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Mold Toxicity
Yeah Mercola's spiel was poor form as well, maybe he's got some new product to sell to heal people that have done "dirty grounding" with one of his other products for the last ten years? lol
IMO the advice of the Bush guy is not wrong. No one is getting rich telling you to have a dog or open your windows. These are both traditional things that made people and houses healthier. Running a house closed-up is not a good idea.
We've lived in this house for 20+ years and have had multiple incursions of water: up from the ground and down from the roof and pipes bursting. Our system sucks outdoor air. These things are going to happen. We don't have over-growths of mold (that I know of) although every now and then I do see a spot of mold here and there and quickly apply borax solution. And I do try to air out the place, although that can be hard when it is zero out, but when it is zero out it is especially dry indoors. It's important to air the bathrooms and one of our bathroom vents went no where haha and had to be actually-installed, rather than just pretend-installed. And vents themselves can also develop leaks! :'(
I don't allow "anti-bacterial" products into my home.
I do think that working in my gardens and coops etc has helped me somewhat with allergens, but I could be better and hope to be better as I get less VA toxic.
Some elderly people in my life had a bad stink in their bathroom and they have ripped the place apart trying to get to the bottom of it, and turns out it was the non-slip thing they put on the floor of the shower.
@lil chick - we lived in the leakiest house in Texas for 10 years. It was 80 years old and had been relocated. Six scorpions a day inside on most days. Finally asked an old timer for a good remedy and he said "git some chickens". Anyway, we had a roof leak, hole in the kitchen ceiling, no HVAC ducts, used an infrared heater for the 20-degree days and window air conditioners, etc. Surely there was mold in the attic and we did fine there. So I really do get your point. But, that said, the mold thing is about context, and for anyone living in an apartment building where they have little to no control over that HVAC system, sucking in city air just isn't a practical or effective solution to the mycotoxins. And who's to say that the toxic molds found so often in WDB's wouldn't win any battle against their brothers and sisters from out in the country air, or already did so in gaining the niche they have in a relatively closed-system. Mold toxicity is a major problem that really is impacting people's health, so I can see where Zach Bush's presentation would be considered very glib by anyone dealing with mold in a context where his logic is irrelevant. Clearing a house, or theoretically balancing the mold-load is kind of like detoxing from decades of VA-overconsumption, if it's even possible in some settings. People have been known to take houses down to the studs to fix it. Getting a previously mostly-closed system back to square-one where a person might have a chance to keep their domicile's microbiome in a healthy state is what we're really talking about for most people facing a mold-crisis.
A home isn't a forest just like an artery isn't the intestinal tract. In that presentation they were talking about root canals and how arteries are supposed to be sterile. A home should be sterile too. The compost heap and the vege garden is where you want microbial life. Introducing it into the home is crazy talk.
Doesn't mean you need to use anti bacterial substances. You just need to keep your home dry and clean because all life needs water and food.
When I turn the air con on and dust and moisture enters the system it gives the mold both food and water... A case for air cons equipped with HEPA filters?
One of the best writers I've ever read on this topic (of smart germs) was the herbalist Steven Harrod Buhner. He talks about how germs can also become dumb again, when they are in balance. That's what I'm hoping for. I'm pretty sure it was in his book: "The Lost Language of Plants". 🙂
Smart bugs aren't really smart against each other. That is something that just appears that way to us. They are smart against antibiotics. Or smart against anti-fungals. Otherwise, they are just normal germs.
I think there are lots of things wrong with apartment dwelling, and maybe they are unfixable. I work in the city part-time and I feel the stress roll away the moment I start seeing trees around me on my commute. The book Solviva had some great imaginings of more "natural" city dwellings each of which made heat and food too! But seriously I'd rather have a long commute. 🙂
I still might be interested to try some sort of air cleaner especially to help out house guests who are cat-allergic.
@tim-2 I was thinking about what you said about your girlfriend whose acne flared in your apartment. We had a guy visit here a lot whose auto-immune disease would flare when he was here. NOW I'm thinking that was BECAUSE OF MY COOKING. 🙂
Really, I would WAPF him to death when he was here. 🙂 Poor guy.
@hillcountry thank you for bringing the mold issue up. It absolutely overlaps VA toxicity symptoms, and I've learned that both types even increase overall toxicity synergistically.
One other thing I'd like to bring up that also adds to the toxic load are root canals and dental cavitations. 9 months into my low VA diet I began to develop widespread numbness and tingling (head to toe), mild peripheral neuropathy in my legs and feet, and back pain. It progressed over the next couple of months until the pain was quite severe (especially at night). It was a nightmare, and my daily misery was only made bearable with various pain medications, muscle relaxers, and nerve signal interrupting type medications.
At the suggestion of Dr that is friend of my aunt, I looked into dental infection as a possible contributor to my health problems. You can watch the documentary Root Cause if you want more information about the process, but I consulted with a well-known biological dentist about 4 hours away from my home. It was costly, but well worth the money.
Before they performed the extensive dental work to clear out the root canals and cavitations, I had such poor nerve function in my feet and legs that I often needed assistance to get up and do anything simple like walking to the bathroom. Quite disheartening for a 35 year old to experience such quick health decline.
It has now been a month post-biological dental work. I can walk unassisted, most of the sensation has returned to my skin, peripheral neuropathy has improved immensely, and even the raw feeling in my mouth, throat, and nasal passages that plagued me for months has cleared up too. Thankfully I no longer need any of the prescription meds that helped me survive those months of hell.
My point to all this being... anything adding to the toxic load on the liver is going to make VA symptoms worse. Now to get out of this moldy house. Wish me luck!
There is crossover between the idea of mold toxicity and the idea of Vitamin A toxicity, for sure.
Almost four years ago, we decided to sell our house and most of our stuff, after we realized that we had a small mold garden in our closed-up basement due to a plumbing leak. The house was definitely not "moldy" in any conventional sense - no smell in the top two floors, and very clean, new construction. And also situated in a very rainy/wintry area in the northeast, and made from styrofoam "SIPS" construction. We remediated carefully, sold our house, and moved into a camper with our four kids... (yes, that's a story for another day! http://www.lifeisapalindrome.com )
We have mostly lived in the desert for three and a half years now, and mostly outdoors for three of those years. In theory, the two family members with the worst mold sensitivities should have gotten better...but it just wasn't happening. They were in fact getting worse (despite treatment with charcoal and lots of other binders on a mold protocol administered by a well-regarded MD), up until July, when we began this Vitamin A detox (and ended my intense love affair with leafy greens, vegetables in general, and liver pate).
One family member still shows no improvements, but the other one is MARKEDLY improved. Headaches (were getting more and more severe, and would begin within moments of entering most indoor spaces) are much much fewer, and mood and behavior symptoms are so much better. I would say that detoxing from Vitamin A is increasing our resilience, overall - although it sure seems to work much more quickly and specifically for children!
I would definitely not choose to spend time in environments where mold is an issue (i.e. most buildings in the USA!), and we have taken great pains to ensure the house in which we currently live is not growing mold. (The closed environment and sheetrock/wood food sources inside most homes ensure that types of mold can grow, simply in the presence of water/humidity, that are very unhealthy for humans. It's not a matter of balance, so much as a situation where microbes can grow that never would if they were, say, outside in a forest or in the desert or outdoors ANYWHERE. It's our climate-controlled houses full of wood that really seem to set things off...but anyway.) But, my hope is that some more time reducing our Vitamin A stores will yield a level of health for us that is even more able to withstand those times when it's very impractical to stand outside pontificating indoor air quality. 🙂
Meant to say: other interesting overlap between Vit A toxicity and mold toxicity: both seem to deplete the body of similar nutrients and mess with similar nutrient metabolism; also, things that bind readily to mold (charcoal, clay, etc.) also seem to bind to A (although probably not in amounts that are useful for detox as opposed to just removing dietary intake sources).
And yes, air conditioning systems are really really really really important to keep carefully clean!! Heating systems too. It's absolutely amazing how little thought has been traditionally applied to HVAC systems in apartment buildings, schools, and workplaces, and how often it is done wrong in houses. There is a growing awareness, but a lot of people will get sick before it's clear what to do about it - just google the situation at that college in MD!