Could mold be the cause of your health problems?
What is mold illness (mycotoxicosis)?
Mold is everywhere. It is in buildings, homes, workplaces, cars, food, and even outdoor environments. There can be various types and varying levels of mold in different locations, but for some people (especially those with HLA-DR mold susceptible genetics), exposure to certain concentrations of particular molds triggers an immune response that can set off a range of chronic health symptoms. Mold is a problem because of the toxic chemical byproducts and gases released by certain molds, and at least 24% percent of the population has a genetically induced predisposition to become ill upon exposure to these toxins. Exposure can occur through inhalation of spores, skin contact, or ingestion of contaminated food. Long-term exposure can lead to what is called "mold illness" or mycotoxicosis, resulting in immune system suppression, neurological damage, chronic illnesses, auto-immune disease, allergies, organ damage, and cancer.
What are some of the symptoms of mold illness?
Signs and symptoms of mold toxicity (mycotoxicosis) can range from mild to severe. Some of these may include:
- Chronic extreme fatigue
- Overall weakness
- Chronic inflammation response syndrome (CIRS)
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Weakened immunity (getting sick often and trouble recovering)
- Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)
- Vertigo or dizziness
- Brain fog
- Confusion and memory loss
- Dyspnea (air hunger)
- Histamine intolerance
- Mouth sores and irritation (including dry mouth)
- Development of auto-immune diseases
- Skin rashes and other skin problems
- Nausea or other digestive issues
- Muscle and joint pain
- Chronic sinus congestion
- Allergies
- Asthma flare-ups
- Coughing and sneezing
- Throat pain
- Blurry vision
- Eye irritation (including dry eye)
- Headaches or migraines
- Anxiety and/or depression
- Mood fluctuations
- Rapid heart rate
- Numbness or tingling
- Tinnitus
My story
Prior to getting sick from mold toxicity, I was extremely healthy. And as a certified Holistic Health Counselor, I know what it takes to thrive. For years I never got sick, had endless amounts of energy, worked out with a trainer three days a week, was at my ideal body weight, and had amazing mental focus. Then one day, literally overnight, I got extremely sick and thought I had food poisoning. Five days later, it escalated to pericarditis landing me in the ER and then the hospital. For the next eight years, my health began to slowly decline. At the time, doctors had noticed elevated inflammatory markers in my labs but didn't seem to think it was important to dig deeper into the matter.
As the years progressed, my ability to fight off infections became more difficult. Over time, my symptoms worsened, including extreme fatigue, weakness, joint pain, dizziness, notable brain fog and memory loss, dyspepsia, chronic inflammation (CIRS), blurry vision, mouth and eye irritation, hormone imbalances, skin rashes, metabolic dysfunction, mast cell activation (MCAS), and a dysregulated immune system that eventually gave way to auto-immune disease and multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). I had become bedridden most days and found myself in the ER multiple times a year. What the heck was going on? How could I go from being so healthy to being completely debilitated? Why was nothing that I did to heal and recover working? And, why were so many doctors not able to tell me what was making me chronically sick?
These questions led me on a quest to find the answers, but little did I know just how difficult, time consuming, and costly it would be to find these answers. Twelve doctors and tens of thousands of dollars later I started to piece the puzzle together. The turning point was when a metabolic doctor discovered I tested positive for HLA-DR mold susceptible genetics. He told me this meant that genetically my immune system has a hard time detoxing mycotoxins. Even though I had the genetics to be sensitive for mold toxicity it still wasn't enough to prove I was sick because of mold exposure. It wasn't until another doctor tested me for mycotoxins that it showed I tested high positive for almost every mycotoxin! This was the evidence that confirmed I was in fact getting exposed to mold. We had found the smoking gun. I thought to myself, "Mold? How could that be when there is no visible mold in our home, and our house is extremely clean and well-maintained?"
Armed with this knowledge, we hired a professional mold inspection company (a $15,000 investment) to inspect our house.The results of this inspection revealed minor mold contamination but nothing concrete or overly concerning. The company concluded that I must have been exposed to mold at some point in my past and that my current home was not the cause of my elevated mycotoxin levels. Well, they were wrong. So for the next two years my team of doctors and I did aggressive detoxification protocols to rid my body of the mycotoxins. The good news was that we were successful at getting 50% of the mycotoxins reduced out of my body. The bad new was that when we retested six months later it showed that my mycotoxin levels had gone right back up to high levels again, and my health was not significantly improving. What was going on?!
It was at this point that I engaged another mold illness doctor for a second opinion. Three months and $6,000 worth of testing later it was determined that I was in active mold. This meant that during the two years I was detoxing I was still getting exposed to mold somewhere in my environment. So it was like trying to get water out of a boat with a hole in it, as I detoxed the mycotoxins out of my body I was breathing them right back in again. Needless to say, we started the entire process all over again. We engaged a second mold inspection company (for yet another $10,000 investment) which revealed we in fact did have elevated mycotoxin levels in our home but they were not able to tell us exactly where the source of the mold was coming from. We eventually engaged a third company who was able to locate the mold behind two walls in our house. Apparently, water from sprinklers that were hitting the house dripped in through small leaks in the windows causing mold to form on the inside of the walls. Swaps were taken of the mold from inside the wall and sent to a lab for testing. The final confirmation for us was when the lab results showed that the mold in the walls was an exact match to that shown on my blood labs!
We then hired a professional remediation company to remediate the entire house and HVAC system (the cost of which was about $80,000). Once we finished the remediation, we decided to downsize our Florida home and sold the house. I then spent months in our cabin up in the Ozarks and have now been out of mold for over six months. I am feeling so much better! And as part of my healing protocol, I now avoid all foods known to contain mold. As a result, many of my symptoms are gone, my immune markers are improving, and my body is feeling stronger every day! Mold toxicity (mycotoxicosis) is very real and often times the undetected root cause of many chronic illnesses. If you are chronically ill (and doctors can't identify why), have an auto-immune disease, live in Florida or other "high mold" state, have visible mold in your home, office, or car, please consider reaching out for a consultation.
To learn more, take a listen to Gwyneth Paltrow's mold illness recovery story below.
As the years progressed, my ability to fight off infections became more difficult. Over time, my symptoms worsened, including extreme fatigue, weakness, joint pain, dizziness, notable brain fog and memory loss, dyspepsia, chronic inflammation (CIRS), blurry vision, mouth and eye irritation, hormone imbalances, skin rashes, metabolic dysfunction, mast cell activation (MCAS), and a dysregulated immune system that eventually gave way to auto-immune disease and multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS). I had become bedridden most days and found myself in the ER multiple times a year. What the heck was going on? How could I go from being so healthy to being completely debilitated? Why was nothing that I did to heal and recover working? And, why were so many doctors not able to tell me what was making me chronically sick?
These questions led me on a quest to find the answers, but little did I know just how difficult, time consuming, and costly it would be to find these answers. Twelve doctors and tens of thousands of dollars later I started to piece the puzzle together. The turning point was when a metabolic doctor discovered I tested positive for HLA-DR mold susceptible genetics. He told me this meant that genetically my immune system has a hard time detoxing mycotoxins. Even though I had the genetics to be sensitive for mold toxicity it still wasn't enough to prove I was sick because of mold exposure. It wasn't until another doctor tested me for mycotoxins that it showed I tested high positive for almost every mycotoxin! This was the evidence that confirmed I was in fact getting exposed to mold. We had found the smoking gun. I thought to myself, "Mold? How could that be when there is no visible mold in our home, and our house is extremely clean and well-maintained?"
Armed with this knowledge, we hired a professional mold inspection company (a $15,000 investment) to inspect our house.The results of this inspection revealed minor mold contamination but nothing concrete or overly concerning. The company concluded that I must have been exposed to mold at some point in my past and that my current home was not the cause of my elevated mycotoxin levels. Well, they were wrong. So for the next two years my team of doctors and I did aggressive detoxification protocols to rid my body of the mycotoxins. The good news was that we were successful at getting 50% of the mycotoxins reduced out of my body. The bad new was that when we retested six months later it showed that my mycotoxin levels had gone right back up to high levels again, and my health was not significantly improving. What was going on?!
It was at this point that I engaged another mold illness doctor for a second opinion. Three months and $6,000 worth of testing later it was determined that I was in active mold. This meant that during the two years I was detoxing I was still getting exposed to mold somewhere in my environment. So it was like trying to get water out of a boat with a hole in it, as I detoxed the mycotoxins out of my body I was breathing them right back in again. Needless to say, we started the entire process all over again. We engaged a second mold inspection company (for yet another $10,000 investment) which revealed we in fact did have elevated mycotoxin levels in our home but they were not able to tell us exactly where the source of the mold was coming from. We eventually engaged a third company who was able to locate the mold behind two walls in our house. Apparently, water from sprinklers that were hitting the house dripped in through small leaks in the windows causing mold to form on the inside of the walls. Swaps were taken of the mold from inside the wall and sent to a lab for testing. The final confirmation for us was when the lab results showed that the mold in the walls was an exact match to that shown on my blood labs!
We then hired a professional remediation company to remediate the entire house and HVAC system (the cost of which was about $80,000). Once we finished the remediation, we decided to downsize our Florida home and sold the house. I then spent months in our cabin up in the Ozarks and have now been out of mold for over six months. I am feeling so much better! And as part of my healing protocol, I now avoid all foods known to contain mold. As a result, many of my symptoms are gone, my immune markers are improving, and my body is feeling stronger every day! Mold toxicity (mycotoxicosis) is very real and often times the undetected root cause of many chronic illnesses. If you are chronically ill (and doctors can't identify why), have an auto-immune disease, live in Florida or other "high mold" state, have visible mold in your home, office, or car, please consider reaching out for a consultation.
To learn more, take a listen to Gwyneth Paltrow's mold illness recovery story below.
Why doesn't my doctor test me for this?
The short answer, because primary care physicians are not trained to diagnose or treat mold illness (mycotoxicosis). What I find so frustrating is how doctors recognize toxins like pesticides, GMOs, and other environmental toxins as having a negative effect on health yet they refuse to acknowledge toxins from mold as being a cause of illness - this mindset just lacks common sense. That said, there are many Functional Medicine doctors and other specialized doctors who are trained in this area but expertise can vary widely among these doctors. Bouncing around from doctor to doctor to eventually find one who knows how to effectively treat mold illness can be time consuming and very costly, especially when you are ill.
How do I find out where I am getting exposed?
If you discover that your illness and symptoms are the result of mold toxicity, the next step is to determine where the mold exposure is coming from. Unfortunately, this next step can be very overwhelming, invasive, and expensive. There are many mold inspection companies that charge tens of thousands of dollars to investigate a home, office, or car only to leave clients left with more questions than answers. Choosing the right mold inspection company is very important in the recovery process and one where a lot of people get misled and overcharged. This is why working with a consultant who has the experience and expertise to guide you in the right direction can save you lots of lost time and money.
How would a consultation with you help?
My experience as a mold illness survivor has equipped me with the knowledge and experience to know what most doctors, mold inspection companies, and remediation companies either don't know or won't tell you. My knowledge and experience has cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and close to ten years to acquire. As a result, booking a consultation with me can help you avoid lost money and time playing trial-and-error as you navigate the challenging landscape of mold doctors, treatments, products, mold inspection companies, and mold remediation companies on your path towards recovery. If you have a chronic illness that doctors can't seem to identify the root cause of, or you have mold illness and need guidance, a mold toxicity consultation could be beneficial.
A consultation will provide you with the following:
A 60-minute consultation costs $100 a session. To book a mold toxicity consultation, please submit a session request form through the Book Session page.
A consultation will provide you with the following:
- Links to at-home blood and urine test kits needed to determine if you have mold toxicity.
- Other helpful at-home blood test kits to test other deficiencies that are common with mold illness.
- Next steps for how to identify the source of your mold exposure.
- Recommendations for which mold doctors to get started working with right away.
- Suggestions for which remediation company to work with.
- Advice on what to avoid when it comes to the remediation process.
- Products and monitors to help improve the air quality of your environment right away.
- Answers to any other questions you may have related to healing from mold illness.
A 60-minute consultation costs $100 a session. To book a mold toxicity consultation, please submit a session request form through the Book Session page.