Can mold grow in your body?

[L]et me ask a few more questions so you can answer this for yourself:

• Is your body warm?
• Is your body damp?
• Is your body humid?
• Is it dark in your body cavities?

Clearly our bodies are ideal environments for growing mold! So, knowing that I have a strong allergy to mold, why did it take me 15 years or so to discover that mold was growing in my body? Maybe that’s because when it comes to fungi, everyone in alternative health circles wants to talk about Candida – which I don’t have. [UPDATE – I couldn’t have been more mistaken about this!]

Candida is a yeast, not a mold. Both yeast and mold are types of fungi but they are not the same. Both can cause serious health problems but mold is notorious for its toxicity and ability to destroy homes and lives. Why then is there so little recognition that mold is not just a toxic environmental danger that we get exposed to, but also a vicious internal colonizer?

One of the reasons mold is so harmful is that it produces volatile organic compounds known as VOCs. These are some of the most toxic chemicals known to man which require disclosure on the material safety data sheets (MSDS) that accompany dangerous products.

The toxic substances produced by molds are also called mycotoxins and the list of symptoms caused by mycotoxin poisoning is so long, it’s pointless for me to include here. Essentially, if you’re unhealthy, mold can cause that. This may be related to the fact that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 to 300,000 species of molds in existence. Dr. Shoemaker explains how biotoxins wreak havoc on your body.

UPDATE: Dr. Nathan addresses my very question!:

So how do I know my body became a mycotoxin factory? I only discovered it accidentally after doing oxidative therapy and a liver flush which involves flushing the bowels using magnesium sulfate and sodium ascorbate. Because there is no stool coming out in this process, it’s easy to see strange organisms floating in the toilet. I was shocked speechless when I saw what I can best describe as slime molds floating in the bowl. Since then, I’ve noticed that every time one of these puppies (no matter how small)  is on its way out, I get ill. Skeptical? Look at the similarity between my pictures and the slime mold in this video:

I should mention also that I had previously read about mycotoxin diagnosis and treatments online (the famous Dr. Shoemaker) and ruled the issue out using the visual contrast sensitivity test (explanation of the test here). What does it mean that my vision isn’t affected by mold? Maybe it means that internal mold is only 30% of my health problems and not 100%… who knows? With up to 300,000 species of mold, it’s hard to believe one vision test could diagnose everyone suffering from any mold exposure.

What’s supposed to prevent mold from colonizing us and growing in your body?

First, a healthy body produces hydrogen peroxide in a beautiful virtuous cycle, transforming bad stuff into good stuff. It starts in the mitochondria, your cell’s power plants, where toxic superoxide is produced as a byproduct of mitochondrial respiration (when oxygen is turned into ATP). If your SOD2 genetics are good and no heavy metals are interfering with your manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD2) levels, a healthy body uses SOD2 to convert the harmful free radical superoxide into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) which is a powerful mold killer. Hydrogen peroxide is further broken down into oxygen and water and hypochlorite, another powerful antifungal and antimicrobial substance.

In my case, I’ve got some serious SOD2 genetic flaws and mercury toxicity which both diminish my SOD2 levels and thus natural hydrogen peroxide production.

Second, a healthy gut flora naturally also produces the same precious mold killing hydrogen peroxide. If you can believe it, the same story applies here too – I’ve got both genetic flaws that diminish the health and diversity of my gut flora (SHMT) and heavy metal toxicity also contributes to gut dysbiosis.

So how do we kill mold that’s growing internally?

There are many ways to fight internal mold in the human body and this could be the subject of a fat book. I’m just going to talk about the ones I’m more or less familiar with:

• hydrogen peroxide – drinking diluted food grade hydrogen peroxide and using it in enemas or vaporizers (also known to cure cancer)
• ozone – drinking ozone water and doing ear and rectal insufflations (also known to cure cancer)
• chlorine dioxide (CD) – this is a kissing cousin of hydrogen peroxide and combines well with DMSO (also known to cure autism and cancer)
• msm – a cousin of dmso, may reduce mold allergy
• vitamin C bowel flushes – I use 16 g of ascorbic acid in 1 quart of water

Let’s also add to this list substances known to treat SOD deficiency:

• Extramel – note this is an SOD1 supplement, not SOD2. You can read about it at LEF, who also makes supplements containing Extramel: Endothelial Defense, SODzyme and Liver Efficiency Formula.
• Pycnogenol – patented formulation of Pine Bark Extract standardized to 65-75% Procyanidin compounds (chain-like structures consisted of catechins similar to some found in green tea), shown to increase SOD1 and SOD2.
• Reservatrol – a type of natural phenol, (and thiol) produced naturally by several plants in response to injury or when the plant is under attack by pathogens such as bacteria or fungi (see study listing other SOD2 enhancers)
• Spirulina – a cyanobacterium that can be consumed by humans and other animals, is often contaminated and has a bad reputation with Dr. Cutler’s chelation fans (see exercise study).
• Tempol – a superoxide dismutase mimetic that belongs to a class of non-thiol-containing radiation protectors, and has the ability to permeate the membrane. Read more here, check out the patent or learn the chemistry.

How do we avoid ingesting mold spores?

Killing mold is very hard work in my experience. Hydrogen peroxide is nasty when you get up above 10 drops of 35% FGHP and the poisons released make me ill (activated charcoal helps a lot). But, it would be absurd to fight so hard while ingesting mold spores every day. And guess what? I was doing that!

I love popcorn and got in the habit of popping my own every evening. Once, I had to return a bag of kernels because the popped corn had a strong mold taste to it. But recently while reading about mold, I read that all corn products contain mold. Sure enough, when I put my nose in the bag of kernels, no matter which brand, they smell of mold.

Believe me when I say I’m an expert on smelling mold. We lost all our savings when we moved from Florida to Colorado at the peak of the real estate crash in 2007 to get away from mold. When my relatives visit from Central America, I can smell the mold on them, their suitcases and clothing from a dozen feet away. It takes three weeks in the dry Colorado air for the mold smell to leave their bodies.

So last night was my first night without fresh popped popcorn. A quick spin on Google shows that people are searching for “mold-free popcorn” but no one is selling it.

There are lots of other foods on the “avoid list” like sauerkraut, but I don’t believe that personally. I think those are good bacteria. I think popcorn was my only real moldy vice. My rule of thumb is going to be this — if I can smell mold, I won’t eat it. Otherwise, I’m not going to go crazy avoiding all corn.

Popcorn in a bag doesn’t smell of mold and neither does fresh sweet corn. So I will continue to treat myself every once in a while to a bag of popcorn and concentrate on making my gut as inhospitable as I can for mold growth!