Interplay Between The Brain Immune System And Gut
At this educational event, youll learn:
- Key factors that contribute to real immunity
- Connections between trauma, stress & your brain-immune-gut axis
- Protocols to maximize energy, reduce inflammation & support detoxification
- Keys to resolving leaky gut & other digestive issues
- Practical strategies to address food reactions, pain, brain fog & exhaustion
- Steps to mental clarity, reduced cravings & hormone balance
Take an in-depth look into the complex interconnection between your brain, immune system and gut, and join dozens of the worlds leading experts in nutrition, exercise, longevity, integrative health and anti-aging to explore the latest medical breakthroughs in chronic illness prevention and recovery.
Youll learn the why of your symptoms and gain a new understanding of how to regain agency over your health and solve your own health puzzle.
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Plan Of Attack To Removing Mold From Your Home
What can you do when you find a mold source in your home, what plan of action is required next? First and foremost, when you locate mold growth in your home you will want to examine the underlying cause of the mold growth, whether there was a moisture leak or what type of conditions surround the mold in the environment.
Second, you will want to call a mold remediation specialist to assist you in the removal of this mold from your homes surfaces. Often times we will try to utilize different methods of mold removal that we find online, but in reality, the best solution is having a trained professional come to your aid to ensure that proper removal occurs of this mold.
Third, eliminating the mold spores that have traveled into your air. We often dont consider that mold can compromise the quality of your homes air by collecting mold spores released from mold.
How can you eliminate these mold spores from your air? The enhanced chemical reactivity found in the EnviroKlenz Cartridge makes it ideal for removing harmful mold-generated VOCs.
The EnviroKlenz Mobile UV Air System is a portable air filtration machine that contains this enhanced chemically reactive technology that can effectively work at taking in mold spores and capturing them from your air.
Can Black Mold Spread From House To House
Yes. If you have had mold in your old house and youre moving into another space, it is possible to cross contaminate this new environment.
Because mold spores are not visible to the naked eye, it is hard to tell which surfaces are contaminated. Therefore, the mold has to be completely cleaned before you renovate or move to a new home.
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Persistent Symptoms Of Mycotoxin Poisoning
Let me tell you about Jenny, one of the patients who came to see me in my clinic, Austin UltraHealth. Jenny had polymyositis, an autoimmune disease characterized by the breakdown of muscles. When Jenny came to see me, she had been to 10 different doctors. She was already taking three very strong medications: Cellcept , Prednisone , and Methotrexate . She also reported having recurring SIBO and Candida overgrowth.
I knew Jenny worked as a volleyball coach in a fairly old school building. She had also mentioned she and her husband were renovating their home. These working and living conditions immediately raised a red flag for me.
In fact, whenever I hear someone is struggling with symptoms that wont go away no matter how strict their diet or how healthy their lifestyle, I think about the third pillar of The Myers Way®, Tame the Toxins. Specifically, I suspect one particular toxin: mycotoxins produced by certain types of mold. Mycotoxin poisoning from toxic mold is a root cause that very few doctors even functional medicine practitioners know much about.
Could Your Depression Anxiety Brain Fog And Insomnia Be Due To Mold Toxicity
Toxic mold based illness is a very prevalent and under diagnosed condition that can manifest in many different ways, including with symptoms that are exclusively psychiatric, such as depression, anxiety, attentional problems, brain fog and insomnia. Vulnerability to mold toxicity is only present in 25% of the population, who in most cases, have a genetic predisposition which inhibits their clearance of biotoxins. A family can all be living in the same house with mold growth, but only one family member will become ill. This is because that person is the only one with the genetic vulnerability.
Mold growth is initiated through water damage. Due to common building practices of using Drywall or Sheetrock, which was not a construction material used in the past, more people are now being exposed to toxic mold, as Drywall is a great medium for mold growth. In addition, the current practice of making homes more energy efficient, means that there is less ventilation with outside air, and toxic mold gasses can be trapped inside, potentiating their effect.
Mold toxins can accumulate in the body, continuing to wreak havoc long after exposure ceases and require an extended course of treatment. But for everyone, the first and most crucial step in treatment, is to identify where the mold is located and to get away from it.
Some of the common symptoms of toxic mold and CIRS are:
1. Fatigue
36. Metallic Taste
37. Tremors
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Watery Or Irritated Eyes
When allergens are present, the body releases histamines as part of its immune response. This histamine release is what causes the eyes to water excessively when exposed to toxins from mold.
This reaction from histamine may be the bodys way of flushing out allergens and toxins. It can serve as a warning to you that your environment may contain dangerous black mold.
How Does Black Mold Form
The main reason behind the formation of black mold is moisture, which can be caused by several things, such as, water leakage, lack of proper ventilation, flooding, irregular maintenance, humidifiers, condensation, clogged-up gutters, damp clothes, humid basements, or even water accumulation around the foundation of your house.
Did you know?
Stachybotrys is the 3rd common toxic mold type found in homes we tested?! Find out more exciting mold stats and facts inside our mold statistics page.
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What Are The Signs Of Mold In Your House
Musty smells are a tell-tale sign of mold. Another common indicator is visible signs of water damage.
As mentioned earlier, mold grows fast. Within 24 hours of a water leak, or a flood, mold will begin to take hold. This mold can grow on anything thats humid walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, and even wet laundry.
When there is a chance of mold, its important to have a professional in to test. Professionals qualified to do environmental investigations can:
- Check the surfaces of your house for mold
- Test the air for spores
- Help you to identify sources of moisture
- Identify where the mold is growing and help you decontaminate your house
- Use natural enzymes to kill mold spores
If you dont get rid of all sources of mold, you risk getting sick from it.
How Do I Know If My House Has A Moisture Problem
One of the best ways to tell is by checking the humidity. A home with high humidity likely has a moisture problem. Musty smells suggest mold, mildew or rot. Household odors that linger may indicate too much moisture in the air. Frost and ice on cold surfaces from condensation can be a sign of excess moisture in the air as well.
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Toxic Mold Test Do They Help
Professional inspection and testing can tell you definitively if you have this fungus in your home. The tests can reveal if the fungus is toxic and what type it is for sure. They can also identify where the fungus took root and from what areas in your home it has spread.
The tests can confirm signs that you may have suspected and give you positive results in a matter of minutes. They can also confirm that you need to take immediate action like hiring a professional remediation service to eliminate it and prevent future fungal growth.
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Problems With Clinical Studies
Such findings may explain the confusing results of earlier studies. For example, some authors have claimed links between childhood asthma and damp, moldy housing . While retrospective questionnaires reported more wheezing, cough, and chest cold symptoms in children from affected houses, the degree of bronchospasm was not different between groups. Thus, despite the claim that there was a causal association between moldy houses and wheezing, there was no supporting objective evidence. Some studies which claim that moisture and mold were associated with respiratory infections, cough, and wheezing also fail to show differences in asthma prevalence between case and control schools . Other authors report that despite claims of symptoms being more prevalent in case groups , actual asthma prevalence was no different .
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Nose And Throat Problems
Nasal mold allergy symptoms include a runny nose, swollen sinuses and post-nasal drip. The cumulative effect often causes a painful throat and difficulty in swallowing.
Treatment: OTC antihistamines help control nasal and throat symptoms. A salt water gargle or cold popsicles are good home remedies for sore throats.
How Can You Be Exposed To Black Mold
You can be exposed to black mold, or any species of mold, by breathing in microscopic mold particles in the air, or through consumption of food that contains it.
Stachybotrys is unique because its spores are sticky and easily adhere to a surface when the mold colony dries. They are not regularly found in the air unless the mold colony has been disturbed. Though its spores are not readily airborne, black mold can produce other harmful contaminants more easily found in the air .
A disruption to a black mold colony can be as simple as slamming a door, opening a window or knocking into contaminated furniture. More force is required for Stachybotrys spores to become airborne, as compared to other commonly found indoor molds .
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What Happens If You Breathe In Black Mold
For people sensitive to mold, inhaling or touching mold spores can cause allergic reactions, including sneezing, runny nose, red eyes, and skin rash. People with serious mold allergies may have more severe reactions, including shortness of breath.
However, if you breathe in large amounts of mold for a long time, it can cause chronic allergy or cold like symptoms, or more serious side effects such as chronic fatigue, brain fog, or even mold growth in lungs or respiratory systems.
Mold Exposure Only Triggers A Simple Allergic Reaction
You might be askingHow much mold exposure is harmful? If youre allergic to mold, you could see symptoms similar to hay fever or seasonal allergies immediately. But an allergy to mold is not the same condition as toxic mold illness or CIRS. If you tested negative for mold allergies and were told theres no way mold is negatively impacting your health, youve been misinformed.
If you have a mold allergy and breathe in mold spores, your eyes may itch, your nose water, your throat swell. You may even have trouble breathing. But remove yourself from the area or wait for the rainy season to pass, and your symptoms will clear up until youre exposed again.
While allergies are caused by an overly-sensitive immune system, they signal a properly-functioning response. Your body is doing its job. Most mold allergies are troublesome and can make you feel terrible, but they are usually not serious or life-threatening. Biotoxin illness is not an allergic reaction. Its whole-body inflammation caused by an immune system that is confused and repeatedly overreacting.
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Only People With Weakened Immune Systems Can Get Sick From Water Damaged Buildings
Incorrect. While exposure to toxic mold may cause acute illness in those with preexisting conditions that weaken the immune system, almost anyone can get sick from long-term exposure to biotoxins. If no genetic susceptibility exists and the person is removed from exposure, symptoms should eventually resolve.
Case studies looking at teachers who saw the reversal of symptoms after leaving water damaged school buildings each year for summer vacation show how the body is able to eliminate toxins after its no longer repeatedly exposed. Avoiding the affected environment allowed their bodies to catch up and eliminate the toxic load from their systems.
This is not true for people who are genetically susceptible, as their immune systems are unable to recognize and remove biotoxins from the body. The biotoxins are unchecked, free to recirculate practically forever, causing system-wide inflammation. Many times, the inflammation caused by CIRS is misdiagnosed as:
- Allergy
- Somatization
- Stress
How Dangerous Is Toxic Mold
Toxigenic, or toxic mold, has developed a bad reputation over the course of over two decades. In the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study on several young infants who had developed a serious lung disease one of the children sadly passed away, while the others went on to recover with treatment. This study noted that all of the children were living in homes with significant amounts of S.chartarum, though the CDC was unable to find a direct link between the mold and the lung disease outbreak.
Nevertheless, the general public concluded that prolonged toxic mold exposure was the cause of the childrens condition. This incident heavily influenced the overall view on mold, inspiring fear in households across the country.
However, the CDC has yet to find a plausible correlation between toxic mold and serious health conditions like lung disease. In fact, a similar incident had occurred and been studied a few years prior to the aforementioned another group of children in a different state contracted major lung disease, with one of the children passing away while the others made a full recovery. Yet in this group, mold exposure wasnt even a possible contributing factor in their homes.
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How Do Molds Affect People
Exposure to damp and moldy environments may cause a variety of health effects, or none at all. Some people are sensitive to molds. For these people, exposure to molds can lead to symptoms such as stuffy nose, wheezing, and red or itchy eyes, or skin. Some people, such as those with allergies to molds or with asthma, may have more intense reactions. Severe reactions may occur among workers exposed to large amounts of molds in occupational settings, such as farmers working around moldy hay. Severe reactions may include fever and shortness of breath.
In 2004 the Institute of Medicine found there was sufficient evidence to link indoor exposure to mold with upper respiratory tract symptoms, cough, and wheeze in otherwise healthy people with asthma symptoms in people with asthma and with hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals susceptible to that immune-mediated condition.
In 2009, the World Health Organization issued additional guidance, the WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: Dampness and Mould pdf iconexternal icon pdf icon. Other recent studies have suggested a potential link of early mold exposure to development of asthma in some children, particularly among children who may be genetically susceptible to asthma development, and that selected interventions that improve housing conditions can reduce morbidity from asthma and respiratory allergies.
Final Word On Black Mold: Best Avoidedbut Not Deadly
As for black molds toxic reputation, those with immune suppression, asthma, or other respiratory problems are most at risk of feeling ill.
Its not likely that youll die from black mold poisoning because its just not that toxic. That said, you should act quickly if you find it in your home. The good news is its treatable, removable, and preventable.
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Cleaning For Mold Prevention
Areas that are more prone to mold and mildew should be cleaned more often. Bathrooms, kitchens, and anywhere else in the home where water could collect are the important spots to watch.
If youre like me, you dont love cleaning the bathroom, but the right cleaners can make all the difference. Natural antifungal cleaners like tea tree oil and clove oil work well without toxic fumes.
Homebiotic, which is a probiotic for the home, also helps create an environment hostile to harmful microbes. Use these products regularly to prevent mold growth, not to clean a mold infestation!
How Mycotoxins Affect Your Body
Like mold spores themselves, mycotoxins are often airborne and enter your body through your respiratory tract. In the short term, this can cause a number of respiratory symptoms including asthma, allergies, sinus infections, and cold- and flu-like symptoms.
If you have a leaky gut, mycotoxins may also pass through your intestinal wall and travel throughout your bloodstream to your skin, brain, and other organs. This can lead to mycotoxins symptoms in any part of your body such as eczema, psoriasis, anxiety, brain fog, and autoimmunity.
One way mycotoxins wreak havoc on your health is by adversely affecting your cells mitochondria. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of your cells, making them essential to nearly every bodily function. They provide your cells with energy. Thats why you can experience chronic fatigue or weakness when dealing with mycotoxin poisoning.
When mitochondria are not functioning optimally, they release free radicals, which are unstable atoms that can cause cell damage. This cell damage, in turn, causes inflammation. The more inflammation you have, the higher up on the autoimmune spectrum you are. This is why its so challenging for autoimmune patients to reverse their symptoms while dealing with mycotoxin poisoning.
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