For those not aware of our Mold Symptom Therapy Guide website, let this “Rewriting Mold” series serve as a reminder of both what we offer our patients and what we offer the general public in terms of understanding mold toxicity illness. Over the coming weeks, I will be reviewing and reposting sections of our Mold Symptoms Therapy website one or two at a time. It has been over 3 years since I first wrote this 30 plus page guide and posted it online. A few things have changed since 2020 (yes, an understatement), but the basic principles emphasized in 2020 continue with minimal change.
As this provides me an opportunity to update any advancements, it also offers the opportunity for you to ask questions and even contribute to edition number 2 of the Mold Guide. By leaving comments and questions, I can identify areas where I can offer even more to patients and the public in terms of education and empowerment over mold. Please take 2-3 minutes to be a part of helping others restore healthier more abundant lives with your questions and feedback. You can leave comments on Facebook or our website not only for each week’s section, but any section off the website which I have not addressed yet.
This week, Mold and the Gastrointestinal System
The gastrointestinal system (GI) tract serves as another battleground of root-cause mold toxicity. Mold has a variety of effects on this system, effects passed on to your other body systems. First, mold toxins often trigger intestinal hyperpermeability, otherwise known as leaky gut. As toxins pass through the intestines, they can trigger histamine release from mast cells. This process further contributes to leaky gut. Second, mold toxins may cause direct damage to the cells lining the GI tract. This furthers inflammation and leaky gut severity. Third, mold toxins sometimes disrupt the normal bacterial balance in the gut. The gut lining then loses this normally protective bacterial layer. Fourth, mold may trigger food sensitivities via the immune system, and this then amplifies the histamine release and intensifies leaky gut.
In the first mechanism, mold affects immune cells called mast cells which line our Gi tract’s mucosal surface. Mast cells act as on site sergeants of our immune defenses, using a variety of chemicals to direct where other immune cells go and which cells can get into the tissues around the mast cell. One of their chemical signals is histamine, but they have many tools at their disposal. Mold toxins make these mast cells more irritable in a sense, and thus more likely to release their chemicals. With such a release, more immune cells can enter that gut tissue for addressing infections or toxins, but when mold is the trigger, it causes more harm than good. The histamine also makes the gut lumen barrier more leaky so that chemicals normally kept in the stool lumen are allowed into the tissues and the blood stream. This then triggers more inflammation and allows disruptive chemicals into the body that otherwise would have passed through the GI tract into the toilet.
In the second mechanism, the mold toxins, whether arriving through the food itself or through the blood stream, can directly irritate the cells lining the gut lumen. When this happens, the cells tasked with separating the gut lumen and its stool contents from the blood stream intended to carry nutrients is compromised. Just like with the histamine triggered leaky gut, certain chemicals get in places they shouldn’t.
In the third mechanism, mold toxins act more in line with their true biologic purpose, that of serving as antibiotic defenses. Mold organisms are fighting for survival by fighting for water and food sources. If a bunch of bacteria start growing nearby, such critical necessities can be stolen, so they make toxins to kill off neighbors like bacteria. When these toxins are ingested, they can impact on our gut bacteria just like if they were growing in the wall of a water damaged building. Some bacteria are killed by the toxins and some are not. Given some time, our microbiome changes, often for the worse. This state of imbalanced gut bacteria is called dysbiosis. With such imbalances, other GI dysfunction can ensue including leaker gut.
In the fourth mechanism, mold toxins induce our immune system including the earlier mentioned mast cells to react to various foods in ways that it should not. Our immune system is constantly monitoring what comes through our GI tract, but it usually distinguishes effectively between safe (food, nutrients) and dangerous (toxins, pathogens) substances. If the immune system becomes confused, then its reactions can lead to more histamine. More histamine leads to leakier gut and dysfunction.
The gut lining inflammation and leakiness then hinders the GI tract from proper functioning. Digestion may not fully process foods, causing key nutrients to pass through unabsorbed. With imbalances in good gut bacteria, detoxification of other environmental toxins may falter, allowing the toxic load to increase. With bacteria imbalances, harmful bacteria can increase and release various substances that harm local and distant body regions. Then with a growing number of food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies become inevitable when patients are limited to only a few tolerated foods. Given the GI tract’s connection to every other body system and their proper functioning, it is easy to see how mold’s attacks here could influence the whole person’s well-being.
TAKE HOME POINTS
Gastrointestinal system – another battleground
Mold toxins damage in multiple ways
Trigger intestinal hyperpermeability or leaky gut
Direct damage to cells
Disruption of normal gut bacteria causing dysbiosis
Trigger food sensitivities
Mechanism 1
Mast cell activation and histamine triggering leaky gut
Mechanism 2
Direct damage to intestinal lining amplifying dysfunction
Mechanism 3
Dysbiosis, or gut bacteria imbalance, through mold toxins’ antibiotic effects
Mechanism 4
Mast cells again get altered leading to food sensitivities and more leaky gut
These dysfunctions
Disrupt detoxification processes in GI tract
Permit more toxins to enter body
Increase systemic inflammation
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.
