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Treatment & Recovery

“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

Mold in the News Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Mold In The News: Candida Auris

by Catherine 5:34 pm

How to Confront a “Super Fungus” In An Increasingly Pathogen-Friendly World

From time to time, I try to use this blog as an opportunity to introduce and discuss the latest news topics concerning mold/fungus and human health that come onto the scene and temporarily dominate mainstream media platforms. These stories seem to pop-up overnight, consume headlines and social media feeds, and then disappear without warning or explanation, leaving all of us wondering if we still need to be concerned and vigilant. This is going to be one of those posts, because it is important to me to formally address the news of the “recently-discovered,” rapidly-emerging fungal pathogen, or “Super Fungus,” Candida auris.

Before I get into the details, I want to be clear as to why I decided to write about Candida auris when the topic has already been covered ad nauseam: It is my opinion that most current stories on Candida auris generate a climate of increased fear and confusion surrounding how and why the pathogen spreads, our inability to eliminate it with standard antifungal drugs and treatment, and the high fatality rates of those infected. And while, those are definitely some of the hard facts about this fungus, Candida and other fungal infections have been around for centuries causing sickness and high mortality rates for systemic infection, but for some reason, just haven’t been given the focus, the importance, or the same “billing” as their bacterial and viral counterparts. This has been especially true in the medical community. For example, just think about how many times you have walked out of a doctor’s office with a prescription for a broad-spectrum antibiotic. Did they take a culture and identify the specific pathogen before writing the prescription? On the other hand, how many times has a doctor mentioned the possibility of fungal source when you have been sick or has prescribed an antifungal? Not many, right? Thus, I thought it might be helpful for me clear things up and to demystify Candida auris by focusing only on information that is evidence- and scientific-study based, so that I can bring you an easy-to-digest, and hopefully relatable take on the story. I also believe that when anything fungal is causing acute sickness to humans, especially at the magnitude of Candida auris, I would be missing the mark not to discuss some basic connections between the emergence of an increasingly virulent yeast and why we are becoming so vulnerable to it.

5:34 pm 0 comment

Personal Stories Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Get “Unstuck” From the Cycle of Inflammation and Nervous System Hyperreactivity Caused by Mold Toxicity

by Catherine 5:08 pm

Learn How Mold PTSD Can Impede Your Recovery Both Physically and Emotionally

I have often cited the term “mold PTSD” when I write about my personal experience and health collapse from a hidden mold infestation in our home. Using the term is my way of trying to somehow illustrate the tremendous and lasting physical and psychological impact that mold and environmental illness had on me and my family. I also use it to show the way in which certain places, smells, memories and objects still sometimes trigger significant physical responses and a sense of panic inside of me. My responses are usually indicative of what I experience with a mold exposure, so for me this takes the form of rapid heartbeat, sudden nausea, facial flushing, sinus pressure, and lightheadedness, even though, in reality, I am not always being exposed or in any real physical danger. For a long time, I struggled to address or to get a handle on this, and just pushed through, mostly doing everything I could to ignore the sudden and magnified symptoms. But, as all unheeded warnings eventually do, they forced my hand by becoming so pronounced that my sanity and recovery were being compromised.

(Note: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. While most often in reference to returning veterans, there remains a great deal of literature on PTSD related to traumatic experiences that can happen to anyone throughout the course of a person’s life. Symptoms can become debilitating and can last a lifetime, if not addressed. In my case, the physical illness, cognitive dysfunction, irritability, insomnia and fatigue I suffered from mold and mycotoxin exposure was ample trauma to trigger PTSD.)

The good news is that I have finally taken the necessary steps to address my mold PTSD specifically, and I am seeing a greater positive turnaround in my health and in my ability to interact with my environment in a way that is no longer driven by compulsion and fear. It is a welcome and happy change for both me and my family. I didn’t actually recognize how negatively my behaviors were impacting others until I addressed them. That is why I want to bring my story and this information to you. I think it can really help and can be a great accompaniment to the other steps you are taking to regain your health, especially if you are finding yourself at a standstill or dead end in your recovery progress.

5:08 pm 8 comments

Mold Prevention Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Making Sense of Mold Illness Treatment: Everyone is Talking About Mold, But Does Anyone Have the Answers?

by Catherine 4:12 am

With All of the Toxic Mold “Talk,” Latest Detox Protocols, and Newest Remedies, Are We Actually Any Closer to REAL Solutions?

How is it that so many people are suffering from illnesses triggered by mold and other contaminants in “sick” indoor environments, but there still remains no general understanding, widespread medical acceptance, definitive mold illness treatment protocol or true answer for healing?

Similarly, how can so many people be in desperate need of medical interventions for mold toxicity, but, yet, most medical doctors are still not even asking patients about their environments or considering the possibility of mold as the cause for illness? Without a sufferer being able to get a correct diagnosis, there certainly can’t be a cure, right?

This can be so frustrating!

It doesn’t seem to make sense or like it should be that difficult to identify and treat illnesses triggered by mold. But, and for reasons I hope to illustrate in this post, it is, unfortunately, not that simple.

Compiling What We Know

When you do a deep dive into the scientific literature on water-damaged buildings (aka moldy indoor environments) and illnesses/diseases associated with residing in them, the history of reports on mold-related illness is actually quite long and convoluted. The only true medical cautions about humans spending time in moldy spaces are for children, the elderly and the immunosuppressed, as they are more susceptible to fungal infections and respiratory distress. Most, if not all, qualitative fungal research is focused mainly on contaminated food and agricultural products and diseases having to do with fungal infections such as farmer’s lung, and systemic infections acquired by transplant recipients or already sick hospital patients. These studies and literature date back 30 years or more. The definitive pronouncement about inhaled mold spores in everyday environments as the source of illness doesn’t occur until the Mayo Clinic study published in 1999 that links chronic sinusitis with an immune system response to mold and the presence of fungus in the sinus of those patients.

After that came a distinct influx of research and toxicological studies on water-damaged buildings sparked by the findings and work of Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker. His work came onto the scene in the 2000’s (his site remains the top resource for mold illness treatment info on the web today, and he is still publishing studies and patient findings) forging the connection between biotoxin exposure (in indoor environments and otherwise) and the chronic inflammatory response, which he coined Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (“CIRS”). CIRS is diagnosed in patients whose bodies initiate an all-guns-blazing immune system attack on toxic mold antigens that never turns off, and thus begins to affect all systems in the body, causing malfunction, inflammation, and sickness on a large scale. His work identified various biomarkers for testing and diagnosis and a genetic HLA-DR susceptibility to such an inflammatory response from biotoxin exposure.

4:12 am 1 comment

Healthy Home Mold Prevention Products Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Mold Illness Insomnia and Other Related Sleep Problems

by Catherine 12:34 am

How to Get A Good Night’s Sleep, When Mold Won’t Leave You Alone

Have you tried EVERYTHING to tackle your mold illness-induced insomnia to no avail? Are you falling asleep, but not staying asleep, and waking every hour or two, so much so, that you awake unrested and irritated? Do you feel chronically tired, fatigued, and sleep deprived even when you do rest? You are not alone. I get emails from readers seeking advice and tips for getting to sleep, staying asleep, and combatting mycotoxin-induced fatigue almost every week. This is because sleep issues are at the top of the “most problematic and debilitating” symptom list for many people suffering from mold toxicity. And, while sudden-onset insomnia in an otherwise healthy individual should, in my opinion, be a clue for doctors to look for mold and mold exposure as the potential cause, or to at least rule it out, unfortunately, since insomnia is a symptom and side effect of almost every illness and drug, quite a long period of sleepless nights usually accumulates before mold is finally discovered.

I know too well how the whole sleep or lack thereof quandary can send even the most level-headed person into a downward spiral. My own experience of insomnia from mold toxicity put me over-the-edge and into a dark place of feeling anxious, overwhelmed and incredibly hopeless. I thought I was tough and could handle whatever the illness threw at me. Then I stopped sleeping. I was toast, because let’s face it, when you’re only sleeping 4 or less hours per night, your body is NOT recovering. It doesn’t even have the time to do all of its sleep-induced upkeep, like muscle and tissue growth and repair, immune system boosting and fortification, growth hormone release, appetite balance and regulation, brain energy and function enhancement, memory consolidation and retention, among many others. Without sleep, you stay sick and pretty much walk around with gauze over your eyeballs and in literal brain fog. Not getting sufficient sleep also causes your body to shut down to an even greater degree than it already is from the mold-toxin overload, which is obviously incredibly unhelpful when you are trying desperately to heal. (Note: During sleep is the only time the glymphatic system removes toxins from the brain via cerebral spinal fluid.)

So, to address this huge problem and to answer some of your questions in a longer format than I can in an email response, I thought I would write another post on sleep and insomnia in particular. (To read my previous post about sleep click HERE. That post establishes why mold in your environment can cause sleep problems.) This post will be focused on getting a good night’s sleep no matter where you are in the recovery process. Now, I realize that if you are living without sleep right now, this may seem impossible, but I assure you that there is always something that can be done and a remedy that can be tried no matter what. Some things will work for you and some things won’t. No one solution will be instant–sleep is one of those things that when you find what works, you may have to titrate up until you hit the perfect “dose” to get you sleeping through the night. You just have to keep plugging away and trying different things until you find what clicks for you. It may even be a combination of many things that creates the perfect solution. For example, I found insomnia relief from sleeping on the floor. Sounds crazy, but I will explain more in a moment. So, please don’t lose hope. A solution could be only one step away and could make an enormous difference in your mental, emotional, and physical health.

12:34 am 16 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

Personal Stories Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Mold Colonization in Your Sinuses Could Be Holding You Back From Making a Full Recovery

by Catherine 2:36 pm

Tackle Mold at Its Nasal Entry Point to Prevent Inflammation and Heal Your Body

My Story

In the beginning, my mold-triggered health issues were mainly upper respiratory in nature. I had all of the typical sinus and allergy symptoms, runny nose, watery eyes, chronic congestion, sore throat, headaches, you name it. At first, it was easy to dismiss being sick. I would tell myself that something was just going around, or that seasonal allergies were getting the best of me. But, when those symptoms continued to worsen, I began to feel like I was dealing with something more. It was like clockwork: I would finish my latest course of antibiotics; I would feel great for a few weeks; and then, I would acquire a new sinus infection, plus a new symptom to add to my growing list. I couldn’t break free from the cycle!

I often told my husband that it felt like something had settled in my sinus and was not being eliminated by any of the antibiotics, allergy sprays, or decongestants that I was taking. I had this suspicion because, as my sinus symptoms got worse–multiple sinus infections, multiple bouts of strep throat with severe facial, jaw, and neck pain–my list of other aliments was also growing. By the end of our first few months in the moldy home, GI distress, acid reflux, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and rapid weight loss were also daily challenges.

My Primary Care Doctor

Although my primary care doctor was properly identifying and treating the infections, he wasn’t looking into why I was progressively getting worse. Neither he nor I had any reason to believe that what was going on with my sinuses was connected in anyway with my new laundry list of hormonal and cognitive symptoms. We just focused all attention on the most pressing thing at the time, which seemed to be my sinus infections. I will say, though, never once did he ask me, “Has anything changed? How is your health overall? Is something in your environment different? (Honestly, looking back now, my medical history with the physician should have sounded some alarm bells. But, the rushed nature of our office visits and his inability to take more time discussing the details of my environment and my daily stressors worked against us.) When my fourth sinus infection in 3 months hit, I had had enough and wanted some answers.

2:36 pm 4 comments

Personal Stories Q & A's Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Advice for an “Impossible” Mold-Illness Situation

by Catherine 5:32 am

Identifying and Focusing on the “Big Rocks” Will Help to Make Mold Illness Recovery Less Overwhelming and Hopeless

As this blog grows one year older and I connect more and more with readers reaching out to me for advice about mold or other environmental toxins that are negatively affecting their lives and their health, I realize just how prevalent this form of illness truly is. It makes me wonder how many other people are out there needlessly suffering from undiagnosed, environmentally-triggered sickness. I am happy to have this platform to spread awareness and real information about mold, so that more people can have the tools to identify the cause of their symptoms and know the right questions to ask their doctors to help get their lives and their health back on track. But, I know that I cannot reach everyone. I guess that is why when someone writes to me for advice, I feel like it is my duty to offer them the best words of encouragement and the best information about possible solutions to help address their unique situation. Even though, I don’t have the professional licenses and certifications to be able to offer professional consultations and/or medical solutions, I can share my experiences and knowledge gained from fighting my own mold battle. So, while my advice is not always perfect and does not always contain one absolute answer or resolution, I am putting everything I have into my responses and am always giving the advice that I would’ve wanted someone to give to me—words rooted in honesty with valid, applicable action steps.

Today, I am going to share a recent reader’s email that includes almost all aspects of the mold/environmental illness theme:

Gradually failing health;
Multiple medical diagnoses without a real treatment plan or improvement in symptoms;
Physical displacement from the family home;
Loss of belongings and relationships;
Anxiety, confusion, and hopelessness.

I am sure at least one part of this reader’s story will resonate with anyone who has dealt with or is dealing with chronic or environmental illness. It may even be difficult for some of you to read, because it may hit very close to home. The reason I want to share it, though, and to share my response as well is because, I think that sometimes the realness and the complexity of this illness is forgotten. There are so many balls to juggle; that it can become overwhelming. When mold becomes problematic to your health, hurdles can be many and may include

Figuring out where the mold exposure is occurring—at home, at work, etc.;
Finding a safe, mold-free place to live or place to go temporarily;
Figuring out if you should and how to properly clean belongings and/or current living space;
Avoiding further mold exposures;
Finding a mold-literate doctor;
Adhering to a detox treatment plan to remove the mold from your body;
Navigating the lack of empathy or understanding from others and/or family members who are not sick and do not understand;
Figuring out how to pay for it all when much of the medical costs are not covered by insurance and, many times, sickness makes work impossible.

In other words, knowing how and where to begin is daunting, to say the least. But, beginning the healing process, no matter what the circumstance, is NOT impossible and is what I always want to impart.

5:32 am 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

Treatment & Recovery Wellness

Exercise and Mold Illness: How Moving Your Body Can Help You Heal

by Catherine 2:18 pm

Exercise Is a Very Valuable Treatment Tool for Mold Illness Suffers

I can’t believe that I have been blogging for more than three years now and haven’t addressed the topic of exercise and mold illness yet. Admittedly, I love exercise, so everything I present in today’s post is coming through my somewhat biased filter. You see, I danced classical ballet from age 2 all the way through college, even minoring in dance at my university. I have continued to be very active in my adult life. Today, I am an avid runner, mountain biker, hiker, and weight-lifter—honestly, I will do and try anything that involves physical activity and adventure. So, I am sure that it will come as no surprise that one of the most difficult things about getting so sick from the mold for me was having to slow down and be sidelined, because my body could no longer handle or recover from exertion. I longed to return to activity almost as much as I longed to find a safe, mold-free place for my family to live in during that time. Luckily, my doctor and naturopath were both very well-versed in ways to implement exercise as part of my treatment. Realizing that I could return to movement gradually and could regain that part of my life and my identity was a HUGE milestone in my recovery. Honestly, the day I started moving my body again was the day I started truly recovering. That is why a physical exercise practice is, in my opinion and experience, of profound importance for those recovering from mold- and environmentally-triggered illness.

Learning how to properly utilize a regular exercise practice can boost not only your resilience and response to treatment, but your entire outlook on life. I know all too well the worth of a natural mood lifter. Sometimes just getting outside for a slow walk sustained my body and mind and kept me going for another day. When I look back on each piece of my individual treatment protocol and that of my children, I believe wholeheartedly that the exercise piece was one that fundamentally helped us to heal our bodies from mold toxicity.

2:18 pm 0 comment