130: 5 Things I Wish I Knew On My Mold Journey

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr, and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

All right, for today's episode, what I wanted to do is go back and kind of pull some of the highlights from some of my favorite interviews I've done over the last year or so and stick them all at one place so you have a highlight reel of all the good stuff. I'm gonna say all the good stuff, some of the good stuff, but, like, right to the point on the good stuff. As fun as it is for me to talk, sometimes people just wanna get to the point. So that's what this is for. So we have five different interviews. I'm kind of clipped from coming into this. They're all functional practitioners, health specialists in that realm. So the first one that we have is Caitlin Crowell. Actually did an interview with her on Instagram, and it was so good that I turned it into a podcast. So now I'm taking that and taking a snip of it out for you here. So here we go. Here's. Here's my talk with Kate.

I've been in the health and wellness world for a long time. There's a lot of things we talk about that I think seem very overwhelming to a lot of people. I'm sure there's a lot of people listening to this that are like, oh, my God. What? There's, like, this, and then there's this, and then there's the source, and then you got to remediate everything. Like, I think it is really overwhelming at first, and it's expensive for someone who's not as sensitive to mold like I am. This house could get remediated and then be great, but for me, I'm like, I want to remediate it so that it's, like, good and great for someone else and, like, at a level that's, like, not going to be causing issues. I want to do an ermie. I want to make sure there's nothing crazy toxic going on in here, and then we're probably. We're probably gonna move. But, you know, moving into a new house, moving into a newer area or a newer townhome or a new apartment, that doesn't fix the issue that you're dealing With. You can't just, like, move into some new place and think that, like, oh, it's new. There's no mold. That's not true, because you're still looking at, like, well, you know, when they built the house, was the wood laying on the ground and did it get rained on and mold get into the wood? And then the house was built with moldy wood, and then drywall was put around it, and now there's mold in the drywall, and now you have a moldy home, you know, and then it's all of the same questions, but it's literally building from the ground up of those questions. So I think it's important to note that as well, that, like, this issue, this challenge of creating a healthy home, you can't just be like, oh, I'm gonna run away and go in this direction and just, like, not deal with this. Like, you kind of need to think about it no matter where you're gonna live. We're not trying to get to absolute zero. There's always going to be a certain amount of mold and toxins and air pollution and something that's, like, getting into our system. It's about making sure that you're in a safe environment. It's bigger than just, like, you and your house and, like, hitting this perfect zero of mold. But it's about being healthy and being able to enjoy your life, too. And, like, it's just the modern environment that we live in and the ecosystems we live in. And it's just like, our bodies, right? We're not trying to not have any toxins. Our bodies are created to detox, but we just have to make sure that, like, the rate of toxins is at the pace that the home or your body can keep up with and process them out.

All right, Next we have Dr. Jabin Moore, one of my favorite guys out there. Every time I talk with Jaan, we just have, like, such a good chat. He has a practice in Kansas City. He works with people everywhere. He's really smart about mold and complex illnesses. And he really specializes, on top of that in pans and pandas, which are pediatrics, neurological issues that a lot of times are tied to mold. So he has a lot of really good stuff that we talk about. Go ahead and check this one out.

Good inspectors are not everywhere. They're hardly anywhere. Finding a person in your area can become pretty hard to find a good inspector.

I mean, it's a systemic problem. Just in the industry. It's just the way people go through houses. The industry is using These practices that are, like, 20, 30 years old on how you do stuff. I always tell this people, the medical industry and our industry are so aligned in so many different ways. And you have sort of the large majority of people in our industry, the large majority of. Of, you know, MDs and stuff that are out there that basically go by the same thing that's been done for the last 30, 40 years. And then you have, like, a subset of people that are like, we deserve better than this. All the data's out there. All the information's out there. I'm not afraid for someone to look at me and be like, you're. You're crazy. I don't care. I just want to help people. Right? And when the doctors do that, that's where the real action comes from. You know, the correlations between, like, ours and the medical field, it is so aligned. And even in how we go through a house, everything is systemic. It's all connected. There's not one thing that just answers all the questions. We're doing the same type of work in a house that you guys do in the body.

Well, I tell people every day, I say, look, I know enough to tell you whether or not you need to call Brian, get an inspector. I don't know what he's doing in your home. To the level that I could do it because I'm a human doctor. I'm a body doctor. He's a house doctor. Here's the thing for everybody to listen to. The medical practices that we have today that are accepted as normal practices were discovered by people that were ahead of the curve 30 years ago. The people that were labeled crazy 30 years ago for thinking asbestos was bad, that cigarettes would kill you, that opioids were a problem. Those people were labeled insane and pushed out of the medical profession, and their license were lost because they were ahead of the curve. There's so many things you just can't talk about in medicine that aren't accepted, that are just realities. Mold is one of those. That is a major reality. It's a major problem. And 75% of the kids that I work with that have neurological issues. So I'm talking pants pandas. 75% of them test positive for mold. The other 25% that I looked at, out of a hundred people that I was looking at didn't run mold testing. It's not that they didn't have it, so they just didn't run the testing. So I'm like, that's a pretty crazy statistic that I ran.

Awesome. All right. So Next we have Dr. Elena Romel. She is a pediatric expert. She has a company that's called Dr. Moms, and she basically helps teach people who are parents to kind of become their own sort of pediatrician in a way. I mean, it does not to replace it, but it's just so, like, you don't have to run to the pediatrician every time that your kid has a cough. Basically, she has training programs. She has a lot of stuff. She actually gave it to me when I had my first kid, and it was super awesome and empowering. I loved it. So we had a mold specific talk. She's since then rolled out kind of a mold curriculum as well as tied to all this stuff. So it's really cool. Uh, so coming up here, we have Dr. Amel.

Hi, guys. I'm a pediatric naturopathic doctor. I love working with kids and moms. And one of the things that I saw so often, and I do see often in my practice is mold toxicity. It's such an important topic that us parents understand, and we can really dive in to understand, because I think that there's not enough information out there to really feel empowered and educated. And that's one of my main missions in life, is to help moms feel empowered so they can be, quote, unquote, doctor Moms for their own family and be very well informed. And so mold is a great topic. As doctors, we're also only taught so little in school. Even as a naturopathic doctor, I graduated in 2010, and I never was taught about mold toxicity. I only was taught it through continuing education, through my own desires. And so this is something that's so important for not only parents and, you know, just anyone to learn, but for doctors. I think so many more doctors need to learn about mold. So it's just good that we're spreading the word now. It's so neat.

It is. And there are more doctors just becoming more and more. Like, it's good.

It's getting there.

So you said that you see a decent amount of mold, sort of symptomatic. Like, what are you seeing? Like, how does that manifest in kids?

Different.

Yeah. So I really start testing for mold toxicity when I feel like I've already gone through the basics of medicine. So maybe we're cleaning up their diet, or maybe we're looking for food sensitivities, and we're removing those, but still their eczema is not getting better. Or maybe, you know, we do stool test or, you know, like, we're doing all the very basic stuff. And I would say for easily 85% of patients, all that stuff gets people better. You know, I mean, it's pretty easy to actually help kids. And then there's like, that small percentage of population where things aren't moving in the right direction based on things that, you know, should be getting them better. And that's when I start looking a little bit more into, well, could they be exposed to an environmental toxin that is burdening their body so much that they're not able to. To really heal in the more natural way that they should? And that's when I start doing the urine test. It's called a mycotoxin test. And if I see elevated levels of mycotoxins, then I know it's in their environment or potentially it was in an environment previous. Maybe they moved or I was in a school or is in somewhere that they were in contact, and we need to avoid that toxicity, and we need to help the body detox. And then I see symptoms really start shifting. And as far as how it could present, it's very challenging because it really presents different in all different individuals. I most often, though, see some type of brain, type of issues for kids. I oftentimes see irritability, behavioral problems mostly. Like, they have, like, meltdowns that they just can't break out of as quickly as some of the other kids can. Mold likes to attack the brain. So for adults, you see it more in brain fog or difficulty paying attention or even just keeping their energy up. But for kids, that's a little different. It's hard for them to explain that. So it's more irritability and anger outbursts. But I'll even see it in, like, skin rashes or eczema that just really flares, and it doesn't really have any seasons. It's just always there, and it just continues to get worse. So those are the main types of symptoms I see in kids. And you may see symptoms in the child before you see in the adults, even if the entire family is exposed to the same mold. And I just want to say, because I think I'm all about trying to not scare parents and all this. The good news is, is that I've had tremendous success with seeing high levels in individuals, doing a great detox plan, remediating and avoiding the toxins, and then seeing the levels go down and symptoms go away.

All right, now we've got Bridget Danner. So to talk with Bridget Danner, she's also another functional practitioner. She did something pretty cool last year. She put together what she called the toxic mold masterclass, not to be confused with my mold masterclass that was produced three years prior. But her view of it was a little different. What she did is she brought in a bunch of different experts around all different areas of mold and the health components of it and the housing component of it. So it was really cool. And she has a lot of resources out there as well that are helpful. So we had a good talk. So coming up right now, this is Bridget Danner.

You can do mycotoxin dust testing, and.

You can do the army testing.

You can do a local inspector that you mentioned who will do, like, air samples, drywall samples, kind of just inspection of the house for moisture and damage. What you guys do is different or beyond that. So tell us what you're adding to that picture.

Yeah, you know, it's so funny in a nutshell, we're actually looking for where it's coming from. This is the biggest problem in the whole industry. They'll come in, they'll do an air sample in the middle of a room. They'll walk out. Two things happen. One, let's say the air sample comes back and says there's a problem, which most of the times it actually misses it, but let's just say it actually catches it. Cool. There's mold floating around in the air right here. Where is it coming from? How do I fix it? You can't fix something if you don't know where it's coming from. The problem is the methods that most local inspectors use is something wet right now, and they're looking for, like, current water problems. And then they think if something is dry, then there can't be a mole problem that's back there. And it's so far from the truth. Literally, I feel like it's 90% of all the problems that I see are actually in places where there's no water. Right now, it's where there was a previous water issue that's dried out. It's gone away. And a lot of the local people will come out and they will say, well, well, if there's no water right now, then there can't be mold. Mold needs water to grow. Technically, mold needs water to grow. Right, we get that. But think of it like you had a plant in your yard. See, your plant needs water to grow, so you water it, it grows. What if you just stop watering? What's going to happen? The plant is still there. It's just dried out. Right. The plant didn't just walk away and pack its bags and look for New water. And so that's what happens when mold grows. If it grows behind a wall, in a ceiling, under a cabinet, it grows. Water goes away. It stays. The problem is, when the water goes away, the whole colony becomes way more fragile and brittle. So if you think about like that and you have some local inspector come in and he's like, oh, yeah, you can't have mold there because there's no water. Well, there was water. It could have grown. And if it did grow, not only is it still there, but it's now super fragile and brittle, which means the whole colony can break apart super easily and actually get into the house way easier than it would if it was actually alive and growing at the time. That is the big, monumental difference of what a local inspector does versus how we go through a house. We're all about root cause. Where is it coming from, finding the source. You can't fix something if you don't know where it's coming from. And you can't just rely on a moisture reader or an infrared camera and think that this tool is going to do all of the work for you. The reality is, guys, if you're an inspector, you kind of need to work a little bit. You can't just walk into a room, take an air sample, and leave a half hour later like, that's not how it works. All right, and last up on the episode for today, we have a chat that I had with Allison Rapp. She is also a health coach, but she is a Hashimoto's specific health coach, which is an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid. And there's really heavy ties into mold exposure with that. So thyroid deregulation is a pretty common thing that happens for people that mold exposure. And this is the autoimmune response that causes that. So that's kind of her specialty. We also had a really good talk, so this is gonna be the last one. So enjoy, and I hope you enjoyed some of these that we've been going through. We're gonna talk about Hashimoto's today, which is cool, because as a lot of us know, or we talk about on my end and you talk about on your end. There's just such a higher propensity for people with an autoimmune condition to be impacted by mold, and it's because of the chronic inflammatory response that mold creates, and it could just impact our bodies in a bunch of different ways. And, you know Hashimoto's is more thyroid specific, right?

Yeah, it is a huge connection. It's Crazy how I feel like just unknowingly kind of figured it out on my own that I had such an issue with mold. I think for me, it started when I was actually teaching. I think classrooms are just such a breeding ground for mold. And a lot of my clients are teachers. They end up really sick, and unknowingly, they're working in an environment that has mold in it, and then they go home, and maybe they feel a little better over their breaks, and then they go back in the classroom and feel awful again. And it's just like this repetitive cycle. And that's exactly what happened to me. I would be on my winter break and my spring break, and I'm like, oh, wow, I feel a little bit better. Maybe it's the stress, and that's obviously a part of it, but also the environment was triggering me so much. My ceiling tile, literally in my classroom was black. You know how you can't always tell mold, but it was blatantly obvious. And I typically find, like, with myself and with clients, and we've already made all these diet changes, and then we're still not getting better is really a huge indicator that there's something else going on in the body with our immune system, with our, you know, thyroid. And it's not off for no reason. And so there's always a triggering point. And sometimes we don't. We don't even know that our own homes are causing us to be sick. Right.

How often do you find that mold ends up being the item that you're able to address and start seeing progress on the other end?

I honestly think it's a huge problem for pretty much everybody, especially those of us with Hashimoto's, because just genetically, we're not able to detox the way other people are in the environment. And this is why you can be in the same household as other people, and other people don't really necessarily experience the symptoms. So I would bet my money on, like, 99% of the time it's in connection everyone who has Hashimoto's disease. I mean, I would put my money on it for sure.

What's happening with the thyroid that allows it to be maybe more impacted than other areas in our body that could also be hit by it.

What happens in the body is really, for me, especially in this last place I was in that was so moldy. I had reversed most of my Hashimoto's symptoms. I had, you know, lost my weight gain that I had. I was starting to feel better, and then, boom, all of a Sudden, like, I gained my weight back again. I started having all of these rashes come back. I was having horrible insomnia. All of these crazy, crazy symptoms. And sometimes it just feels like it comes on so suddenly, but it's not. It's kind of been a buildup over, like, time that your body is just like, okay, no more. And it's like. And it's so fascinating because what happens with our lymphatic system is the weight gain is literally protecting your organs from the damage of, like, the toxins trying to get in there. It's like our body just holds on to all of those toxins.

It's just like, it's like this never ending, like, balance and making sure you're doing things in the right way on the autoimmune front, front of things. And like, specifically, you know, you're talking about Hashimoto's, and so that's really about, like, the hormone production from the, from the thyroid, right?

Well, with Hashimoto's, a lot of people think it is strictly just a thyroid disorder, but it's really your immune system that's causing the thyroid to be off as well. So whenever we have elevated antibodies that diagnoses you with Hashimoto's disease, we really want to look at gut health, we want to look at toxins and all of that. They're all affected. Like toxins, parasites, mold, all of it affects your thyroid, affects your immune system. They all go hand in hand. But yeah, I mean, really, when, when we have Hashimoto's, we really need to look at the gut and what's causing it to be off. And for me, I was one of those people. I had changed my diet and nothing was budging on my lab work. I was like, nothing's moving, so what's causing that to happen? So my, my biggest question, I always tell my clients is like, what's triggering that? For me, I think it's been constant mold exposure, but luckily our bodies are super resil. They know how to get better. But like you said, it is. It's a journey.

So that's it for today's show, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment and subscribe and give a rating. Wherever you get your podcasts, it'll help spread the word to those who really, really needed the most.