By Dr. Kyle Warren
Edited by Meghan Feir Walker
Mold is one of the most discussed problems in the alternative health world and functional medicine practices today— for many good reasons. While mold is anything but a new problem, little research has been done concerning its effects on the body. However, understanding the basics of mold is important for your health and the health of your loved ones.
In future articles and videos, we’ll go over the dangers and impact of mold, healing from mold illness, and other particulars in greater detail. But first I’m going to run through some important information about mold, warning signs that it might be a problem, and some factors that cause certain people to be especially susceptible to mold.
To view our last article on mold, click here.
Mold: A common issue that can mimic other conditions (like Lyme or gut problems!)
In the last couple of years, I've increasingly been asked more about mold from my patients, and we’ve subsequently worked with more patients on detoxing mold from their bodies.
Dr. Paul and I regularly work with patients dealing with the ill effects of mold exposure. Between 20-30% of the people we see are experiencing ill effects from mold. As both of us have seen, mold can mimic gut-related symptoms, SIBO, and leaky gut, but it can also mimic common symptoms caused by Lyme disease. Mold often causes inflammation, in general, but it also often causes neurological inflammation, which can trigger abnormal nerve symptoms.
Many of my Lyme patients have heightened susceptibility to severe symptoms from mold exposure. Similarly, people who are especially vulnerable to mold exposure are also more likely to develop chronic Lyme disease when infected.
How mold training has changed
In 2013, I (Dr. Warren) trained with Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker who is seen as the godfather of mold illness. At the time, this information about mold was brand new in our world of functional medicine. No one realized the prevalence of mold illness at the time.
This first round of training was a good introduction to learning more about the immune system and systemic inflammatory problems caused by mold. We also learned about testing for inflammatory markers, such as MMP-9, TGF beta, MSH, and a patient’s genetics for susceptibilities.
All of these tests can show signs of systemic inflammation, but they are indirect ways to check if mold is a possible factor in health issues.
After inflammation is found, Dr. Shoemaker largely based his protocol on prescribing off-label medications. One of the problems with this was that a few of the prescription drugs he was using were a bit risky. Other doctors didn't necessarily want to prescribe them, and using everything off-label can be problematic. This also made me run into issues when I was trying to carry out his protocols.
Revised mold training
In 2018 I did mold training with Dr. Shoemaker again (and by now I had partnered with Dr. Paul). By then, he had partnered with Dr. Andrew Heyman. Dr. Heyman taught integrative medicine and began implementing part of Dr. Shoemaker’s protocol coupled with natural solutions. I found this approach much more helpful because I could implement these natural, less toxic pieces that carry fewer side effects, and we could ally with some friends and partners to get the prescription drugs for patients who needed them. We’ve found this revised approach to be much more efficient at solving and fixing mold illness.
Dr. Paul also had a personal experience with a moldy home which I will let him share all about. Suffice it to say that while I was learning about it, Paul was living it. Thus we both became intimately aware of mold as we worked with it more in our own lives and with our patients post-2018.
Now, more and more functional medicine doctors have published materials on mold illness, and we particularly appreciate the input from practitioners like Dr. Neil Nathan, Dr. Jill Carnahan, Dr. Peter Osborne, and Dr. Jill Krista. General awareness of mold illness has skyrocketed since about 2022 (locked home during covid anyone?)
How mold recirculates throughout your body - the evil recycling conundrum
Removing the mold from your body isn’t as simple as it seems because part of the problem is your body’s inflamed response to mold.
One of the main problems with mold and one of its most unique aspects is that mold can take advantage of your bile recycling pathway.
When your liver detoxes and dumps waste through the bile your gallbladder produces, this waste makes its way into the intestines. Your body then recycles this bile. The genetic difference between someone susceptible to mold and not susceptible to mold is that they're efficient at recycling bile.
If you are a person who is especially susceptible to mold’s toxicity, mold is undoubtedly being sucked back into the bile recycling pathway. Instead of taking a one-way ticket out of your body through your poop, mold can hitch a roundtrip ride when this process isn’t working correctly. The mold just keeps reentering your body. It’s like taking your trash out for the garbage man to pick up, only to take the trash back into your home.
This is why it’s so important for patients to use binders. Binders bind to toxins, like mold and mycotoxins, and grab onto them so they can’t get reabsorbed into the body through the bile recycling pathway.
When should you suspect mold?
A growing number of people have been plagued with chronic fatigue, chronic neurological symptoms, chronic pain, and chronic digestive issues. Whether it’s long-haul COVID, mold, tick-borne diseases, or other autoimmune conditions causing these chronic symptoms, it’s important to discover the root cause. What is your body responding to, and why is your body responding the way it is?
One of the telltale signs that mold may be to blame is if you begin experiencing symptoms soon after moving to a new home, workplace, or school.
For some problems and illnesses, it can be difficult to pinpoint when symptoms developed because it was such a slow progression that first went unnoticed. However, if your symptoms started six months or so after moving to a new house, workplace, school, etc., mold is suspect No. 1.
While it’s not always as obvious to pinpoint, that’s one question we ask our patients when deciding if mold could be to blame.
Mold testing: Do you have mold in your body?
Testing inflammatory markers, such as MMP-9, TGF beta, MSH, and a patient’s genetics for susceptibilities have positives and negatives when determining if mold is the cause of chronic inflammation.
These tests can be helpful to check on inflammation levels in the body and susceptibility factors. However, these tests can be convoluted because these inflammatory markers can be elevated due to many factors, not just mold. Lyme, other tick-borne infections, heavy metals (like mercury), and other things can cause inflammation in the body to rise. This is why we like using tests that directly determine mold levels in the body.
We will run tests on inflammatory markers occasionally, but in recent years we've mainly been utilizing the urine mycotoxin panels. This is currently the best way to check people for mold toxicities in general. Through your urine, we can tell if you have mold/mycotoxins in your system. There are exceptions where Dr. Paul and I will utilize other forms of testing if we are highly suspicious and trying to cross-correlate, but overall the urine mycotoxin test is the most practical and most cost-effective way to figure out if mold is an issue and help you move forward with healing.
Are you currently exposed to mold?
You must be in a clean environment to get better. While it’s almost impossible to find a perfectly healthy home, you can’t breathe in mold, day in and day out, and expect to get better. You won’t be able to detox it effectively enough. It will just keep bombarding your body. You must create or find a healthier environment to live and work in.
When you are suffering from mold illness, the first thing you need to determine is whether or not you are currently being exposed to mold. This can be a much more difficult task than it seems.
Mold isn’t always obvious, and mycotoxins are even smaller than mold spores. It can hide under floorboards, inside walls, and in attics. It can be caused by prolonged humidity and water exposure paired with improper airflow. For example, ice dams can cause eventual rotting and mold issues. Basements, bathrooms, and kitchens are all common places for mold to grow.
Sometimes mold remediation is simple. Other times it’s costly and requires extensive work. Every patient’s situation is unique.
Whatever the case may be, we must make sure you aren’t still breathing in mold and mycotoxins constantly.
In future articles, we’ll go more in-depth into ways you can find and remediate mold.
The must-haves for any mold protocol
To ensure your mold protocol is effective, we need to make sure these basic elements are being met.
For our mold protocols, there are three main areas we focus on targeting.
- Add liver support
- Kill colonized mold
- Implement binders
Add liver support
Firstly, we need to help your liver detox the mold. Liver nutrients we love include glutathione, alpha-lipoic acid, milk thistle, and a variety of others. These liver-detox-supporting nutrients are crucial when trying to improve detoxification.
Other supportive practices that encourage healthy detoxification include Epsom salt baths, rebounding, lymph massage, and saunas.
Kill colonized mold
We want to implement supplements and herbs that effectively kill fungus and yeast because mold can colonize and grow inside the body. Some antifungal, anti-yeast herbs include caprylic acid, grapefruit seed extract, garlic, and oregano, among others.
You can also use some prescription antifungals. Unfortunately, many of these prescription antifungals can be hard on the liver. Since you’re trying to detox toxins out of the liver, this isn’t a great time to put extra pressure on it, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.
Whether the antifungal is natural or prescription, we need something in the protocol to kill mold that has colonized inside your body and made you its new home.
Implement binders
There are a variety of binders that patients can use. One of the reasons we don’t usually go for prescription binders is that they can be extremely constipating. If you’re dealing with diarrhea, then they can be fine to use, but it can be hard on a person who’s already constipated because you aren’t releasing toxins frequently enough as it is.
For natural binders, we typically like using chlorella, zeolites, beets, and other options.
Stay tuned for more information on mold
I hope this basic overview of mold has been helpful! If it has, consider sharing this article with your friends and family, and stay tuned for more in-depth articles and videos on mold and mycotoxins in the near future.
To watch the correlating video, click here.
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