Exposing Mold

Episode 32 - Shemane and Ted Nugent's Mold Story

Kealy Severson, Erik Johnson, & Alicia Swamy Episode 32

An ambassador for healthy living, Shemane Nugent has been a group fitness instructor for more than 30 years. She is a motivational speaker, author, award-winning TV producer and host, filmmaker, and is passionate about helping people make a positive impact on their health and overall well-being. After discovering her home, which was once featured on MTV Cribs was contaminated with toxic mold, Shemane developed a life-threatening illness. How she healed herself and her family through alternative remedies is miraculous!  She is taking her passion for helping others to shemanenugent.rocks where she shares her honest views about spirituality, faith, family, fitness, fashion, politics, healthy living and her  marriage to rock ‘n roll legend Ted Nugent. Shemane is currently working on a book and documentary regarding toxic mold to spread awareness of this invisible illness. 

Ted Nugent is legendary American singer-songwriter, guitarist for The Amboy Dukes and Gibson Byrdland rock bands. Ted can be seen on the Outdoor Channel, The Joe Rogan Experience, VH1 reality show, Surviving Nugent,  Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations, The Howard Stern Show, The Simpsons, That 70s Show, and has made several appearances on Fox News, Larry King Live. Ted is a vocal supporter of gun rights, hunter's rights, and is an activist spearheading many charities and organizations such as Ted Nugent’s Kamp for Kids,  Hunters For The Hungry. You can learn more about Ted’s organizations and how to donate, and check out his website at tednugent.com.

In this episode, Shemane and Ted share candidly about how mold impacted their lives. 

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Kealy Severson:

Welcome to Exposing Mold, the podcast where we dive into all things mold related. My name is Kealy Severson and I'm here with co-hosts, Alicia Swamy and Erik Johnson. Today we have special guests Shemane and Ted Nugent

Alicia Swamy:

Shemane Nugent is an ambassador for healthy living and has been a group fitness instructor for more than 30 years. She's a motivational speaker, author, award winning TV producer, host filmmaker and is passionate about helping people make a positive impact on their health and overall being. She has appeared on MTV, VH1, Discovery, CMT, C-span, Fox, and many other national television and radio shows. After discovering her home, which was once featured on MTV Cribs was contaminated with toxic mold, Shemane developed a life threatening illness. She took a year off from teaching group fitness classes and focused on regaining her health. How she healed herself and her family for alternative remedies is miraculous. Once dependent on oxygen and barely able to walk, Shemane has fully recovered and is now an international Zumba Fitness presenter who is on a mission to share her passion for healthy living with others. Shemane is taking her passion for helping others to the internet airways at her website, Shemanenugent.rocks where she shares her honest views about spirituality, faith, family fitness, fashion, politics, healthy living, and her marriage to rock and roll legend Ted Nugent. Shemane and Ted currently serve on the board of directors for Operation Finally Home an organization which provides mortgage free homes for veterans. Their support for the military and the love for dogs prompted Ted and Shemane to partner with Canines for Warriors which trains shelter dogs to assist veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When she is not teaching fitness classes or helping with charitable causes, Shemane enjoys writing books and screenplays. She wrote, "Married to a Rock Star" and a wildgame cookbook she co authored with her husband, "Kill it and Grill it." He third book is "Four Minutes a day, Rock and Roll Your Way to Happy," and she is currently working on a book and documentary regarding toxic mold to spread awareness of this invisible illness. Ted Nugent will also join us on the show today and we all know him as legendary American singer-songwriter, guitarist for The Amboy Dukes and the Gibson Byrdland rock bands. Ted can be seen on the Outdoor Channel, the Joe Rogan Experience Show, VH1's Surviving Nugent, Supergroup, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, the Howard Stern Show, The Simpsons, That 70's Show, and has made several appearances on Fox News and Larry King Live. Ted is a vocal supporter of gun rights, hunters rights, and is an activist spearheading many charities and organizations such as Ted Nugent's Kamp for Kids, and Hunters for the Hungry. You can learn more about his organizations, how to donate, and check out his store on his website at tednugent.com. Shemane is really well known in the lifestyle and fitness world and she's also working on a mold book and documentary. Ted is well known in the musical world and I heard he might be writing a mold song for us. But that's just a rumor. You guys have been through it with mold. Tell us, I know that you had a house that was featured on MTV Cribs that was totally lost to mold, and you've been dealing with mold problems ever since.

Shemane Nugent:

Yeah, we found out the hard way that our home that was featured on MTV Cribs was contaminated with toxic mold between the walls, we never saw anything. We just kept getting sicker and sicker and this was around the year 2001, 2002. So we had no predecessor to tell us, oh, this is what it's going to be. I had to become an investigative sleuth for our health and we eventually found unbelievable mold counts in between the walls of our home.

Ted Nugent:

And ultimately, we are so health conscious, we're high energy people, we've always taken good care of ourselves. We're hunters and fishermen so we have always eaten the organic food before the everybody else figured out what organic food was. And we've always been active and really conscientious about the environment we live in. We live in a beautiful farm in a swamp and a forest in Michigan. So when we started losing our energy, and having body aches and pains, you know, I think I was right around the year I was turning 50 something and I thought maybe this old guitar player is just getting old and this is what it feels like. But it was really amazing because when we were not at home, touring Europe and touring across the world, we felt so much better. And we could sleep and we could sleep thing. The lack of sleep. The insomnia is a direct symptom I think, of your immune system going haywire. And so we were very concerned and Shemane really did dig deep and go beyond the bureaucracies which were the enemies of America. Hello. And she discovered that we have Stachybotrys mold in our home, and it was a dream home, to hell with MTV Cribs, it was our dream home overlooking a beautiful lake where we were raising our kids and living a great American dream. And we got so sick that we finally discovered the house was infested with mold. We had to get the hell out of there.

Kealy Severson:

What was your first clue? How did you discover this? Was it just through seeing your health decline and going through doctor after doctor and then out of desperation, you considered this because mold illness is still hard for people to believe as a root cause of illness.

Ted Nugent:

We have friends that literally were pointing out to us when they were inquiring about our experience with mold that they're going Oh, yeah, we have mushrooms on the wall of our basement, that might be an indicator. So it's not always visible. In fact, I think it's rarely visible and I don't think that anyone is really educated to the symptoms that are a direct result of immune system deficiency based on exposure to mold. So once again, Shemane did her own research and she really discovered the irrefutable evidence and the truth about what happens to you, if you ignore moisturenseepage into your home, and you ignore your health indicators. And again, I don't want to turn this into a monologue. But a lot of people intentionally bombard themselves with chemical warfare before mold. The the unbelievable marketing scam of chemically scented ingredients and chemical ingredients in the building of homes, all those chemicals are already fighting people's immune system, they're already getting asthma, they're already getting weak, they're already getting sickly. And so it's really difficult to convince them that it might be something like mold. But I think there's an awakening and I attributed to this lady right here, certainly in our core inner circle, which happens to be quite expansive. We have lots of friends, lots of family, we guide hunters from all around the world every year, and people will start articulating these symptoms. And we go, have you looked into the infrastructure of your home? Have you examined your wet carpets? And so there's an application process that really she is the master of?

Shemane Nugent:

Well, I wouldn't, I've learned a lot and to answer your question, Kealy, I had been teaching group fitness since 1980. And I know my body well, I know the difference between a pulled muscle and a muscle because of strain that I was working out extra hard. And I started getting all these symptoms like debilitating migraines, I should have been the walking poster child for health and fitness and I was in the hospital all the time. He'd have to rush me to the hospital for migraines, or for a heart attack symptoms, and I went to dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of doctors who said basically, oh, you're stressed. Well, yeah, do I don't know anybody that's not stressed. You're stressed, you've travel too much you do this or that whatever. You got to listen to these nature sounds on tape and turn off the phone and the lights and everything and just relax. Well, I did all those things that I was still getting sick. I eliminated every potential trigger food wise from my body that I could and yet we were still getting sick. And what happened the reason we found out about this is a friend of ours, my best friend, her brother happened to be an attorney who represented an entire community in Michigan, all the homes in this subdivision were contaminated with toxic mold because of faulty building. And he would call in these people to do depositions and they were sick all the time. So he took it upon himself to try and help them and he's the one that actually helped us and opened our eyes and sent us to a toxicologist in Royal Oak Michigan. Ted and I both did very extensive blood work and found out that we had four different types of toxic mold in our bloodstream and I was also diagnosed with having pre-emphysema and the doctor I'll never forget on his little prescription pad wrote, get out of the house.

Ted Nugent:

It's very important to note that we had a lot of governmental bureaucracies come in environmental bureaucracies would come in and test our home and they constantly gave us a clean bill of health and we knew they were wrong, but I think the number one lessons that all bureaucrats are untrustworthy and you should never go to the government for anything beneficial in your life. There's an American dream, in spite of the government. So you really have to go to people you trust and find doctors that are dedicated to the Hippocratic oath, and not just shoving big pharm into your life. So these are lessons that I think are glaring right now in the craziness of 2021 for many, many different considerations. But when it comes to individual health, you've got to take a deep breath and examine what is Mr. Hand putting in Mr. Grocery Cart that ends up in Mr. Mouth? Can you pronounce it? Is it food? Is it real? The scented candles, that's not strawberry. That's chemical warfare. So that's the beginning. And then if you go to the next step with the indecency, the scamming and corruption in the construction world, that they don't care about your home 5,10,20 years down the road. And those are the lessons that we're sharing those the lessons that we discovered, again, because of Shemane.

Shemane Nugent:

It was something that we discovered together and honestly, if he hadn't been getting the same symptoms that I had, I'm sure he would have thought I was crazy, because there was one time I remember, we were both doing things like putting the milk in the cupboard and putting the phone in the refrigerator. And there are just so many symptoms that people don't realize are attributed to not only multiple chemical sensitivity, but to toxic mold illness.

Ted Nugent:

I think it's important to note, as is everything that comes out of my mouth is that I'm 73 years clean and sober. I have never allowed any poisons into my body. No drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, no food that I can't pronounce, that didn't see where it came from. I've been a hunter all my life. We eat venison, wheat ducks and pheasants are free range chicken is a pheasant. That's the only free range chicken available to mankind. So being ultra, ultra conscientious like my parents raised us. This is a sacred temple. You don't abuse the sacred temple. You're conscientious and thought and responsible of what you put into your sacred temple. So we were already a great baseline for overall health plus our genetics, our DNA is strong. We have a great constitution Shemane's family and my family, strong, strong, healthy people. So there was no excuse for us, I mean, I'm so high energy, I scare me, and I'm not afraid of anything. But there were times in those in that era where I would struggle to get out of bed and I'd stand I'd sit there with my head in my hands, sobbing, going what is happening to my life, I'm doing everything right. I'm thoughtful and responsible in my lifestyle and again, Shemane discovered, after all the bureaucrats said your home is perfect. It was behind our bed. The east wall of our Michigan dream home was black, goo infested and we got the hell out and we haven't looked back since.

Alicia Swamy:

How many remediators did you have to go through in order to find that?

Shemane Nugent:

Well, again, this was around the year 2000, 2001. Over the course of a couple of years, I had it tested three times and there there weren't a lot of opportunities. I kept the first couple of times they kept saying no, there's no mold here and they didn't do the right testing. We all know you know how even today some of the testing remediators are, you know, it's just it's unbelievable that people can get away with what they're doing. They don't they don't have any idea how to truly test for mold. There's some people that are amazing, thoughtful, courteous, considerate, and very, very, very knowledgeable about how to test for mold. I didn't have those. So we tested three times and on the third time again, when we finally found Bill Billgrath, our attorney he connected us with a scientist who Connie Moore Batt who really knew what she was doing. She tested it properly and basically agreed with the toxicologists that we needed to get out of the house.

Kealy Severson:

And you recently found mold in one of your cabins in Michigan and you were able to identify it by how you felt, was the tipping point. So what were what were the clues, were you guys opening your eyes one day and you're like, oh, not again?

Ted Nugent:

Yeah, Shemane had been migraine free all these years, since we got out of the Michigan house. And we had the beautiful little cabin on a lake in Michigan. All of a sudden the alarm started going off, we couldn't sleep and sleep, she got a migraine and we went, Oh, you got to be kidding me. And once again, we dug deep. We got Connie, our team out there plus some friends of ours who are specialists in this area and we went into the crawlspace, where the HVAC is and we discovered once again, faulty construction, there was accumulation of moisture with inadequate ventilation. And I left the next day. And now that team has been working non stop for the last three weeks and they are very confident that we nipped it in the bud because we immediately responded to the indicators and the signals and the symptoms. We didn't wait and try to attribute it to other things because there's no edge back when we first discovered it. There was no baseline. Nobody ever thought, Well, if you're sick and you have migraines, you can't sleep, it might be mold. That mean that never came up in the conversation. Nobody ever recommended that possibility. So once again, we are the canary in the coal mine. When we go to a friend's house including gazillion dollar mansions from oil barons, they welcomed us into their house, they'll open the front door and we are sucker punched by Mike Tyson in the throat with the stench of chemical warfare because of the fabric softeners, and the scented candles in the plugin heated chemical dispersers. And we go we love you, but we can't come in your house. We're already getting hives. So we are tender, which I think is good. It's good to be tender. It's good to be so healthy, that when unhealthy environments are exposed to you, you immediately back away from them. So we really have educated a lot of people and Shemane has done a lot of media. I've mentioned them so many times in media and I think the world at least in the music world in the entertainment world, they know that the Nugent's went through a poisonous mold episode. And we've had some a listers in the industry get ahold of us going, we can't breathe, we got migraines, we're in pain, could it be mold, and we've saved a few people from going through what we went through. Yeah. But isn't it a tragedy that you might have to call the Motor City Madman to get some health advice? I mean, do you think there'll be somebody with better credentials than Wango Tango?

Kealy Severson:

Well, the medical industry isn't recognizing this illness. So a lot of it is just mold exposed and mold injured people reaching back to then help others. So on the flip side, your experience is beneficial to shine a light for others. I know you guys have a heart towards veterans and military, and I just wanted to ask, are you has it is it on your radar, the moldy military housing crisis right now?

Ted Nugent:

We hear about an all the time, it's pandemic. And if the governor once again, the government who's in charge of military water, who's in charge of Agent Orange, who is in charge of the mold in the barracks and on Fort Hood? It's of epidemic proportions, because bureaucrats don't care, and the worst victims that could possibly be subjected to this criminal corruption and abuse of power, are the heroes of the military that are willing to die for your and my safety based on their oath to the Constitution. So you bet we're involved with these people and right now, we're fielding phone calls every day from heartbroken military heroes who are watching their government turn on them, like we've never seen since Vietnam. And it goes right to the core of ignoring Agent Orange symptoms, ignoring POW's, and ignoring the vast expanse of mold infestation on military compounds and in the barracks. So yeah, this is serious stuff. We're hammering our elected employees, our senators, and our congressmen and our governors. And we're going come on if you don't take care of your military heroes, you're a bad, bad person.

Shemane Nugent:

But the problem is, and you guys know this, the problem is that it's a quick fix, if we can educate builders and contractors about what is right and cause change in the insurance companies, you get you get insurance because there's

Ted Nugent:

There's always a mold, a mold waiver. I mean, as an insurer or I can I'm insured against buffalo stampedes, but not mold? Who thinks like this? How corrupted and criminal can you be?

Shemane Nugent:

I'm producing a documentary about toxic mold about our experience that I'm going to share with you guys very, very soon and writing a book about it because if I'm inundated on a daily basis with people crying, bawling their eyes out because they're sick, their kids are sick, and they don't know what to do. And many people don't have the option that we did to just leave, to walk away and leave everything behind and they don't know what to do. They don't know where to go. But the main problem is that you know, if we could just recognize these symptoms, and clean the air in our homes and not rely on Big Pharma. When I went to dozens of doctors they would give me several different medications for my migraines, to cover up the problem and the migraine is still there. But there's it's an indication that something is wrong and especially women, we make excuses for our health like, Oh, yeah, I'm stressed. I have kids. I gotta work. I've got it.

Ted Nugent:

I'm married to Ted Nugent.

Shemane Nugent:

Yeah, that's a that's a big one. But we do make excuses for it and we we end up accepting less health than what we should.

Ted Nugent:

We don't accept we anything. We're suspicious of everybody. We're loving and caring and giving and conscientious and generous. But boy in this day and age, and it's gotten worse over the years, I again, I'm 73 and I've never seen anything like the current conditions. But regarding mold denial. I mean, how dare an entire industry, the construction industry, the insurance industry, the health industry, how dare they deny that mold might hurt your the Stachybotrys is belitted. We had a special on the local CBS station here in Texas, where these poor people were falling around their apartments with cameras, it was like a scene out of a horror movie, the black goo dripping from the ceiling. And the black caving on mold.

Shemane Nugent:

Everything on glasses and their children's baby bottles and everything.

Ted Nugent:

And they treated it like it was a minor inconvenience. I just don't recognize such denial and cruelty towards people in desperate need, when the fix

Kealy Severson:

Well, and we thank you for for your time. And really is holding construction companies accountable, teaching people about health symptoms, and the responses they're in, and including the mold education because of where Lyme disease or their different diseases that we are subjected to on this wonderful planet. But mold can be fixed. Mold can be stopped before it grows, if people would just care more and educate each other. So I think we're, I think we're on a mission from God we also we also see one issue that's just a little bit, in here because we can save lives, ave incredible amounts of money or people, and again, it starts ith holding government gencies, construction ompanies, insurance agencies, ccountable. Good luck. But we o it every day, and you guys re doing God's work. We thank ou for that. addition to what you've described, were part of Erik Johnson's theory. This is Erik Johnson, he has training from the military and bio weapons, but there seems to be some human pollution that's making microbes behave more aggressively. So part of the bigger picture with our work is we don't want to see a world in 20 years where people are having mold grow in new places where mold never grew before, even without the required moisture, because fungi do seem to be getting more aggressive, which is something that Erik has observed over the last 20 years. So really all hands on deck and collaborating and getting the message out on building failures and chemical failures. And it sounds like you folks were sensitized from mold and now you have multiple chemical sensitivities, the way you describe your reactions to candles, which is very common.

Shemane Nugent:

Yeah, and I could walk into a room that's been freshly painted and I can tell you, if it has regular paint with volatile organic compounds, low VOC paint, or no VOC paint, and I can literally walk in and not embarrassed anymore. I used to be but I can literally walk into somebody's home, even family members and go I'm so sorry, but I can't come in here because you're threatening my health. I'm not going to risk getting a migraine, taking a prescription drug were one of the side effects is death, so that I can come visit you on Thanksgiving. And I think that's what we need to do is start putting our own health first, and really shine a light on this terrible problem with toxic mold. And that's what you guys are doing. So thank you.

Ted Nugent:

As ugly as social media can be, we probably would have been way better off it would if it was never invented. Boy, that's an understatement. But it is a great communication network if it's used properly and conscientiously. And if you go to my Facebook Live and Shemane's various social media communications. You can see lots and lots of people certainly well into the hundreds, if not 1,000s, who come to us for advice, and share some of their own tragedies with us. And we've

Shemane Nugent:

And people don't realize that that has a very big said get a big plastic garbage bag, go through your house right now. If there's a product you can't pronounce the contents, put it in the plastic bag, get it out of your house and never buy it again. And you should Hear the emotional testimony from people who all of a sudden their kids are more energetic and they can breathe and they don't have to do the the oxygen thing the asthma inhalers. An then also I say, go to your pa try. What the hell are you ea ing? What is what are you fe ding your children? What is effect of what the foods that we eat can exacerbate mold illness.

Ted Nugent:

We've become more, you become more critical, more victimized by other triggers. If you're not already strong. Our immune system is a powerful, powerful force. If we've allowed it to develop. When I was a kid, we we'd roll in the dirt and go down to the river. God knows what was in the river, but we'd catch fish and handle that fish and probably pick our nose. Bet God knows where they were, we'd shoot a raccoon and then we we'd hold it up for a photo and then we'd probably lick our fingers. I think our ancestors, I happen to be one of them. I think our immune system was much more fortified than a hyper paranoid society, about avoiding germs at all costs. The more sanitized you are, I think the weaker you are, and then mold comes into your life, it'll sucker punch you in a dangerous and drastic way. So it's all about education. I would like to think that there would be a curriculum in America, from preschool to your medical degree graduation, about individual health choices. And because there hasn't been, the sheeping of society is a direct result of the dumbing down of society, and the marketing blitzkrieg that this smells like the fresh scent of spring, except it's chemical warfare, and it will kill you after a few years. It really is an inundation, a bombardment, a dangerous level of use by the average American, the average human being. And when we go to Africa, these people have never, they've never been to a store and they are so healthy. They run around barefoot and they are they eat gut piles, and they chew bark from a tree. They eat raw snake meat. I guess I wouldn't be recommending that lifestyle because as Americans, we're as close to that as you can get. Because we do kill our own food, we know exactly how it's handled. We handle it with reverence, the way God intended us to. And so when we get sick, that's an alarm maybe louder and more obvious than other people because their lifestyle, basically is asking for it. And so we've we've changed a lot of minds, and I think the mold awareness is, is a huge missing link. You'd be hard pressed to walk the streets of America, stop anybody anywhere, anytime in any segment of our culture, and say, so what do you know about mold? You get a blank stare, because you asked him but you ask him about the Gettysburg Address, you probably get a blank stare. But there is a huge ignorance factor there. So our education efforts really are important. So we thank all of you. We appreciate you sharing this with us right now, even though I get to be a bit verbose, but it's serious stuff for us.

Kealy Severson:

Well we appreciate you sharing your time with us and our audience to share your story and we look forward to collaborating with Shemane more on the education part of it in the nearby future and thank you so much for your time today. Ted and Shemane it was really nice speaking with you both.

Shemane Nugent:

Great talking with you all too.

Ted Nugent:

Thank you very much come to our Facebook and our social media because this conversation continues every day.

Kealy Severson:

Absolutely. Shemane, what's your, what are your your Instagram and your Facebook pages?

Shemane Nugent:

It's Shemane.Nugent on Facebook and it's the blue check and also blue check on Instagram, Shemane Nugent. I am banned from Twitter.

Ted Nugent:

Because you're so cute.

Shemane Nugent:

But the Taliban isn't so you could go check out the Taliban anyway. Yeah, I'm banned permanently suspended from Twitter because you know i think i think that's what is going on right now. If you've got something to say about natural cures, they don't like that.

Ted Nugent:

Yes, absolutely. And it's got to make you wonder why is it okay for the Taliban to have you know a Twitter account but I'm we're promoting natural health as a potential cure or substance that can help you heal from, I'm trying to use my words judiciously. So I don't say the V word or certain things, but it's crazy that we can't we've completely lost the first amendment. Yeah, those guys well say that Ted Nugent, he's clean and sober guy he's got his venison, yea, that's dangerous.

Shemane Nugent:

Speaking of venison go, make me some.

Ted Nugent:

We love venison. It's the best food in the world.

Kealy Severson:

Well enjoy your lunch and thank you again so much for your time you too. It was really nice to speak with you.

Shemane Nugent:

Bye.

Ted Nugent:

Thank you everyone, God bless America. Godspeed.

Alicia Swamy:

Thank you everyone for joining us today we have the wonderful Shemane and Ted Nugent on and you know what I couldn't have said it any better myself, everything that Ted and Shemane went through, it word for word, it almost felt like I was reliving my own mold experience. And it just feels so good to have them as an ally to try to fight this. The more that we can get the word out, the more that we can educate people into understanding that, hey, your health symptoms might just be coming from your environment. We need to examine exactly our homes and what we're living in and what we're breathing in every day. And again, it feels so wonderful to have Shemane and Ted as an ally, to bring this to people's awareness and to continue education efforts. And we have some exciting things coming up in the future. So please, like, share, comment on our content, subscribe to our accounts. We're on Twitter, we're on YouTube, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, check us out there, go ahead and donate to our GoFundMe and Patreon pages to keep this podcast rolling. We have some amazing guests coming up in the future and we can't wait to continue sharing all the information that we learn every week. Thank you again, everyone, and we'll see you next time.