152: Real Mold Stories Told by Real People with Dr. Jill Crista (Part 3 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.

2014. You realize that mold is impacting the health of your family. You start trying to figure it all out. You're doing all the research because you know the doctors aren't telling you the right answers. You have no lack of conviction and dedication to figuring this thing out. But it takes you time. It takes seven years. It's now 2021, and you're finally able to connect the dots between your family's health and their struggles with mold. This was the story of Steve. He spent seven years not stopping, continuing to fight for him and his family, and today he's feeling 100% better. This is an amazing story and my purpose for sharing this story with you is that this can happen, but it doesn't have to take this long. I want you guys to listen to this story where Steve joins myself and Dr. Jill Christa in part three of our four part series where we listen to real people about their real experiences with mold, all in an effort to provide hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for you as you go down your mold journey. If you take nothing else away from this, take this away. You can do this. It may be hard, but it can work.

Hey, hey, hey.

There he is.

No way.

Patient man.

Definitely my pleasure. It's really, it's terrific to hear those stories and hear how, like you said, everybody kind of has a different sort of take and different experience and get to a good place at the end. It's, it's a process. So it's really great to meet you, Brian and Jill. So much about you guys. Brian. I started following Brian on Instagram maybe six months ago. I didn't realize he was out there. I don't do much social media and it was just so refreshing to see the inspections and some of the success stories out there. And Jill, I read your book way back when this all started. Well, once I figured out what was going on because again, you don't know it's mold. Nobody knows it's molds.

You know, my kind of favorite thing is like, this is all science fiction to heal. It's all voodoo and, you know, nobody believes you. You know, Nobody knows what's going on. The doctors kind of give you that blank stare when you finally figured out it was mold. They look at you like you just hear crickets. Like they don't want to acknowledge what's going on. And it's just like, how do you not know any. Anyway, it's a process. It's a process. It's. It's. It's very frustrating. It's not, like, linear. I know in your book, Jill, you had that great picture of, like, what we think healing should be. Linear and crazy. It's all over the place. I've lived it. I've been so frustrated by it because you take it so many steps forward, and then all of a sudden you're like, what happened? Why did I go back three when I was, you know, so far ahead? And it's just been a journey spiritually and just such a big learning experience.

Well, let's start at the top.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kind of what made you even realize it was happening? And then.

Yeah, that's. That's. It's a long, long story to get to there. But as we live in a house who built, like, 1950. It was a cape and somewhere. You know, I'm always athletic. I've been the thin guy. I was just made fun of being so skinny and thin, but, you know, I'm athletic. And somewhere around 2014.

My pant size went up, like, 2 inches out of nowhere, and nothing. Nothing changed. I'm like, you know, that's unusual. Oh, my God. I'm getting a little older. You know, I was in my mid-40s. That's weird. Then, you know, then my wife started to have some odd things go on. She started getting headaches, food sensitivities. They thought she had celiac. We eventually figured out she had so many crazy things going on. Brain fog, this, that. The other thing. They tried to diagnose her with celiac, but it wasn't celiac. You know, it was not just a food sensitivity. And so, you know, she kind of got through that thing. Once she stopped eating gluten, she was in a better place. So this continues, but nothing terrible is going on. So a couple years later, we're in.

2018.

All of a sudden, it's the fall of 2018. All of a sudden, I'm having problems sleeping. I'll fall asleep, and I wake up, like, an hour later wide awake. Wide awake, right. And this goes on for a couple months.

Then my libido tanks. So, like, I'm like, I better go to the doctor, because like, you know, I'm a guy, you know, So I go to the doctor, I get a physical. He's like, oh, here, your vitamin D is low. Everything else is fine. Okay, now I'm still not sleeping and I'm getting really fatigued. Some brain fogs working in. I forgetful, having problems with stress.

Things just are not. They're getting worse and I have no idea why. So I go back to the doctor. I'm like, this is a couple months later. Run blood work. He's like, oh, your thyroid hormone is through the roof. The TSH is really high. It's like, you're gonna start taking.

Levo live with thoroxide, that medicine. I'm like, why? I'm like, I'm a healthy guy. I've never had a problem. What's. You know? So I'm like, I'm out of there. I run, I run, find a great thyroid doctor. A couple months later, she says, I think you have Hashimoto's. You know, everything's now starting to get worse again. Muscle aches, sensitivity to light. I buy my first pair of sunglasses ever. I hated wearing glasses. Start wearing sunglasses. Okay, that kind of helps, you know, during that. So she diagnosed me with Hashimoto's. Come about. That's almost a year later. Now we're in January 2019. All right. Yeah. And 219. So no. 2020 to January 2020, I get diagnosed with Hashimoto's officially.

So I have this great book here, Hashimoto's. I research stuff to death. I'm a cpa.

You know, so I'm gonna conquer Hashimoto's. You know, so I.

The people who can't see video.

Oh, yeah, this is.

Can you just. This is like a three ring binder.

It's everything three inches organized.

It's so full that it is not shutting. That's how.

Yeah, I have a second one. And these are just the articles I printed that I thought were worthwhile. You know, I read books, I read Isabelle Went's books. So I've. Within a year, I figure out how to reverse my antibodies to zero, which is, you know, unheard of. I go gluten free, dairy free, egg free, I go Paleo, all this stuff, but I'm still not feeling 100%. All these odd symptoms keep coming up. Like my knees hurt, my. You know, just all weird things. And I'm like, this is crazy. You know, like, everything's testing good. I'm on Hashimoto threads now. I'm helping people. I'm getting information Back and forth on, you know, what to do, blah, blah, blah, blah. And.

Well, let me back up. So let me hold on. I don't go too far ahead. Too far. 2020, Covid. Right now, we're in the house all the time. I can't sleep. So I start sleeping in our spare room. And all of a sudden, I start getting tinnitus.

Not good, right? So now my wife misses me. So she comes down a couple hours at the end of the night in covert world. There, like, a month later, she starts getting tinnitus. She's like, you know, what's going on? This is crazy. So, you know, all these weird symptoms keep popping up. I start having to go to the chiropractor for my neck. My kids.

Their necks start getting cranky. Peeing all the time. Kids, baseball games, they're peeing in the middle. In the middle of the game. They're running off the field because they have to pee so badly. Like, this is just so. This is just some of the. A lot of the crazy stuff going on.

2019, I get a lipoma pop up on my elbow. I don't know where. My middle son goes to routine physical. They find testicular cancer, which is like, you know, so just that pops up out of nowhere. Just all these crazy things. My little guy can't control his emotions. He's starting to get rage. And he's such a sweet, gentle kid. He starts losing his mind.

So all these things just keep adding up, and you're like, you don't know what's going on. You feel like you're losing control of your life. And I'm like, you know, you're going crazy. And I got brain fog. I can't make good decisions. My job is very stressful. I'm great at handling stress. I can no longer do anything. So it's just, you know, everything's just kind of spiraling out of control. And 2021 in the spring, I'm on the Hashimoto's thread, and I had some rapport with this lady online, you know, would share things about Hashimoto's. And all of a sudden, she goes, did you ever think about mold?

My head explodes, Jill. My head explodes.

When my insomnia started, go back a month, we had a huge water problem in my basement.

We'd come back from vacation, and our basement was absolutely beautiful. I mean, it's like. It was the nicest area of the house at that point. We finished it, like, in 2012, maybe absolutely gorgeous. But the H Vac leaked all summer. I'm never down there. We come back from vacation, I go downstairs, I'm like, oh, geez, this stinks down here. Turns out the H vac was leaking behind the wall. There was, like, this much water behind the whole length of the basement wall. And it was there probably all summer, right? The kids don't think, oh, the basement smells, or hear water drip or whatever. So I'm a guy. I fix everything myself. And I'm like, all right, you know, no problem. I vacuum up the water. I cut out the sheetrock. It's all moldy. I. I did put on those little paper masks. You know, a lot of good that does me, right? I think I might have put on, you know, gloves, kind of like mold. You know who, hey, I could distinctly remember looking at, and I'm like, all right, just, you know, clean it up. I use bleach, just like you're supposed to do. Not at all. You know, bleach everything. The death. Clean it up. It looks great. Re Street Rocket looks just as good as new. I move on with my life, you know, and then a month later, this is when everything hit the fan, you know, so. So now that's when the insomnia hit. That's. But it wasn't. You know, you didn't have a clear concrete. Like this was the trigger until somebody said, hey, mold.

Boom.

So that was the beginning. Meeting her, she. She. She saved my life. She saved my family's life. If. If we continued, you know, it was like the frog in the pot that you have. You just keep getting worse and worse, and you don't know what's going on. And he just. I mean, God bless. You know, this all happened for a good reason, because I'm so much more aware now. I. I can handle situations. I. I know when you're running into that moldy room, you know, you're. You know, you get that going on. So the journey from there, you know, you think, all right, so now I know it's mold. I get a local mold inspector come in. He does the work around the basement. A little bit of mold here by the baseboard. Oh, the central air. Yeah, the central area, you should probably clean that out. The central air is where the leak was. I also have central air on a brand new. So we dormaned the house at this point. The second floor and the attic are beautiful. We have a brand new air conditioner up there from 2015 that has a little bit of mold in it. He figures out, but he's like, oh, you know, just get it Cleaned out. You'll be fine.

So I. I go to, I find a nice doctor, a functional doctor who treats mold, puts me on my statin, gives me Glutathione IVs. I'm starting to feel pretty better. My wife starts to see him too. She's still pretty better, but we're not, you know, getting better. He tells me about Steve Levy, another guy who has been a huge piece of getting us to where we need to be. So Steve comes out, he's got this gear, you know, head to toe, you know, looks like he's ready for a science experiment or something. He comes in, checks the house out. He goes into my basement.

Like.

Like, he literally, like, he just like, you have to gut your entire basement, you know, like, he does the test, but you're just looking. He's like, you have big problems down here. And again, to me, this is like my pride and joy. It's the best looking area of the house. He's like, H VAC systems. Got to go.

Dude, you're crazy. You have any idea what this is going to, you know, entail? And, you know, my kids now are older. They're, you know, I forget what ages they were at the time, but I'm like, I'm not going to root them up from the school. I can't move. We have so much stuff. We just redid the house. It looks, you know, everywhere is gorgeous.

So, you know, I'm trying to just figure out my next move. And, you know, again, I still just don't feel right. Things are terrible as far as the health, you know, My little guy starts having problems. He even the worst out of my three boys. He doesn't eat gluten or dairy or sugar for a while. Like, he was just totally back pain. He'd get set off by anything. And he's got the sweetest nature. And see him just lose his mind was, like, so uncharacteristic. So, you know, I kind of just chew on what Steve told me for a little while. I look at his report. He's mold here, mold there, you know, but again, not from what he shows you. I'm just thinking, I'm a layman. I don't know what's going on. I don't know how much mold is really going to impact me. I read your book, Jill, but, like, I still don't. I didn't digest. And all the research I did on Hashimoto's, I kind of like threw in the towel with mold. I didn't have it in me anymore. Because at this point I'm so drained. I, I still to this day I'm not putting the work on the Hashimoto's books. I just, I had nothing left in me. So I'm going back and forth with this lady who I met on the health website, you know, via online, just typing away. And she's trying to convince me, like maybe I should bite the bullet. So I decided to go my boiler room and there's sheetrock in that wall. And I decided, let me just rip this off and see what's behind there. I just literally went back there one day, I just pulled it off my hands. The stank. You want it to die. You wanted to die. And you can't smell it really when you're. It's behind the sheetrock. But I opened it up, it just. And you see the whole wall is black. So all the humidity that was down there from the water event just went behind the walls everywhere. So, you know, that was the start of the remediation process. So we wind up remediating the basement 100 gut. And you know, thank God Steve told us to do it because if we just would have done the water damaged area, the other part of the basement had leaks from foundation cracks and this and that. So there were so many spots that if we didn't just bite the bullet and go for it, we would have problems. So we, we replaced the entire H vac, all the duct work. But you know, Steve also told us the second floor, the attic H vac should be replaced. So, you know, again, you've done so much work, you want to keep your house, you want to keep the kids in the school district and keep with their friends. And at this point, you know, we did the basement first, we took a little time. I'm fogging the house, I'm micro wiping everything, throwing out anything that's not tied down, you know. And it was just insane that, you know, like you thinking to yourself, I have a fogger, I'm cleaning the house, like, what is wrong with me? But at this point you'll do anything to kind of just, you know, heal. So we ended up gutting the attic, replaced the H Vac. And once they ripped the ceiling, that was, that constructor was only like 6, 7 years old at that point. It was poorly done. They had baffles that are supposed to cool the attic ceiling. They were closed off improperly. So there's all the moisture is getting trapped there. And again, this is brand new construction we paid a lot of money for and you know, so we redid that.

And each time we remediated, we felt a little worse. We stayed in the house. I had nowhere to go. It's not like we could spend money doing both. And, you know, that's why I credit, you know, some of the other stories. The first lady who talked moving out of the house and getting rid of it, like, it's such a smart thing to do if you could do it. Because to go through the remediation, it could be a nightmare. And so we all felt worse off when we remediated. My older two kids, they don't really have much going on. They think I'm crazy. And, you know, so then we find a really great doctor, Dr. McMahon. He's out in Nevada. He works with Dr. Shoemaker. We do everything telemed. It took takes like four or five months to get the first appointment because he's so backlogged. And, you know, so we started the process, but we're, you know, it was. It's just. It's just incredible. But the good news I could say about this is I finally call it two, three months ago. Started feeling like my old self. All the bloat is gone. I feel I'm going to the gym again, where I feel like I'm making gains. It's just incredible to have that back again. So, like, the key is, like, there's hope to all this. Like, all those weird symptoms. I don't. I didn't wear sunglasses once this summer, and I bought some stylish pairs. I was enjoying wearing them, but my whole life I never wore them. So it's not ingrained in me. I don't need them. I don't care, you know, Like, I'm still having issues with sleep. I'm getting close, but I do get some restorative nights. I'm working with a great functional doctor in the city who's helped me just finish off some of the pieces. I'm on vip. My little guy's been on VIP for about a year. He's. He's feeling great. You know, a couple little. You know, when we go away, we got to look out for what hotels we stay at, because I. I look for the newest and even the new hotels. It can be bad, but you read the reviews, and I look for that common theme of, like, dirty or mold.

I mean, there's just so much more I could talk about. I mean, it's just crazy. My wife ended up getting Covid during all this, and because she was beaten down, she was in the hospital for 18 days.

She came out of it so much better than like, because it's the craziest thing. Like, Covid really helped her just kind of reset because she was losing her mind from everything she was going through.

I mean, it's just crazy. I, I did. I. I mean, they're just again, like, I could get so teary eyed. It's just you talk to people and they're like, they think you're crazy because they've never experienced it. So having that somebody who I could write back and forth to on the thread was just so great to have somebody understand what's going on. And that's why I ended up getting another doctor, Dr. Heyman in Virginia. He's another big shoemaker doctor. He's terrific. And the reason I ended up going to him is because Dr. McMahon was so booked up and he had a he. I couldn't get a follow up for a couple months. I'm like, I just thrive for information. So I'm like, all right, who's the next best doctor out there? And they're both terrific. So I, I still consult with them both. I love talking to all you guys.

It's. It's just so enlightening to know how important a VCS test is. For anybody who doesn't know there's a visual contrast sensitivity test. Like, I take, I have everybody in the house take one once a month just to see where we're going and see how we're progressing. And you know people, you talk to them about a VCS test and they think you're crazy, but you see the progress.

You know, you can tell them the military uses it. They wouldn't use it if it wasn't helpful.

You know, it's. It's just crazy. My wife, so. My wife still gets headaches, but bed. She still has the tinnitus. My tinnitus is gone. I got rid of that. Thank God. That, I mean, that can drive you nuts. Tinnitus's ears ringing. It's God awful when you're trying to lie in bed and you have insomnia. And then that's when it gets the worst. And then things just get crazy. It just gets really loud. Ringing so she's still suffering through that. She still doesn't have taste or smell.

It's been.

She got that in 1-21-22. But since she's become a marathon runner right after Covid, she never exercised that day in her life. She ran 13 miles this weekend and she's training for the New York City Marathon. She never ran a Day in her life. She never exercised because she got Covid. She decided she was going to take this on full. She. She's such a brighter hope. Her, her personality reset. She was like, I couldn't have conversations with her anymore because she was so crazy. I was, you know, this close to like, I don't know if I can deal with you anymore. And you know, after Covid, she, Her personality came back, which, you know, we. That was when she was able to start taking welcome, which is a binder which helps get rid of the toxins from the body.

So that's, you know, it's been just so helpful. When she first started taking welcome, she have the herx reactions. She could take like one every three days. She couldn't tolerate it.

Well, I'm sure in the hospital they gave her oxygen and that's the hospital.

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. So I really think being, being there really helped her. You're right, doc. She was on oxygen, she was away.

From the home, she was on oxygen, her brain got fed again.

Yep, absolutely. And it was like, oh my God. My wife, My wife, who has been gone for so long was back. It was just incredible. So, you know, I know you sauna's a great. So I don't, you know, detox well. So I ended up putting an infrared sauna in our mud room this year. We did it over the summer, the spring. So I decided to have home cleanse, which is a big remediation company. They charge you probably double of whatever regular remediation company cause. But after being through the other remediators, I didn't. We're starting to feel good. I don't want to have contamination go through the house. Everything's clean. So having to do the mud room and our old master bedroom, which is on the first floor, which were connected. The back wall was our garage.

So they rip everything apart and the whole back wall is covered with like old historic mold. It's just dirty, nasty, it's not active. But guess what? Once you've been sensitized, anything will bother you. So that's what I think. That was our final stumbling block because only really last six months or so. We've really started to feel 100%. I felt 90% for a long time. But that last hurdle, see, now we use the infrared sauna a couple times a week. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's really helped a lot. It's. And again, anybody you talk to about this, they're. They think you're crazy.

Her Aunt and uncle are there, her aunt and uncle in their late 70s. I know they have mold in their house. I see them decline. And, you know, they're at the point of their life. They can't listen to this. They can't adjust. And it breaks your heart to know that something can be done. But because they're just so set in their ways, they're like, oh, well, you have a mold problem. We don't. And that's the way so many people think. And that's why I love you guys to tears. The fact that you guys spread the word and help get it out. And because it's one thing for people to see, you know, Brian on Instagram and see his story be like, oh, mold, mold, mold. But to understand and to say, hey, this is why I don't feel good. This is why I'm ringing in my ears. So many people, you know, have tinnitus, but they don't know why. I went to the. I went to the doctor, the ear doctor, just for kicks. I knew. I knew at this point it was mold related. I put an air purifier in the bedroom I was sleeping in, and it didn't go away, but it went down a lot. Like, within a couple days of having the air purifier, I got the IQ airs like you recommended. I got them all over the house.

And, you know, this guy goes, well, you know, you have a little, you know, degradation in one of your ears. I'm like, but the ringing is in both ears. Oh, well, you know, some people just start to get this. I'm like, now do you think this is coincidence? But a month after I got it, my wife got it. Oh, yeah, it's probably just coincidence. And this is a trained medical professional. And you're like, you're. Again, my head explodes so much during this whole process. Like, what do you mean?

You.

You don't think it's something other than, you know, hey, I put an air purifier and it got a little better. Do you think there's something else going? No, no, no, no. For me, it was a longer process, and I had a lot of circles before you find out it's mold. But, you know, people have to understand, like, it's real. And again, I can't thank you guys enough to help get the word out there. And Steve Levy you know, saying, hey, you know what? You really have to demo the basement. You really have to get rid of everything because a little bit is still going to keep you sick. And anyway, I can't thank you, guys. Enough, really, really. It's great what you guys do, and I just love it.

Thank you for sharing the story.

Yeah.

These are voices of hope. You know that. Yeah. And. And just to hear that the journey can be long. You've been on a long, long journey. But all of these benefits now that.

It'S great to feel good. It's just so great to feel good, you know?

Yeah.

My two older sons want to beat me up all the time because they're tough and they lift and 18 and 16, but, like, you know, just this little bit of, you know, I can still hold my own. I got a black eye from you over the weekend, but that's another story.

Well, thank you, Steve. We appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Thanks again, guys. Appreciate it. All right.

Bye.

Bye.

Oh, bless him. This is such a long story that they've been at this and oh, my goodness. There are so many things that came to mind that I hear a lot with people that are going through this journey. You know, the first thing is that he had a sudden something happen, and in his case, it was pant size. And how many men are dealing with that? And they say that the mold is not affecting them. You know, their family might be having eczema or asthma or behavioral issues in the kids or hormone issues in his wife. And he's like, but it's not affecting me. Let's check testosterone levels and pant sizes, because that is one of the first ways, especially fusarium mold that I'm seeing. And so I thought that was really interesting that he brought that up, that there was a moment, a sudden something, and it was probably right after he did his remediation. You know, it's like, then he had this huge exposure, but then the body goes into this accumulation, deal with it. You know, this mode of, like, vigilance, I guess, of handling this poison that you're exposed to and the mast cells and the allergies and things. And so then it's this slow creep of symptoms that start to tack on. Then it's just one more thing, or maybe, you know, the thing you had is just getting a little tiny bit worse, but it slowly moves. And like, he talked about the cooking the frog. You know, it just is like it. It's nothing that sets off the alarm until it's been so many years, until you get that scene, scary diagnosis. You know, you get the Ms. Or the dementia or the cancer diagnosis, God forbid. So, you know, I just really. I appreciate that he mentioned that and all of the symptoms. So you could Kind of see like this slow creep is mold. That's kind of its signature. It's not usually going to be this big.

Aha.

We now we know this is a mold symptom. You know, this big obvious symptom. Yeah.

The weight gain thing is so common with people and I feel like maybe it deserves like an extra just kind of highlight on maybe why it's happening. There's a hormone component to that, Right. So like what's the mechanism that's causing the weight gain? Like why is awaken happening? So you mentioned it's like it's like trying to.

Pillow you.

Yeah, yeah.

You talk about it instead of me coming up with something. Clearly it's not mine area.

No, I think you describe things very well. The, it depends on the mold and the mycotoxin. So some of them impact leptin, some of them impact insulin receptors, some of them impact your mineral balance. And so you go on low magnesium. But the overarching thing is just basically fat is where our body protects us. So if we're exposed to fat soluble toxins, which is what these toxins from mold are, it's going to protect us with a fat cushion, basically. And so when I soak it up, basically, yeah.

Protection. This is where they like to go. We're going to try to soak them.

Up because it's better to have it on the outside of your body than going into your bone marrow or your brain or the linings of your organs or your mitochondria lining. So the body will say, whoa, this is a bad guy. We'll just pillow it away in this excess body fat or in something called the momentum, which is in the. In the abdomen. We'll just kind of store it there and deal with it later. So you get this bioaccumulation, the second piece of it, which sometimes people who don't that tend toward weight loss rather than weight gain, they're going to see weight loss of the muscle mass because most mycotoxins impede protein synthesis. So you'll get basically you become kind of skinny fat where you start to get more marbling of the muscle tissue and loss of. Of lean muscle mass.

Got it. What's the hormone piece? So the he. I think he talked about eventually thyroid. Right. So his th. His tsh. TSH was low initially and went into Hashimoto's. So there's, there's one path where the body just soaking it up in the fat. Right. And then my understanding is there's another path where the mold is triggering an Issue with a hormone imbalance. And then the hormones are causing the weight build.

Is that right?

It's many. It's many, many. So the trichothicines impede the thyroid from taking on iodine, and that's how you make active thyroid. So you get the thyroid not working appropriately. You can get some. Mycotoxins are estrogenic, so. So they will put a person into estrogen dominance, even if you're a man, which will also induce testosterone deficiency. And some mycotoxins are literally anti testosterone, so they will get in the way of the testes making testosterone. So there's a whole bunch of hormone stuff going on in the midst of all of it as well. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I got a little worried about Fusarium when he was talking because that does put out a couple of trichothecine mycotoxins. And one particular is called diorellanone that is estrogenic, puts you into estrogen dominance, but is also. Fusarium is linked to testicular cancer. So it was interesting that he had a kid who had that history, you know? Yeah. So, I mean, this mold is a big deal. I'm.

Yeah, the word.

How we gotta stop building the way we build. I don't. I just don't understand why we're still doing things the way that we are. And. And what do you think about the. How many of the people that you work with had taken care of, you know, in air quotes, taken care of, their water issue when it ended up actually not being taken care of and they had to call in, you know, adequate remediation. Inspection. Remediation.

I mean, most of them. And it's funny because it's. Think about, like, if you're. Even if you're a mom, I don't even need to go to your grandma. I think you go to, like, just to your mom in the, I don't know, 50s, 60s, whenever they were, you know, whenever they were younger, 70s, whatever. And.

Oh, we had a leak. What do we do? Oh, we just, you know, open up the windows and, like, let it dry out. Because you didn't know any better. Right. So a lot of what we. I mean, this is.

This is.

In every aspect of our life, we learn from our surrounding people as we're growing up. And these become our beliefs and they become our values and they become how you handle things like, oh, I've seen my dad fix cars. I know how to fix cars now. Right. But I didn't grow up with a dad that fixed cars. So I have no idea how to do it. Right. And so you kind of have these understandings of how you do certain things. Somebody who grew up in a house where their parents cooked a lot, like, they're like, oh, yeah, I can cook and do this. Other people like me who grew up in a family that didn't cook a lot, knew how to drive to McDonald's and go get Happy Meals. And that was just kind of how it worked out. Nobody knows how to properly handle a water issue. Who was brought up in the generation prior to us, Right now, nobody does. Literally no one. That means that every single person that is of age to be owning their own place or doing these different things or whatever does not know how to handle it properly unless they've actively gone out to re educate themselves and learn something new or they've had some sort of health issue like we deal with all the time, where now they've had some sort of, like, trigger event that has forced them to learn how.

Right.

Most people are not one of those two people. Which means when you have a flood and you have something, you know, his H vac was leaking, getting into the walls, all this stuff, and you're a handy guy like he is. And I'm sure his, I would imagine, like his family was handy too, is probably where he learned it. Right. And you say, oh, I can do this, I can handle this. I'll just deal with the water, deal with this, deal with that. This is why the very first part of the entire process every single time, similar to, like, if you're working with a doctor and there's like a medical onboarding, like, what's your family history? What's this? What's that? The equivalent of family history for what we do is your home history. What's your home history? Where did you have a little drip? Where did you think? It wasn't a big deal. Where did you have something big? How did they fix that? What happened? Was it remediated? Was it not remediated? They did. They claimed to remediate it. Did they test it afterwards? Oh, they did. Was the testing just air samples? Oh, it was okay. Cool. So we actually don't know at all if there's a problem here or not, but there's a probably a high likelihood that there is. Bam. We go retest it, and sure enough, most times there's still a problem there because it was still on the surface and the remediation just sucked. Right.

When people don't understand that mold it is such, they think of it as a blight. Like a visual blight or like it's a little stinky down here and that's just kind of a blight on your nose. They don't realize that that's toxin and that's harming their health. And so they. A lot of times that I see is like, oh yeah, well we, we fixed it and they may have done a beautiful job like managing the, the water that, you know, managing water intrusion. Just thinking about all that correcting the cracks. But didn't do it under containment. They didn't do it with any kind of self protection. And now it's gone poof, you know, into. Even if it wasn't in the H Vac system, it's in the H Vac system now.

Yeah.

There's so many. Like what is fixing it mean? So like if I had a leak from the outside, I fixed it. What did you fix? Because you had a leak, then you also have what the leak impacted. So what did you fix? Oh, we, you know, we got French drains and we regrade and did all this stuff.

Cool.

You fixed the source. You didn't fix what it impacted necessarily. Right. So that's always part of the conversation. And then he even said it in here. He went and took off one of the walls. Nothing on the front. The entire back of the wall was covered. This is what happens.

Yeah.

So that's why it's so important if you have water issues that have happened, even if they happened years ago. Right. It can still be there. You have to test those areas specifically to know if they're still there and then take the right action that needs to happen. Like off of that. Yeah. So I think those were. Those couple of things are really big highlights out of this. But it is a good like clue. Unexplained weight gain that comes. There's a lot of reasons it might happen.

Root of a lot of those things. Right. The earrings. There's so many things that he talked.

About and his wife's gut issues and whatever. I'm just so impressed. Like he kept digging, he kept researching, he kept digging and he found it.

You can tell how proud he was about it.

That's amazing. I. Oh my gosh. A three inch, three inch binder full of. I mean, yeah. And that. And he didn't stop at Hashimoto's. You know, like it. Hashimoto's is where he found it was mold. But I think that's a real lesson for people of just like keep at it. Our bodies are wired to be well. So if you are not at that place, you know, keep at it. There's something. If it's not mold, it's something. Something's in the way.

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.