By testing for mold illness, you can determine if it’s the root cause of your symptoms and begin your road to recovery today, with these steps. Even if mold illness has you overwhelmed, confused, or weak, be encouraged. You have the tools and ability to take control and overcome!
Testing for Mold Illness and Mold Mycotoxins
Find out if mold mycotoxins are driving your illness by using a simple functional urine test at home and sending it to the lab. We all have some mold species in our bodies, but this test will inform whether mold mycotoxins are at high or dangerous levels inside your body, and which species. I learned to do this test when I became a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and through my own problems with mold illness.
If you test positive for high levels of mold mycotoxins, you can then perform other at-home functional tests to see what it has done to your body. I always recommend Organic Acids, Gut Zoomer, and a complete thyroid test. These tests will give us a better picture of:
•damage done by the mold
•whether or not your drainage systems and organs are working well,
•and if your body has the energy required to detox as a healthy body should.
Then, we can begin personalizing your roadmap to wellness.
Waiting for Test Results and Starting Your Detox
It can take several weeks to get your lab results back, and sometimes longer depending on their busyness. But meanwhile, whether mold mycotoxins are your culprit or not, you can begin your journey to detoxing right away. These tips will help your body detox more regularly now and keep you detoxing later once well. So especially if they are new habits to you, now is a great time to get used to them!
Drink the right amount of water
Of course, make sure that you are well hydrated. That doesn’t mean drinking all the water you can, but drinking the amount of good, clean water that your body needs. Drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day, dispersed throughout the day. If you are not drinking that much, then work up to it. If you are drinking more than that, then you should consider cutting back because too much water can actually be dehydrating when you have mold illness.
Eat the right vegetables
Next, consider thinking about what food you are eating. If you have mold illness, the Paleo AIP diet is best. Eat lots of fiber from vegetables such as leafy greens and root vegetables to help move toxins out of your digestive tract. Fibrous vegetables will also provide you with important vitamins and minerals needed for other parts of the detoxification process.
Eat enough of your macronutrients
By eating foods that feed your mitochondria, you will help provide your body with the energy it needs to properly detox. You can do this by eating the right amounts of protein, fats, and carbohydrates for you.
Take your vitamins and minerals
Fresh fruits and vegetables will provide your body with adequate supplies of B vitamins, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. You may also want to supplement with a quality multi-vitamin, such as Allergy Research Group Multi-vitamin/mineral.
Avoid inflammatory foods
Gluten and dairy often cause inflammation. But even the healthiest foods can cause inflammation in your body. Especially when you have mold illness, you can develop food sensitivities as part of your symptoms. Pay attention to the foods that cause reactions in your body, because they will also create inflammation which can clog up your detox system. You may choose to do additional tests for food sensitivities if you would like to dive into your foods. When you heal, you will likely be able to eat many of the trigger foods again without symptoms!
Poop often
I had problems all my life with constant constipation and occasional bouts of diarrhea. That is probably the main reason why I could not get well. Because pooping is the end of your drainage funnel, it needs to be opened first. You need to be pooping 2 times per day to get rid of the toxins.
If after taking these initial steps, you’re still having trouble pooping, the Gut zoomer, organic acids, and thyroid testing will help determine why. Mold illness can disrupt your thyroid function or cause inflammation anywhere in your body – hence its not so common name, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS).
Use healing herbs
If changing your foods and water don’t help at first, you can use some wonderful herbs to get your bowels moving more. Please don’t use anything unnatural as it will cause your body to need that product in order to poop at all.
Some really great gentle, non-addictive herbs are cascara sagrada bark, aloe leaf, rhubarb root, barberry root, black walnut hull (great for killing fungus also), and senna leaf (note: too much of this one can cause loose stools and pain). If you can find a good formula that has all of these, they will be in a ratio that won’t cause any problems. Organic is better, but not mandatory.
Because mold illness shows up as so many different symptoms and can trigger an avalanche of health issues, it’s important to test for it first.
But know that your body was fearfully and wonderfully made to detox and heal. Help it by reducing the foods that trigger reactions and giving it the ingredients it needs to regulate cellular energy for those mitochondria. Then your drainage pathways will more easily move those toxins out of your body.
Now you understand how testing for mold illness works and you can begin your trip to wellness while you wait for the results! Next, in the series, read more specifically about how to prepare for your wellness journey if you determine mold illness is your culprit. Check out part three of this series here.
Have you been dealing with a mysterious illness, possibly after water damage? If you want to regain your strength and energy to once again live a purposeful life, Click here to set up a complimentary Breakthrough call to see if we could work together.
