Actinomycetes/Actinobacteria
Actinomycetes are part of the cast of bad characters we’re exposed to in a water-damaged building. Mold isn’t the only one. In a damp building, we also have to deal with bacteria, one of which is actinomycetes.
Actinomycetes are some of the most prolific producers of compounds that can affect our biology.
They make these compounds as part of their normal daily living, essentially as toxic “exhaust” or off-gassing. In other words, if these guys are alive, they’re affecting the indoor air by their very nature.
While not endotoxins by definition, the metabolites from Actinomycetes cause many of the same issues.
Actinomycetes’ metabolites have antibiotic activity. In fact, it’s how many pharmaceutical antibiotics are made. So you can imagine, they have all the same gut disrupting, yeast over-growth side-effects.
And it’s not just the gut. Actinomycetes disrupt microbiomes of the respiratory system as well, leading to sinusitis, chronic cough, and reduced lung function.
They’ve also been associated with granulomatous disease-like symptoms (shortness of breath on exertion, flu-like achiness, or fever and chills.)
Yikes! All that from breathing the air in a damp building.
Thankfully, well-done mold remediation takes care of the building issue.
And I’ve found that treating the mold using the herbs and tools in my book also takes care of this issue in bodies. That’s the wonderful thing about natural medicine. Nature already figured out that where there’s mold, there’s more.
One of the most impressive tools is spore-based probiotics. They rebalance the flora rather than replace it. By doing so, they make themselves less necessary as you use them.
But if you’re exposed to Actinomycetes, start extremely low in the dose, meaning a sprinkling of powder from an opened capsule. These can cause big-time die-off symptoms. It’s not unusual to take 2-3 weeks to use up 1 capsule if you’re very sensitive.
Eventually as you heal, you can get back to a normal diet and accomplish this balance the old-fashioned way – by eating fermented foods.
Use nature to treat nature so you can break the mold.
https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/41/3/392/3830259
https://microbiologysociety.org/publication/past-issues/natural-products-and-drug-discovery/article/actinomycetes-as-natures-pharmacists.html