Environmental illness, or mystery illness can look like many other things, and since most medical doctors are not trained to assess for it (or treat it), folks can go decades without answers.

MOLD: The #1 Environmental Illness

There are two different mechanisms of mold – There’s the allergy to the mold spores and then the mold produces toxins we call “mycotoxins”, which are very, very toxic.

Mycotoxins can spread and affect the immune system severely.

And it doesn't affect everyone the same, in the same exposure/building. There may be four people living in the house and only one person is sick.

Some Startling Mold Illness Stats

• 93% of chronic sinus infections are from mold illness
• 40% of asthma episodes are triggered by mold, dust mites, or rats

Mold Illness Symptoms

As mentioned in this post, allergies can be from pollen, but they can also be from mold.

Mold sensitivity doesn’t always “fit the mold” of what most people call an...

With spring here, many locales are experiencing a rainy season, and with it you can expect to see more issues with environmental air quality issues, namely toxic mold.

The Perfect Environment For Mold

Mold requires:

• water
• food
• oxygen
• temperature over 40° F
  

While mold cannot spread without these conditions, its spores may survive in a dormant state until conditions are suitable.

This means that mold spores that may have lain dormant all winter, due to cooler temperatures and lower humidity, will become active with rising temperatures and humidity.

How Mold Propagates

Mold reproduces via the production of small spores. These spores can be compared to the seeds of a plant, though they are much smaller than seeds or even pollen grains.

Their small size makes them easy to disperse via wind and water. They can also travel long distances by clinging on to clothing or fur. You can see why we are heading into our moldy season.

What Can Mold Grow On?

Mold grows on materials...

Listen as Dr. Margaret Christensen and Mimi MacLean, mom of 5 and Lyme Warrior, discuss chronic Lyme and the connection to mold.

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Some main points discussed:

1. When someone comes to you with unsolved chronic symptoms, how do you approach testing, diagnosing, and finding the root cause of disease?
2. When someone comes to you when they were first diagnosed with Lyme disease, what are your first steps?
3. What treatments have you seen the most success with chronic Lyme and getting to the root cause of any chronic illness?
4. Mold is one of my triggers that I have had a hard time eradicating from my life. I would love to dive into the topic of mold?
5. What can people do to find out if they have it? How do they get rid of mold?
6. Can we address mold in the home? Do you have to get rid of all your personal belongings if you find out you have mold in the home?

Listen as Dr. Gail Clayton and Mimi MacLean, mom of 5 and Lyme Warrior, discuss the acid-base balance, blood chemistry lab values, diet and mast cell stabilization. 

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Some main points discussed:

1. One of the things that is really overlooked when stabilizing mast cells is the acid-base balance. This can be assessed by looking at your blood chemistry laboratory values of carbon-dioxide , sodium, and potassium. You want to see them pretty much in the middle of the reference range. High or low of any of these values may suggest an imbalance.
2. Diet is very important. Whether you are following the Whole-30 or Auto-immune Paleo, your diet may still have to be modified further depending on what is going on with your gut and immune system.
3. You may or may not have an auto-immune disease, but your immune system may be "polarized" in that direction which is very inflammatory. Good tissue perfusion and oxygen supply is first-line to...

A castor oil pack is an external application of castor oil to a specific area of the body, most often the abdomen and liver. Castor oil is extracted from the castor plant’s seed.

How and Why Castor Oil Packs Work

The castor oil pack focuses on the sedative effects and the action on the lymphatic system.

The oil allows the nervous system to switch into parasympathetic mode (calming). Once the switch from the sympathetic “fight or flight” systems to the parasympathetic “rest and digest” system is made, healing occurs.

When the lymphatic tissue is congested (which happens quite easily when we are not well hydrated or moving frequently enough), it causes inflammation.

Castor oil packs increase lymphocyte production and activity in the body and acts as an important immune booster. Lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, help the body fight off viruses, fungal infections, bacteria, and even cancer.

Because we have lymphocytes in the epidermis, topical...

As practitioners, our intake form has a section to go over a client's oral health, because oral health is an indication of overall health.

Questions we ask are:

• How often do you brush?
• Do you floss daily?
• How often do you see a dentist?
• Do you have any: amalgams, crowns, bridges, implants?
• Have you ever had amalgams removed? Was it done by a biological dentist?
• Do you have periodontal disease?
• Are your gums inflamed or infected?

Chronic inflammation can come from a seemingly small area in the body. The fact is that many infections and chronic inflammation in the body come directly from the oral cavity. This needs to be addressed along with fixing the other things you find in your clients!

Herbs Alleviate Inflammation

Herbals have been used for centuries to alleviate gum and teeth infections. They can be used periodically for maintenance of gum health and teeth whitening, too.

INGREDIENTS

This remedy contains two herbs: goldenseal root + myrrh, and clove essential oil.

GOLDENSEAL...

Here's our AIP Compliant, anti-inflammatory pizza recipe that rivals the most doughy deliciousness from "that" side of the inflammatory tracks.

Bon appétit!

Ingredients for Crust

1 cup cassava flour

2 tbsp tapioca flour

½ tsp salt

2 tsp nutritional yeast

¼ cup coconut milk

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

¾ cup hot water

Fresh herbs: rosemary, tarragon, basil, parsley, oregano to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, add the cassava flour, tapioca flour, salt, nutritional yeast, the coconut milk and olive oil. Mix using spatula and then add the hot water slowly stirring carefully. keep stirring using the spatula until all the water is absorbed by the flour. Now using your hands knead the dough until smooth. Dough should feel very soft. Add the rest of the olive oil and this will make the dough extra soft and take any stickiness away. This is where you can add more herbs and spices. Be generous with herbs like: oregano, tarragon,...

We created the Mold Detox Diet with a mind to our audience. Mold-exposed folks  suffer from brain fog, with short attention spans, and have difficulty retaining new information. We made this EASY to use.

"I am really struggling with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. My concentration is terrible. I was scared to start something new, but this program made it doable for me. If it wasn't for Mold Detox Diet, I would still be stuck. Now I feel empowered." ~ Sue N

We crafted the videos so that they are animated.

You will see text writing, as well as hear the voice talking. We added colors and pictures to accentuate the learning process, and we animated the pictures when possible.

Tips for Learning Success

• Bring a notebook and pen to your session, so you can jot down notes.
• All of the important info is in the handouts for each module. We recommend that you print them and make a folder/notebook to for easy reference. Practitioners, You can make as many copies as you need for your...

If you are seeing mold patients, then, most likely, a number of patients popped in your head when you read the headline

You can recognize them:

• They are really wired and anxious. Scared, even.
• They aren’t sleeping well.
• They may only have 3-5 safe foods to eat, and even then, they may be reactive to those foods to some degree.

What’s happening here? They are stuck in a “fear loop”. The fight or flight response is releasing excess neurotransmitters that is acting on the mast cells to release more histamine. This makes their food reactions even worse.

They take up an enormous amount of your time and energy answering their questions, when you should be spending that time and energy on healing the gut, stabilizing mast cells and the histamine response.e.

They want to know:

• How, and why, did this happen to me?
• Is it permanent?
• What can you do to help me?

You can give them handouts for the low histamine diet, but most likely that isn’t enough to help them...

We all know that healing from mold illness includes a LOT of detoxing. But what happens if your patient protocol doesn’t include the appropriate nutrition? Your patients feel WORSE!!

Why? Because mold toxins so inflame the body that they they actually blocks the body’s ability to rid itself of toxins!

Where does it all go wrong?

• Most detox programs include binders and pharmaceuticals, but don’t address the fact that patients are continuing to put toxins in their bodies via their diet.
• Most doctors don’t know how to educate their patients to safely lower their toxic load and reduce exposure to toxins in their foods and in their environment. 

It is really hard to motivate patients to stay on your course of treatment, when it is making them feel lousy.

What’s Fat Got to Do with It?

When there is a high level of circulating toxins, the body tries to reduce the damage from them by shunting them into hiding or storage places to reduce damage to our...