Mold Recovery & VOC

Mold / VOC Recovery Kit

Feeling symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, decreased recovery after exertion, sleep is not that great anymore – and you want to understand what is going on?

Mold illness is a condition you need to rule out. It is very common, looks and feels surprisingly similar to a lot of common conditions, though easy to correct following a structured pathway to health.

Consider the following – in the US, we live, work, worship and recreate mostly inside structures built from wood and forestry products. Think of the room you are in right now – paper lined drywall for the walls and ceiling. Underneath the carpet or tile there’s OSB or Oriented Strand Board, made from wood strands glued together.

My point is that this is a cellulose structure – the basic structural component of plant cell walls AND mold’s favorite food. See in nature, we rely on molds to degrade and decompose vegetable matter and recycle the nutrients.

When you bring this principle indoors though, the closed environment and limited space sets the stage for the chemical warfare to begin – a fight for space to grow and cellulose to digest makes mold secrete toxins – but only after you’ve added water! Humidity is the single ingredient you need to add indoors to get the molds started, and some species continue to grow even if the water affected building materials dry out. But in cases where the humidity persists, like a roof, appliance or plumbing leak, a humid basement or simply condensation in the HVAC system –  the continuous or periodic humidity above 60% is enough to keep the molds growing.

With growing colonies of mold now supported by cellulose containing building material AND humidity – the sick building has been created.  Indoors space is limited, so with competition between molds and bacteria the bio-chemical warfare begins – mycotoxin production. The other important problem here is that the wet OSB, particle board and other building materials start degrading and releasing formaldehyde and other VOC’s from the resins, adhesives, rubber and bonding materials used in its manufacture or construction.

Energy efficient homes prevent the loss of heat and cold depending on the season, and you now have a contained environment with recycled air holding an ever growing number of small particulates from the mold and indoors bacterial growth, as well formaldehyde and other VOC’s that is on average 2 to 5 times higher indoors than outdoors.

Mycotoxins are classified as hepatotoxins, nephrotoxins, neurotoxins, immunotoxins and genotoxic. Genotoxins harms DNA and cause cancer.

Stabilize and Detox with the Mold Recovery Kit:

We put the Mold recovery kit together with an eye on the most important aspects a DIY mold recovery kit should have:

Removing from exposure and ensuring a low mold, low chemical indoors environment is the foundation of securing your recovery process, so this is the first and foundational step.

As you need to remove the mold exposure from the environment, removing the mold from your body is the concurrent first priority.

Bile – the problem and solution: Binder Blend
Binder Blend, as a bile and toxin sequestrant is the top consideration mold or biotoxin illness. Mold toxins are small, very small, fat soluble molecules that are most effectively and abundantly eliminated from circulation though the liver secreting the mycotoxins into bile, which then enters the small intestine via the gallbladder.
Once in the small intestine, the biliary system now immediately changes function from being a key portal of eliminating toxins towards absorbing dietary fats and fat soluble vitamins like Vit D and beta carotenes. This means the intestines do what it does best – absorb, and you re-absorb an astonishing 95% of bile before it even reaches the colon. And along with the bile and important fat soluble nutrients, you re-absorb the mold toxins into the blood stream where it has another opportunity to re-enter the general circulation and  most certainly re-engage the innate immune systems inflammatory response – this is why mold illness is sometimes hard to conquer.

The physiologically correct and practically effective way to approach this problem is to use binders like activated charcoal to bind, or adsorb, intraluminal bile and the mycotoxins, microbial cell membranes and other toxic or immune irritating substances to increase the elimination via stool and to decrease the re-absorption into the circulation.

In clinical practice, we are able to use the prescription pharmaceutical cholesterol lowering drugs Cholestyramine or Welchol. This is an off-label use – these drugs lower cholesterol by binding to bile and small negatively charged molecules like mycotoxins. Non prescription binders are commonly used – activated charcoal, organic chlorella, bentonite clay, chitosan are considered the most effective especially in the veterinary industry. More recently, with the increased incidence of MCAS or mast cell activation syndrome and histamine driven reactions to substances generally well tolerated, chitosan does not make sense anymore – it is a shellfish byproduct and is at a higher chance of compounding the problem  – so we prefer not to use it even though it reportedly has the same mechanism of binding as compared to Welchol / colesevelam.

Binder Blend is a focused combination of the most important natural binders: activated charcoal, organic chlorella and bentonite clay. Slippery elm bark provides provides mucilagenous protection against the digestive tract drying from binders like charcoal and has an intestine soothing effect which decreases the constipating effect associated with taking binders.
As a broad based binder, it offers different strategies of adsorption and absorption, making Binder Blend ideal for mold recovery but also general mixed chemical and chemical sensitivity detoxification. Removing offensive materials from the body is the primary effective strategy as all other therapies simply do not work well as long as there’s mold toxins triggering immune inflammatory responses.

Digestive and detox organs support: Bio-Assist
Bio-Assist supports your detox organs toward better secretions, movement and propulsion toward more effective elimination processes where it matters most – liver and bile flow to eliminate fat soluble mold toxin better – have your digestive tract primed with Binder Blend to receive the bile and adsorb the toxins. Bio-Assist stimulates peristalsis of the digestive tract muscles toward more normal movement. Binder Blend’s activated charcoal, organic chlorella, bentonite clay and silicate with bound toxins must be moved out of the body more efficiently without stagnation and re-absorption. Bio-Assist also support digestive tract greater secretory function toward better digestion and elimination. Bio-Assist is not a laxative, but helps restore normal digestive tract movement and secretions.

Inflammation control: Itis
Inflammation is a persistent symptom driver during mold illness, directly due to the mold toxins inside your system and the irritation of the mucus membrane from inhalational contact with spores and hyphae. The immune system’s rapid response team, called the innate immune system, is front and center in this process – causing inflammation without the resolution that comes from having effectively removed the mycotoxins responsible for causing the inflammation. Many of the symptoms of CIRS, like fatigue, aches and pains, brain fog, breathing problems, diarrhea, frequent urination, glandular dysfunction like low adrenal and gonadal hormone status, is due to inflammation. Removal of inflammation causing mold toxins is still the highest priority, but in the meantime, soothing the immune system toward calming down helps with your body producing less symptoms.
Itis contains helps that function in the body areas most affected – nervous system and brain, joints and connective tissue, digestive tract and organs, with versatile herbs like Scutellaria, Curcumin from Turmeric extract, celery seed extract, frankincense, ginger and quercetin.

Specific chemical support for general detoxification: Glutathione
Glutathione and its most important precursor, NAC n-acetyl cysteine, are prime examples of what fuels the body’s detoxification system as well as  Mold toxins, like aflatoxin B1 can cause DNA damage and mutations. Aflatoxin, as a DNA adducts, which attaches to the DNA gene region, potentially leading to genetic dysfunction, is also strongly linked to cancer formation. Ochratoxin A, likely one of the most common mycotoxins in human illness, Ochratoxin A is also linked to DNA damage as well as oxidizing cellular polyunsaturated lipids. Lipid peroxidation will increase malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, triggering gene mutations that leads to cancer. Excessive oxidative stress promotes inflammation, and decreases immune tolerance, leading to inflammation and immune overreactions. Free radical production and greater oxidative status can promote immune and inflammatory molecules exacerbating inflammation and causing tissue damage. To add further insult to the injury, decreased glutathione levels lead to greater production of TGFB1 or transforming growth factor beta 1, one of the leading causes of immune and inflammatory insult during mold illness or CIRS. Inversely, replenishing glutathione will decrease TGFB1.
General cellular detoxification is decreased during the cell danger response, together with increased oxidative damage to cellular components. It is therefore very important to upkeep your glutathione levels to enable adequate control of general chemical and also free radical toxicity.