Mold, mycotoxin exposure, and what to do about it with Stephanie Selinger

Stephanie joins us to chat all things mold-where it hides in homes and food, what it does to the body, and how to fix it. 

Learn more about Stephanie FNTP, RWP  @_stephselinger

https://www.ahealthybalance.net/

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Lara @lalaswellness

Molly @womensguthealth 

https://www.supercube.club (use code MOLLYISSUPER for 20% off)

Transcript

 Welcome  everybody.

Hello, Molly. Hello.

Hey everyone.

Stephanie, we're so excited to have you here and we can't just wait to dive in. So what we're gonna do is have you introduce yourself first. Does that sound good?

Great. so I am a functional nutritional therapy practitioner and a restorative wellness practitioner.  I'm basically a functional nutritionist and I specialize in complex cases including mold, illness and toxicity, gut and digestive issues, skin health issues, and metabolic health.

Are the big ones. I'm really passionate about working with women along their entire journey from optimizing health for fertility all the way through the Perry and menopause transitions. And I live in Portland with my husband and I have a teenage daughter as well.

Yeah, and Stephanie and I know each other. She was a provider in our clinic for a while as well as her online practice, which was really awesome, being able to hug her on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Awesome. Alright, so we're gonna get right into it. What do we got?

Mold is all around us. Mold and mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are the what the mold outputs, right? Not all molds actually produce mycotoxins and that the actual toxic piece is the mycotoxin that the mold is producing. And then can, hang out and inhibit our take up.

In our bodies, but mold is definitely in foods. It can be from a moldy banana or just like visual mold that you see on foods that we eat, but can also be in particularly a lot of grains. So if you think about grains when they're harvested, and then oftentimes they're stored and that storage piece where they're sitting can.

Become moldy and we don't even see the mold, but it infiltrates these grains. Rice is a really common one. So if you are if you eat a lot of rice and corn is another one, is a really common one that can really have a lot of mold. So yes, it can be in our food, but it can also be in our environment and especially in.

More humid places. So like the south high rain and precipitation areas. The Pacific Northwest, it is rampant here where we all live. And if you think about it too, they're, they're out there building houses in the rain. And so I personally think that a lot of homes are, have mold and a lot of times it's hidden, it's behind the walls, you can't see it.

And then other times you see it in your shower or, you have an actual water, like water damage in your home and then you can see it.

Yeah.

It's truly all around us. It's also outside, molds. They definitely have like more seasons where they're more common, but. It's always there, so yeah.

All around us.

So when these microtoxins, take up resident in our body, what might that look like for us?

Oh my gosh. There are a lot of symptoms. It can be different things, but one of the most common where they tend to colonize first is in the nasal passages. So in our sinuses, in our lungs and respiratory systems. So things like chronic sinus or nasal congestion postnasal drip nosebleeds even. And then lung issues as well.

So if you tend to be to have asthma or like a recent asthma that's just popped up coughing, wheezing those are some of the more, I think, common signs because again, that's where the mold will first come, enter the body. But other symptoms that I see really regularly in practice and that I had myself when I had gone through mold toxicity chronic debilitating fatigue, so just constantly tired.

Not being able to exercise, just always exhausted, but then also sometimes insomnia or having sleep issues, feeling like you're like amped up at nighttime can be really common. And then along with the sinus issues, people with deeper histamine issues. So histamine can just look more like allergies, right?

Like sneezing, coughing. Itchy skin, itchy throat. Things like that can be really common. Also, brain fog, just, not feeling fuzzy all the time. That kind of goes along with that fatigue. One of the things I see a lot too, chronic UTIs, overactive bladder and inner people, women that have interstitial cyst. Super common. And that's because mold and mycotoxins tend to be processed through the liver of course, but then through the kidney. So a lot of times it's through our urine and so they go into the urinary tract, they hang out there and create all kinds of problems. So when you have chronic issues down there definitely wanna consider that mold toxicity could be part of your picture.

Heart palpitations. Sometimes even like joint pain and nerve pain. I've had a number of clients that have had those issues, like more chronically without any explanation. Liver issues, constipation, diarrhea, loose stools, like lots of digestive symptoms as well, a really common. And then another big one is unexplained weight gain or weight loss.

Either one where you've changed nothing and all of a sudden you're. 10 or 15 pounds up and you're like, what just happened? And it's sudden, right? It's like that's inflammation, weight gain. It's not just putting on fat. And the same thing with weight loss. It can be the same way. Those I would say, like the big ones that I see.

Off the bat, let's say somebody's giving you all of these symptoms and they're talking to you about how they're feeling and they're, it's lining up for you. It just sounds so familiar to perimenopause, right? So many of these symptoms overlap. So what's one of the ways that you distinguish between the two?

I think, one of the things I'll first ask is about people's environment. So where they live, how old their house is do they see visual water damage, or how do they know that their house might have that? Have you ever lived in a place that had water damage or mold, the environment? Have you ever been told that you had, that you were exposed to mold or did you ever clean it up and just, without wearing a mask or anything like that?

So I'll definitely ask those types of things. I ask about water and air to and what they're eating even to see if they're, are they eating a lot of grains and things 

like that? 

Because yeah, a lot of the symptoms can be other things, right? These are all like, definitely like this.

The chronic sinus issues for me is a big one because  that is like a big red flag. Knowing more about their environment and then also like how long it's been going on. Sometimes it's been going on since before per menopause or menopause for some people. And if I'm unsure or if we try some other things first, if we work on the gut and then go into some hormonal supports and get people, I.

Trying to feel better, right? Hormonally and they're still having symptoms or still having some of this stuff, then I might test then I would, potentially test and see if there's something, if the mo if there is something deeper going on there. Yeah.

When it comes to your environment, and maybe people are experiencing some of this. And they're trying to tease out like, did it come from my, oatmeal every morning? Or is it maybe in my home? And a lot of people that I've seen in the past have reported it. It truly is worse at home. Like when they're home it's worse.

But then when they leave, it's better, but it may not be in their home. Know how do kind tease that out a.

Yeah. So yes, I oftentimes, I make sure yes, people who definitely feel worse at home I will, that's definitely when I might even have them test their home at that point, right? There's a lot of like good, inexpensive at home tests now to run, to get an idea of whether or not it's going on.

But yeah, it is a red flag if they feel better leaving or if they go on vacation and feel better. That could also be stress, right? Like you think about and even just the fact that you go on vacation and you feel better overall, it's hard to know sometimes is that mold or is that you're stressed when you're not on vacation, right?

When you're at home and you're home and ' cause a lot of these things can be stress related to a nervous system, dysregulation going along with hormonal issues as well. But yeah, for sure if they feel worse at home or at work. I have a lot of clients who a lot of teachers 

like schools are notorious for having mold.

They're old, like a lot of old schools or old buildings. People are working in things like that too.

Yeah, that's wild. Go ahead, Molly.

No, I was just gonna say, it's so interesting because when you look at someone's home and when you're talking to them about it, it doesn't always seem like there is something going on. But then at the same time, when Talk the person and they're like, no, our house is brand new.

Blah, blah, blah. And then you dig into it and then you know, is it that you see not only, maybe it's the workplace, but also that perhaps it could be from years ago? Does it? Does it hang on for a while in your body?

Yeah. So that's such an interesting question because first of all, there is a genetics. There are some genetic SNPs associated with mold and people's ability to detoxify it or get rid of it. I think it's up to 25% of the population have these genetic stip SNPs that make it harder to detoxify mold.

But I'll also say this, if people have compromised liver especially, or kidneys or digestion these are the organs that are drainage pathways for our body to eliminate mycotoxins or any toxin. So those are compromised, which for so many of us, they are due to. Stress, lifestyle, other toxins and things, just overburdened, liver, overburdened, kidneys de dehydration is another big one.

With all of that, then things can get clogged up. So even if you don't have those genetic SNPs, you can be a high, you could have a higher susceptibility for that, that the mycotoxin to hang out for some people. Yeah. They can be exposed, they can be cleaning up some mold and breathe it in. And then their body's just yep, we're gonna clear that out.

No problem. Other people it can be a lot harder. And I think that one of the biggest things is this. Is the immune system and its ability to function properly too. So you've got the liver and the kidneys and where they're at, their health. And then our immune systems these days are pretty taxed.

They're pretty much a lot for a lot of people either working overtime or already have been working overtime and are very depleted, which in turn allows for all kinds of things to come into play. So like parasites, for example, or the body should be able to get rid of those too, if digestion's working properly, But then we've got these internal environments that are filled with toxins and viruses and other infections, and then we've got some mold in there and other critters wanna come in. And so it's it's interesting because with mold, when you've got it in your body, then your immune system is gonna have to work harder.

And it's trying to work harder to get rid of it, but maybe it can't. And then it allows for other issues to come up too. And so it's all wrapped into one thing in a way. But yeah, for sure it can hang out and if unless you are actively trying to get rid of it then yeah, you can get sick.

You can end up getting sicker and the mycotoxins keep multiplying in there and and making things worse. Clogging up the liver even more. Con making you constipated, which then in turn you're not getting rid of other toxins and then making that environment internally even harder to, to wanna leave too.

Yeah.

For sure. So when people come with what they think is something that's very simple, like constipation, like how do you get my lower bowel to release my bowel movement and on a regular basis and, you're helping them with fiber and hydration and good food choices and things, and the needle's not moving.

And I, I love to just take a moment to recognize this recipe, right? Like it's. Sure you might have mold exposure. Like for example, I, we have a new beer or a new G leopard Gecko and I took his apple slice out of his crickets this morning and I looked at it and I was like, you are totally covered in mold.

I was like I guess I'll just put that in the garbage and wash my hands and hoped for the best. Because I could have breathed it in, I don't know. I did take some high antioxidant stuff. That's helpful. But I guess what you were just saying in terms of all these different areas, like if you are very tired and you are already have a chronic low grade autoimmune disorder and you're in a super stressful time and.

Maybe you're not able to exercise as much, so your, your detoxification pathways are just null. That recipe can be really difficult. So how do people, when they look and they're like, I might have mold, first of all, of course, we want them to come talk to someone like you, but what would you say to those people that are like, how do I get started?

What do I, how do I approach this? What do I do?

Yep. So normally what I will do is I'll have them start with testing their home environment and potentially their work environment. If we suspect that may be an issue because. It is really hard to get rid of mold in the body when you're being exposed to it on a daily basis, right? So yeah, it might not be that easy to quit your job or move your home, but if you know it's there, then you might be able, there's things you can do.

So the first thing I have people do, there's a co, there's a few like at home mold test kits now that are pretty inexpensive. I wouldn't say they're, but they're always the most accurate at knowing which strains, but they're relatively inexpensive. You could put out a little Petri dish or, wipe some areas of the home.

One of the, one of the ones I really like is called, is by Lytics. They have a it's just immuno lytics.com, but there's a few out there on Amazon, so I might have people just get. A few of those, get a test kit and then test their home or their work. That's where I start. If, and if that comes up positive, then I may have them do like a more detailed test, like an imi imis kind of the gold standard.

It's a very challenging test to interpret. And so if you're gonna do an irmi, sometimes I recommend getting a mold consultant who can help you facilitate that. So maybe do one of the lighter, easier tests first. If you are finding it but you don't see it, then I would consider getting the mold consultant to come in right.

And help you. And when you get a mold consultant, make sure that they're completely independent. They're not gonna be the ones that help you to eradicate or remove it because there's that conflict of interest there. It's nice to have that separation. Whole hiring of old consultant. It's not always the cheapest thing in the world, you'll know what's going on in your home.

That's what I ended up doing myself. So doing that first, once, it's either not in your home and not at your work. Maybe it's an old exposure or even if it is, you can do things in your home, get an air purifier, especially in the rooms that you're in the most, or the rooms that you know that there's mold in.

I would definitely say. If you can and can afford it, get some sort of, air purifiers for those rooms. You can also open the windows more often. I know that's not as easy to do in the winter, but on, as long as it's not pouring rain outside, if you can once a day open things up, air them out, get some fresh air flowing, that's also free.

The air purifiers are not always the cheapest things in the world. I always have people start there. If we suspect it's from food, if we know, that these are people that are. Eating a lot of corn or a lot of we wheat products or rice or whatever. I may have them take out certain foods for a bit to play around with that.

They drink a ton of coffee that's like meat potentially filled with myco. Coffees another one too, right? That's filled with my Botox. I might have them remove that. So I, sometimes I'll have them start there. And if. From there, I may have them do a test. Sometimes I don't test, sometimes I do. It just depends.

The testing can be expensive and if people's detoxification pathways, usually the tests are through the urine. If blocked, if their kidneys and liver are not functioning well, then it may not even show up in the urine. And then so typically from there, I am gonna open up drainage pathways, make sure we're getting the, if they're not pooping, we're getting them pooping.

Working on the gut right is really important. I think almost first, because mold and mycotoxins can affect stomach acid production. It can impact the liver and the gallbladder, which in turn the bile isn't flowing properly, right? So fats aren't emulsifying, things aren't moving out through the bowels. Getting those things working, getting some functional supports and maybe doing some testing there.

Is something that I'll typically I'll typically do and then we see where we're at. We reevaluate and maybe they're feeling better from that. Maybe that's all their bodies need sometimes is just to get things flowing and moving.

What was your journey like? Did you have a.

Yeah. So I have my home we moved to Portland about, it's been 10 years now and. Six months in I wasn't feeling very well. I had really bad histamine issues, which I now know is partially genetic. I have some some blocks that are related to histamine, so I am prone to that. But I was having really bad, what seemed like seasonal allergies, but all year round my sinuses were clogged all the time.

I wasn't sleeping well at night, but I was exhausted all day. It was debilitating fatigue. Like I could just nap anytime, but then I couldn't sleep at night. It was, those were the big symptoms that I had. And at the time I was finishing up nutrition school and I was starting my practice focusing on gut health and healing because that was some of the issues that I had before and worked through that.

And so that was like my passion. And I had I was doing some, running some tests on myself, some functional tests. I was like, I'm just gonna run this myTax test, like just to see what's going on, and maybe I'll use it with clients or whatever. And it came back, I was like, off the charts with ochratoxin, which is one of the common, mold in the home.

My home is a remodel of a house that was from 1907. And I do know for a fact that they were, it was being built, added onto in the rain. Couldn't see any mold, but we did some, I did an actually an at-home test. I did the imi and came back that it, there was mold in all the rooms really, that I was testing with some of it in higher amounts in certain areas.

Because it was all over, but I couldn't see anything. I was like, I think I need to get a consultant in here because I just don't know where this is. I'm not gonna, we're not gonna just start ripping open walls. I hired a mold consultant. He came out and it turned out interestingly enough, there was some mold.

We had a front loading washing machine that was harboring mold, and so it was all over all of our clothes. That was the first thing we did is I sold my front loading washer. And got the top loader again, which, old school and not everybody has to do that. I think if you are really diligent about cleaning out your washing machine, you can be fine.

But I was freaking out at the time 'cause I was feeling so terrible and I just wanted to do

Of course.

do. 

Yeah.

there was a little bit of mold behind our dishwasher, so we pulled that out and did a few things and they, I, we did have it remediated there. The last thing was. When they built our home, they added on to a second story and they added on, like a crawl space up at the top level, the third floor of the attic.

They never vented it. There was no

Oh.

up there.

no.

So over the years that, like next couple, year or so it is forced living in the Pacific Northwest, the humidity and the rain. It. And then the heat that we were using inside was heating up that attic and creating condensation and then just growing mold.

And it was nowhere for the condensation to go. And so I wasn't caught in any of the, inspections or anything. I guess not sure what happened there, but we ended up, so someone came out and they remediated the mold for us. And put in vents. And so now we go up and check on occasion and no mold now, but it was right above our bedroom.

Right above my bedroom, and my daughter's fortunately. My husband had some symptoms and my daughter, her only symptom may have been some anxiety. I don't know her anxiety, that could be a lot of things. But she fortunately was doing okay, but my husband and I, he and I had it the worst with me being the worst.

But anyway, I did end up having to do some detoxification and but yeah, feeling a million times better now.

That was one thing that crossed my mind when you were talking about the home in general is I thought, you know here, at least in Portland, that I think that's pretty common to not do the vent thing. Like you hear about it more often than it should. It's so stupid because it is so damp and. Cold here. But I thought, oh man, if you think, if you suspect maybe that you had a remodel and your home is, and your bedroom and your sleeping terrible is very close to where you think it might be, go sleep in the downstairs for a few days and see if it improves.

Exactly. I had a client do exactly that. She actually even said, I hate being in my bedroom. Like intuitively. She didn't like being in there and she was feeling terrible. And so she went and slept in like the living room for a week and immediately felt a lot better. And it can't, they can't move or, so many people can and can't do a remediation right now.

So she's just now, she's changed the her bedroom for now and, you do, but yeah, you're so right. It's that there's, there are things that you can do even when you can't, sell your home or go rent somewhere else or change your job or.

It's it can be expensive to, to do a lot of these things.

It's a big problem in,

teasing out stuff, in terms of hormones, because a lot of what you're describing is exactly the same as a perimenopausal woman would feel. Brain fog, joint pain, it also very similar to what anyone with a chronic autoimmune condition would feel.

And so when you're looking at this and you're like, I'm trying to tease this out, how. I'm thinking through like a woman's cycle. Obviously there you're gonna notice some changes when it's environmental. You might notice it's not there when you're at home, if it is something that you've eaten maybe in the past and it's taken up residence and it's hanging out, how are you able to tell? How are you able to tell? That's really tricky. It seems a pretty difficult puzzle to tease out. What is it that we can look at to know that it isn't something deeper?

Yep. I, interestingly, I do something unique in my practice. I muscle test, so using applied kinesiology and I have vials that test for mold and mycotoxins and candida and yeasts and all those types of things. And fun fungal toxin in general. So that's something that I personally do in my practice.

I muscle test. I have a lot of different kits for a lot of different things, and if so, that comes up obviously. I know. And for some people that's enough. And other people are like, I need hard data. This is this doesn't feel like enough information for me. So then we might do the test right.

But other things I will consider is, I'll look at blood work, right? There's some blood work markers that, that, that tell me that it's not just hormonal. If I'm seeing the liver struggling and some of those liver markers even on a stool test, I will look at scr, right? See how the bile is flowing.

Digestive enzymes, I might look and see are they really depleted in the good gut bacteria? And why that might be. I, there, so yeah, there's other things, even like low stomach acid can be a can, some of these things where I'm like, okay, that might not be perimenopause. Or just a hormonal situation.

I also, because, so the stool test, I feel like there's some things there. There's definitely a few markers in blood work, especially related more to like liver and kidney health that can tell me. Or like chronic immune activation where we know. We've ruled out autoimmune or we've ruled out parasites or maybe we've already worked on that.

Other things that commonly come toge that are together with mold that are def, that are less related to hormones, in my opinion, candida. Candida is something, obviously you guys all know this is a part of our bodies, but then it can get overgrown. It loves to come in and try to clean up stuff, so it's trying.

Sometimes it'll come in to try to clean up those mycotoxins so they go hand in hand. If people are having. A lot of yeast and candida issues, and I'm like, okay, plus maybe some of these other things that will help piece things together for me. And heavy metals too. I run sometimes an HTMA, a hair tissue test.

If people have a lot of heavy metals going on in the body, or their minerals are really depleted, that's another big sign being at four lows pattern for minerals. So just having your minerals really depleted could be a mold sign too. So it's sometimes just. Piecing things together. And then also just some of the things that I bring in that, that we bring in to help detoxify mold are also beneficial for other things.

Mold detoxification, it's not hardcore antimicrobials or these big eradication protocols. It's a lot of times supporting the, it's getting the things moving. So digestive supports getting those into place. It's. Some, it's a lot of, so a lot of times it's getting those functional things into place, but then it's maybe some glutathione or neck supporting the liver, and then it's adding in some strategic binders too, which are then, those are gonna be helpful not only for mold, but whatever else, other toxins in the body.

That could be heavy metals, that could be other parasites or other things that you're binding to that the, environmental toxins and things that the body. Is it needs to get rid of anyway. And I do that with a lot of clients no matter what we have going on. And if people are feeling better doing that or if we move them out of the room that they're staying in and they feel better, then I'm like, okay, yeah, there's definitely mold here.

And so it's not always the first, unless I see it in muscle testing. And even then we don't always prioritize it first. It's let's open up drainage pathways, let's support this. We might even run a hormone test and see where things are at. Do some things, lifestyle strategies dietary strategies, whatever supplements, whatever to help support that.

And if they're still feeling terrible or things aren't moving or shifting, then I'm like, okay. And, and then they're like, oh, I just got a yeast infection. I'm like okay. We're all of a sudden a UTI. And we're work, we're pushing detox a little bit, and then things start to 

I've gotta say you're coming up with great points that really resonate because when working with the gut, like I think a common misconception when we're talking about root causes is that the gut, like the bacteria, the gut bacteria imbalance or the low stomach acid is the root cause and it's not.

So it could be mold, it could be some other environmental exposure, it could be genetic. And so these are really good points to make. Yes, you may have candida overgrowth, but what is causing that? And so for you to be bringing this up, it's really helpful for people to hear. ' cause it's okay yeah, we wanna get to why you're feeling crappy, but why is that happening?

And so I just think these, I love topics like this. So thanks for bringing so much light to the situation.

Yeah, I love that this chicken like teasing through the chicken or the egg, like you mentioned, like you, yeah, you may have be perfectly fine eating a moldy banana one day, but then something in the diet and lifestyle recipe changed the way your organs that detoxify work, and all of a sudden you've created this accumulation and you need a completely different approach than you would have otherwise. And that could even be aging, that could be hormones, that could be stress, that could be, it's rooted in so many different things. That's just wild. So how long 

did it take for you to experience, what you would say? Relief. I'm imagining just getting it out of the house was really helpful.

But how do you feel like it took for your body to recover like.

Yeah, it can take, it took me, I would say about six months. It took, I right away I noticed some changes, so like right away the fatigue improved and my digestion improved. But it, but other things, it was like a little bit slower. So for me, I would say six month mark, I was like, wow, I'm really feeling a lot better now.

I have had clients who were living in mold much longer or had like multiple experiences or, just in certain situations where they yeah, had much bigger, I would say, like a overall low toxic load than I did and that, so I have clients where it maybe will take a year even up to 18 months.

I also think it depends on. Sometimes the type of mold or two that, like some of the more some of the, there's some mycotoxins that are easier to get rid of, it seems or certain supplements or life. They respond better to certain lifestyle strategies. Doing some like rebounding or moving the lymph or red light therapy or things like that, or other molds.

It just seems like it's harder to. Remove, but also it'll depend on too how things are moving. There's drainage pathways, like I mentioned. One thing I just thought of and thinking about hormones, and I know we all we were just talking about earlier about how it's hard to know if it's perimenopause or mold.

There's one mycotoxin zol alone that is very estrogenic in nature. It actually binds to the estrogen receptors and can really mess up hormones. And so you can run a Dutch test on somebody or look at someone's hormones or whatever and think that they're in perimenopause or menopause, and it may actually be the case or.

And, or I should say it could be that they have a specific mycotoxin and that mycotoxin is really common in food. It's a food-based mycotoxin. It's a common in corn and rice and some of those other things. So yeah, it just goes to show too that to your point, like it's so hard to know sometimes what is what, and it sometimes just takes that trial and error.

And in that case, with that mold, what it responds well to, honestly, yeah, a little bit of binding, but doing a lot of the things that you would do to help support. In perimenopause, like helping to support the liver to help detoxify your hormones better and things like that. So sometimes these things just go hand in hand and you feel better not just because you're addressing the mold, but because you're addressing hormones at the same time, or you're addressing digestion at the same time, things like that.

I love how our organs are so complex and they work so closely together. So when we use our Western trained mind to say, Hey, I'm gonna hone in on this one thing, and the next thing you know, that one thing has actually changed a whole umbrella of things because our body isn't, a makeup of a bunch of singular things.

That works really.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

You've brought up grains a couple times, and do you find sometimes that even if the client or the patient isn't necessarily eating that many grains that they, this could also come from like factory farm and. Animals where their feed is moldy as well, so it passes through it. It doesn't have to be like, it could be like a couple degrees of separation, I guess would be my

Yeah, 

Yeah, I have thought about that too. Absolutely. I think it absolutely could, unfortunately. But yeah, I do think that because. these animals are eating things sometimes that aren't super great. Yeah. Eating the moldy myco and mycotoxin filled grains and things. So yeah, I do think that is something to consider.

Absolutely. And what's hard about food right, is that, you don't necessarily wanna stop eating these things or, but. I think sometimes my recommendation will be like, okay, just get the highest quality that you can and rotate things around a little bit more. And try. I also think too, and we talked about this already a little bit briefly as well, when your body is functioning properly, it will be easier for your body to process those, these things.

No, if we can work on the foundations first, getting things moving, getting your body supported then and as long as you're hopefully mixing things up it, it won't become a problem. But it's just when your body's already not in a great place, then

Yeah, it's like you have to change up the messaging. Like you've been giving your body the message that it doesn't really have any reason to move these mycotoxins out. It, you're not giving it movement, you're not giving it water, you're not giving it fresh air, and you're constantly being exposed.

So the messaging is oh, are we supposed to hold onto this? Is this special and important? No, actually, because the organism as a whole is failing.

right.

Yeah. What do you got, Ms. Molly? Any other questions?

I was wondering if there's anything that you haven't touched on that you wanna mention For sure.

Oh, I'm trying to think. 

Oh, I had a quick question. When you took away your, when you took the mold out of the house and then you said it was what, you had mentioned that it was about six months. Was that. From when you took the mold out and you started working like on your organism as a whole. So that path of combining the two things took six months or was it like, okay, I took the mold out and then I started working on myself and that, that six months gets a little bit extended.

'cause when it, I just know when it comes to chronic stuff, people are again working in a western mind frame. They know what it is. Cool. We can do these silver bullets and it's gonna get better. The tier, the rippling effect of all the other systems having to come on board and help. 

Yeah.

what would you say to.

Yeah, so for me it was probably six months from when I got out of the mold that I felt better, but I probably started, I. Working on the mold in my body before then. So yeah, it was probably, even longer, if you think about it from when I started. But some of the things that were like easy to, we, we brought in some air purifiers and I did start I was working hard on digestion and making sure drainage pathways were open.

And I did start I think some binding a little bit before, it can take a while. And to your point, Laura, I think in Western medicine Yeah. It's not just a pill that you take and then you're done, or adding a bandaid. It's a multi-tiered approach. It's it's a process. And it, you don't always do everything all at once. You're layering things in and building things in. And over time, and sometimes the body can be really sensitive. A moldy, I would say moldy bodies are sensitive, right? So sometimes histamines and mast cell activation can, is a, is part of this picture or just you're sensitive, you're not feeling great.

So starting slow, layering things in and it isn't just supplements, it's and sometimes I'll do a lower mold diet and that's great too, but it's some lifestyle stuff. It is gently moving your body. It is, if you can sweat, if you have access to Asana or. Or getting some sweating, good sweating going moving the lymph, like there's so many inexpensive things you can do there.

Just, doing limp, like working with a dry brush or doing the big six lymph reset is something I love. Sending people Dr. Terry, I forget his name anyway the big lit, you could look it up on YouTube, but it's like that is a lovely way to just help get your body, gently moving and getting things flowing again.

And but layering those things in also to see like what's working and what's not. 

But 

because everybody's gonna be different too.

I like what's coming from that conceptually too. 'cause when you think, oh, I have a yeast infection, and you go to the doctor and you take your pills and then you're like, I'm good. No more, all is great. But it's almost like we need to pair that in our mind. We need to start retraining ourself that needs to be paired with.

Little more holistic and well-rounded care for yourself afterwards because you haven't the only messaging you've,

totally

again,

right. Or support your body 

support.

So if someone thinks someone's listening to this and they think, you know what, this sounds exactly like me, or I know I have mold in my home, or I've been trying to say this and no one's listening, what's your advice to them? Stephanie, where do they start and what should they do?

Take a bunch of pills that they see on Instagram. No, I'm just kidding. not do that.

yeah, definitely don't do that. It is such a nuanced thing and I think finding a practitioner who is experienced with mold and mycotoxins honestly is a great first step. And that there, it could be a nutritionist like me, it could be a naturopath. Finding somebody that does at least work with people with mold, because it's, it is a nuanced approach that someone needs to take.

It isn't just taking a bunch of pills. It isn't even just taking a bunch of binders. If you're not in the ready for that, then that's, not, that's not the first step you take. And but also somebody that has maybe either gone through it before or could just guide you with what the steps are because it's overwhelming, right?

To think about. Potentially moving outta your home or quitting your job, or even just talking to somebody at your 

workspace, 

or about the fact that you're not feeling well and you think it's that. So finding a good practitioner, I think is the first thing. And I know that itself can be expensive.

However, I think you're still gonna save money because you're not just gonna be trying some things out yourself and throwing all this money at stuff that may or may not work for you. I 

think that's kind a recipe. Yeah. For disaster. Yeah, I think finding a good practitioner. That you trust and that will help walk you through, your healing journey would be where I'd start.

And most practitioners offer, Most practitioners like you I think, offer like a free consult. So like an initial kind of 15, 20, 30 minutes where you can just learn how they would help you, what next steps there could be to take what are some other avenues and it can bring you a lot of clarity and I think sometimes there's some confusion around that.

But just to get to know someone is free it's nice to be able to explore things like that.

Yes.

And keeping up with kind of the theme of the podcast, like how do we utilize maybe some of the things that we're already paying into in our lives, like our insurance. In most states, you're gonna find that you can go get a massage, which is gonna help.

Really?

You can go and you can get acupuncture and have it covered, and your acupuncturist can even write you a really nice herbal formula that is supportive for all of those systems that we're talking about while you work with another provider who can help you with the mold, specifically, if that person doesn't have extra training in, an experience with it.

And even being able to utilize your Western medicine as much as you can for. But working along with a person who can help you know what to go and ask for, I think is extremely important. Because when you go in blind and they only have a certain amount of time, everyone knows that isn't gonna go the way you want it to.

So having a free consult with someone that's I'm gonna go, I really would like to utilize my western medicine, what would you suggest? And they're gonna come back 'cause they're like, that experience was.

Side I

three months As because I just, approached with help in a community

Yeah,

because you're awesome.

points.

yeah, and too yeah, when people are offer these free 15 minute calls, you're interviewing them and you're, you can see a multiple people and see who the best fit is for you. When you're working with somebody, you want somebody. That you have a rapport with, not just that you can trust and knows a lot of things, but that you feel comfortable with and yeah, it might not be the first person that you, you chat with, but it might take a little bit of time to find the right practitioner.

But in western medicine, sometimes you only get 15, these little 15 minutes or these quick meetings with your doctor. But when you're hiring somebody to help you through something like mold or anything, right? It's. You have more time that you're spending with them. You can interview them and make sure that it's the right fit for you. 

Yeah,

That's great. Thank you, Stephanie. You.

Oh, thank you. This was 

so fun. 

much. Yeah, this was really helpful. Okay, so how can people find you if they want to learn more about you? Follow your social and we'll put links in the show notes.

Yeah, sounds great. I have, I'll first mention my website. It's www.ahealthybalance.net. That's my business name, A Healthy Balance. You can find, you can book a free 50 minute consult with me there. There's some more information about me and what I do in my specialties, things like that. And what, and some of the labs and other things I have to offer.

And then you can find me mostly on Instagram is my social media of choice, and I am at underscore Steph ser, S-T-E-P-H-S-E-L-I-N-G-E-R.

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

I'm just gonna plug the fact that Stephanie is also a.

Oh my gosh. I.

I had my last cup out of the jar today and I was like, yes. It's always the best one.

Oh, when you put the hot water in the actual jar. Yeah, I like to do that too. I'm like, oh, this is fun.

Fellow super cuber and mold experts. Stephanie, thank you so much for coming on today and we'll put all your info in the show notes and hope to have you back soon to talk about one of these other awesome things that you do.

great.

Thank you dear.

Bye.