations are much higher. In the UK, unless there are unusual climatic variations, moulds will have seasonal peaks in the autumn, and in the summer months. April, May and early June are often relatively mould-free. August and September can often be good months unless the weather is warm and humid (as was the case in the late 1980s and early 1990s). In such years, there will be no real dying down of late summer moulds before the damp, rotting moulds of autumn and winter take over.
If, most years, you feel better in April, May, early June and in August and September, suspect mould allergy.
There are often significant daily and regional variations to this pattern, according to the specific conditions that cause the level of moulds to fluctuate widely, even by the hour. A sudden high dew, a change in pressure, wind or temperature can cause a local explosion of spores.
Chemical pollution combined with fog can also aggravate mould sensitivity; the damp cloud holds down the mould particles which would otherwise escape higher into the atmosphere. If you have a very capricious pattern to your reactions, these may be explained by specific climatic or local conditions, or the effect of local chemical pollution on mould levels.
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