The Hidden Dangers of Mycotoxins: Unraveling the Mystery of Mold Illness

Dr. Deb 0:01
welcome back to Let’s Talk wellness now. I’m your host, Dr, Deb, and I’m so thrilled to have you with me today. If you’ve been searching for answers to mysterious health issues, whether they’re unexplained fatigue, brain fog or persistent headaches, then today’s the episode for you. We’re diving into a silent epidemic that’s affecting millions of people around the world, but often goes unnoticed. Mycotoxins and mold illness, these sneaky little saboteurs can hide in your home, your workplace and even your body, silently undermining your health in ways you might never have imagined. As serenity Healthcare Center, we specialize in uncovering these hidden causes of chronic disease, and today, I’m bringing that expertise directly to you. We’ll explore what mycotoxins are, how they wreak havoc on your body and especially your brain, and most importantly, what you can do to heal. So stick around to the end of this episode, because I’ll share a powerful case study that shows just how life changing it can be to uncover and treat mold illness, plus I’ll give you actionable tips to protect yourself and your loved ones. So grab a cup of tea, get cozy, and let’s talk wellness now. So what are mycotoxins and why? Honestly, should we care about them? Let’s start with the basics. Mycotoxins are toxic chemicals produced by certain types of mold. These aren’t just molds you see growing on food or in damp corners of your bathroom. These are microscopic airborne particles that can infiltrate your home, your body and even your brain. Now, mycotoxins have no odor to them, so often times you have no clue that they’re even present. Molds like Aspergillus and Stachybotrys, commonly known as black mold and Penicillium produce these toxins, and when you inhale, ingest, or even touch them, they can cause serious health problems. And the scary part, you don’t need to see the mold to be affected by it. I remember when I was suffering with mycotoxin illness. A few years ago, I was doing some gardening, and I was pulling weeds, and I didn’t have any problems ever in the garden, and all of a sudden I broke out in hives, and I couldn’t understand what was happening, because I knew I didn’t get exposed to anything that I was allergic to. But it was every time I went outside to garden, I would break out in hives, and it didn’t matter if I had long sleeves on, it didn’t matter if I had gloves on, I would be covered in hives within about 30 minutes of gardening. And I really thought my gardening days were over, but it was when I found out that I was colonized in the nasal passages with mold that I learned that was what was causing my reaction to being in the garden. It wasn’t that I was allergic to something, it was the mold that was there that I was disrupting that was creating a histamine response in my body and causing me to have this allergic response, or at least what seemed like an allergic response, and these hives would last for weeks, and they were so itchy. Oh my gosh, I remember how terrible they were, and there was nothing I could do, Benadryl, hydrocortisone cream, none of it worked. None of the oral stuff worked. Even prednisone really didn’t touch it, and it was so intense. But when I got the mycotoxins out of my nasal passages and got the mold out of the nasal passages and started to clear my body, I could suddenly go back out to gardening again and not have any problems with it. So it is a huge response, and it is part of what triggers mast cell activation syndrome for people, or what we call MCAS, which is a histamine reaction. So anyway, I digress. But why should you care about mold or mycotoxin illness? Well, mycotoxins are linked to some of the most debilitating health issues, neurological conditions like brain fog, migraines, depression and unfortunately, even neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, they can all cause hormonal imbalances, chronic fatigue and immune system dysfunction. It’s not uncommon for us to see people who are sick with mycotoxin illness have hormonal disruptions, where their estrogen levels and progesterone levels are falling well before menopause, where men have testosterone levels that look like 80 years old and they’re only 30 or 40.

Dr. Deb 5:00
This can become a real problem when you’re young, and you’re losing your hormones at such an early age, because that loss of hormones can add to other illnesses down the road, like osteoporosis and more cognitive issues. We know that there’s a decline of hormones from traumatic brain injury that can lead to early onset menopause, which can also then lead to triggering neurological diseases. And if traumatic brain injury does this well, mycotoxin illness or mold illness is just a non traumatic brain injury, and this is very well documented and known in the literature, that these things can create many, many complications. Now, have you ever felt like your health was on a roller coaster, like no matter what you do, you can’t get better? Well, mycotoxins might be the hidden culprit, because mold isn’t just a nuisance, it’s a silent saboteur, quietly undermining your health.

Dr. Deb 6:01
Now here’s where it really gets fascinating and honestly frightening. Mycotoxins don’t just make you sneeze or give you a rash like they did in my condition. They cross the blood brain barrier and attack your nervous system. And when mycotoxins reach the brain, they can cause inflammation in the brain, which disrupts the way the neurons communicate, leading to brain fog, memory issues and difficulty concentrating. They damage our neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers in your brain responsible for mood, energy and focus. If you want to learn more about this, go back and check out our episode that we did on neurotransmitters, mycotoxins can disrupt dopamine and serotonin, contributing to depression and anxiety. They mimic other diseases. These mycotoxins are really sneaky, and they can create symptoms that look like multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and even chronic fatigue syndrome, making it incredibly hard to be diagnosed properly. One of the most understood effects of mycotoxins is their impact on the pituitary gland, a small but mighty gland in your brain that controls all of your hormones. When this gland is compromised, you might experience unexplained weight gain, fatigue and even fertility issues. This is crazy to think that this chemical, this mold that we take for granted, that we know is everywhere that people don’t take seriously, can damage our pituitary gland and damage our hormonal function and give us symptoms like MS and fibromyalgia, but yet nobody’s really talking about it in the conventional world, and nobody’s looking at it in the conventional world. This is crazy to me, and I wonder how many people have been misdiagnosed with these types of conditions simply because they’re living in or have been exposed to an environment that had mold at one time that the mycotoxins are still present and they just haven’t left the environment. Now, have you or someone you love ever been misdiagnosed or felt like the diagnosis didn’t quite fit well. This is why we need to dig deeper and ask the right questions. I was diagnosed with MS in December of 2022

Dr. Deb 8:30
in my world, I know that MS is usually something else, until proven otherwise, unless you truly have monoclonal antibodies in your spinal tap, if you’re diagnosing ms solely by white matter brain disease on an MRI,

Dr. Deb 8:46
I would seek a second opinion, because these toxins that we talk about on the show, these infections that we talk about, all can cause white matter brain disease. They can all cause symptoms that mimic ms Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, all of these things could be explained potentially, and you could get better without having to take drugs that you really don’t want, that you really can’t afford. And if we get to the root cause, we can make things better for you. Now, sometimes the answer isn’t in a pill, it’s in the air you breathe and the environment around you.

Dr. Deb 9:29
Now let me share my personal story. Years ago, my husband Dennis and I decided to remodel this quaint little Riverside cottage. It was the dream project until we discovered the mold in the house, there was a roof leak, there was black mold in a closet, there was a foundation leak, there was mold in a bedroom and the bathroom. So we decided to tackle the remediation ourselves, and after six grueling months of.

Dr. Deb 10:00
Work, I started to notice some really strange symptoms. My energy was gone. I couldn’t sleep. I was constantly irritable. But the most alarming change was the rapid weight gain. For me. I gained 25 pounds in just two months, for someone who has always been able to eat whatever I want without gaining an ounce. This was shocking. Now I know don’t be mad at me. I can’t help it. I had really good genes at one time for this,

Dr. Deb 10:28
but this weight gain happened around the time we started to remediate this home. And as a practitioner, I immediately suspected mold toxicity. I ran tests and discovered my Gliotoxin levels were three times the normal limit. Gliotoxin is a mycotoxin that specifically targets the pituitary gland, which explained a lot of my symptoms.

Dr. Deb 10:52
This experience taught me that mold illness doesn’t just affect the body, it impacts the mind, the emotions and even your sense of self. Now, I had worked in another building many years before that that was moldy, and I was there for 10 years, and I knew the building had mold. I could smell it, and I would get sick every time I would go in the building.

Dr. Deb 11:17
And I had talked to my partners. They didn’t want to remediate. They didn’t want to do what was necessary. And hence, I moved out of that building and started my own practice, because I needed to be safe in my world that was 10 years prior to be testing positive for Gliotoxin. Fast forward to December of 2022 when I’m now diagnosed with MS, and I’m looking back at all of the instances that could have triggered my MS. I had Gliotoxin in my brain. I had Lyme disease before.

Dr. Deb 11:52
I know that I had COVID Six months before I started to get these symptoms, all of these things made sense to me. What I didn’t know was I was colonized in my nasal passages with mold. I had one of the largest fungal balls in my nose that my doctor had ever removed, and he named him Earl. So that is my fourth child that I say. And once that was removed, it was incredible how quickly I started to feel better, how quickly my symptoms started to reverse, and I no longer had symptoms of Ms. And I remember my ENT saying to me, Deb, you don’t have Ms. You’re colonized in your nasal passages. Your mycotoxins are in your pituitary. They’re in your brain, and you need to get those out, and your symptoms will reverse. Well, I was thrilled by that, a little skeptical, but very, very thrilled. And today, as I sit here before you in 2025

Dr. Deb 12:56
my MS symptoms are completely under control, and the white matter brain disease that I had at one point is completely reversed. And I owe a lot of credit to the people who I worked with this mycotoxin illness, with my Lyme disease, my team who supported me during this while I treated myself, and I found the protocols, and I created all these protocols to get rid of everything so that I could not only help myself, but I could better assist our clients as well.

Dr. Deb 13:30
So enough about me. Let me share another journey with you, and let’s talk about Sarah now. Sarah was a 42 year old teacher who came to Serenity with a long list of symptoms, chronic fatigue, relentless migraines, brain fog and depression. She’d see a specialist after specialist and when prescribed countless medications, and even underwent an MRI to rule out Ms, there were no answers to be had. When Sarah came to us, we started with a comprehensive health history. She mentioned a musty smell in her basement after a flood, which immediately raised a red flag for us. We ordered mycotoxin testing, and the results were clear. Sarah’s level, levels of ochratoxin and Gliotoxin were dangerously high. We put Sarah on a personalized detox program, which included binders things like activated charcoal and bentonite clay to trap and eliminate the toxins we gave her, antifungals to address the mold colonization, not only in her gut, but systemically, and then nutritional support to optimize her body’s detox pathways and rebuild That mitochondria. Within weeks, Sarah started to notice small improvements. Her headaches became less frequent, and her energy started to return. Six months later, she told me, I finally feel like myself again. Sarah’s story is proof that healing begins when you uncover the root cause.

Dr. Deb 14:58
So I wanted. Talk about practical tips for protecting yourself now that you understand the dangers of mycotoxins, let’s talk about what you can do to protect yourself and your family. Now you want to inspect your home. Look for signs of water damage. Must see smells visible mold water rings in the ceiling. Remember, mold can hide behind walls and under carpets. Test your environment. Use a professional mold testing service and at home kits like immunolytics or ErmI tests to identify mold in your home. You want to invest in high quality HEPA air filters that can help remove mold spores from the air and support your detox pathways. Drink plenty of water. I like to start the day with lemon water. Warm is better because it helps flush the toxins from the liver. Eat antioxidant rich foods and consider supplements like glutathione and NAC to boost detoxification. Now are you living in a moldy environment without even knowing it? What steps will you take today to protect your health, to find the mold, to find the spaces that are problems for you? Well, you can do testing with plates from a company called immune analytics, where you can do a air test.

Dr. Deb 16:25
Now, there is no test for mold that is 100% accurate. I will say that they all have their pluses and they all have their minuses. But what we’re looking for is that snapshot we’re looking to see is this an issue? Now you can also do testing through traditional labs to see if mold is a concern. We do things like a TGF beta or an MMP nine and alpha MSH. These are just a few of some of the ones that we look at when we’re questioning whether or not mold is an issue. We also do urine testing and blood testing to actually find the mycotoxins in your body to confirm that this is a problem. And then sometimes you need to bring in a remediation specialist, a building biologist, to actually find the source of where the mold is. And from there, you bring in a remediation crew to actually clean up the mold and make sure it’s safe for you to live in that environment again. Now there’s been a lot of talk over the years as to whether or not you keep your things. You don’t keep your things. Can you clean them? Can you not? Do you have to live in a tent? And I’m here to tell you that there is a lot of hype. There’s a lot of panic around this, but it is serious, and there are some things that we just can’t clean we just can’t get rid of the mold, and they’re not worth keeping. They’re not worth having if they’re going to make you sick. But there are other things that we can clean up. We can do fogging in a person’s environment, which kills the mycotoxins and helps kill the mold, and you can do that on a regular basis to keep the mold mycotoxins from growing back. And that allows you some flexibility to be in your home a while you’re remediating and B allows you to keep some of the things that you have so that you don’t have to get rid of absolutely everything that you love. This is a very debilitating disorder. It’s a very debilitating time for people to live with mold, mycotoxin illness, and it is very challenging, both physically and emotionally. And a lot of people don’t understand, because it’s not something you can see inside your body. It’s hard for people to grasp and it’s very hard for our loved ones to understand that we’re sick in an environment, but maybe they’re not sick in an environment, and it destroys a lot of families, unfortunately. So you really want to have people have deep conversations about mycotoxin illness, and what do we do about it, and how do we protect ourselves from it, and how do we heal, and how do we live in an environment that’s clean and safe for ourselves and our families and our pets? Because this mycotoxin illness affects everybody. It doesn’t just affect one person. It affects everybody. And when we have a world of chronic disease and chronic illness, the last thing we want is to have an unhealthy living environment for people. However, I will tell you that about 75% of the buildings in this country are considered to have mold issues, which is a lot, and so if you think that you’re going to just leave and abandon the place that you’re living now to go someplace else and that place will be safe.

Dr. Deb 19:48
It may it may be, but it may not be, and it’s more likely that it’s not going to be safe than it is given what we know about how many buildings are affected with water damage and mold. So just know.

Dr. Deb 20:00
That if you’re trying to find a safe place, you test before you live in that place. You know what’s going on. If you’re renting and you’re asking if there’s water damage in the building, they’re always going to tell you, no, they’re not going to tell you they’ve had water damage. You can oftentimes see it on the tiles and the ceilings. Sometimes you can see it if it came into the building somewhere. There’s a watermark line on the on the lower level of the base. Sometimes you can smell it, but sometimes you can’t. And for those people who think that a new build is the way to go, I’m going to tell you that a new build isn’t clear of mold either. Depending on the season of which they’re building, where the building materials are coming from. How long they let those building materials dry out before they seal them up and put drywall on them? You could have a brand new build and still have mold present in that building. And you need to know that, because if you’re thinking that building a new home is safer, it’s not necessarily safer, and it has a lot of chemicals in the materials that are brand new, that off gas. And if you’re mold sensitive, those chemicals that off gas can give you the same types of symptoms that you get from having mold mycotoxin illness. So there is a huge,

Dr. Deb 21:16
huge amount of things to learn with mycotoxin illness. We’re just scraping the surface here, and as we do future shows, we’ll go a little deeper into these topics, a little bit more, but I wanted to give a really good overview on mycotoxin illness and introduce this to you at least. So thank you for joining me on this journey into the hidden dangers of mycotoxins and mold illness. I hope today’s episode has opened your eyes to the importance of addressing environmental toxins. Remember, healing is possible, but it starts with asking the right questions and uncovering the root cause. If you found this episode valuable, please take a moment to like, subscribe and share it with someone who might benefit. At Serenity Healthcare Center, my team and I specialize in helping people just like you overcome chronic illness and reclaim their health. Visit us online at Serenity healthcare center.com to learn more until next time, live well, be well and let’s talk wellness now. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Let’s talk wellness now brings expert insights directly to you, please note that the views and information shared by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Let’s Talk wellness now its management or our partners, each affiliate, sponsor and partner is an independent entity with its own perspectives. Today’s content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered specific advice, whether financial, medical or legal. While we strive to present accurate and useful information, we cannot guarantee its completeness or relevance to your unique circumstances. We encourage you to consult with a qualified professional to address your individual needs. Your use of information from this broadcast is entirely at your own risk. By continuing to listen, you agree to indemnify and hold let’s talk wellness now and its associates harmless from any claims or damages arising from the use of this content.

Dr. Deb 23:15
We may update this disclaimer at any time, and changes will take effect immediately upon posting or broadcasts, thank you for tuning in. We hope you find this episode both insightful and thought provoking. Listener discretion is advised you.

This episode is sponsored by Serenity Health Care Center, where we specialize in uncovering the root causes of chronic health conditions to help you achieve optimal wellness. Visit us at www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com or call 262-522-8640 to learn more.

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