Takeaways from the ISEAI 2019 Inaugural Conference May 2019.
Day 1 with Dr. Janette Hope MD, FAAEm, DABEM, DABFM
(Link to her Bio page: https://iseai.org/janette-hope-md-faaem-dabem-dabfm/ )
Dr. Janette Hope share years of experience as a Family Practitioner in Santa Barbara, California caring for environmentally acquired illnesses. Since her medical journey turned in this direction with her own family’s mold related illness in 2006, she has been working to help others overcome toxins in their environment. During her hour or so at the conference podium, she reviewed the available therapies for mold toxic patients. She began with the usual disclaimer that the evidence is primarily level C, that of consensus and experience rather than full scale randomized double blind studies.
Take away points:
- Avoidance of the offending toxin is always primary and critical.
- A variety of modalities are available for treating mold toxicity, each with pros and cons.
- Beyond avoiding mold toxins, other toxic burdens must be addressed.
- Binders help remove mycotoxins from the patient’s body.
- Nutritional support of the patient’s metabolic systems increases detoxification and enables patients to recover faster.
At the risk of beating the dead horse and offending animal lovers, avoidance stands out as the most critical factors. No more can we heal a burn while someone stands in a fire, than we can detox a patient while they are taking in more toxins. Our visits with patients emphasize this as we agree that true restoration of health will not occur without it.
While a variety of therapies present themselves in Facebook groups, the track records of some stand out more than others. Rather than buying (literally) into the promises of every idea on the internet, here are the ones that the experts use.
Glutathione: addresses oxidative stress, increases mycotoxin excretion, removes other toxins.
Stool binders: Cholestyramine, charcoal, and clay grab the fat-soluble mycotoxins as they exit in bile and escort them out the stool rather than allowing them to re-enter the bloodstream in the colon.
Nutritional Support: Given the gastrointestinal damage mold can inflict, the oft limited diet they must follow, and the increased needs for their ill bodies, many patients experience vitamin deficiencies. Nutritional support for food choices and supplements where deficiencies exceed dietary options go a long way towards healing.
Lifestyle changes: I long for a way to make the mold toxic life easier, but it just is not easy. To avoid repeat exposures and recurrence of symptoms, our patients must choose to avoid certain buildings and take precautions to prevent their homes from re-contamination.
Support: Prayer, teamwork within families, and guidance from others who have overcome is critical. Mold torments and pursues (or at least it feels that way to my family). We want patients to hear that victory is possible. We want them to find encouragement and support in prayer and from others. The battle is difficult enough with help but even more overwhelming if done alone in the dark.
Beyond avoiding and detoxing from mycotoxins, such patients frequently experience other toxicities and sensitivities to everyday chemicals, even foods. Limiting exposures to pesticides, VOC’s, metals, plastics, herbicides, EMF, and other toxins allows the body to recover faster and more fully.
Mold toxicity illness harms the GI tract. It often limits what foods one can eat due to sensitivities. It increases how much different vitamins are needed. It permits other infections to take root, further exacerbating needs and deficiencies. B vitamins deserve attention and frequent supplementation. Fatty vitamins like A, E, D and Omega 3’s require consideration and optimization. Antioxidants should be boosted to prevent the oxidative stress damage mycotoxins cause.
She finishes by touching on other therapies like sauna, hyperbaric oxygen, salt therapy, coffee enemas, and ozone therapy. None are guaranteed silver bullets, but many have found benefits with these different therapies. I believe the most interesting random fact I learned from this section was that we absorb more caffeine by drinking it than by doing a coffee enema. I will stay with the oral intake option for now for myself, but some patients report considerable detox benefits from doing them.
Overall, her talk was a refreshing review of what we do daily at Sanctuary, applying a variety of tools uniquely to each patient we see. We may start very similarly and use some of the same tools for most patients, but every program is designed to meet your unique needs. The therapies work when applied with wisdom, skill, and careful monitoring. With that approach we can see the chronically ill find healthier more abundant lives again.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
