The Hidden Dangers of Mold and Mycotoxins in Your Home or Business and How It Affects Your Healing

This toxic threat, which is one of the biggest risk factors and root causes of so many health issues, from simple symptoms to chronic disease, can be present in your day-to-day environment for years without ever revealing itself. And, unless you have heightened senses and can smell it, or have a significant allergic reaction to it, you may never realize it’s there. We’re talking about the sneaky toxin that comes from certain foods in your diet as well as from leaks in roofs and pipes within your home. Yes, that’s right. We’re talking about mold. But, when discussing mold, which so many people are suffering with, we’re talking about the mycotoxins, which are the poisons that mold gives off within the body that are actually creating so much of the issue.

In this article we will quickly discuss the best approach to dealing with this toxic threat in your body. We will also discuss how mold and mycotoxins affect your body and your health and I’m going to give you an example of my office, which recently flooded, and I’m going to show you exactly how tricky mold can be and how we addressed the water damage to ensure that mold and mycotoxin risk were eliminated before renovating. So, when talking about the mycotoxins or the poisons from mold, which so many of us suffer from, there are a couple in particular that I see on most people’s lab work, which are aflatoxin and ochratoxin. 

There are two destructive processes that occur when mycotoxins such as aflatoxin and ochratoxin are present in our body. The result of this destruction leads to many of the chronic diseases that we see our friends and family suffering with today. The biggest problem is that people who are struggling with the chronic symptoms of mycotoxins might not even realize it’s due to mold exposure. Let’s talk about each process and why it’s important to rule mold toxicity out as a root cause for you:

The first thing that mycotoxins do when present in our body is damage the mitochondria within our body’s cells. This mitochondria is what produces the ATP or our body’s energy. Without this critical production of ATP, our body cannot function or heal. The second destructive process that mycotoxins put into motion is suppressing or weakening our immune response. When you have a lack of mitochondria or ATP being produced, and you have a weakened immune response, so many imbalances within the body can occur. This is why, for some people, they’re tired all the time, and one of the reasons is that no matter how much some people sleep, they still don’t have the energy to get through the day without a nap. It’s one of the root cause of brain fog and mental fatigue as well as having issues recalling words or names. Another symptom of mold and mycotoxins in the body is skin issues. Mold and mycotoxins affect the skin because the body needs energy (ATP) to eliminate them through the lymphatic system, liver, gut, and kidneys. When mold and mycotoxins damage this ATP or energy production, our body’s ability to keep up with the elimination of these toxins begins to slow down. This results in congestion, inflammation, and the spread of these toxins throughout the body. This leads to chronic conditions, and this is where you’re going to have recurring infections. Remember, your body doesn’t have the mitochondria production, ATP, or the energy to fight infections, but you also don’t have the immune response to do that, so you’re going to have recurring issues with things like Epstein Barr Virus. You’re going to have issues with Lyme disease. You’re going to have issues with parasites and bacteria. You’re going to have recurring yeast infections so for those of you who have recurring issues with yeast or fungus, that could be yeast infections with your gut, vaginal yeast infections, it could be thrush or having a white tongue. It could be issues with fungus on your toenails. These are all warning signs of an underlying mycotoxin or mold issue. 

When you’re exposed to mycotoxins from mold long-term and the body is not able to keep up with the detox of these poisons, this is where we get into autoimmune diseases, like autoimmune thyroid or Hashimoto’s, Lupus, RA, Psoriasis, as well as Parkinson’s, MS, dementia or Alzheimer’s, and even diseases such as cancer.

If you have unexplained symptoms that you cannot figure out the cause of, or any of the symptoms just described in this article, it’s important to understand where that risk or exposure is coming from.

We recently had a pipe burst in the ceiling of our office at Recreated Health. By the time we realized the leak had started, it had been at least 8-10 hours and there was already two to three inches of water covering the entire office – that’s over 2,500 square feet of office space covered with several inches of water. It would take another 6-8 hours before we had a crew in the office to begin drying everything out with vacuums, fans, and dehumidifiers. So, within 24 hours from the start of the flooding, the entire office space was dried out. And that means removing all of the plants because they were pulling all of the moisture and water out of the air and environment. Unfortunately, upon removing the cabinets, flooring, and the base of all of the walls, guess what we found? That’s right, the beginning mold developing on the base of the drywall. Behind the trim and inside the wall. Too often we’re looking at the outside, but it may take time before mold is visible especially when it’s coming through the wall, or ceiling from a leak. Just remember, you can have a wall or ceiling that looks perfectly clean without a sign of any kind of water damage or mold, and oftentimes people are painting things with Kilz to cover it up when it does show up. That doesn’t mean the mold is not there! And, covering mold with paint or Kilz will not eliminate the risk of spreading the spores throughout the environment and making everyone sick.  

In our office, because of the visible signs of mold on the inside of the walls, we are removing most walls and treating everything else that was in contact with water with a neutralizing agent.

Now how do we do that? We don’t do that with bleach. Mold cannot be killed with bleach and, if you spray bleach on mold, it will cause the mold to release even more spores (mycotoxins) into the environment! Our choice for treatment was utilizing a product from Fresh Start Environmental which is an all-natural product that can be sprayed directly on the surface of concern to neutralize all of those mycotoxin spores and stop the mold growth in its tracks. We will be doing this knowing that just because we’ve stopped the leak, and ran fans and dehumidifiers, does not ensure that all of the mold and mycotoxins are gone. We have to treat this because if not, here’s what happens, even if they close those walls back up, seal it all up, put all of the drywall and cabinets back in place, those mycotoxins will still be in circulation, and my whole team is going to be exposed from this point on in this environment. And, for somebody trying to heal from a health concern, especially if you’re trying to detox and heal, we’re going to be continuously re-exposing ourselves if there is mold and mycotoxins present that we’re breathing in every day. The same goes for any people who have wet homes, basements or crawl spaces, leaks, previous water damage, or workplaces that have water or mold issues. For these people, any time they are trying to heal, they will be taking 2 steps forward, and 1 and half steps back. Mold and mycotoxin exposure slows down and inhibits our body’s ability to detox and heal. And the longer this occurs, it can lead to so many long-term health issues. If in doubt, hire a professional who specializes in mold remediation to assess your home or workplace. Make sure you are safe in your current environment. This will set you up to successfully heal. Next, in order to determine if you have a mold or mycotoxin issue, you can test yourself with a urine mycotoxin test. This will show you which types of mycotoxins you have and will help you specifically target the source of your mold issues whether that be diet or environment. With this information, you will be able to successfully navigate a detox and healing protocol.

For more information on the products we discussed in the article or the YouTube video on how to identify mold risk in your home or workplace go to freshstartenvironmental.com. Also, if you would like to learn how to test yourself or family members for mold or mycotoxin exposure as well as how to support reducing this exposure in your body through safe and natural cleansing, click on the links below our YouTube video for mycotoxin testing and supplementation to support your body’s drainage and detox process, or go to recreatedhealth.com.