Your Senses, Our Science™

Symptoms of An Unhealthy Home

You may find yourself using air fresheners and candles to mask odors or avoiding specific places in your house. You may notice you or your children don’t feel well in certain rooms or when certain things happen, like when the heat comes on or the house gets damp. These are typical indicators that your home has an indoor air problem that could be degrading your health.

When you see your doctor, they typically try to connect your symptoms to conditions inside your body, not to external factors such as the home you live in. This is shocking, especially when leading researchers tell us that as many as half of the “homes, schools and buildings in the United States have an indoor air quality problem due to moisture and mold.” Even many home “experts” will tell you that mold, degrading building materials, and odors are pretty “normal.

The symptoms most commonly reported by those affected by a “sick house” are many and varied, depending on the sensitivity of the person and the severity of the issues in the home. Common symptoms usually fall into a few broad categories:

In our experience, one of the most important indicators is the, “I just don’t feel right” feeling that doesn’t really go away. You feel “like you are getting the flu” but it doesn’t become the flu. Or, it frequently feels like you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, when you got a full 8-hours. Or you experience cold-like symptoms that don’t run their course in a week or so as with a real cold and seem to return frequently.

Respiratory Symptoms

Respiratory Symptoms

  • Sinus congestion.
  • Coughing or shortness of breath.
  • Need to increase use of asthma inhaler or other medications.
Emotional Changes

Emotional Changes

  • Mood changes.
  • Feeling agitated.
  • Depressed.
Cognitive Issues

Cognitive Issues

  • Frequent headaches.
  • Foggy thinking.
  • Sleep disturbance.
  • Short term memory loss.
Physical Symptoms

Physical Symptoms

  • Stomach discomfort.
  • Muscles and joints hurt.
  • Extreme fatigue.
  • Always feeling sick.
  • Skin rashes.
  • Night sweats.
  • Heart racing or palpitations.

Learn More

Is Your Home Making You Sick?

The quality of air we breathe inside our home is critical to a good health, but it isn’t so easy to distinguish healthy and unhealthy air

5 Principles of a Healthy Home

The answer ultimately comes down to some simple things all of which you can start doing today

Common Causes of Unhealthy Homes

It usually isn’t any one thing that makes a home unhealthy but rather an accumulation of small things that add up

Symptoms of a Sick Home

Don't simply dismiss conditions not worthy of investigation because their presence is considered "normal"