151: Real Mold Stories Told by Real People with Dr. Jill Crista (Part 2 of 4)

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.

Imagine being in your 20s, sharing a home with five other people and discovering that you are impacted by mold. That is the story of Shayna. And Shayna is joining myself and Dr. Jill Christa for what is part two of this four part series where we talk to real people about their real mold experiences, all in an effort to provide hope and a light at the end of the tunnel so we realize that it is possible to get better. Episode 150 was the first of these episodes with Casey where she was talking about her forever home and the problem she encountered while she was there and what she had to do to get past that. And today is another addition to the series. This conversation with Shayna was amazing. So to me, for someone who was so young to be able to understand this and redirect the trajectory of their health and their life was incredibly, incredibly inspiring. So please enjoy listening to this and I really hope that you take something away from this that can help you also find hope and light in your mole journey.

Hi.

Hi. How are you?

I'm really good. I just want to say thank you so much for having me on. Both of you have been such a pivotal part of my journey and healing and just want to say thank you so much. Your work is just so. It's reaching so many people and it's just nice to like, know that. Okay. Like, if they're saying it, I could trust them. So, yeah, like, Jill's book has helped me so much in my healing process and empowering me with the knowledge. And then Brian, like, your work was really helpful for me when I was looking for new places. I'm a renter, so that's been like my journey and like scoping out and testing a bunch of places.

I just really appreciate the trusted knowledge because, yeah, obviously if you Google it, like, it's not. You're not going to get really good info and a lot of people don't believe you if you even talk about it or know about it. So.

Wow.

So, yeah, thank you so much. I just want to start that off.

Thank you for being part of this.

Yeah, we really appreciate it. This is, this is very cool. You Hear us talking, like, everything like.

Oh, that's so cool.

I need to be, like, doing this a lot. This is so. This is so awesome.

I think it's a good idea because there's so much obviously, just, like, fear around it, and it's just really stressful situation. So it's nice to see the other side, too.

That's right. That's right. Well, let's talk about you on the other side. Let's. Shayna is the other side. And very excited, might I add. Quick responses.

So, yeah, why don't you start with sort of what was the trigger for you to start looking at the mold piece and then what it's look like you're renting, right. So it's good to have a renting perspective on things, and we can go from there. So, yeah, let's do it.

So my journey began in 2020, right before the pandemic. I live in San Diego, and me and a bunch of my friends, we found this incredible, beautiful mansion to live in by the beach, and we got a good deal on it, and it was, like, the most epic opportunity. And as you know, during 2020, we're all at home all the time. So I moved into this new house. Prior to this, I've never had any major health issues. I was always had a really strong immune system, and, yeah, literally never had an issue with anything. So I moved into this house and I moved in. There was two floors to the house, and I lived down the bottom floor. And at the time, I was 23. I'm 26 now. I had no knowledge of mold. I had no. I didn't understand, like, signs my body wasn't doing well. Like, I just wanted to, like, have fun and, like, enjoy my life and.

As you should. When you're.

As I should. And I still am. Still am now. But I had no. Yeah, I had no looking back. I'm like, duh, shay, duh, duh, Shayna. Like, that room was very musty. It had stick stains on the ceiling. It had a leak.

So it was just like a dungeon. And it was very dark, and it wasn't actually normally a room either. So I kind of just really walked into, like, one of, like, a very bad situation for myself. And however, there was still in my roommate's rooms, they had, like, mold growing in the closets. Like, blue on, like, their clothes. There was black mold growing on the ceiling. And I live in a beat. I used to live in a beach town, and everyone's just like, that's normal. We're by the beach, it's fine. And so I kept kind of like being like, maybe it's fine.

Yeah. So then my health dramatically changed. I gained 40 pounds.

I had severe brain fog.

I couldn't breathe out of my nose. I was very angry, and.

I just didn't feel like myself. And it always just felt like something was wrong. But I kept telling myself that I was fine and because I just wanted to be like my friends, like, my friends felt fine. And I was like, there's nothing. Like, I'm. I'm. I am fine. But.

So, yeah, I kept getting sicker there. And I. Everyone kept telling me I had allergies, you know, and I'm like, I've never had allergies. And I kept, like. I started to think that it definitely was my room, like, because I would feel better when I would leave the house. So that was, like, something telling me.

That something was wrong. But definitely my story is very unique. There was so many. There's this one blessing that's been kind of like the guiding light in my journey, and that's my best friend, Ashley, and she's a naturopathic doctor. And she started. We started. Me and my roommate started seeing her for medical stuff at the same time. So I was coming to her with things, and then my roommate was coming to her with things. And my roommate mentioned to her, she's like, yeah, like, there's like black stuff on my ceiling. And my doctor, Ashley, she was like, oh, that's mold. You're living in mold. And then that's when she would camp come to me and was like, honey, like, you guys are all living in mold.

Ashley then was like, am I living in mold? And tested her place and found mold in her place. And then it was like this domino effect. We all found out at the same time. And then it was like. So she, like, did that whole process of testing and then finally leaving. It was like they answered all her stuff. And then she kept telling me that it was definitely my place. And so that kind of like. So I knew from the get go, right? Like, I didn't have to go from doctor to doctor to doctor. I didn't have to, like, be in the mystery, and I didn't have to, you know, thankfully go through, like, have all these hidden symptoms that would last years. Like, I kind of knew from the beginning. So I feel really blessed for that. So fast forward.

I left that house and I definitely started feeling better.

Weight started to leave. I started to feel. And I started to get on some protocols with her. So then My brain fog cleared and I was like, oh, I actually, like, everything. I could breathe again. And it's funny having brain fog because, like, you don't even.

Realize how bad it is. And, like, you don't even have the energy to, like, really think critically. So once I started taking all of the. The amazing again, like, herbs, like, wow, Just want to shout out to herbs because.

Because it really was so nice to not have to like, walk into, like, this whole, like, for me and my journey. I just really don't want to take, like, hard medicine. And I just felt really good about taking herbs, so that started to help me a lot. So I. However, the story's not over. I went, moved into another place still by the beach.

I wasn't at the point of my journey where I was ready to, like, spend money on testing. I wasn't, like, financially able to, like, dive into all of that at the time. So I just trusted that anything was better, better than where I was living. And it was true. Like, this place definitely helped me heal a lot, but it wasn't perfect. It definitely felt damp in there. I started noticing, like, stains on the walls, and I'm like, okay, it's not the same place, but it's definitely not perfect. But I noticed I was getting better, but my cr. And I also had lot of chronic pain. I'm still healing from that, but that was not going anywhere, and it was getting pretty worse there.

So in terms of, like.

Like, bringing it up with, like, my landlord, like, I didn't want to. I just didn't have the capacity to bring it up. The first house, I was just like, I'm just going to get out. And then the second house, second studio, I moved into, like, again, I had my angel Ashley, my doctor being like, there's definitely mold here too. I'm so sorry, because she came over and it's a very unique situation, but.

She'S like, you know, it's definitely better, but it's not the same. And this is when I started to begin to, like, have conversations with, like, landlords. And basically my landlord was like, there's definitely no mold here. Like.

You'Re definitely reacting to something else. And, you know, this is just when I started to begin to have all these really hard conversations.

And for me, just where my nervous system was at for where I was at was like, I can't. I don't. I don't want to stay around and fight this. Like, I'd rather just leave. Like, I don't own this place. And, like, I was kind of in survival mode at the time. And I was like, should I leave? Uh, I also realized I was react. They sprayed a lot of pesticides at this apartment complex. Um, and anyone. As you know, mold suppresses your immune system. Then it opens you up to all the things. So that really became a big part of my picture at this new place. So I kind of got hit again. Uh, so I was like, to be completely honest, I. I sat in like a. A psychedelic ceremony, and it was like a clear thing, like, get out tomorrow. Like, you gotta get out. So I was like, okay. So this time around, I was more willing to, like, go harder. I like, you know, I bought your book, Jill, and that's when I began to be really informed and started taking action. That's when I learned about Brian's work and, like, especially, like, knowing how to visually look for it. So I started seeing the signs and then I knew about the pesticide. So I was like, okay, I'm. I got. That's when I got rid of all my stuff. And.

I didn't know where I was gonna move to, but I knew I just needed to get out. And it's really hard, like, saying it now. You know, I see that that was the best decision to, like, get rid of everything and, like, really test a place before I move in and make sure there's not all these chemical exposures happening on the outside.

But yeah, in beginning, you're like, I don't want to, like, turn my life upside down. I don't. This is really hard.

But if anyone's like, listening to this, like, I think at the end of the day, like, you have to be like, hey, like, my health is the most important thing. And I do feel all these things and they're valid. And you can trust your body's feelings because your body is trying to communicate with you. And it's just worth it. It's going to be hard, but it's worth it.

Can I just say, like, the. There's a lot of similarities between when I first figured it out for me and kind of what you're doing right now. So I was 28 when my first thing happened, and much older than that now. So it was that long ago, but when it happened, the same thing was happening. It's getting shut down by landlords, right? It's not. It's. It's not us, it's you. There's something weird with you. And I had somebody, like, you had somebody, and we had a through line with someone else who, like, there's. There's definitely a through line here of needing some sort of validation and support from somebody that you trust. Now it's hard because not everyone has a friend or in my case a future father in law that you just trust like off the back, right? So then to your point, you find Dr. Jill's book, you listen to my pod or you some of this stuff and you essentially figure out the people out there. The beautiful thing about the Internet is that it's all out there. The thing that sucks about the Internet is that 95 of it's wrong. So it's like this big search you have to do but if you can find it and find someone that you resonate with and it makes sense for you and you do that, like you can get there and you can figure this stuff out and you can find like that voice that might not be your friend or my future father in law or somebody else, but you can find that voice through social connection, you know, through you know, social networks and things like that. And I think that piece is, is very underrated especially if your immediate circle is on the other side telling you that you're nuts and that it's not a thing. Right? So it's, it's trusting your intuition, knowing. I mean you said you did a, a ceremony that popped it up in your head like whatever you need to do to figure to like come to some sort of realization that it's not crazy. My body isn't lying to me. I'm seeing what's happening and try to think that through. I just think it's so important and I know for me if I didn't have Mark there at that time I probably would have stayed because I was a 28 year old guy that was really healthy and thought that you know, you're invincible and all this stuff when you're young. I love that you're younger in this as we're talking through it because I feel like most people are past this stage who finally are like open to realizing that this is a thing and so they will have lived in this for X period of years or whatever and then it's a much longer journey to try to reverse the effect of what's gone on. So the just like shout out to you for not thinking that you're, you know, invincible and being open to stuff and the long term effect that it's going to that, that these decisions have on your life now, I mean it's huge. It's because Dr. Jill and I see it. I lived in a college place in my dorm, was like this, I mean you're, when you're describing this, I'm thinking like where I lived in college and stuff. And like all of these places, if you're a landlord that has college housing, you know that your standard of that house doesn't have to be as good because you're dealing with college kids or you're dealing with younger age kids, right? And you're like, oh, whatever, who cares? They'll live in it, they'll do whatever. And these places become like the origin point that start long term life cycles for people who are in these spaces. And the last thing, and I'll stop talking because this isn't about me, is I just want to point out that you didn't have an inspection done, you know, in the way that we do it. Right. You didn't work directly with some expensive doctor that was doing stuff. You didn't have to go incredibly out of pocket here to actually make like real movement and real, you know, changes and, and, and have information to help you. And I think that's one thing that also is, is kind of misunderstood a lot, is that I have to spend thousands on this or if I don't have Dr. Jill, then who the hell do I have? Like Wo is me, right? And that's not true. You're like the proof that that's not true. And I just think it's like incredibly important to share that piece of it out too.

Yes. Personal empowerment.

Yeah, sorry I hijacked.

Yeah, no, that was so beautiful. Thanks for sharing all that. And like, just to piggyback off you like it is like a public health issue. Like, why don't we talk about this? Why don't we know about it? Why isn't. I mean, I know you both are doing this work to like get it out there and it's just sad because I do think about all the people that don't know and then they develop these diseases and then they may like, you know, go their whole life not knowing. And it really like makes me really sad. And I.

I just really appreciate your work and I think that the more we talk about this and the more we have these stories and more awareness, like we can like just help educate others. And even if they never like have, even if people receive this info and they never had that experience, now they have that information in their mind before they buy a house, before they move somewhere new, like, or they see their family member, like it's, it's just something that we need to talk about and.

It needs to be known 100% agree. Thank you so much for talking about it with us.

Yeah. And you can hear your stories.

I ended up leaving that place, and then I did. So this is kind of like when I did go on that journey of, like, testing places just with, like, ermi. I tested a few places around San Diego, and, yeah, just. It. It's pretty shocking. Like, it's everywhere. I. I mean, every. No. Ermie I had was actually perfect, but I found the lowest one that I could, and then I just needed a roof over my head, and so I decided to move in. And, yeah, like, I got better and all the things, like improving indoor air quality and, like, staying on it. Like, it was possible for me to get better in this environment.

So, yeah, it's possible, but it's just, like, you have to, like, keep choosing yourself, you know, and, like, have that equal balance of, like, when is this stress response, like, keeping me alive? You know, like, when is this, like, sympathetic, like, I'm in fight or flight like that. Actually, you know, people talk down on that. That kept me, like, alive. And that's what it's supposed to do, you know, like, this. It was my body being like, get out of there. Go find a good shifter, you know? But now for me, it's like, okay, now we're switching back to parasympathetic. And, like, okay, we're safe. We're healing. And so, yeah, it's. It's that balance, but it's. It's worth it, obviously. And, yeah, just. Again, thank you both. Thank you.

I love what you just said. Keep choosing yourself. Yeah, that was. Yeah. I can't wait till you write a book or something.

You're very. Yeah, you're very, like, smart and wise for your age.

Yes, Yes, I see. I see it in your future. Something. Yeah, same wisdom.

I definitely want to be an acupuncturist, so I'm trying to be in school for that. And I definitely want to take your course, Jill. I don't know if that could still relate with acupuncturist, but I just want the knowledge in general.

Yeah, Yeah, a lot of acupuncturists do. Yeah. Because it's all. We're all talking the same language.

Okay, cool. Well, then I'm gonna take it.

All right.

Awesome story.

Thanks, Shannon. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Wow, that was so inspiring. I love hearing that. These stories are just. They're so inspiring. I love that she talked. She said, keep choosing yourself. And I know, you know, we brought that up there at the end. It just is so Important because had she not, that's when then I see the 40 year old with MS, the, you know, person who's had so much weight gain, they now have diabetes number two. And because it's leads to autoimmunity, diabetes number one, and have to be on insulin. You know, there's so many things that mold can create and we just normalize this as like, oh, bad luck, bad luck for you that your body started to fall apart in your late 30s or you, you know, you're infertile or you name it. So I, I think her, her statement of keep choosing yourself is so important because it does. I mean, you mentioned it. It's going to save her from years and years and years of suffering that then we see the people that have lived in it all that time. What do you think about the going from apartment to apartment? What advice? I know you've done podcasts on this, but you know, what advice do you have for people in her situation and rental situations?

I think a lot of what she said is what you need to do. Right. So first off, if you know, you're.

Become comfortable with the fact that if you're renting, you're not going to find a perfect place, I think that's the first thing. Even if you're buying a place, you're not going to find the perfect place. But if you're buying it, you'll have, you know, the ability to remediate a couple things or fix some stuff if you need to.

Right.

So I think we have to understand that if you're going to rent somewhere, like you're not going to find anything, anywhere with nothing. It's just not going to happen. So if that's like your goal, you're going to feel like you failed. You're going to feel like it's overwhelming. There's nowhere to go. Molds everywhere, it's out to get you and you're going to want to go live in the woods at that point and you don't need to necessarily. So don't let that situation kind of start that thought process. I think that's kind of the first thing when you're looking for places.

There are mold free places. I'll just say, but yeah, I think you're far between.

But there are some.

But I love that point. It's a really important point of somebody just feeling like there's no hope for me ever, you know?

Yeah, you know, I, I think this idea of like mold free, we need to change how we're talking about what we're looking for. And I actually think it's very based on the person, and it makes it difficult because you can't put a word around it. Right? But it's this idea where, like, every person's at a certain health point of how much their body can take. And if your body can take a whole lot of, then you can be exposed to more because your body can take it, right? And you find an equilibrium. If your body can't take it and you're super, super sensitive, well, then your exposure has to come down a lot to meet you where you are, right? And what this means, like, for me, is that as you're looking for places and as you're kind of moving and kind of doing this stuff is, like, understanding where you are and is the place meeting you there, right? Or is it so far gone that there's no way you can meet there? And it's not about there being no mold. It's about there being an amount that you feel that you can tolerate slash your doctor or your practitioner feels that you could maybe tolerate at this stage of whatever you're doing right now. As far as, like, going through spaces. I've done a whole thing on this in the past about how my wife and I sort of tag team an inspection process or a viewing of an apartment where I'm doing an inspection and she is distracting the person showing us the place so I can do it. And I know that may sound like, oh, well, you know what you're looking for? Go look at my stuff. There's only five types of water damage. That's it. All you have to do is understand what it looks like, and you just have to look for it.

The.

The thing that we struggle with, I think, is we feel like you have to see mold. We feel like you can't find it. It's all this stuff. There are clues that the human eye can see. And so as you go through a place, first off, go through your own place first. How many source areas are you? You only have to test it. Like, you don't even have to test it. How many areas are you seeing in your house that have one of these five types of water damage? Go through every room. Count them. I'm in the bathroom. The baseboard is bubbling by the tub. The cabinet under the sink has water damage in the bottom, right? Again, you're not seeing mold. You're seeing water damage. Start counting how many sources are there in my house or in my apartment or wherever you're renting and say, okay, I found 10 things. In my current place, the goal is less than 10. Wherever I go, that's the, that's the minimum. Minimum goal is that. Right. And so you start going through and saying, okay, there's like four things here, but it's the best of everything that I've seen. And it's less than where I'm coming from. And if I'm renting in my ability, you know, I only have so much limitation in what I can do. What else can I do in a space to help clean the air that I'm going to be breathing? While there might be a few sources that are here in order to reduce, you know, kind of reduce the load that your body's used to and so your body can catch up a little bit. Right. And those things that you can do, Air purifiers are huge, right? Air filters are huge. They have to be good ones. They can't be, you know, Walmart, Costco, Amazon ones.

My favorites are Intellipure IQ air, kind of my two favorites. I don't know if you have other favorites than those.

So that. Then the other big thing, dust in the house.

Dust is actually how you're being exposed.

Exactly.

So you may have mold behind a wall, you have may. You may unmold in a cabinet, whatever it is. And yes, it's getting into your space. The majority of your exposure that's happening is because that's settling into dust. And then the dust is getting re popped into your breathing zone as you walk around. So if you remove the dust, not remediate the source necessarily, but if you remove the dust regularly, then there's less of it to start floating around and less of it for you to breathe. Right, right. So are these like perfect solutions? Like, no, there's still going to be exposure if you have sources in your house. Right. But if you can limit the number of sources and where you go next, if you bring in air filtration and purification systems for whatever is floating around that can help pull that stuff out, and then you remove the amount of dust reservoirs that exist so there's less of it even popping up in the first place that the purifier has to grab and that then you have to breathe, then these are things you can do to reduce the exposure load and try to find a place that has a lower starting point than when you started.

And manage humidity.

And manage. Yeah, and manage your humidity. Especially if you're in, you know, places near the water and stuff. Right.

That was something that she mentioned, you know, kind of normalizing mold, you know, Normalizing sick buildings of like, oh, we're on the coast, you know, oh, that's. Yeah, of course that's going to happen, but that's not necessarily the case. Just because you're on the coast doesn't mean that you, you know, that that's a normal thing. That's a. That's an indoor space that hasn't been managed well.

We normalize so many things.

Just because it's normal doesn't mean it's right. And I think that's the big thing. There's a lot of things that happen in the world that we now normalize because it just happens all the time. But it's not right. You know, it shouldn't be. It can be fixed, but we're normalizing it. Right. So keep that in mind. The last thing I would say, which. Which you just reminded me of is.

Yes, homes by the coast normally have a higher amount of mold problems, probably. So if you're looking to rent things, be a little more open to your location. Don't lock yourself down. I need to be live by the beach because I'm, you know, in my early 20s and I always dreamed of living by the beach. If that's going to cause issues for you, right. You start making. You start choosing, you, like she said. Right. And. And that's maybe one of the choices. So, yeah, I thought this was a really good one.

Yeah.

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 need it the most.