Is my house making me ill?

[MBM18]

I moved house in March, to a 1970s build (I think). Since April, around every 2/3 weeks I am ill with the same symptoms. I wake up in the morning with a heavy chest that is kind of wheezing until I get up and cough yellow phlegm up (sorry, yuck). I’ll then spend the next 30 ish minutes coughing and blowing my nose until most of it is up. Then throughout the day, I’ll cough every now and then and it’ll taste horrible. My partner has felt the same, but not as often as me.

I know there’s a chance it’s a coincidence but I really feel like it’s something in the house making us like this.

I have started to think it could be the water, even though we do use a filtered Brita jug (and change the filters regularly/wash the jug).

At the beginning of June, we went on holiday (abroad) for over a week. We noticed within days our chests felt better and had cleared. When we came back home, we decided I would only drink bottled water and he would continue with the Brita jug. My chest was fine and it’s only within the last week I’ve started drinking from the Brita jug again and I’m now ill again with the same symptoms.

Below is the things we’ve considered:

⁃ The air quality - purchased an air tester and it came back fine
⁃ Replaced our carbon monoxide tester
⁃ Water test kit - this is being delivered this week

We don’t think we have any mould/damp anywhere. The house was completely bare in March and we didn’t see this.

Any other ideas/suggestions what this could be, or other things I can check for?

Thank you!!

I can't help with what the symptoms could be but from reading your timeline the Brita jug seems to blame!

Allergies. Maybe dust mites

The Brita jug is the issue!

Thanks for the replies. I hadn’t considered the Brita jug as we’ve used them for years and never had an issue, don’t you think that points more towards the water going inside the jug?

Just googled dust mites and the symptoms are very similar. Does allergies make you bring up yellow phlegm - I thought that was more because of an infection?

Have you hoovered your mattress?!

I drink only bottled water as the water in my area is so disgusting. I use it to boil in the kettle and also to cook potatoes etc.

Try that and if your symptoms stay away fine. If not it could be something else?

Put bottled water in the brita, if you are ill it's the brita jug.

Hey you, sounds like typical mould symptoms to me. Symptoms are often better when we go away from the source (as what happens with you). I see this sort of thing all the time. I'm over on The Healing Jigsaw on Instagram. There are lots of things we can do with mould. I would recommend getting an AmazingAir purifier Click here (use HEALINGJIGSAW for £200 off - targets much smaller particles than other air filters as it uses an Ultra Hepa filter), have the windows open as much as possible, and do not to clean any visible mould with water (it feeds it). Disturbing any visible mould actually gives off spores (mycotoxins). Ideally we want to remove ourselves from such homes, but this isn't always possible. You don't necessarily have to see it to have mould, often it's in places we can't see. It may smell musty, but not necessarily x

Could you get the carpets professionally cleaned and see if that makes a difference. We have cats and even after I’ve hoovered if someone comes round who is allergic to cats they get chesty really easily. I think it’s harder to remove every trace of cat hair than you think.

Can you buy a cheap hygrometer? It may be that the air is damp.
Do you have a copy of the land searches for your house? What was the land used for before it was build?

Radon gas ?

Some areas of the country are more damp/ humid or have air quality issues and I think that causes more mucous production.

My dh had this when we moved once we just happened after 6 months to change lounge carpet and then his symptoms cleared up - did previous people have pets as we think it was that in the carpet that was dh issue.

My Daughter & I had similar symptoms to what you described - we rented a house whilst building work was done on our home, it turned out it was the old wool carpets. We were both sensitive to wool (unknown at the time) and as the carpets were degrading (looked fine) the fibres were coming loose. We had non stop cold like stuff and general feeling of unwell. As soon as we moved back home it went.

Hi all! I’ve found a really interesting home insurance policy which is so cheap! Has anyone else heard of this or purchased it?

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-11606343/Cheap-contents-insurance-Salvation-Army-launches-policy-costing-just-4-MONTH.html