Transcript:*

Hello dear friends, welcome to my re-vamped YouTube channel! Here, I am going to be switching my focus to hot topics in integrative medicine and clinical pearls from my own practice and personal experience.

To start off, we are going to highlight one of the most complex issues in holistic medicine that is gaining traction right now, mold. Its newfound popularity is for good reason.

Mold is ambiguous and it impacts your health in a variety of ways.

In this video, I want to highlight some key points about mold and then give you two simple take-home points I learned the hard way, from my own experience and my recent exposure.

So, let’s dig in and start with some of the latest statistics on mold as reported by US BioTek Laboratory:

• 7 million deaths per year are linked to indoor and outdoor air pollution. (World Health Organization, 2014)
• Of the 21.8 million people reported to have asthma in the U.S., approximately 4.6 million cases are estimated to be attributable to dampness and mold exposure in the home. (EPA and Berkeley National Laboratory, 2007)
• At least 45 million buildings in the United Stats have unhealthy levels of mold. (Moldy, 2017)
• Any kind of water damage (flood, pipe burst, leakage) can facilitate the growth of a mold in as soon as 24-48 hours. (ServiceMaster Restore, 2016)
• Up to 25% of the population has a genetic pre-disposition that makes them more susceptible to mold illness. (Mold Sensitized, 2015)
• [Mycotoxins] can spread and affect the immune system severely. These lead to health conditions like allergies, hypersensitivity, respiratory problems (asthma, wheezing, coughing); and some other severe ones like those of memory loss, depression, anxiety and reproductive problems among several others. (Rujuta Borkar, 2018)

(Source: https://realtimelab.com/mold-statistics/)

Many astute functional medicine and naturopathic doctors have become aware that mold can be a contributor and cause of many chronic and mysterious symptoms. Especially if these issues cannot be explained by conventional medicine and/or if other underlying lifestyle factors and root causes have already been implemented with little improvement.

Yet, mold is easy to miss in most medical clinics. This is because many doctors are not aware of how widespread it is or trained in the various multi-system symptoms it can manifest in, beyond respiratory issues. In fact, many physicians tend to attribute mold-related illness to various other diagnoses that match that person’s particular symptom picture. Sadly, this can lead to symptom suppression and more complications because the underlying cause is not getting addressed.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to correct mold-related illness. I know this personally and from working with my clients. This is why I wanted to share with you a bit of what I’ve learned while dealing with my own current and past exposures to mold and supporting some of my clients that have been impacted as well.

Before I do that, I want to give a little disclaimer:

I do not consider myself a mold-expert.

As a naturopathic doctor (ND) and certified functional medicine practitioner (IFMCP), I am trained to look for underlying causes of a disease, and environmental factors, like mold, are among many that I often find. Due to this, I’ve learned to navigate it, aided some of my affected clients, and have known enough to refer out when the severity of mold’s impact is out of my wheelhouse.

I do have a good understanding of mold thanks to the education of some of the most influential pioneers in the field. This includes the esteemed Dr. Jill Crista, Dr. Tom Moorcroft, Dr. Chesney, and Dr. Patterson. I have interviewed all of these exceptional doctors on the Essential Oil Revolution podcast. I have provided links to the shows in the resource section, so you have a list of integrative mold specialists.

That being said, let’s move into the two take-home points about mold I have discovered working in my practice.

The first is the link between mold binders and cavities.

I was listening to a Q&A session with Dr. Jill Crista, and she brought up how she doesn’t keep her patients on binders long. One reason was due to them causing cavities.

Now, many doctors and clients have knowledge that certain binders can bind up minerals and nutrients, so it would make sense that if one is deficient and recovering from a chronic exposure, they would need more nutrition, not less. This is why it’s so important to work with a qualified professional, follow the instructions on the product label, and to space out binders from food, supplements, and medications.

The cavity link was new to me, however, and I recently experienced this personally when I was in a bit of a panic mode from a recent exposure. Due to this, I was going heavy handed on the binders, and not following my own advice on dosing. (Doctors don’t make the best clients, because we like to experiment on ourselves.) The result was that I was getting extreme tooth pain and new cavities. I couldn’t figure out why with no dietary or lifestyle changes.

After hearing Dr. Crista, the lightbulb went off!

It was the binders.

I immediately stopped them, got out of the mold, and started taking various essential oils diluted in veggie caps. (Yes, I use oils orally). This is because I knew my mouth microbiome was messed up from chronic nutrient depletion and I know that essential oils can help balance out the microbiome. They have been also been used successfully in dentistry. I also used a specific toothpaste formulated for oral microbiome health, and within a week my mouth is mostly healed.

So, here’s the bottom line: Binders can bind nutrients and even docs can get overzealous. Therefore, be mindful of your binders when treating mold. Be sure to alternate them, take breaks, and consider more natural forms like chlorophyll and fibers for long-term use. Save the hard-core stuff for when you are in the actual exposure and/or for treatment under a doc’s supervision. You can find more information on the science of cavities and binders in the resource section.

The next takeaway is to not underestimate the power of essential oils for environmental health.

I’m an essential oil doctor and even I was forgetting the power of essential oils in my environment! I have been recommending essential oil diffusion on cotton balls to my clients for over 15 years to help mitigate mold, but like many things in medicine, newer shiner things competed for my doctor brain’s attention.

Due to my recent incident, I decided to get back to my roots and do additional reading on essential oils and mold. I even looked back through some old posts I wrote. (It’s funny how you can write and research something and then forget it yourself. I hope I’m not the only one.) I realized that I was actually underestimating and forgetting their power.

Check out what I wrote in this post:

In my viewpoint, (this is why) one cannot rely on just killing the organism or treating the symptoms if mold is present….

For this reason, I recommend that all my clients begin diffusing essential oils in the home as soon as they can. One oil blend has oils that have been shown to inhibit toxic mold species (20-23).

In fact, in 2005, Edward Close, PhD, a mold remediation consultant, performed a third-party sampling for mold in an apartment complex that had been evacuated related to a flooding. The new buyer had hired an expert to remediate it using a hospital disinfectant; however, Dr. Close’s sampling from that treatment showed mold was still present. When Dr. Close diffused an essential oils blend under the same controlled conditions, he had amazing results.

(Initially) There were 10,667 stachybotrys mold (a form of toxic mold) spores identified in a per cubic meter area, but after diffusing a blend of essential oils for 48 hours, Dr. Close found only thirteen stachybotrys remaining. In a sample of sheetrock of 75,000 stachybotrys mold spores, after 72 hours of diffusing, no stachybotrys mold spores remained. Furthermore, the mold did not re-establish itself because the oils continued to work for hours after diffusing (23).

As mentioned, diffusing this oil blend or biological remediation done properly doesn’t mean your mold woes are cured. Once the stressor is mitigated, it’s time to rebuild the immune system step-by-step in an integrated fashion.

(Source)

Impressive, right!?

Okay, so that’s my main takeaways my friends:

1. Mold is ambiguous and causes many health problems.
2. Be careful with binders.
3. Essential oils are a powerful alley for a healthy home environment, and in my opinion, are being underutilized. To keep mold at bay, they should be used along with air filters, remediation, and being mindful of humidity.

So, that’s it.

Let me know what you think and be sure to comment below.

I’m happy to have ideas for future videos as well.

Take care!

Resources:

• What are the Benefits of Binders and Which Should I Be Using?
• Safe and Effective Detox Binders That Actually Work
• How Toxin Binders Can Smooth Out Your Toxic Mold Journey
• Dental Issues from Mold
• Timing of Food-Based Binders
• How Toxic Exposures, Toxic Mold, and Unhealthy Food Choices Affects Your Health, Immunity, Hormones, and Healing
• The Toxic Mold Connection to Lyme, Autoimmunity, and Your Health
• The Mold- Health Connection
• Caveats with Mold Testing
• Real Time Lab – Mold Statistics
• Revisiting the Therapeutic Effects of Essential Oils on the Oral Microbiome
• Essential Oils and the Microbiome
• Healthy Microbiome Toothpaste
• Oil Blend
• The Evolution of Aromatherapy: From Massage to Self-Care with Jade Shutes – The Essential Oil Revolution Podcast (Ep. 378)

Interviews with Experts on the Essential Oil Revolution:

• An Integrative Approach to the Treatment and Prevention of Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases with Dr. Alexis Chesney, MS, ND, LAc (Ep. 421)
• Using Essential Oils for Mold-Related Illness with Dr. Jill Crista, ND (Ep. 402)
• The Polyvagal Theory, Essential Oils, and Hope in Healing Chronic, Complex Illnesses with Dr. Thomas Moorcroft, DO (Ep. 386)
• Autoimmunity, Lyme Disease, and Essential Oils with Dr. Jaquel Patterson, ND, MBA, IFMCP (Ep. 385)

*Transcript has been edited for grammar and ease of reading.