Transcript: *

Mold: The Stealth Environmental Exposure That is Harming Our Health

Hello dear friends,

As environmental medicine gets more attention, people are gaining more appreciation for the fact that what we eat, drink, apply to our bodies, and are exposed to can profoundly impact our wellness. Unfortunately, our world is full of chemicals and toxins lurking in everyday consumer items. They are hiding in our food, water, personal care products, cleaning agents, and even the air we breathe.

These contaminants are ubiquitous and can negatively impact our physiology, leading to disease. Therefore, awareness of them and being proactive to avoid their excess accumulation is key to ensure we stay healthy.

Mold is an underappreciated, major source of symptoms and disease processes that is often missed as an environmental exposure in conventional care. It can go unrecognized for years as a main contributor to a lot of “mysterious” and “undiagnosed” symptoms. Recently, more understanding of its nasty effects has been emerging, along with the appreciation for the complexity of mold-related illness and how to treat it.

Thankfully, many integrative pioneers in mold-related illness have been leading the way on how to personalize approaches for the most genetically sensitive and the more robust mold detoxifiers. I have tried to stay up to date on this topic for several reasons. First, it is always evolving. Second, I have been personally affected by mold. Third, I have had a few clients who have been impacted as well.

Now, I do not tout myself to be a mold-illness expert, but I am committed to continue to always learn more. My clients and my esteemed colleagues are my greatest teachers. As a result, I’ve compiled information in several ways. I’ve researched mold and written several articles on it, have been honored to interview a few leaders on this subject on the Essential Oil Revolution podcast, and recently provided a video on using binders and essential oils for mold exposure.

Today, I want to share some additional information with you about mold exposure from my experience with supporting others in their final stages of healing. Before I do, I’ll review what we learned from my last clinical tip.

Some of the key takeaways about mold so far include:

1. Mold is sneaky, prevalent, and can cause and contribute to many illnesses because it has system-wide effects.
2. Binders are important to use when addressing mold, yet be careful. Used too often and inappropriately, they can deplete the body of minerals and lead to cavities and nutrient deficiencies.
3. Essential oils are a powerful ally 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.

Now, I will be adding more to our toolkit for mold. I will discuss:

• How our olfactory system is linked to our survival.
• How essential oils can protect and defend the body when breathing in mold spores and mycotoxins.
• Using essential oils intranasally for mold exposure.
• Some safety caveats for kidney health and managing detoxifying when addressing colonization.
• Research on probiotics and mycotoxins.

As always, all the references will be in the resource section in the transcript.

Let’s get started.

Our Olfactory System: A Key Player in Our Survival

When I interviewed one of the top mold-illness specialists, Dr. Crista, on the Essential Oil Revolution podcast regarding her approach to mold-related illness, she explained how our olfactory system is a major player in our survival. Specifically, our nose is a key gateway for body invaders, as well as defenders, to enter our body.

In fact, inhalation via the olfactory pathway is how mold and mycotoxins affect the brain and limbic system. Mycotoxins, being lipid soluble, can enter the nervous system into the brain through our scent pathway. From there, they travel throughout our system, impairing the immune system and causing damaging effects to other organs.

Our sense of smell also impacts our sense of safety, because it is part of our surveillance system. Mycotoxins have no scent, but the odorants are picked up by the limbic system and ignite a “danger” response. This inflammatory cascade, from an unknown source, can lead to low grade anxious symptoms.

Essential Oils for Combating Mold

Thankfully, essential oils are an amazing tool right “under our nose” for combating mold’s physical and emotional havoc. According to a recent post by Vibrant Blue Oils, inhaling essential oils can be a powerful way to decrease mycotoxin and mold invasion into our system:

Mold starts in the nose, with the inhalation of tiny fungi (mold metabolites), known as mycotoxins, through the nasal passages that contribute to sinus inflammation and congestion.

The inhalation and intranasal application of antifungal essential oils can help make sure that mold also ENDS in the nose by helping to reset your nasal microbiome…

Essential oils serve as part of the plant’s immune system and contain therapeutic properties that protect plants from fungus including mold, bacteria, and viruses. Essential oils are comprised of different chemical structures, including aldehydes, phenolics, and terpenes, making them more effective against a diverse range of pathogens. The more diverse, the more effective…

…blends formulated with essential oils with known antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiseptic properties that penetrate the nasal lining for rapid relief when inhaled … fight mold.

Essential oils also support the stress and limbic response that becomes dysregulated from being threatened by a moldy predator. These aromatic molecules directly connect to our emotional brain and support brain health in various ways. This is via their interaction with our cellular receptors, balancing neurotransmitters and hormones, shifting brain wave patterns, and acting as a neuroprotective.

In these ways, essential oils are powerful defenders that also address some of the systematic imbalances that result from mold. Additionally, they can also help with preventing and treating colonization.

What do I mean by colonization?

Colonization of Mold and Essential Oils

One area that can be missed with treating mold is colonization of its spores and other co-inhabitants in the nasal cavity. This leads to continual exposure throughout the body through every inhalation. In other words, people can be out of a moldy environment but still be living with mold in their body. AKA, their body becomes the source of  mold-mycotoxin exposure. This is a key area to consider if one wants to get well.

One way to address this is by using essential oils intranasally. Dr. Crista reviewed this in our podcast. She even provided us with a recipe on a nasal spray with essential oils for mold illness.

Here’s what I discovered when implementing this step with my clients:

• The natural formulations with essential oils are strong!! Don’t be fooled because of their intranasal and easy application.
• You must support the process of breaking up those buggers and save the urinary system undue stress. I have had several instances where my clients started on a colonization protocol, and we didn’t use enough support to deal with it. They ended up with urinary symptoms! Thankfully this was easily remediated with urinary herbals and probiotics, but be forewarned. Mycotoxins are excreted through the kidneys and can be hard on them, especially ochratoxin. Glutathione and binders won’t cut it for this aspect.

Probiotics as Gentle Binders

Another interesting thing I recently came across is new research on how certain probiotics can be used to help us rid of excess toxins. I knew this in a broad sense, but a newsletter by Moss Nutrition enhanced my understanding. Specifically, certain lactic acid bacteria produce exopolysaccharides (EPS). These are biopolymers that help enhance immune function, gut barrier, and act as binders of heavy metals and mycotoxins.

Specific lactic acid bacteria have been found to bind Aflatoxin B, Aflatoxin M1, ochratoxin, and zearalenone. As a result, I have found it helpful to add various blends of probiotics to my clients’ wellness plans for ridding systematic mold.

Additionally, I like to include other gentle binders and detoxifiers to help the body eliminate mold. These include bile movers, bioflavonoids, and fibers for longer term use. I also have used some of the traditional binders as needed.

Summing Up Mold, Colonization, Essential Oils, and Probiotics

So, here’s the key points from all that we discussed so far about mold, with additions on intranasal use of essential oils and colonization taken into consideration:

1. Mold is sneaky, prevalent, and can cause and contribute to many illnesses because it has system-wide impact.
2. Be careful with binders. Improper use can lead to depletion of minerals and cause deficiency symptoms.
3. Essential oils support a healthy home environment and are underutilized for dealing with mold exposure. They can be used along with air filters, remediation, and being mindful of humidity for moldy conditions.
4. When using any antifungal therapeutically, be mindful that it can stir things up. Therefore, have the proper support in place. This includes working with health care providers who can tweak supplemental support as the body detoxifies and heals.
5. You must address colonization in the nasal cavity to fully heal from mold exposure. Intranasal use of essential oils can be very effective for this and are very powerful. Make sure to go slow and be sure to support all body elimination pathways, especially the liver, gut, kidney, and lymph system.
6. I have found adding gentle binders, including probiotics and bioflavonoids, along with bile movers can help with elimination and movement of mold toxins while addressing colonization. This is especially important for preventing kidney and urinary strain.

So, there you have it!

I hope you find this information helpful in assisting you with using essential oils to boost your mold defense and support your overall wellness.

If you like this content, it would be super helpful if you could help me spread the word by sharing the links to my YouTube channel and newsletter. This will allow us to reach more people and empower them with natural health information and safe and evidence-based essential oil education.

As a subscriber yourself, you’ll stay up to date on my latest clinical tips, blogs, news, and podcasts. You will also be the first to hear about the release of my upcoming brain health program! This transformational program centers on balancing the brain. In this way, our limiting beliefs and non-nourishing behavioral patterns will be addressed so we can make the needed changes in our lives.

Resources:

• Mold, Binders, Cavities, and Essential Oils, Oh My! (My article with references)
• Intranasal Essential Oils for Mold Remediation (VBO blog)
• Using Essential Oils for Mold-Related Illness with Dr. Jill Crista, ND (Essential Oils Revolution Podcast #402)
• Keeping It Green Part I: Essential Resources for Protecting Yourself While Living in a Toxic World (My clinical tip with references)
• Keeping It Green Series: Part III: Pure, Clean Water for Cellular Health and Whole-Body Rejuvenation (My clinical tip with references)
• The Toxic Mold Connection to Lyme, Autoimmunity, and Your Health (My article with resources)
• The Mold- Health Connection (My article with resources)
• Toxic Mold Syndrome: “It Was Like I Lost My Personality” (Amen Clinics)
• Caveats with Mold Testing (My article with resources)
• Ochratoxin (Dr. Crista’s website)
• Enhanced Toxin Binding with Lactic Acid Probiotics (The Moss Nutrition Digest #44)
• Mold Got You Backed Up (Dr. Crista’s website)
• Debunking The Myths Surrounding Molds and Mycotoxins with Dr. Kristine Burke (Conversations for Health by DFH Podcast)
  
• A Naturopathic and Functional Medicine Approach to Supporting the Brain Using Essential Oils: Essential Oils for the Brain Part 2 (My clinical tip with references)
• Three Ways Essential Oils Support Brain Health for Better Mood, Memory, and Cognition: Part 1 (My clinical tip with references)

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