Legal Case Connecting Mold Toxicity with Parkinson’s Disease
While our clinic sees 100s of mold toxicity cases per year, sometimes it helps to hear something from others besides a slew of nameless reports (nameless due to privacy) and to hear from someone publicly describing their symptoms. In recent months, Steve Locke, once a head of Olympic organizations, has been fighting a legal battle to prove that mold in an apartment complex triggered his Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Locke and his family in Colorado Springs are fighting this battle after he was diagnosed in 2015 with Parkinson’s.
According to the linked news report, six months prior to the 2015 diagnosis, his family had moved into an apartment complex in Colorado Springs. Soon after that Mr. Locke began experiencing a health decline and noticing both verbal and motor tics in his 5 year old son. His wife suffered symptoms too, including temperature dysregulation, memory loss, and chemical sensitivities.
These symptoms continued without apparent explanation or link to each other. Mr. Locke tested negative for the genetic form of Parkinson’s disease. Other family members were treated as per conventional medicine. Then the ceiling of their apartment began caving in from water leaks. During renovations, extensive mold was discovered not only in the ceiling but elsewhere in the building. The lawsuit is based on an allegation that the rental company knew of the leaks which led to the mold growth. Proceedings are scheduled to start in February 2025 (prior to this article’s publishing date).
In the news report, interestingly, they interviewed a Tulane professor who was looking at the links between mold toxicity and Parkinson’s Disease. She had found that a chemical from mold could trigger a movement disorder in flies that mimicked Parkinson’s Disease. Despite her findings and multiple attempts, she has been unable to secure funding to do further research on this question. That failure of funding is sad but indicative of the blindness of the established medical system to the possibility that mold toxicity is real illness.
I hope the best for Mr. Locke and his family. I have seen others who suffered similar symptoms and diagnoses from mold toxin exposure. I have seen them mostly (thought not entirely) recover by getting mold out of their homes and out of their bodies through detox. The earlier this trigger is identified and removed leads to better outcomes, but ignoring the problem only leads to worsening symptoms. Helping our patients recovery healthier, more abundant lives requires disagreeing with the conventional medicine system and treating what is plainly before our eyes. Hopefully, Mr. Locke is getting functional medicine treatment for this condition.
News Article:
Hernandez, E. (2025, January 28). Can mold exposure cause Parkinson’s disease? Colorado Springs family hopes to prove “landmark” legal case. MSN. Retrieved January 29, 2025, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/can-mold-exposure-cause-parkinson-s-disease-colorado-springs-family-hopes-to-prove-landmark-legal-case/ar-AA1xWd8a
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.
