So, what exactly is mold toxicity?
Mold toxicity occurs when a person is exposed to a moldy environment that is emitting mycotoxins.
Normally, our bodies have built-in detoxification mechanisms that do an excellent job clearing toxins. In a situation where a person is exposed to an enormous amount of toxins at one time, though, the body cannot necessarily keep up.
Acute mold exposure can cause an onslaught of symptoms that resemble an allergic reaction and/or an asthma attack.
Long term mold exposure sets off a cascade of inflammatory reactions in the body, sometimes resulting in Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).
Symptoms can include:
- Severe fatigue
- Body aches
- Muscle pain
- Joint pain
- Any unusual pain
- Headaches and migraines
- Digestive distress such as diarrhea and cramping
- Cognitive trouble (brain fog, short term memory problems)
- Wooziness and disorientation
- Numbness and tingling
- Vertigo and dizziness
- Temperature regulation problems
- Night sweats
- Insomina
A lot of these symptoms are non-specific, and they overlap with many other chronic conditions like late stage Lyme Disease and Coinfections, reactivating Human Herpes Viruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia, dysautonomia, and autoimmune diseases. So how can you tell if you’re being affected by mold toxicity?
The most definitive way is to test. You can do so a few different ways.
1. Test your environment for abnormal mold levels.
One of the most straightforward ways to tell if you’re experiencing mold toxicity is to get your home tested for mold. This DIY mold kit makes it easy to do that without spending a lot of money on a professional.
2. Get a nasal swab culture to check for mold and other fungi and yeast activity.
Microbiology DX specializes in nasal swab culturing for MARCoNS, pathogenic bacteria, mold, and other fungi in deep in the sinus cavities. This way, you can tell if you have mold or other fungi in your sinuses.
You can order this test yourself, but you have to include a practitioner of some type for the results to be sent to. I was able to have mine faxed to my chiropractor, who gave them to me.
3. Get a test from Great Plains Laboratory to check for mycotoxins in the urine.
Great Plains Laboratory’s Mycotox Panel tests for 11 mycotoxins from 40 species of mold. Through MyMedLab, you can order this test yourself if you don’t have a practitioner willing to order it for you.
Once you know you’re being affected by mold toxicity, how do you treat it?
The first step is to get out of the moldy environment.
Then, because the mycotoxins have overwhelmed the body’s natural detoxification mechanisms, it’s crucial to support the body’s detoxification processes through multiple avenues.
It also helps to assist the recovery process with antifungal nasal sprays and herbs.
Immune modulating and anti-inflammatory herbs can help downregulate inflammatory cytokine cascades and provide much needed symptom relief, too.
Jonathan and I, like most people, had heard of mold toxicity but never knew the harm it could do until it happened to us.
When we came home one evening in July, 2019 at 10 pm to find that our running water wasn’t working, we assumed it was a problem with our well pump and went to bed. Since it was dark outside, we figured we’d look into the issue once we had some daylight to work with.
The next morning, we realized water was running somewhere, because we heard it in the walls. Jonathan then checked under the house, and we found that a main water line had been flooding the crawlspace for at least 12 hours.
It took 5 days before we could get a restoration company to begin mitigating the water damage, and insurance took 2 1/2 weeks to approve our claim so the restoration company could finish the repairs.
Meanwhile, mold spread in our crawlspace and we started to get mysteriously sick.
*At the same time as our mold problem, I experienced my third tick bite. Between the untreated Lyme and Bartonella from my first two bites in 2015, Tick Borne Relapsing Fever from my second bite in 2019, and the mold exposure, my health fell apart. Treating the mold toxicity alone didn’t help, due to the complexity of my situation. I also had to take a month of doxycycline and treat with the full Buhner protocols for Lyme, TBRF, and Bartonella for nearly a year before making any real progress. I still take a maintenance dose of the Buhner protocols three years later, to help keep my immune system under control as much as possible.
STEPS TO RECOVERY
These are the steps we took to detoxify from the mycotoxins after leaving the toxic environment and remediating our home.
Full Spectrum Infrared Sauna
An infrared sauna helps heal in two ways. The first way is from inducing sweat through exposure to heat. Since one of the body’s largest detoxification organs is the skin, sweating is a great way to expel toxins from the body. The second way is through exposure to infrared rays. Just the opposite of UV rays, which cause cellular damage, infrared rays have been studied and shown to have healing benefits for the human body.
Thankfully, you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for a sauna or for expensive visits to a practitioner who has one in order to reap the benefits. Instead, a personal infrared sauna costs about $200. Another option is to purchase an infrared lamp, which ranges anywhere from $40-150 depending on the brand.
PEMF Mat
PEMF mats work through emitting frequencies to restore healthy positive and negative charges in the cells, so the body can heal effectively. This is opposite of the electromagnetic frequencies we’re normally exposed to through technology like smart phones, data, wifi, and microwaves, which can potentially damage cells and DNA.
These are quite pricey, so if you can’t afford to purchase one or visit a practitioner who has one, you can try something calling “earthing” instead. That is, standing barefoot outside to make contact with the frequencies of the ground.
Dietrich Kinghardt, MD, notes that mold has been shown to produce 600 times more mycotoxins in the presence of EMFs. The evidence is by no means conclusive, but it is easy and inexpensive to reduce your EMF exposure at home if you’d like to give it a try. You can learn how in my blog post, “How to Make Your Home a Low-EMF Haven“.
Lymphatic Massage
Lymphatic massage can reduce swelling in areas where lymph has become blocked by promoting lymph movement and flow throughout the face and body. This tutorial works especially well because you can do it on yourself, without the help of a health practitioner or partner.
For swollen lymph nodes, vertigo, sinus pain, and headaches, lymphatic massage is a life saver. Since it gently encourages the lymph system to drain, it helps relieve any discomfort related to fluid buildup.
Binders
Binders work by trapping toxins in the body so they get flushed out with urination and bowel movements rather than getting reabsorbed into the intestines, as toxins sometimes do when they aren’t chelated to something else.
Activated charcoal and diatomaceous earth work mainly in the gut, and they bind to essential minerals in addition to toxins. These are important to take short term and away from food and supplements.
Zeolite, humic fulvic acid, and chlorella work systemically and don’t bind to essential minerals, so they’re safe to take long term and with food and supplements.
We included –
in our binder regimen.
Cistus Incanus Tea
Cistus, also known as Rock Rose, is an herb with potent antimicrobial activity that has been documented in the research for its antifungal properties. 1 tsp of the dried herb to 1 cup boiling water makes approximately one dose, which can be repeated multiple times daily.
Several other herbs have strong antifungal properties as well; Cistus Incanus is just the one we chose to use when detoxifying from our mold exposure.
NutriBiotic Nasal Spray
Unlike traditional saline sprays that only cleanse the sinus passages, Nutribiotic Nasal Spray contains antifungal grapefruit seed extract to both cleanse the sinuses and kill the fungal spores causing irritation. You can use 2-3 sprays in each nostril up to 3 times daily during an acute situation.
Frankincense
This resin is well documented for its anti-inflammatory properties. Diffusing frankincense oil at night while you sleep can help reduce inflammation in the sinuses and head, thus improving symptoms. Alternatively or in addition, you can take a frankincense and curcumin supplement to get the anti-inflammatory properties of both internally.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
Don’t be discouraged if it takes you some time to recover. Mold and mycotoxins can affect people in varying levels of severity, so the worse the symptoms, the longer your body may take to completely detoxify.
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*Disclaimer: I am not a licensed doctor and do not diagnose or treat disease. Please don’t substitute the information in this educational post for the personalized advice of your own health practitioner.
