Episode 233 - The Hidden Dangers of Mycotoxins: Unraveling the Mystery of Mold Illness

The Hidden Dangers of Mycotoxins: Unraveling the Mystery of Mold Illness

Dr. Deb 0:01welcome back to Let’s Talk wellness now. I’m your host, Dr, Deb, and I’m so thrilled to have you with me today. If you’ve been searching for answers to mysterious health issues, whether they’re unexplained fatigue, brain fog or persistent headaches, then today’s the episode for you. We’re diving into a silent epidemic that’s affecting millions of people around the world, but often goes unnoticed. Mycotoxins and mold illness, these sneaky little saboteurs can hide in your home, your workplace and even your body, silently undermining your health in ways you might never have imagined. As serenity Healthcare Center, we specialize in uncovering these hidden causes of chronic disease, and today, I’m bringing that expertise directly to you. We’ll explore what mycotoxins are, how they wreak havoc on your body and especially your brain, and most importantly, what you can do to heal. So stick around to the end of this episode, because I’ll share a powerful case study that shows just how life changing it can be to uncover and treat mold illness, plus I’ll give you actionable tips to protect yourself and your loved ones. So grab a cup of tea, get cozy, and let’s talk wellness now. So what are mycotoxins and why? Honestly, should we care about them? Let’s start with the basics. Mycotoxins are toxic chemicals produced by certain types of mold. These aren’t just molds you see growing on food or in damp corners of your bathroom. These are microscopic airborne particles that can infiltrate your home, your body and even your brain. Now, mycotoxins have no odor to them, so often times you have no clue that they’re even present. Molds like Aspergillus and Stachybotrys, commonly known as black mold and Penicillium produce these toxins, and when you inhale, ingest, or even touch them, they can cause serious health problems. And the scary part, you don’t need to see the mold to be affected by it. I remember when I was suffering with mycotoxin illness. A few years ago, I was doing some gardening, and I was pulling weeds, and I didn’t have any problems ever in the garden, and all of a sudden I broke out in hives, and I couldn’t understand what was happening, because I knew I didn’t get exposed to anything that I was allergic to. But it was every time I went outside to garden, I would break out in hives, and it didn’t matter if I had long sleeves on, it didn’t matter if I had gloves on, I would be covered in hives within about 30 minutes of gardening. And I really thought my gardening days were over, but it was when I found out that I was colonized in the nasal passages with mold that I learned that was what was causing my reaction to being in the garden. It wasn’t that I was allergic to something, it was the mold that was there that I was disrupting that was creating a histamine response in my body and causing me to have this allergic response, or at least what seemed like an allergic response, and these hives would last for weeks, and they were so itchy. Oh my gosh, I remember how terrible they were, and there was nothing I could do, Benadryl, hydrocortisone cream, none of it worked. None of the oral stuff worked. Even prednisone really didn’t touch it, and it was so intense. But when I got the mycotoxins out of my nasal passages and got the mold out of the nasal passages and started to clear my body, I could suddenly go back out to gardening again and not have any problems with it. So it is a huge response, and it is part of what triggers mast cell activation syndrome for people, or what we call MCAS, which is a histamine reaction. So anyway, I digress. But why should you care about mold or mycotoxin illness? Well, mycotoxins are linked to some of the most debilitating health issues, neurological conditions like brain fog, migraines, depression and unfortunately, even neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, they can all cause hormonal imbalances, chronic fatigue and immune system dysfunction. It’s not uncommon for us to see people who are sick with mycotoxin illness have hormonal disruptions, where their estrogen levels and progesterone levels are falling well before menopause, where men have testosterone levels that look like 80 years old and they’re only 30 or 40.

Dr. Deb 5:00This can become a real problem when you’re young, and you’re losing your hormones at such an early age, because that loss of hormones can add to other illnesses down the road, like osteoporosis and more cognitive issues. We know that there’s a decline of hormones from traumatic brain injury that can lead to early onset menopause, which can also then lead to triggering neurological diseases. And if traumatic brain injury does this well, mycotoxin illness or mold illness is just a non traumatic brain injury, and this is very well documented and known in the literature, that these things can create many, many complications. Now, have you ever felt like your health was on a roller coaster, like no matter what you do, you can’t get better? Well, mycotoxins might be the hidden culprit, because mold isn’t just a nuisance, it’s a silent saboteur, quietly undermining your health.

Dr. Deb 6:01Now here’s where it really gets fascinating and honestly frightening. Mycotoxins don’t just make you sneeze or give you a rash like they did in my condition. They cross the blood brain barrier and attack your nervous system. And when mycotoxins reach the brain, they can cause inflammation in the brain, which disrupts the way the neurons communicate, leading to brain fog, memory issues and difficulty concentrating. They damage our neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers in your brain responsible for mood, energy and focus. If you want to learn more about this, go back and check out our episode that we did on neurotransmitters, mycotoxins can disrupt dopamine and serotonin, contributing to depression and anxiety. They mimic other diseases. These mycotoxins are really sneaky, and they can create symptoms that look like multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and even chronic fatigue syndrome, making it incredibly hard to be diagnosed properly. One of the most understood effects of mycotoxins is their impact on the pituitary gland, a small but mighty gland in your brain that controls all of your hormones. When this gland is compromised, you might experience unexplained weight gain, fatigue and even fertility issues. This is crazy to think that this chemical, this mold that we take for granted, that we know is everywhere that people don’t take seriously, can damage our pituitary gland and damage our hormonal function and give us symptoms like MS and fibromyalgia, but yet nobody’s really talking about it in the conventional world, and nobody’s looking at it in the conventional world. This is crazy to me, and I wonder how many people have been misdiagnosed with these types of conditions simply because they’re living in or have been exposed to an environment that had mold at one time that the mycotoxins are still present and they just haven’t left the environment. Now, have you or someone you love ever been misdiagnosed or felt like the diagnosis didn’t quite fit well. This is why we need to dig deeper and ask the right questions. I was diagnosed with MS in December of 2022

Dr. Deb 8:30in my world, I know that MS is usually something else, until proven otherwise, unless you truly have monoclonal antibodies in your spinal tap, if you’re diagnosing ms solely by white matter brain disease on an MRI,

Dr. Deb 8:46I would seek a second opinion, because these toxins that we talk about on the show, these infections that we talk about, all can cause white matter brain disease. They can all cause symptoms that mimic ms Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, all of these things could be explained potentially, and you could get better without having to take drugs that you really don’t want, that you really can’t afford. And if we get to the root cause, we can make things better for you. Now, sometimes the answer isn’t in a pill, it’s in the air you breathe and the environment around you.

Dr. Deb 9:29Now let me share my personal story. Years ago, my husband Dennis and I decided to remodel this quaint little Riverside cottage. It was the dream project until we discovered the mold in the house, there was a roof leak, there was black mold in a closet, there was a foundation leak, there was mold in a bedroom and the bathroom. So we decided to tackle the remediation ourselves, and after six grueling months of.

Dr. Deb 10:00Work, I started to notice some really strange symptoms. My energy was gone. I couldn’t sleep. I was constantly irritable. But the most alarming change was the rapid weight gain. For me. I gained 25 pounds in just two months, for someone who has always been able to eat whatever I want without gaining an ounce. This was shocking. Now I know don’t be mad at me. I can’t help it. I had really good genes at one time for this,

Dr. Deb 10:28but this weight gain happened around the time we started to remediate this home. And as a practitioner, I immediately suspected mold toxicity. I ran tests and discovered my Gliotoxin levels were three times the normal limit. Gliotoxin is a mycotoxin that specifically targets the pituitary gland, which explained a lot of my symptoms.

Dr. Deb 10:52This experience taught me that mold illness doesn’t just affect the body, it impacts the mind, the emotions and even your sense of self. Now, I had worked in another building many years before that that was moldy, and I was there for 10 years, and I knew the building had mold. I could smell it, and I would get sick every time I would go in the building.

Dr. Deb 11:17And I had talked to my partners. They didn’t want to remediate. They didn’t want to d...