We are thrilled to share our new Sanctuary Mold Guide: A Primer with those who are suffering from mold toxicity. While the full guide is available on its own website or to our patients (extended version), you can read a portion here. We hope this work contributes to your living a healthier more abundant life.
Why do I have mold toxicity?
At Sanctuary Functional Medicine, we have a steady stream of new patients who come to us wondering if mold lies behind their illness. Others are not thinking about the possibility of mold toxicity at all. Either way, once we are confident in the diagnosis, the “why me and not them?” question arises. It boils down to an interplay of differences in genetics, differences in toxic exposures (exposome), and differences in the types of mold which live in one’s environment.
Confirming a diagnosis of mold toxicity begins with a good history, but laboratory testing is required for diagnostic confidence. With these tests, we look at human leukocyte antigen () typing, a genetic test that tells how the immune system handles biotoxins, including the mold biotoxin. These HLA markers affect how antigens (biotoxins in this case) are processed. The differences in processing play a large role in influencing the patient’s ability to get rid of mycotoxins. The markers also tell about the expected intensity of a person’s response to these ubiquitous mycotoxins. Due to these HLA differences, biotoxins make some people sick even at levels which do not affect others.
Besides HLA differences, other genetic differences may magnify or diminish a patient’s sensitivity to mold. The glutathione pathway, given its role in detoxifying some mycotoxins, may play a role. It is likely that many other pathways interact as significant factors in a person’s ability to clear mold toxins. I would not be surprised if genetic variants in Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1, the inflammatory pathways, as well as other detoxification pathways are one day found to affect a person’s sensitivity to mycotoxins. Some of the information on these pathways is still being studied.
Go see the full guide here or stay tuned next week for another excerpt from the Mold Guide!
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.
