These days there are many sources about mold toxicity and CIRS, but back when I first had to deal with it in 2017 my only reference point consisted in facebook groups and later Dr Shoemaker’s website Surviving Mold.
I wrote down the story of my struggle with toxic mold and CIRS here LINK, I just wanted to briefly list all the things I have tried in relation to mold, in the specific a) how to remove it from the house and my things (all my attempts in this regard ended up in failure) and b) how to detox mycotoxins and c) how to remove it from my body.
I wish I had Dr Nathan’s book about toxic mold to guide me, but I learned about it only around one year later, that would have saved me an immense amount of time and money spent in tentative treatments.
so, let’s proceed with order:
a) Remove mold from my home and belongings
When everything started, some wise people in various facebook groups told me immediately: give it up! Leave everything behind and don’t turn back! Don’t try to save your stuff!
I am sorry to say that my first thought was ” oh my, there are truly a lot of nuts on the internet” – I deeply regret not having listened to the advice. Unknowingly, I cross contaminated a new possibly healthy apartment with all my things from the previous moldy home, and even after learning about cross contamination I spoiled all the new items by not being careful and mixing old and new in the same closets.
I did NOT manage to remove mold from my home. Heck, I couldn’t even remove it from my clothes. Others report success with borax and other things, for me once something is contaminated there is no way to make it better. Possibly ozone treatments, but that didn’t last long either.
For the sake of completeness, this is what I tried on my favourite clothes in the useless attempt to save them. I used in succession: : EM3, ammonia, pure alcohol, borax, vinegar, baking soda, salt, colloidal silver, leaving them in the sun, freezing them, steaming them, fumigating them with essential oils, I am sure I am forgetting something. Nothing worked, but at least after all those washings my clothes looked like they were 40 years old and losing them didn’t feel so bad.
Cedarwood is supposed to fight mold spores, but in spite of large amounts of cedarwood gadgets in my closets, the few contaminated items I kept contaminated all the new clothes I had bought. Only years later I tried ozone cleaning, which works for some items, but the effect doesn’t last long.
Books: I put books in the freezer, I tried to warm them up in the oven, then I dipped them in baking soda, and exposed them to an UV lamp. Nothing worked.
Cleaning the walls: EM3, borax, alcohol, baking soda, vinegar, Thieves oil, other essential oils. After three months of biweekly applications and halfway to getting poisoned by all the borax I was breathing in, symptoms had become insane. On top of that, sadly at some point the content of the EM3 bottle had become moldy, so I inadvertently spread fresh mold all over the walls. Live and learn…
To conclude, my level of success in removing mold from the house was zero.
One caveat: years later a more powerful UV lamp (no ozone) seems to work on lighter fabrics, but it needs frequent applications. I am on the fence about ozone treatment with an ozone machine, the effects seem to work only for a short time, both on an apartment and on personal belongings. Ozone comes with its own side effects, I try to gather references in this other post LINK.
b) Remove mycotoxins from my body and address CIRS
My main reference was the Shoemaker protocol, but in the absence of the necessary tests, the only thing I could do was wing it – the first experiments with cholestyramine failed because my gallbladder, impaired by parasites, couldn’t take it. I then doubled up on other binders, chlorella, bentonite clay, activated charcoal (from coconut), zeolite, probiotics, thankfully without too many side effects. Years later, during the Aspergillosis experience, I could take cholestyramine for maybe 3 months before my gallbladder gave up again, with ongoing colonisation it didn’t help much.
Shoemaker suggests Omega 3’s to correct low VEGF, and no amylose diet. I was already doing strict AIP, eating very little carbs and starches and ingesting a huge amount of Omega 3’s as part of Bob DIamond’s protocol for peripheral neuropathy LINK. Two birds with one stone.
Diet-wise, I came across some diet plans aimed at reducing all intake of moldy foods LINK, and I was pleasantly surprised that my body had already told me to avoid a number of things such as dried fruits, many nuts, peanut butter, my beloved Miso – which is is made with a bacteria that is a distant relative of the Aspergillus species I was hosting in my body, and triggered violent reactions), and most preserved food and canned food from the supermarket. You can find thorough information about the Bulletproof diet here (I liked it better when the website didn’t show ads for supplements everywhere, but, well, at least the information is still there), and the Kaufmann diet here.
The last, but most important step, was mold avoidance, I explain my mold avoidance journey here LINK. Often people ask me if I had an immediate improvement upon leaving my contaminated belongings and home, I did, and I believe that happened because I spent two years and a half treating and detoxing, before embracing mold avoidance (I didn’t even know about it until two years in).
As I explain in the other posts, my situation was complicated by a) a serious parasite infestation b) actual mold colonisation in my intestines c) reactivated Epstein Barr Virus and Lyme which were having a ball, since my immune system was so damaged.
For that reason the steps mentioned above were not sufficient for me, and I had to address each issue head on, one by one.
