The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Toxic Mold - How To Reclaim Your Life

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Welcome to everything. Hormones, adrenals, weight loss and trauma. I'm Marcel Pick, your host. So today I've had the pleasure of interviewing someone that has a really, really important topic. It's really about toxic mold and a lot of people don't know about this. So let me tell you a little bit about her. Bridget Danner has been a licensed acupuncturist since 2004, long time and certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner since 2015. After losing everything to toxic mold, Bridget now educates fat toxins on how to detoxify with a functional healthcare approach through her online community@bridgetdata.com she's also the author of the ultimate toxic mold recovery guide, Take back your Home Health and Life, available on Amazon. So let's kind of sit tight, take some notes, and see what Bridget has to tell us today.

So, Bridget, we've got some questions we want to ask you, so can you tell the audience? Because I think a lot of this is new now in the kind of information that people see what really is having a mold problem and how does it start?

Sure. So if mold's going to become a real health issue, it's usually because you've had chronic exposure in a place you live or work or occasionally even in a car, truck. It's not really in the, in the, you know, modern world going to be coming from food enough to make you really sick. We may be getting like some trace amounts, but really it's coming from, you know, most of us are indoors, what easily 90% of the day, if we really think about it. So if you're an environment that's received water damage from an appliance leaking or roof leaking or basement flooding or whatever, and it hasn't been properly remediated, that mold will continue to kind of off gas over time. And you're in it and you're in it and you're in it. So sometimes you don't notice for a long time. It can come on really slowly. And then people just say, oh, you're getting older or, you know, that's normal or whatever. Right. But you're actually getting sicker and sicker. So, you know, often people feel the symptoms before they put it together that it's from a building. Most mold is behind walls, not actually seeing it. So I think people can think, oh, this is like, I mean, I did, I thought, oh, this is a very rare thing that doesn't, wouldn't apply to me. But it's actually pretty, pretty common. And I think a lot of people with chronic illness are dealing with mold.

So let's kind of backtrack a little bit. So how does one even begin to know if that's true for you?

So, you know, basically the winning combo is to test your space and test your body. The body test is actually a little easier and more reliable. Probably the one exception is sometimes if you're still in the mold and your body is really inundated, occasionally you're not even pushing it out into the urine and you might get a false negative. But I think it's pretty rare. So if you know it's in your body, you have to question where it came from. And testing spaces can be trickier. It could be a space you've already moved out of. It could be a workplace you could rent if you own. We've had people come back and had an inspection, and they said it looks good. So you really have to be incredibly detailed. It's almost like if you go to your practitioner for your health, you know, they have to look at everything to figure it out. They can't just, like, run a quick whatever. Right. So the home can actually be trickier, but there are a lot of options, and I think the options will grow over time. But you can run a dust test, you can run a plate test. Really, if you're a homeowner, ultimately you're going to need a good inspector because you need. Just like with functional medicine, you need to know the root. You don't just say, oh, we have mold. Let's detox our bodies. Well, where. Where is the mold? What. What made it? Right? And you have to. Frankly, it's like, now it's like cancer. You got to cut it out. You got to cut it out. And I know we don't all treat cancer that way, but that's kind of like the premise, right? You've got to cut it out and then make sure any little residue isn't still floating around in the home, because that'll keep getting you sick.

So what specifically, Bridget, are some of the labs that you use? I usually use real time or Great Plains.

Yeah, Yeah. I. I like the vibrant wellness one as well, because they have more mycotoxins, so I think there's a little better chance that something won't get missed. But, yeah, I think those are really the only three players right now.

And do you use a chelating agent beforehand, like glutathione or something like that, as a provocation?

So I don't do glutathione anymore. Just sauna or overnight fasting? I Did talk to the lab that the glutathione can add to the weight of the molecules that they're measuring. So they can, it can make the results a little off. So now we don't do that anymore.

Off in regards to higher or lower?

I think it would show lower. It would kind of take it out of the circulation from how the conversation went. So they, they, you know, they're measuring, looking for a certain, like, weight or, you know, composition of the mycotoxin metabolite. And if it's now bound to glutathione, it may not like, register or show up.

Got it. Okay. Still, most of the practitioners around here, you still using glutathione. And I think the labs are also suggesting it. So that's an interesting note.

Yeah, that's, that's talking to Great Plains after a client wasn't happy that she got, she felt like she got a false negative. So I said, well, you know, I'll talk to them. And that's what they said. So, yeah, I, I don't think it happens a ton, but they did say, you know, it could change the result.

Okay, and what about treatment? You know, now let's kind of dig into that. Well, let's go into something different, actually. You know, one of the things that we see in perimenopausal women and menopausal women is that they have horrif symptoms. And let's dig a little deeper into how it affects hormones and also how it affects weight. Because many women are so frustrated. They're doing all the right things. They're, you know, exercising and being really careful about, you know, high quality foods and organic, and then they're just. Nothing's moving.

Yeah. So mold is tricky because it can affect so many systems in the body. And one thing I learned.

After I went through my own mold experience, because I had a lot of hormonal symptoms myself, like spotting in my periods and stuff, was that it can inflame your hypothalamus pituitary, so the signaling for hormone production can be off. So for my case and a lot of women and men, hormones are just low. You're seeing like, levels much lower than their age should reflect. But then for other women or men, estrogen can go high because some mycotoxins are kind of estrogen structure. Also you're going to end up with dysbiosis, so you're not clearing estrogens as well. Or maybe you're just, you're storing toxins in fat. And now the fat tissue is making more estrogen. So it can really affect, you know, fertility weight. Yeah. How your experience of your cycle or menopause. And I definitely don't think that's getting talked about very much. So I think people think mold, they think it's respiratory. And that's just probably, I don't know, a tenth of what you're actually seeing. You're seeing a lot of digestive system symptoms, brain fog, skin issues. So in respiratory, this may or may not show up at all.

And how, what's the biochemistry of that? Why does mold actually affect. We know that it affects the hypothalamus and the pituitary, but how does it impact weight gain? And also how does it impact some of the skin changes that are going on through the gut microbiome?

So the weight, as I mentioned, sometimes you're just putting on fat to store toxins because you can't keep up with them, or you're making more estrogen and that can make you gain more weight. It can affect your thyroid, that's pretty common. So it can affect your metabolism. And then you're just, you know, often like, I know when I was at my sickest with mold, like I was so exhausted, you know, I, I wasn't exercising much, I was eating more carbs just for energy. So it can kind of affect your, your choices, certainly. So some people have really rapid weight gain with mold, like £40 in three months. It's crazy. You know, some people will have weight loss. I had a client who just lost 30 pounds because you're. She's nauseous, you know, she can't tolerate food, she's bloated all the time. So it could go either way.

What was the other question you asked, beyond the weight?

Well, skin. Skin changes.

Oh, skin, yes. The skin can just kind of serve like as a dumping ground. Right. When we can't keep up with the toxic load. So some people will, you know, be seeing skin manifestations, just eczema, rashes, that kind of a thing.

And what about the treatment? I mean, obviously it's going to be remediation of the home. If you're still living in that or if it was just past exposure, it's a non issue. But what are the other treatments that. And how long does it take?

Yeah, how long it takes is pretty variable if you've been exposed for a long time. I mean, I'm going to be honest, it usually takes a long time to recover. And it's not just as simple as getting the mycotoxins out.

In a In a sense, that's kind of simple. I can talk more about that, but save. But like, for me, when I was in mo, I was in Moon, like, eight years before I knew about it. So by now, you know, yeah, my hormones are just completely, like, offline. You know, I've got parasites. I've got Epstein Barr flare up. Like, you know, it's. I'm sure you see that with your clients, too. They have Lyme. Some people find out they have Lyme before they have mold because the immune system has become so weakened from the mold. So that's a lot of cleanup. You know, that takes time. So I think you're going to get better and better with good days and bad days over time. But to really get back to before it all started, so to speak, it can be a long haul. So for the detox, yeah, you need to be out of mold for sure, and then piling on the antioxidants. So we mentioned glutathione, which is a great player. It's the most plentiful. But all the antioxidants are good for you in this time. So, you know, vitamin C and the bioflavonoids, they're all helpful.

And they're usually really well tolerated. Right. I mean, I barely ever see somebody not tolerate them, so those can be put in really generously. I'm a big fan of detox techniques. They help me really the most.

Dry brushing, sauna, coffee enema, using a rebounder, getting lymphatic massage. Just that motion. As long as you are detoxing, that motion really just helps speed things along. I always have clients do that.

Binders. Occasionally people can't tolerate a binder, but there's lots of varieties, and they just kind of help make sure things are coming out in the stool. Some perhaps do go into the bloodstream. I think that's still TBD sometimes. And then gut support, I always have gut support in there because, you know, inevitably mold is going to deteriorate the gut and lead to more infection. So this rebuilding, any dysbiosis is going to, like, lower that inflammation in the body. So, you know, whether the client tests the gut or not, we can basically just assume that's going to need rebuilding.

One of the things that I say to almost all my clients, and I talk about it a lot, is that if you have a gut microbiome that's really unhealthy, it's not a real good idea to push detox because a lot of it gets dumped in the gut. So if you're not moving on a regular basis, it can really actually make you sicker. So doing the gut and testing the gut is always something that I do, you know, as a first line to make sure everything's working properly as well. Yeah. Important.

Yeah. Yeah. I just had a question come up the other day. Like, shouldn't I kill everything first before we rebuild the gut? I think that's one theory, but I think that's not the best with a person who's as sensitive as somebody going through mold. And it's totally valid to rebuild. And sometimes you never need to kill. Or sometimes that's, you know, down the road. Quite a bit down the road.

Depends on what it is, too. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. No question about that. Okay. And what about.

Kind of the. I mean, a lot of times people get really antsy. They get really worried that they're, you know, it's going to take them forever. And what I say to people generally is, it's going to take what it's going to take. But the good news is, all along the way, you'll have little moments of feeling better and regaining your brain function and regaining that as well.

Yeah, I. Yeah, I totally agree. And, you know, people always ask me how long it takes, but nobody asked me, well, how long till you were 30% better? How long do you, like, those are significant, too, you know, because if you. If you're, you know, I mean, some of our clients, you know, they're bedridden almost. They can't. They can't exercise, they can't hardly think straight. So if you can at least get back to, like, taking a walk, like, enjoying some time with your family, cooking again, like, these are all wins along the way. Right. We're not trying to get you to running, you know, running a marathon straight out the gate. Yeah. And then, as we both know, like, life is an ongoing health care thing. Right. Like, you're never gonna go backwards to a certain age. So, you know, I think I'm very much, you know, recovered from mold now, but I'm also 48 and, like, you know, dealing with the changes that way. So it's just. It's just our job to kind of accept and love that. We have to always just be caring for where we're at. Right.

Yeah. Hands down, you know, kind of acknowledging that it's interesting. I don't know if you know any of Dale Bredesen's work. Are you familiar with him at all?

I have not really read his work. No. I know a little bit about his concepts. Yeah.

Well, it's actually more than concepts now, which is fantastic. So he has the Bredesen Institute, which is looking at Alzheimer's and the reversal of Alzheimer's and dementia. And two of the biggest things that are a challenge for him, as it is for people that are post Covid long haulers, is actually treating mold and Lyme and really getting that better. And then you can kind of work on the other things. And he's actually having people that had Alzheimer's reverse that. So, you know, again, in that category, the things that make it harder for people that are long haulers from post Covid is the mold, and it makes it harder to treat. It just takes longer. So, you know, what you're saying is accurate, which is so important for people to hear in the audience, is that mold is a big problem, as is Lyme, and making sure that you're getting Lyme tested, because oftentimes the two go together. So it's exciting to know that Alzheimer's is not. Well, forget it. Nothing's going to happen. And Dr. David Perlmutter, who's been writing about that for quite a while, he's a neurologist as well, are really giving people hope again. But again, Lyme and mold are tied into that, too, because of the amyloid plaques in the brain that they develop as a protection. So that's.

Yeah, yeah. It's amazing how much the brain can heal. Like, I think that was one of my biggest fears with my lingering mold, was like, am I ever gonna, you know, think the same, feel the same? But the brain really, really can heal quite significantly, which is really encouraging because I think that's one of our biggest fears, right?

Oh, my God. Absolutely. It's like, is this ever going to get better? You know, am I always going to be like this? It's exactly right. I think the reason I like to do the podcast is because I'm. I'm an optimist in what I've seen in my clinical practice for almost 40 years. So it's pretty exciting to know that we can really recover from so many different things, as long as we know the functional medicine approach. You know, do we need to test, how do we treat it, what's the order of treatment, and how do we take it from there? So it's very exciting for the audience to know that, yes, even with mold toxicity, that maybe having different symptoms, people, they can even get better with that, which is pretty exciting. So that's great news.

And what would you say is the most powerful thing that people interview with intervene with to get better.

Well, again, I'm a big fan of the detox techniques like I mentioned. I think they're really powerful, but also just kind of free and accessible anytime is like being outside and being in nature is really helps a lot. I mean, our air quality outside now is better than inside. And you know, nature is healing to look at and be in and you're, you know, you're, you know, you're having more gratitude and interacting with the world. So I always really encourage people to just be out and be like interacting that way and be mindful in nature. Sounds so simple, right? But unfortunately, when we have chronic illness, then we add on this layer of stressing about it and being online, studying and you know, sometimes the body just wants, you know, a break from all of that. And one of some of the earlier ways that people were treating mold before, you know, we knew as much, were just mold avoidance, like living on BLM land and living in tents for the summer, that kind of a thing. And it was working for people. So it's something to encourage like no matter the weather, you know, you can still get out for, you know, a 10 minute walk or you know, sit on your porch and have tea. And so yeah, that's a simple thing that anyone can add.

Absolutely. And also planting your feet on the ground without shoes is so important as well. And breathing, learning some good deep breaths. And for some people also, for me it's about also looking at adrenal function. What happens is mold can actually affect the adrenals and then that's a catch 22 because the adrenals are affected because of the mold and they feel horrible and they can't get up and they get lightheaded when they get up. All those things are oftentimes adrenally related to. So supporting adrenal function can also sabotage the thyroid. So all of those are.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, yeah. I think supporting the hormones is something that can be brought in earlier, so to speak, in some of the protocol. Then people want to kind of go to these like extreme detox techniques. But if you can support your hormones, get your thyroid checked, corrected, like you're just going to have more energy to actually do these therapies and like, you know, feel good about your life and that's really ultimately what you want.

Yeah, for sure. And also one of the things that I explain to people is that thyroid trumps hormones and thyroid, I mean, sorry, adrenals trump thyroid, adrenals trump hormones. So it's kind of knowing that sequence really helps People be buy in to, okay, let's work on my adrenals, too, so that I can have it to.

Be able to get kind of ignored because they're just running in the background.

Yeah, hands down. And unfortunately, in allopathic medicine, we don't really talk about adrenals at all, except for with Cushing's or Addison's, which very few people have, thank God. So it's a good thing.

Yeah, it's true. Because anybody can get thyroid tested. They might get it tested perfectly, but nobody's really getting adrenals tested in a conventional office.

So.

That's a good point.

Right. Or even looking at reverse T3, because if they have adrenal issues, their reverse T3 oftentimes is high.

Actually cause problems with the thyroid without them even knowing, because all the other numbers look fine. But reverse T3 blocks active thyroid, so that can be a problem as well.

Interesting.

Indeed. Well, is there any other tip that you want to give people in case they're kind of wanting to learn a little bit more about this? How can they get a hold of you as well?

Yeah, I just. I wanted to just share in case people are wondering, like, is this. Could this be me? You know, first just start with sort of a mental timeline, history taking of your home. And again, I'll just say home, but it can also be workspace or, you know, when did symptoms start? Like, was there any. Some people are like, oh, no, I couldn't have mold. And they're like, oh, wait a second. Yeah, our bathtub flooded, like, our whole house, like, two years ago. They just forget. They don't really, you know, put. So think about, like, incidents that have happened or even what you don't know. You know, maybe you bought a home that's old and you don't really know his whole history. So you can think about those factors in the timeline. And then you can just look for, you know, water staining, kind of a chalky line stain. Look on baseboards, you know, look under sinks. So I tell people, like, use your five senses. You know, smell and smelling and looking and touching. You can measure for humidity. It needs to be under 50% in a home. Like, it should have always been running in my basement, for example, and we had mold. So I think people feel like, oh, my gosh, where do I start? Well, you can start with some simple things. I do have, like, a little ebook on my website that talks about, like, some of these first testing steps. And again, you start before you spend any money. Just start with, like, observation, you know, Writing notes about like timelines of things. And then they think about maybe what testing to do for where you're at in your situation. Right. It's because it's. People are like, well, what's the best test? I'm like, well, it's different if you, you know, own a giant home or rent a little studio apartment. Like, it's a different testing scenario. So it's a big job. I'm going to be honest. But it's so important because if it is your root cause, you're just not going to get better in that environment unless you deal with it. So I would just encourage people listening. Like, if you kind of wonder, this might sound like me, just start doing some learning. Because even though I'm sometimes a bearer of bad news, I prefer that people find out because in the end they are going to be really thankful for it.

Thank you for that. And do you have a free gift or do you have a website or something that people can go to and kind of learn?

Yeah, my website is just my name. It's bridgetdanner.com and we have a whole page of free freebies and two of them are about mold. One is more body protocol, One is more like big picture with the home and everything. So people are welcome to grab those. I also have a full length book on Amazon if you're like a little deeper in this process.

Fantastic. What's the name of that book?

It's called the Ultimate Toxic Mold Recovery guide. Take back your home health and life. So really everything is in there. Body testing, home testing protocols, everything.

Okay, well, thank you so much. I think that it's really helpful information. Very powerful and unfortunately much needed because so many people are really struggling with this for sure.

So thanks. Yeah, well, thanks for spreading the awareness.

I really appreciate it, Doing the best I can.