Reviewing and Summarizing the recent Toxic Mold Summit Session by Evan Brand, BCHN, DFMP, NTP.
(Read this blog series’ introduction at very end if you are catching up. Look for “SERIES INTRODUCTION”)
Evan Brand, BCHN, DFMP, NTP provided insights on the connections between mold toxicity and candida overgrowth during the recent toxic mold summit. His summit session provided a number of take home points:
- Candida and other yeast may cause a variety of GI and non-GI symptoms in patients whether or not mold toxicity is present.
- Yeast are just one of the several types of dysbiosis organisms that contribute to poor gut health.
- Yeast in the stool may be found through stool testing or organic acid testing.
- A variety of medications place you at risk for candida overgrowth.
- Many of children’s behavioral issues may be linked to candida overgrowth.
- Many dietary factors contribute to candida overgrowth.
- Several natural therapies are available to treat fungal overgrowth.
- Herx reactions may occur with therapy for yeast.
(Continued from part 1)
Brand briefly touched on neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms in children that occur when yeast overgrow. Inattention, giddiness, and hyperactivity may occur when the yeast produce neuro-active chemicals in these children. Treating these children with anti-fungals often allow them to return to school and function without such behaviors. No one is claiming all misbehaved children have yeast, just that a significant number do and deserve consideration for this diagnosis.
Besides medications, dietary factors also contribute to candida overgrowth in patients. Our society’s high carb diet, especially high in refined sugars makes life easy for candida. The yeast benefit from all the sweets in our diets and even send out chemicals to our brains causing sugar cravings. Many patients find relief from such craving with yeast therapy. Something we suggest to patients for craving control until the yeast die off is glutamine powder directly on the tongue. Many find the cravings fade with this technique. Do ask your medical provider if this is safe for your before trying.
As a nutritionist, Evan Brand cannot prescribe antifungal meds for candida overgrowth. As an MD I can do so, but find natural anti-fungals effective about 90% of the time and almost always start with them. Like Brand, we find garlic very effective. Our favorite is probably the combination product, Biocidin which contains garlic and other natural therapies in capsules or liquid form. Pau d’arco, olive leaf, thyme, oregano, and stinging nettles were also mentioned by Brand.
Many of you know about the so-called Herx reaction. This describes the phenomenon where initial anti-microbial therapy triggers a symptom reaction as the early waves of an infection die off. Brand believes this can often be avoided. I do agree that we can lessen the herx symptoms by easing into therapy or using charcoal and clay binders, but I doubt that we can avoid it 100% of the time during therapy. We prepare the patient with a little education and bottle of a charcoal/clay product called GI Detox. Often, the ones with the strongest initial herx report a week later the greatest improvement in symptoms. They likely had the largest yeast burden to begin with.
I would here add my own thoughts connecting mold and yeast which he does not do extensively. As mold toxicity suppresses the immune system, several chronic infections arise unhindered. Yeast overgrowth is one of them. The yeast then exacerbate many of the same symptoms of the toxicity like brain fog and leaky gut. Treating the yeast as noted above is important but without addressing the mold toxicity, yeast will likely return sooner or later. We must treat both the yeast and the reason that yeast has found a nice home in your GI tract.
Before wrapping this summary up, I will add my biggest complaint about this session… the spelling errors in the transcript. If you do take the time to read the transcript after listening to the session, you will understand what I mean.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this summary of the Toxic Mold Summit. I will keep working my way through them over the coming weeks. If you have a question from the summit or my summary, please leave comments below. To keep getting notifications for these summaries, like and follow our Sanctuary Functional Medicine page. Until then we pray that you are moving towards a healthier, more abundant life.
REFERENCES:
Clin Ther. 2018 Jun;40(6):903-917. doi: 10.1016/j.clinthera.2018.05.004. Epub 2018 Jun 5.
Effects of Mycotoxins on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Immune Processes.
Ratnaseelan AM, Tsilioni I, Theoharides TC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29880330
Rosenblum Lichtenstein, Jamie H et al. “Environmental mold and mycotoxin exposures elicit specific cytokine and chemokine responses” PloS one vol. 10,5 e0126926. 26 May. 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126926 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4444319/ FREE ONLINE
Thanks to those who collaborated and contributed to the Toxic Mold Summit. While I have a few nuanced different opinions here and there, the information one can glean from listening to this summit is empowering for those facing this disease. While some are able to handle the recovery process without formal care by a medical provider, I do believe it is wise for most to have a “trusted guide” of some sort who stands outside the tornado of active mold toxicity. Standing inside the mold tornado leaves one with a spinning sense of direction. Having a stable and fixed point of reference in a knowledgeable guide serves you well. Traveling the road to recovery is better done with someone who has walked it before. That is what we try to do at Sanctuary is working to restore healthier more abundant lives even after the tornado of mold toxicity.
To order the Summit from our affiliate link, click here (we receive a commission for this purchase): https://toxicmoldproject.com/order/?idev_id=25016
SERIES INTRODUCTION
You may feel a little overwhelmed and stressed after the recent Toxic Mold Summit A great line up of both clinical types and environmental remediator types took the stage for several day offering a smorgasbord of information about mold toxicity. Now, what do you do with all that information? Should you run out the door screaming in your underwear and leave everything behind?
Short answer….NO! You should simply keep coming back to Sanctuary’s Facebook Live sessions every other week about mold toxicity and read our regular blog posts about mold toxicity and a ton of other chronic health issues. Bring your questions. Hear from myself, Dr. Eric Potter Functional MD who has walked both sides of the mold toxicity line in caring for my family and for hundreds of patients. While I can’t diagnose or treat non-patients by Facebook, I will do my best to educate and empower you in the journey of healing from mold toxicity. Over the coming weeks, I will review several of the Mold Summit’s sessions with additional information from our experience and study.)
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.
