In this video Matt Kelly addresses common questions about using binders for mold‑related mycotoxin illness. He first outlines the body’s three‑phase detox system: Phase 1 (cytochrome oxidation), Phase 2 (conjugation/anchoring) and Phase 3 (elimination). He explains that many mycotoxins, after Phase 2, are packaged into bile and sent to the gut, where they can be re‑absorbed via enterohepatic recirculation unless something binds them. Binders—ranging from dietary fiber to prescription bile‑acid sequestrants—capture toxin‑laden bile in the intestine and escort it out in the feces. Kelly notes that Phase 1 metabolites can be more toxic than the parent compound, so rapid Phase 1 activity (e.g., from glutathione supplementation) can temporarily worsen symptoms if binders are insufficient. He recommends supporting glutathione with B‑vitamins and trace minerals, while simultaneously ensuring adequate binding capacity. The video then categorises binders into three tiers: (1) natural fiber foods, (2) supplemental fibers and inorganic binders such as psyllium, guar gum, activated charcoal, diatomaceous earth, and (3) prescription bile‑acid binders like cholestyramine. He warns that excessive or rapid binding can cause constipation, dehydration, or a feeling of “binding overload.” The video ends with a standard call‑to‑action.
Chapters
We did some content on mold illness and mycotoxins and got an avalanche of questions. And a big area of questions was, I'm confused about the use of binders with mold or mycotoxin illness. Can you break that down for us? So what I want to do here is get into the top reasons and logic behind why a binder would be necessary when I am trying to detoxify or process the mycotoxins from mold exposure. So the first thing to keep in mind is the way that the body is set up to naturally detox. So if we have different, we call them phases of detox. The first phase is generally called the cytochrome system and it handles particular types of chemicals, et cetera. The second phase is a conjugation system, and that is where, say, a first phase chemical comes in and then the phase 2 will add something onto it or change it in a way where it can be eliminated out of the body. So I always would teach students, it's like putting an anchor on this bad chemical. And then phase 3 is literally the eliminatory pathways. Now, certain chemicals after phase 2 will be set up in such a way where they go out through the urine. So as long as you're hydrated enough and the chemical's set up correctly, it's going to go out through the urine. But what happens in phase 3 if we don't have a chemical that's going to go out through the urine or it's processed differently, et cetera? Well, then it has to be sent out into the system to be eliminated through the digestive tract or maybe through sweat in the skin or breathing out through the lung. With mycotoxins from mold, a major way out is through the liver and then into the digestive system, that part of phase 3. That part of phase 3 is literally where we would process through Phase 1, and then phase 2, and then it's packaged up in a way, the chemical, the residual part of the mycotoxin, in a way that it's going to be passed off into the bile, which is the stuff from your liver to your gallbladder that goes in and helps you digest fats. And that bile is going to go in and mix with your food and micellize your fats, et cetera. Now you might say, why would we use that as a way out for toxic material? Well, it's because it's a way out of the liver, number one. And number 2, the chemistry of it is a nice place to put certain complex type of toxins, such as mycotoxins. So a lot of times they go in there, but what's the downside of that? What happens with bile normally is it comes out from the liver through the gallbladder and the biliary tree into your gut, and it's supposed to bind with your fats and help them absorb. But the bile doesn't really absorb there. It kind of travels on down through the digestive tract, and then it's reabsorbed later on. We don't want that bile with all these toxins in it to be reabsorbed back in the bloodstream, because then we're going to have this residual toxin floating around that should be leaving the body. This is where binders come in. So if I have the normal flow and it's going to come out in the bile, great. If there's enough fiber in my diet, that might be enough binder to help grab onto the bile and carry it out. I might need to add in other binding substances. is though to mop up the bile so that the bile does not reabsorb, the bad chemicals don't go back into the bloodstream, and the bile and the binder are eliminated through the feces. That's the way out if it's going through the gallbladder to the bile, et cetera. Another problem that happens is in the intermediate time between phase 1 detoxification and getting over to phase 2 so I can be packaged up to put in the bile and get rid of, often the phase One product of a mycotoxin might be even more toxic than it was to start with. This happens with certain chemicals. So we have to make sure that we have a good flow from phase 1 to phase 2, and then we certainly want to grab that up with binders so that they leave the body. So what would be a way, which we've done in other content, to help in the bridge between phase 1 and phase 3 elimination? One would be very commonly used, and you can go look at the other videos on this, which is glutathione support. And glutathione support is going to be obviously supported by glutathione, but also B vitamins and certain trace minerals that used as cofactors. And those are used a lot in the movement of mycotoxins out of the body. So a lot of times you'll see people and they'll get sick when they take like a glutathione supplement or something because they've had mycotoxin exposure. And it's not because the glutathione support made them sick, it's because they actually sped up the detoxification and then the body's trying to eliminate this mycotoxin, but we don't have enough to bind onto it to take it out through the feces, et cetera. So then it gets recirculated and I feel sicker. Why would glutathione support speed that up? It's because it speeds up the detox process, but there's nothing to grab the detoxified mycotoxin intermediate and take it out of the system. So that's another important thing to keep in mind there. And we also want to do these things together. So if we're going to improve processing through the digestive tract and through all of the detoxification pathways, et cetera, which exist in many places. And then we're going to try and eliminate it. We want to improve detoxification and then we want to improve binding capacity. So we remove everything to the degree that we possibly can. Now, people will ask, what are mycotoxin binders? And I mentioned earlier, sometimes just having enough fiber in your diet is enough. So dietary fiber is one way to bind things up also. And you can look up foods. With the internet, you can look up anything. But if you look up foods that are— have high binding capacity or high fiber foods, etc., you'll find different lists, and they're probably things that you might think of. That might not be enough. So then the next level would be some sort of either organic or maybe inorganic type of a binder, and that would be something like a supplement like guar gum or psyllium or something like that, or activated charcoal, or sometimes they'll use other things diatomaceous earth or other binders. And then the next level above that as a binder would be more of a prescription binder, such as the cholestyramine family, which is, was developed literally to grab onto bile in the GI tract and not let it reabsorb and take it out of the body. So it's not right or wrong. It's just sort of small, medium, and large level of intensity of binding. Now, we will also sometimes see with people, if they bind too much stuff up too quickly, they'll also feel sick, but a lot of times that's because their body is not processing and moving the bound bile through as quickly if they get, say, constipated or dehydrated or something like that. Well, I hope that that answers the questions we got about why are binders important and why might I aggravate when I have glutathione but not a binder and what kind of binders there are and what the big picture is behind trying to get these mycotoxins from mold exposure out of the body. I want to thank everybody who has subscribed. Please do like, share, subscribe if you haven't. Check out this other content we're going to put up, and I'll see you guys on the next video.
