I just received the results from the first mycotoxin lab work I’ve done and it explains a lot. My doc, to her great credit, has been pushing me to do this test for several years, probably from my first appointment with her and I finally got it done. Why did I delay? I always suspected I was suffering from a mold colonization and of course the test is not covered by insurance! So my thinking was that I should eliminate my intestinal fungal infections and then do the test. But cleaning my gut has taken years and still isn’t done.
My MD even diagnosed me with CIRS which is either caused by mold toxicity or Lyme (or maybe both) and I was hoping my case was just Lyme related. Still I postponed the mycotoxin test, grrrrrr.
You’ll see all of the mold toxins I have are immunotoxic, immunosuppressive and or hepatotoxic. Zearalenone is off the charts and that is the one that is hepatotoxic which might help explain why my efforts to clear infections have always been so difficult and so often were ended by migraines…
Wish I had done this test years ago. My Dr. has been saying for years that I wouldn’t get rid of any of my infections (Lyme etc) so long as I’m mold toxic.
Note, the test result description says:
ZEA is deactivated primarily through glucuronidation; individuals with impairment to this pathway will be much more susceptible to this compound even at very low levels. Well here’s my livewello glucuronidation SNP report:
Interestingly, zearalenone or ZEA is a toxin produced by fusarium fungi that does colonize humans (called fusariosis) and maybe that’s why my level is extreme. Or maybe the test is just picking up ZEA from my daily coffee enemas. At $300 a pop, I’m not sure I’ll do enough retesting to ever know the source.
Fusarium infections in immunocompromised patients
Fusarium species cause a broad spectrum of infections in humans, including superficial, locally invasive, and disseminated infections. The clinical form of fusariosis depends largely on the immune status of the host and the portal of entry, with superficial and localized disease occurring mostly in immunocompetent patients and invasive and disseminated disease affecting immunocompromised patients. Risk factors for severe fusariosis include prolonged neutropenia and T-cell immunodeficiency, especially in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients with severe graft-versus-host disease. The most frequent presentation of disseminated fusariosis is a combination of characteristic cutaneous lesions and positive blood cultures, with or without lung or sinus involvement. The prognosis is poor and is determined largely by degree of immunosuppression and extent of infection, with virtually a 100% death rate among persistently neutropenic patients with disseminated disease. These infections may be clinically suspected on the basis of a constellation of clinical and laboratory findings, which should lead to prompt therapy. Treatment options include the lipid formulations of amphotericin B, voriconazole, and posaconazole. Prevention of fusarial infection among high-risk patients should be considered.
It’s funny how the PubMed study only mentions pharmaceutical options when chlorine dioxide is used in water treatment facilities to eliminate Fusarium and other pathogens to make it safe for human consumption. Another odditity is that ZEA and Fusarium are virtually non-existent on health websites and Facebook mold groups. There doesn’t seem to be any related collective knowledge or experience.
If I do have Fusariosis, where would it be hiding? I’d guess in my sinuses or gut. I haven’t seen Fusarium in my live blood microscopy though I do see what I beleive is Candida (also an immunosuppresant). If it isn’t in my body, it’s probably in my plumbing drains – this has been studied and it’s a common source of infection in hospitals.
Here’s what my MD has to say about all this (with my comments after the ->):
- Get your home inspected for mold! -> She’s been asking me to do it for years… here’s her mold-handout (click to download).
- Lycopene dosing: 100 mg / day is a good dose.
- Reservatrol: she likes Thorne’s Reservacel for it’s Nicotinamide riboside (NR) which supports the multiple functions of cellular mitochondria.
- Take modified citrus pectin (MCP) because it’s the only substance known to detox glyphosate which is an immune deregulator and neurotoxin. -> I’ve restarted.
- Increase your grapeseed extract up to 500 mg twice a day (go slow). This is an immune booster.
- Add clay or chitosan, it’s not only ZEA,the other results on your test are also significant. -> I chose clay because I’ve used it before and it seems chitosan is a sugar. Her toxic binders handout is on the right.
- Charcoal and cholestyramine are very similar – you don’t need both of them. -> I had some sugar-free cholestyramine compounded and will leave it on the shelf for a rainy day.
- Start titrating an herbal antifungal because yes, you’re probably colonized by mold. -> She gave me MYCOREGEN by Beyond Balance with these dosing instructions (this is her secret sauce and deserves it’s own post) not to be confused with her medication challenge instructions.
- Diet: the only safe meats are buffalo, pork and wild salmon. Eggs are fine but chicken and beef are bad for fungal problems.
- Switch to a mold toxin tested coffee. -> I bought the 5 pound bag from Bullet Proof.
- Repeat the urine mycotoxin test in one year.
- See you in 2 months.
I also totally disagree with Lloyd. Kruse is a nutjob, has no respect in the scientific or even the naturopathic community. He’s another fear-based “doctor”, who will tell you you need all these expensive contraptions and EMF blocking crap, when if what he said was true, everyone who had/has an MRI would be dead.
Clearly a nutjob, but I think there’s also a kernel of truth in his preaching which is ignored by the vast majority of gurus. Frustrating, yes!
Misophonia said:
“Eric, when we discussed your moves and the location effect i was assuming mold was taken in consideration and i did not say anything further. But in short, no one that has done remediation has had a good outcome.”
Sorry, but that is simply not true. There’s a gentleman on Phoenix Rising who is doing 70-75% better. He didn’t fall for the fear-based and unscientific ‘locations effect’, but instead did some remediation and treated his mycotoxin and fungal load with antifungals.
And there are many others on Facebook who have RESOLVED their mold issues without moving to the desert or living in their cars or in concrete or steel housing. I’m passionate about this because what Misophonia fails to mention is the fact that many who do ‘extreme mold avoidance’ actually get much worse, become MORE chemically sensitive, and end up considering suicide. All based on Erik Johnson’s anectdotal reports and Shoemaker’s lies about 25 percent of the population having the so-called ‘dreaded mold gene. That alone should raise huge red flags and has been thoroughly discredited on Phoenix Rising as well.
Walk — or run if you can — from anyone suggesting you need to destroy all your belongings and shower many times a day and any of the rest of the extreme suggestions, and you’ll get better a LOT faster.
Agreed Marcia, I’ve started DNRS and am hopeful I can put the mold reactions behind me. I’m also back on The Root Cause Protocol and they also have shown cases where mold illness has resolved itself. Apparently there’s a connection with mold reactions and unbound iron.
Eric, I have been reading your articles for about 4 yrs. thank you for sharing your information. Very helpful. I’m still undiagnosed after seeing doctors for 8 mos. Dermatologist took a biopsy 2 wks. ago, no results yet. Mammogram was cloudy, so they did an ultra-sound; the girl said they found something but it was not cancer. I’ve turned down anti-biotics for the upper respiratory and sinus infections… after much research and 3 bout of differents ones in 2 yrs. which only furthered the fungal infection. Bought a usb 1,000x endoscope, have over 5,000 pictures of specimens. Looks to be black mold: rhizopus and (chaetomium and stachybotrys taken from bedroom), slime mold and trichosoron in body. I take high vitamin C, various herbs, mostly vegetables, berries, stevia the usual mold supplements. Still going… many symptoms have decreased, still getting lesions, but very tiny, seen well with endoscope. Went to urgent care in Sept. when arm was very active. Dr. advised infectious disease visit. I lived in a mold home for 4 yrs., and the property next door was a plant nursery turned livestock farm. Nothing grew on the property, the birds would fly over the fence to eat our grass, the horses ran and kicked up much dust. I grew my own food there. Ugh… 🙁 didn’t know the place was toxic at the time. Animals started dying, several ducks with lesions, a high priced show horse died. I want to know specifically what I have so I can take a report to them, so they will know. They rent out ponies for children’s birthday parties. Their coats are in poor condition. I feel this is a public concern. A health issue for all. God bless you.
Sorry to hear about your challenges Carole! I find getting strong sun on my abdomen is detoxifying. Of course there are many ways to kill fungi, but this is one not many people talk about and may be especially good for other reasons such as natural vitamin D production etc (see Jack Kruse)… thanks for sharing and let us know about your progress please!
I would move. Luckily in Fl you can find concrete bldgs. I found everything lived in moldy by standards of someone that needs a good environment to heal. So if not extreme MCS i would look at brand new. Fl is just so so bad because of so many pesticides, mold even outdoors is out of control. St Pete, hippy low income area area felt best but that is changing.
I live in Boulder CO where the mold count is low and the damage in my house is not extensive and fairly isolated… I’m pretty confident about making the house work. We’ll see. I do love Florida and wish I could move back there though!
Eric, when we discussed your moves and the location effect i was assuming mold was taken in consideration and i did not say anything further. But in short, no one that has done remediation has had a good outcome. Lots of funds wasted. You cannot really predict where mold is growing since walls are hollow. Mold testing companies are horrific, lots of stories. They are highly inadequate at finding it and then end up making the situation worse and inhabitants sicker by opening walls and blowing spores and mycotoxins all over the house. But, fusarium is generally not part of a water damaged home environment, it is more common in grain and grows on these manicured lawns because of all the glypohsate. Pm me and i can invite you to some groups where you can ask questions so you do not go through the nightmare that others went through.
Thanks M, I’m in a couple FB mold groups and just posed the question. And you’re right! Lots of bad outcomes… that’s shocking. Maybe air cleaners like IQ Air, Air Oasis or
Molekule are a better investment?
My ND is trained for 10 years by dr. Neil. She also tells me to start DNSR and there is no way with out it. I just started it, already feel better . I will keep you posted. I am curious how it can improve my blood tests;)
Thanks for sharing that Kate!!
How come not any of my comments are going through?? Anyway Eric, I’ve been following your site for a while now and have tried many of the things you have. I’ve been suffering from severe issues due to some kind of toxicity over the last few years. Environmental illness is the term. You seem like the perfect candidate for the DNRS system to retrain your Limbic system. I got the book and DVD programs. You should read “Wired for Healing” by Annie Hopper. The recovery stories are mind blowing in the book. I’m gonna start the program soon. Nothing else seems to help. Check out http://www.retrainingthebrain.com. Wish you and your family full health and recovery, I really do! Hope this one goes through 🙂 –Jon
Thanks Jon, I think my MD recommended that for my wife’s MCAS too, will have a closer look. Have you started? How’s it going?
Eric, I have been going through similar challenges the past several years and refer to your site often.
Mold toxicity will worsen candida and any other opportunistic parasites in your system. I saw in your supplements page (if that’s current?) that you take hydrocortisone. I took HC for a couple months when I was barely leaving the house to get to my energy levels on track, and it clearly made my candida flare up. MB12 and folate titration allowed me to get off the HC somewhat quickly. I’m tolerating exercise much better now, and since the HC, I have gained 15lbs back. Still suffering from low blood pressure to my brain and some extremities, though.
I was in mold at least 2 or 3 times in my life, the worst of which was 2 years ago. I was house/bed bound for a year. Absolutely get your house mold tested. Do an ERMI test with mycometrics. It will give you a much more accurate historical measurement of mold growth in your home compared to an air test, visual tests, and swabbing.
I was at least functional while I dealt with heavy metals and stomach issues. But mold knocked me out completely, and has done significant damage to my body. Here’s to hoping CIRS treatment gives you significant relief. It seems to be one of the clear root causes, like heavy metals.
Thanks Cody, I did have the house inspected and am already looking at a remediation quote. Not fun. And yes, I’d love to get off the hydrocortisone!
Hi Eric, I’ve been following your site for sometime now and have taken many beneficial things away from it. Thank you! Like you, I’ve tried many things over the years to improve my health and sleep. About 3.5 years ago I went to a holistic clinic here in NV to address some lingering health issues that I feel were due to heavy metals. I ended up going into a pretty much full blow psychosis from the dozen or so homeopathic remedies they prescribed, flooding my system all at once with re-distribution- including the Hyland’s cell salts remedy that was subsequently supposed to balance everything back out but sent me into a full blown hell. My life has been a total struggle since, it has all taken a serious toll on my brain and my existence in general. I’ve tried countless therapies and oral supplements that seen to minimally help or actually make me worse.. (a lot of the ones you list) I came back as an over-methylator and have tried to balance that with minimal results. I am starting this program here in the next few days called Dynamic Neural Retraining System (DNRS) I’m almost done reading the book “Wired for Healing” by Annie Hopper. A lot of the testimonials are completely astonishing. It goes along the line of Brain re-wiring and Neural re-mapping. I don’t think I have anything to lose at this point and you might want to check it out when you have time, IF you haven’t heard of it already 🙂 Somehow I feel like improvements are on the way following the program with discipline. The program is definitely positive and inspirational. And most of these problems we’re dealing with are damages to the Limbic area/system of the brain and it sends the body messed up signaling. The website is retrainingthebrain.com
They also have coaches to help maximize the results that are possible.
I wish you and your family well on your journeys and hope you find the healing, wellness and wholeness that you’ve been searching for. God bless you my friend, take care, –Jon
Thanks for sharing your story Jon, sorry to hear how difficult it has been. Have you read Toxic by Nathan Neil? He’s got a lot to say about working with the most sensitive cases and my MD shares his philosophy, which is that you can’t make any progress with the sensitive ones with normal dosing but if you reduce it enough, you’ll move forward. Seems simple but it’s a hard lesson for many to learn…
Hello Eric. Did you hear about vitamin A toxisity ever?
https://raypeatforum.com/community/threads/grant-genereuxs-theory-of-vitamin-a-toxicity.24722
What a coincidence! I just discovered Genereux’s books through Morley Robbins new website https://therootcauseprotocol.com
High vit A dosing is part of the copper protocol I was following. I’ve just stopped and will follow Morley’s RCP now…
And my ND says I have to go on Antifungals drugs for months along with chlorestamine. First nistatine than fluconazol . I tried those oregano and grapefruit seed and other natural antifungals in highest doses and did not noticed any results. I don’t take meds at all but now consider since did not see results with natural approach . Have you noticed any reactions to binders? Worsening
Yes, the binders can be hard as they drag out biofilm, especially psyllium husk for me.
Hi Eric,
I don’t think it’s from CE. I do that more than year every day BP coffee. And my level of Z is 0.
But I m high on Or-A and glio and myco…acid . On last one my doctor said she sees that a lot in kids and people who detoxify fast….it’s been couple of month already and I’m still working on it so I don’t know what ´fast’ really means.
Thanks for sharing that Kat. I’m looking forward to retesting in 6 mos or a year!
Hi Eric. Somewhere you wrote you were getting variations in IQ. I’m getting those too. Have you got to the bottom of this? Wheat definitely affects me but even after months wheat-free and dairy-free I am still getting bad moments. Have you sorted this out? Cheers.
Jonathan
I don’t think there’s much to sort out, I think it’s a natural consequence of low energy and toxicity. That’s a big drain.
I hope you don’t take a blue copper supplement as this is definitely copper (II).
At the momemt I’m taking the copper (I) supplement that you already wrote about.
I noticed:
– Improved (short term) memory
– Connective tissue improving (tighter)
– Better skin (copper acting as antimicrobial?)
– Less reactions to gluten (pimples) probably by reducing leaky gut
– Toe nails that didn’t grew for a while due to nail fungus grew very long and less yellowish
And I think it slowly changes my eye color from green to blue. This may be because copper and sulphur forms copper sulfate and is excreted.
I plan to replace the expensive MitoActivator Extra Strength (I take 2 a day = 1 mg) with Nature’s Plus Copper as this is a green copper and the red copper niacin also turns green after a while.
I hope it is copper (I) as I suppose it is extracted from soy protein which is one of the highest copper foods.
Nope, I take the mitosynergy cu.
I guess you induced these fungal infection with your excessive zinc supplementation. So there is probably low copper in your intestines because it’s all blocked by the zinc. With too much zinc you will also get excessive stomach acid and leaky gut (need copper for the connective tissue of the villi).
Copper is an antimicrobial and antifungal.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943884
It’s also counter-intuitive that you removed all the high-copper foods that you intuitively craved.
I think I have the same issue with high bio-unavailable copper (II) and low bio-available copper (I).
It’s paradox but you need copper (I) to detox copper (II). Copper is needed to produce ATP, and without ATP you can take all detox supplements in the world and it won’t help. It’s like you repair every part of an engine but it doesn’t run because you have no gas.
Thanks Carvaggio, in addition to copper toxicity/deficiency, I have a lot of reasons for having fungal infection – low MSH and many different immunotoxic and suprresive problems: borrelia, candida, mercury/lead, viral load and of course the mold exposure and toxicity. I do take copper I and am titrating up… let’s add low sunshine exposure to the list!
Oh and I do eat organic liver and lamb…
i have lived here for 20 of the past 24 months. i played quantum brady to jack’s quantum bellichik. dr bat shit crazy was 100% correct. the summer is the key. uv13 leveraged by the crater. started making my own energy from photosynthesis and making my own ddw. wild. i look back at the days of Freddd and cutler with dismay. what a fucking waste of time and money and needless suffering. 🙂 this is the real cure
wow, that’s fabulous Lloyd! did you ever take enough vitamin D to get your levels way up during your CFS years? where were you living prior?
i have watched you suffer for what seems like a decade now. time to go all in with kruse. i cured 35 yrsof cfs/fibro by going to the yucatan and sitting in the water. healthy mitos will fix all the crap you and I have been fucking around with since Carter was president!!! :)the sun and the chicxulub crater will detox you better than all the pills the functinal docs can throw at you. and you will save tons of $$$$$$$$$.
wow Lloyd, congrats and well done!! It has been on my mind… chicxulub crater is really interesting, how long did you stay?
Eric sorry I was wrong! I didn’t read the info on their website exactly…. it’s 50 $ for the test + 50 $ extra + shipping. I think the 150$ of your doctor are the approximate costs. Sorry again. You can delete my first massage if you want.
No worries Marcus, glad you found it interesting…
I just updated this post with the notes I took at my doctor’s appointment where we discussed these test results…
Sorry to hear that the test came back positive 🙁
I am exposed to toxic mold from the crawling base in my house for 6 years and I am pretty sure it’s in my body.
People advice to follow the Shoemaker protocol:
1. Cholestyramine and Welchol to bind to the mycotoxins in the intestines, and pull them out of the body.
2. The no amylose diet.
3. The antibiotic BEG nasal spray to get rid of a MARCoN infection in the nasal and sinus mucous membranes
Are you known with the Shoemaker protocol?
Hi Johan, thanks and yes familiar with Shoemaker… I do follow the mold diet and have taken cholesytramine. Will take it again but I suspect coffee enemas may be more effective at stopping bile recycling. Klinghardt and others are now saying probiotics work better for the sinus infections.