Category:

Interviews

Hope and Support for Mold Canaries

by Catherine 8:29 pm

Dr. Jill Crista’s Online Community Gives Support and REAL Answers for Those Struggling With Mold Illness

Are you a mold canary? You know, someone that is beacon or early warning sign for trouble or danger when it comes to mold and mycotoxins—as in your body knows and feels the presence of mold from miles away? I definitely am. If I enter a moldy space, my whole body indicates the danger—my skin flushes, my heart races, my nose starts to run, and my throat closes. My anxiety also shoots through the roof. I have come to realize that if I don’t leave immediately and start on my mold protocols, I know I can expect a decline in my health for the next few days. If the mold “hit” is significant (for me this means being in the moldy place for an hour or more or if that place happens to contain high levels of mycotoxins), it sometimes takes a pretty concerted effort to get myself back to homeostasis afterwards. While I am thankful for the insight my body provides, sometimes, this “moldy” lifestyle can be the pits; anyone with extra insight or tips on how to navigate it a little easier is a welcome friend.

8:29 pm 0 comment

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Interviews Mold Prevention Q & A's

My Interview With Indoor Air Quality Extraordinaire, Author, and Scientist Jeff May

by Catherine 6:04 pm

How to Know If Your House is Killing You With Jeff May

When you are looking for someone to trust on all matters concerning indoor air quality, hidden leaks, mold problems, weird or unpleasant odors, contaminated mechanical systems, and the overall “health” of your home, Jeff May should be at the top of your list. I know he is at the top of mine. As a matter of fact, I learned about Jeff and became acquainted with his expertise in the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and home inspections fields when my family was going through our mold nightmare. At the time, I was desperate to find information on how to fix our home, and found one of Jeff’s popular books, My House is Killing Me! The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma, at our local public library. It was the most comprehensive and helpful guide on the myriad things that can cause a home to get “sick” I had ever seen. Needless to say, I couldn’t put it down and later ordered his book, The Mold Survival Guide: For Your Home and for Your Health on Amazon—I can’t recommend it enough to others navigating the confusing world of mold in their home or anyone suspecting that something in their home is making them sick. To this day, I find myself referencing sections of the book when I am working on articles about below-grade spaces, like basements or crawlspaces, or wanting to understand more about proper attic ventilation or ice damming and mold growth. If it has anything to do with mold in a home, believe me, that book covers it!

6:04 pm 2 comments

Healthy Home Interviews Mold Prevention Mold Remediation

Mold Research Study

by Catherine 8:59 pm

Can One Area of Mold Growth Make an Entire Home Unsafe?

I realize that reading mold research and scientific studies about mold is not everyone’s “thing,” but unfortunately for my husband and close friends, it has sort of become mine. The many nuances of our built environments, how each component influences indoor air quality, and how indoor air quality then influences our health (good or bad) totally fascinates me. I truly cannot consume enough information on the subject these days. When a home or building with mold growth is making people sick, there is so much more going on than just the mold. Often, there are bacteria, yeasts, viruses, excess humidity, dust mites, ventilation issues, damaged and decaying building materials, and much, much more. In my opinion, examining how each of these factors influence and affect indoor air quality is at the crux of us figuring out how to prevent mold and environmental illness and how to actually make those that are already sick become well again. My belief is that if we fully understand what is causing the illness, then the cure will become clear, right?

8:59 pm 2 comments

Cleaning Tips Healthy Home Interviews Mold Prevention Mold Remediation Q & A's

A Candid Chat With a Professional Mold Inspector

by Catherine 4:17 pm

Brian Karr Discusses Mold Inspections, Mold Testing, and Why Some Mold Remediations Fail

Of all of the questions I get from readers of this blog, the vast majority are from people completely exhausted and burned out from dealing with mold inspections, mold testing, and remediation companies. Some have been mold testing, inspecting, and remediating their homes exhaustively for years, and are still not feeling any better. Many have had multiple mold inspectors come out to their homes to help them find and “solve” their mold problems. They take all advice and have their homes remediated, only to find days, weeks, or even months later that they are just as sick and just as reactive as ever. They embark upon further home inspection and investigation, only to find that the mold is still there, or that the real source of the mold was never found or properly remediated. In some cases, there were even additional mold problems and sources that were not found or addressed in the first place. Then, the mold ordeal begins again, kind of like the movie Groundhog Day, where individuals and families are forced to relive the same experience with only a slightly altered perspective. For some people, this nightmare goes on for years! It is emotionally exhausting and financially draining. In the end, the people who write to me don’t know who to trust, and don’t have any confidence that spending more money on inspections or remediation is even worth it. At the point when I am finally reached out to, the person is just plain ready to give up entirely.

What Can I Do to Help?

Even though I have been there, done that, and know my fair share about mold inspections and investigations, I am obviously not a certified mold or microbial inspector. So, while I can give advice and share heartfelt “if I were you, what I would do,” feedback from my own experience, I am not out there working in the field, so speak, investigating homes and seeing what other homeowners are dealing with. Thus, in order to really do my part to help the people who need guidance, I thought I would reach out to one of the best and most knowledgeable mold inspectors I know, Brian Karr of We Inspect and creator of the Mold Masterclass. (For my in-depth post about Brian and my experience of taking the Mold Masterclass, click HERE.)

4:17 pm 4 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Products Treatment & Recovery Wellness

The Immune-Boosting Benefits of Alkaline Structured Silver

by Catherine 7:37 pm

Dr. Gordon Pedersen on Medicinal Silver As a Tool for Treating Mold Illness, Candida, and Yeast

Most of us who suffer from mold- or environmentally-triggered illness are familiar with the uses of medicinal silver and silver solutions as natural treatment options for bacteria and yeast. Silver has long-been considered a holistic intervention for infections to be used instead of antibiotics. It has also been touted in the mold illness community for its usefulness against biofilms in nasal washes for the treatment of MARCoNs and fungal sinus infections. But, even though its health benefits have been studied and known for centuries, for some reason, silver seems to still be underappreciated and often pushed aside in favor of the latest buzzed-about supplement or treatment modality. I’ll admit, I had actually sort of forgotten about silver and its benefits myself. I always keep a bottle of Silver Sol on-hand, but hadn’t really needed it or considered using it lately. But, when some familiar Candida symptoms (post-meal discomfort, bloating, indigestion, and brain fog) started to crop up again for me recently, I soon rediscovered silver in a very new light.

7:37 pm 8 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Treatment & Recovery Wellness

“Breaking The Mold” With Dr. Jill Crista, ND

by Catherine 10:59 pm

Concrete Steps for Conquering the Unique Health Challenges Sparked by Mold Toxicity

There are times when I get really excited to share treatment information and insights with you from medical professionals who are working “in the trenches” of the environmental and mold illness space. I love learning about their wonderful, out-of-the-box therapies that are successfully helping patients to conquer chronic illness and to recover. Today, is one of those times! I am honored to introduce you to Dr. Jill Crista, ND.

Dr.Crista is a naturopathic doctor, best-selling author and nationally-recognized health educator. Her passion lies in improving health through education by closing the gap in understanding between medical research and clinical practice. She writes books and conducts online courses for anyone looking for concrete steps to conquer unique health challenges. She focuses on conditions that cause injury and inflammation to the brain and nervous system, including, but not limited to concussion, mold, Lyme disease, and autoimmune encephalopathies.

Dr. Crista graduated with honors from the National University of Naturopathic Medicine in 2003, and completed a program with the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. She is passionate about herbal medicine and completed the advanced botanicals course with Dr. Jillian Stansbury. For over a decade, she was director and practicing member of two integrative medical clinics in southern Wisconsin. There, she had the opportunity to collaborate with many specialty physicians including integrative medicine physicians, naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists, chiropractic doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists. In doing so, she experienced the synergy and efficacy of a team approach to patient care using several modalities. Now she focuses on researching, teaching and writing to incorporate what she has learned to educate both doctors and patients.

The topic of this post is Dr. Crista’s latest book, “Break the Mold.” In it, she walks patients through the weeds of mysterious illness and chronic symptoms caused by mold–from diagnosis, to treatment, to remediation, to future protection from re-exposure. She carefully organizes each chapter to bring the pieces of this debilitating illness together, giving actionable and practical steps towards solutions and wellness. I believe her accessible approach to treating mold illness will resonate with readers from medical professionals to the layperson–literally anyone can get something out of her clinical wisdom and personal experience of being mold-sick herself and with treating mold-sick patients in her practice.

10:59 pm 2 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Treatment & Recovery Wellness

How Mold and Mycotoxins in the Sinus Ignite and Perpetuate Chronic Illness

by Catherine 11:38 pm

An Interview With Dr. Dennis About Naso-Sinus Mold

When something is fundamentally wrong with your environment—chemicals, allergens, mold, pollutants, and/or other toxins—your body usually knows before you do. It will begin “telling” you of the environmental threat with health symptoms, illness, and eventually disease. If you do not get out, or remove the inflammatory culprit in a timely manner, you may face longer-term treatment just to get your body back to homeostasis. This is particularly true with sickness caused by mold exposure, because mold has the ability to colonize the bodies of susceptible individuals (usually in the sinus or digestive system) and to continue to produce mycotoxins within that host. I am intimately acquainted with the health fallout from this chain of events and shared a lot of the details of my experience with fungal sinus colonization in my previous post.

In that post, I talked about how Dr. Dennis helped me to connect my moldy home environment to my upper respiratory symptoms, chronic sinus infections and multi-system distress, like GI upset, acid reflux, anxiety, depression, rapid weight loss and insomnia. He did this by taking my medical history, questioning me about my environment (this included suggesting that I also do environmental testing to confirm mold and mold toxins in my home) and performing a physical endoscopic examination of my sinuses. I also shared how antifungal nasal treatments, both in his office and at home were fundamental pieces to my healing, because they were directly addressing fungal colonization in my sinus that, if left untreated, could have continued to keep me sick, despite the remediation of my home and maximum mold detox and other treatment therapies.

Today, I want to focus more on Dr. Dennis and his unique approach to treating my sinuses, because it really matters to me to share this information and to help others understand how important it can be to making a full recovery. Dr. Dennis’s approach seeks to eliminate the environmental trigger for the illness in the first place, rather than just the symptoms. When a patient (myself included) finally grasps that their immune response to mold is activating their health issues, all efforts and finances can be channeled to things that will actually help (remediating or leaving the moldy environment, detox, binders, antifungals, diet, etc.), rather than actions and/or pharmaceuticals that will not provide answers or relief.

11:38 pm 4 comments

Interviews Mold Doctors and Functional Medicine Practitioners Treatment & Recovery Wellness

My “Don’t Miss” Interview with Dr. Neil Nathan, MD, Environmental Illness Thought Leader and Best-Selling Author

by Catherine 5:55 am

Learn How to Reboot Your Body to Heal from Mold Toxicity

How do you become the “difficult patient” or “outlier” doctor? You know, the doctor who people or other doctors turn to when symptoms or a diagnosis eludes them. In business, the person in this role is often dubbed the “fixer”—the guy or gal who is sent in to flesh out and get to the root of the underlying problems, to get all parties to come to an understanding, and to remedy or bring a formidable solution to all issues that everyone can agree with. In short, an unenviable role that not many people are up for, much less want to volunteer for. In the mold, Lyme disease and environmental illness community, these days, the go-to “fixer” seems to be Dr. Neil Nathan, and he is tackling this role with a gusto, transparency, and compassion that is consummate and heartening.

Dr. Nathan didn’t start out with the most complex patients and cases as the base of his practice, though. So, how did he get to this point?

From the beginning of his medical career after graduating from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Dr. Nathan wanted to help people get to the root of their medical issues. While working as a Family Physician, he quickly discovered that his medical training hadn’t given him all of the tools he needed to help some of his more “difficult” patients. These patients had complicated symptomology with multiple diagnoses that crossed medical specialties. And, while he had delivered babies, performed minor surgeries, and helped patients with pain management, it was becoming more and more apparent, that these patients needed a different and more holistic type of care. Thus, he sought to expand his “toolbelt.”

As Dr. Nathan’s approach changed and he began using herbal and naturopathic modalities in conjunction with
western medicine, his practice also evolved into something new, which he began calling “Complex Medical Problem Solving.” Eventually, his practice focus became, and still is, for the most part, patients suffering from persistent and debilitating illnesses for which there is no “accepted” medical diagnosis, like Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic Lyme disease with its co-infections, Autism, and all varieties of Chronic Pain, amongst others.

5:55 am 4 comments

Interviews Mold Prevention Wellness

Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) Testing: A Valuable Self-Screening Tool for Mold Illness and Treatment Progress

by Catherine 9:55 pm

If you are experiencing health issues and have been exposed to mold in your home or workplace, or you think you may have a mold issue in one of your indoor environments, it is hard to know where to turn for initial symptom assessment and testing without spending lots of time and money on doctors visits that often don’t yield conclusive information. Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) Testing, an online self-assessment of your ability to discern black/white/gray contrast, can help. The test was useful to me in facilitating a connection between my environment and my illness and has continued to be helpful for me in evaluating the effectiveness of my various treatments and new living environments. Thus, I would like to share the details of VCS testing with you today.

Whenever mold exposure is a health concern, the obvious first step should be to address your environment and to figure out whether it has a problem. There are few tools as helpful as environmental testing with EC3 Mold Screening Test Plates to determine this. These biologically-based Petri dishes are conclusive in determining the presence of mold. But, when it comes to your body and knowing whether or not it has been or is being affected by mold, there can be confusion and conflicting information. That is where some online tools and self-screening tests can be very useful. While none of these are conclusive without a doctor’s further testing and diagnosis, they can combine circumstantial evidence that can collectively be relied on to make the difficult and elusive mold diagnosis. Getting diagnosed early can save valuable time and money and is priceless in helping the family manage through any mold hardships impacting their lives.

In my opinion, the best place to start, especially if you are considering medical treatment, is the Free Sinusitis and Mold Sensitivity Evaluation available for FREE at SinusitisWellness.com. It includes questions about both your medical history and home and work environments. Your responses will help to generate valuable information about whether or not your symptoms point to mold as the possible culprit for your health issues. This valuable information can then be used to seek further medical help, or to take practical steps in mold hygiene, or for useful products and follow-up. Since I have already featured this evaluation in a previous post, today I am going to shift my focus to VCS Testing, another self-screening tool, and what it can offer in terms of possible mold exposure insight.

What is the Visual Contrast Sensitivity Test?

The VCS Test is not an eyesight or visual acuity test, but rather a test to see how discretely you can distinguish black/white/grey contrast. Contrast sensitivity testing has been historically useful in cases of cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and a number of other vision-related concerns. Now, thanks to the research and validation done by Dr. Hudnell, PhD neurotoxicologist of the US EPA, and Dr. Richard Shoemaker, it has also been proven useful in determining potential biotoxin illness. So, while there are no routine lab tests to measure biotoxins, these doctors found that you can measure their effects on the human body, with VCS testing. While not conclusive, The VCS demonstrates deficiencies and specific deficits in people exposed to biotoxins.

But, how?

9:55 pm 6 comments

Interviews Products Wellness

Restoring My Immune System With the Burgstiner Wellness Protocol and How to Determine if it’s Right for You

by Catherine 4:52 am

Today, I want to discuss my experience of using the Burgstiner Wellness Protocol. This unique, “amped” approach to nutritional, vitamin and mineral support has enhanced my mold recovery, restored my immune system, and increased my energy, all in noticeable ways, so I am eager to share it with you.

Last week’s post detailed my daily supplement regimen in its entirety, which also included many, if not all of the products in the Burgstiner Wellness Protocol. That was your “Cliff’s Notes” version of how I am using the products now that they are part of my “normal routine.”

This post is going to be a little different, because I want to start with explaining what a “wellness protocol” is, and why in your wellness journey you might decide to implement a protocol-based supplement regimen, rather than just adding some beneficial vitamins and minerals here and there to see what works for your body, or to make up for vitamin/mineral deficiencies as indicated by your blood panels or nutritional analysis.

Today’s post is also going to be different, because I had the pleasure to speak with John Burgstiner, Founder and President of Logos Nutritionals (the company behind the protocol and that makes all of the supplements included in it) about the protocol and the history and science behind it. In our interview, we dive into what makes these supplements unique and why this particular combination of supplements has produced such favorable outcomes for so many chronically sick people. We discuss each supplement, the reason for its inclusion in the protocol, and for his thoughts on and approach to wellness and nutrition as the leader of a nationally-renowned nutritional supplement company.

I don’t know about you, but I am increasingly concerned with the integrity of who is making the supplements I am choosing to put into my body. I am concerned that supplements contain what they say that they do. (Remember the New York Attorney General’s findings in 2015 that 80% of the store-brand supplements found on the shelves at Walgreen’s, GNC, Target, and Walmart did not contain the labelled substance, or were found to contain substances not indicated on the labels—like rice powder, for example? Since the report, all of the companies say that they have overhauled and increased the purity of their supplements.) I am also concerned that the science behind supplement groupings and dosage suggestions is solid, proven, and based on the principals of kindness to and balance for the body—restoring things to their natural and optimum levels, rather than the “detox” crazy, aggressive cleanse approach that has recently gained so much popularity. I can tell you from experience, that I was hospitalized last May for the health repercussions and a secondary infection manifested from a too-aggressive yeast detox. I learned the hard way that when mobilizing toxins to rid them from the body, more is not better, faster does not mean that you are winning, and feeling nauseous, exhausted and depleted definitely does NOT indicate that what you are doing is working.

4:52 am 0 comment