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Devastating Symptoms Due to Mold Toxin Exposure is Going Undiagnosed

mold-toxicity

In my functional clinical practice, Forum Health Austin, one of the most common problems I see is chronic, complex illness from the presence of mold toxins in the body. I usually see patients who come in with a group of unexplained symptoms and the cause is unknown. In other cases a person knows that they are being exposed to bad mold and have symptoms, but don’t know what to do about it.

What are the symptoms of toxicity due to mold toxin exposure?

Some of the symptoms of mold toxin/mycotoxin toxicity are caused by the direct toxic effects on our cells and sub-cellular organelles (especially mitochondria). Probably even more symptoms are caused by immune self-injury! Let me explain.  

 

When our body’s immune system encounters non-self, such as a mycotoxin molecule, it is programmed to respond with what is called the immune response, the purpose of which is to neutralize or remove the non-self (think germ invader or germ toxin). Unfortunately in many cases our own cells and tissues can be injured by the immune response in a process of immune self-injury or “autoimmunity“.

 

Many of the symptoms that patients encounter with mycotoxin exposure are immune self-injury or immune inflammation symptoms. Ok, what are they? Almost always severe fatigue and intolerance to exercise or exertion is a hallmark of mold illness. Symptoms involving the nervous system are almost always present. These symptoms are from effects on the Central Nervous System as well as the Peripheral Nervous System (all the many nerves outside the brain).

 

  • Brain Fog is a term my patients often use to describe the brain effects of mold toxicity.  This term means that they experience loss of focus, loss of train of thought, difficulty with word finding, difficulty with problem solving, memory loss, and even confusion.  In addition to brain fog most patients also experience significant mood alterations.  They experience a sense of anxiety, emotionality, excessive fear or worry, depression, sense of despair, and often the inability to get restful sleep.  Symptoms of peripheral nervous system involvement include many symptoms of numbness, tingling, burning and pain.  This is often localized to one area or side of the body and often migrates and comes and goes.  

 

  • Digestive Disorder symptoms are exceedingly common.  When mold toxins on mold spores are inhaled into the nose, they stick to the nasal mucous and later are usually swallowed.  Some mold toxins are actually on the food we eat and are consumed.  Effects of mycotoxins in the 

 

  • Gastro-Intestinal tract include acid reflux/heartburn, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation and diarrhea.  

 

  • Pulmonary manifestations include shortness of breath and cough.  The toxic effects of molds also can reek havoc on our hormone-producing glands leading to a wide array of hormone imbalances and deficiencies. Immune self-injury of the muscles, ligaments, bones, joints, and tendons often causes severe aches, pains and stiffness.

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker is credited with the introduction of mold illness to the general public

In  1996, Dr. Shoemaker was practicing Family Practice in Maryland on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay.  Some of his long-time patients were coming to him with the symptom picture that I described above. He had heard about a toxin-producing algae-like germ called Pfiesteria that occurred in algae-blooms in the bay.  One of his patients came in with severe diarrhea. He decided to treat her diarrhea with cholestyramine, an old medicine used to lower cholesterol by binding it in the intestine, which was one of his favorite diarrhea treatments. To his surprise and pleasure, the patient reported that within a few days her diarrhea was gone along with her memory loss, headache and cough. He later learned that similar toxins could be produced by many indoor molds and lead to a similar clinical picture.  Over the years Dr. Shoemaker worked out many of the mechanisms that resulted in patient’s symptoms and he called the disease process Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS based largely on the fact that most of the symptoms were the result of inflammation due to the immune system’s response to the mycotoxins.

 

Later Dr. Shoemaker worked out a complex protocol and actually formed a training program (subject to tuition costs of course) to “certify” practitioners in his Shoemaker Protocol.  He has published several books on CIRS including Mold Warriors: Fighting America’s Hidden Health Threat(April 2005) and Surviving Mold: Life in the Era of Dangerous Buildings (December 2010).  He also maintains a very informative website about the illness-

 

Mold illness symptoms closely mimic lyme disease and other diseases related to the effects of stealth infection and the two disorders often coexist in the same patient

It has been my experience in working with patients with the symptoms of Mold Illness that the symptoms seen from a variety of diseases associated with infection from a variety of Vector-Borne diseases are much the same.

 

Lyme Disease which is a disease reaching epidemic proportions in the United States is one such disease that overlaps the symptoms of mold illness. The germ Borrelia burgdorferi, a spirochete which does occur in Texas and in much of the United States is just one stealth infection that may look like mold illness. Even though the principles of treatment of each disease is different although some of the approaches to treatment overlap.

Symptoms of illness differ among people with mold illness and lyme as a result of differences in sensitivity and patterns of immune response

To successfully resolve symptoms, I have found that rule #1 is to identify and eliminate ongoing exposure to the toxins causing the problem.  This may require inspecting for mold-toxin causing molds in the indoor environment. This may include testing for the presence of mold toxins and stealth infections in the body.  Often tests to understand the BioTerrain are helpful in order to modify the individual’s susceptibility to symptoms and inflammation.  Finally the goal of treatment is to assist in the elimination or reduction of toxins, mycotoxins and harmful stealth germs such as the “Lyme Borrelia” from the body.  There are quite a few tools that are used to accomplish this and I have found that these tools must be individualized from patient to patient.  One size definitely does not fit all.

About Wally Taylor MD

Dr. Taylor practices integrative medicine at Forum Health Austin in Austin, Texas.  After obtaining a general medical doctorate degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas he completed a general medical internship and residency training in head and neck surgery ENT and allergy.  After 20 years service in the US Army Medical Corps and practice in Colorado and Texas he founded Texas Integrative now Forum Health Austin where he now offers a functional holistic approach to disease which treats the entire individual instead of each separate symptom.  He has found more satisfying results using this Systems BioIndividualized approach.  His motto is Health and Wellness from Head to Toe”.   

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