One reason someone might be resistant to Lyme recovery, is they may be mold poisoned as well. Like with heavy metal poisoning, many people are unaware that mold poisoning and Lyme can go hand-in-hand.
After I healed myself from Lyme, I became severely mold poisoned. Actually, I believe that I was affected by mold for years but it didn’t culminate until I lived in a very contaminated house. I was so sick that I spent 8 months sleeping in a tent in the backyard because our “sick” house was making me sick too.
Lyme and Mold make the body more susceptible to the other. Dr. Raj Patel, of Medical Options for Wellness in Foster City, CA, says he suspects that half of all unresolved Lyme disease cases are due in part to mold illness.
Both conditions have similar symptoms, like joint pain, brain fog and intestinal inflammation. And in fact, mold, metals and lyme play off one another and amplify pain (I had horrible hip pain), create weight gain and sometimes weight loss, headaches, exhaustion, moodiness, anger, and depression. When you’re diagnosed with one, it would be wise to test for the other — especially if you live or work in a water damaged area.
How Mold Poisoning Assists Lyme Disease
Mold toxins not only create negative symptoms on their own, but they compromise your immune system – making it difficult for your body to respond to Lyme treatment.
By damaging the immune system, mycotoxins may make the body more sensitive to bacterial toxins found on the outer membrane of bacterial cell walls. With an increased sensitivity, the body’s response to Lyme bacteria is worsened.
Additionally, those affected by Lyme, struggle to release toxins from the body, which in turn worsens the body’s response to mold toxins.
Why Mold Poisoning & Lyme Show Up Similarly in the Body
Cytokines are proteins made by the white blood cells that trigger the immune system to protect the body from infection. Sounds good, right? Yes. But both Lyme and mold toxicity cause an excess of cytokines in the body. Which is NOT good.
When cytokines are produced in excess, instead of helping the body heal, they cause major Lyme symptoms and block the immune system from working effectively.
Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
When non-infected people are exposed to mold, their inflammatory response alerts the immune system to flush out the toxins. Unfortunately, this is not so for compromised individuals.
Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, a recognized leader in the field of biotoxin related illness, discovered in his research that some people have a human leukocyte antigen gene, or HLA gene, that prevents the body from eliminating biotoxins. This creates a chronic inflammatory response in the body. Dr. Shoemaker’s research shows that about 25% of people may develop CIRS, or Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome
The symptoms for CIRS, like Lyme and mold poisoning, are wide ranging and is often misdiagnosed.
Remediating Mold Poisoning so You Can Heal Lyme
If mold poisoning is a factor, your home and/or workplace should be tested and treated right away!
- Identify the source — call an expert.
Testing for mold is really tricky. Depending upon the weather, mold toxins may or may not show up in the testing. When my clients have mold in their homes, I call upon my mold expert, Howard Oliver at Green Home Solutions in Oakland, CA. Howard will use state-of-the-art technology to find the sources of moisture that feed mold growth. For do-it-yourself testing, you can also try Dr. Shoemaker’s recommendation: the ERMI test from http://mycometrics.com/. - Testing and treating your toxic mold exposure.
Dr Shoemaker has suggestions for testing your blood to see whether or not you are mold poisoned. I did these tests and figured out that not only was I chronically affected by mold, but I was in a current exposure as well. Dr. Shoemaker has a protocol and testing suggestions for chronic mold illness that you can find here.
If you are concerned about mold poisoning, please reach out to me. There are many resources and steps that need to be followed in order to reclaim your health and vitality. Knowing the true root cause of your illness is incredibly important so you can address it properly!
In addition to treating your body, consider decontaminating your home and work environment. I hired Green Home Solutions to use their natural enzyme spray to decontaminate my belongings, home and office. It made an incredible difference! I believe in it so much, that I carry their cans of spray at the office for clients that need to decontaminate smaller spaces such as cars, RV’s, closets etc. I tried everything to permanently decontaminate my belongings and this spray was the only thing that worked. I highly recommend it!
- Use a microbe formula binder.
Binders are supplements that drastically help to bind and remove heavy metals, mold, chemicals and lyme toxins. These particular binders from Microbe Formulas, are amazing and help to support the detoxification process in the body! I typically take 2 of each before bed, but if you are experiencing mold, lyme and metal toxicity, you can take them throughout the day, away from food and medications. I recommend these specific binders. - Avoid constipation.
Be extremely aware of your bowel movements when taking binders. Take steps to avoid constipation — that’s how toxins are expelled from the body. Drinking half your bodyweight (in ounces) of water per day will help to flush out the toxins. Also taking vitamin C and magnesium at the same time can stimulate a bowel movement. Microbe Formulas also has an Intestinal Mover product that can keep things flowing out!
I hope this information helps you on your journey to healing. As always, if you would like to schedule a time to work with me on discovering your root cause, click here.
If this is something that you’re struggling with, I want to encourage you to sign up for this free Chronic Lyme Disease Summit. It’s all online so you can join from anywhere. I’ll be speaking on Day 5 about Understanding the Emotional Triggers of Lyme. Join me!
