Dear Subscribers,

Since the internet in Washington State seems to be down today, it might be an opportune time to update the report of Mold Chikitsa and also bring some clarity to this overwhelming issue.

To give this essay context and color, try to imagine yourself on a slider between degeneration and regeneration. At any moment, fate can hurl a curved ball and we could find ourselves struggling to survive or we could overcome a major obstacle to health and experience well bring and vitality that seemed a distant dream. How does this happen? Well, we can be perfectly fine, at least not incapacitated, and then we catch a cold or get bitten by a tick or sit under a dirty vent in a public building. This latter has happened to me countless times: at a library where I gave a lecture to the Herbalist's Guild, at a concert or in a movie theatre. Some people are so sensitive to mold that they can go into anaphylactic shock when someone opens a peanut at a distance of forty feet. If you accept this as a reality, even a possibility, then what are our responsibilities to others when we indulge in our favorite foods without taking into account the potential effects on others.

For years, scientists debated whether mold belongs to the plant or animal kingdom. Finally, the decision was "neither" and thus was born the fifth kingdom, the kingdom of fungi. Mold does not have its own means of propulsion or movement so it depends on opportunity to increase its domain. Blowing air on mold is the perfect means for dispersing it and as we know, while mold can be slimy, it can also be dusty and burst into a powdery plume when given a little jolt, like cracking a peanut shell or dropping a moldy orange on a counter. In fact, I hate to think what happens when the orange is put into the garbage disposal! It belongs in the compost bin. That is where it will perform its task of decomposing the orange and returning dust to dust.

According to some studies I have read, only 25% of the world's population is allergic to mold. What everyone needs to understand is that regardless of whether or not one is part of the 25% or the 75%, mold is dangerous to absolutely everyone. I know this is not exactly how the textbooks in medical school read, but it is misleading to assume that the only people who need to be concerned about mold are those who are allergic, immunocompromised, or weak for some other reason such as youth or age. Mold is dangerous to pets and people as well as property.

In the twelve plus years I have been studying mold, I have read a lot of rubbish but also found some fascinating tidbits of information here and there.

Based on my present understanding, always an important caveat, I would presume that mold is indestructible. In the property remediation business, it is maintained that more toxic fungicides merely cause the mold to become more toxic, meaning that when disposing of building materials or personal possessions that have been fumigated with something horribly toxic, the dust not only has the residuals of the substance used to treat the mold but also more dangerous mycotoxins, toxins that are almost impossible to neutralize. Remediation work is for properly trained professionals, not for gung ho do-it-yourselfers who are "not afraid of mold" nor for the macho contractors who can't be bothered to seal off the contaminated areas much less to suit up.

Medically, the issues are very complicated and practically never diagnosed correctly much less properly treated. There are a few specialists who are at least aware of the problem, but without the benefit of darkfield, it is hard to believe that anyone could have a full grasp of what mold does inside the body.

Viability

Let's start with some basics. Mold is viable. I use this word quite a bit because I want to establish the fact that certain conditions are not self-limiting. Anything that is viable can probably worsen with time. To make this crystal clear, think of a toxin in the form of fluoride or mercury or bisphenol-A. There is a specific exposure that is the total exposure. Of course, repeated exposure can lead to cumulative damage, but the point is simply that whatever is ingested (or inhaled) is the total of the exposure. Moreover, the body will expel some of the toxicity so the long-term risk quantitative load is the exposure less whatever is exhaled or excreted.

With viable organisms, we have the original exposure plus whatever replication occurs. With bacteria and viruses, the speed of replication as well as mutation can be staggering. However, this is also more or less true with parasites, spirochetes, and fungi. They all have optimal conditions for procreation and the potential for damage goes well beyond a simple chemical toxin.

With mold, we have many medical challenges. Allergies are therefore only the tip of the iceberg and the rest of the challenge is monumental. Mold is vegetative, meaning that when it is viable, it forages. It does this by creating hyphae which are something like feeding straws. Imagine some creature that can grow a tube and then plunge the tube into its food supply: the lining of the lungs or stomach or any moist tissue anywhere in the body, including the brain, breasts, liver, and knee joints . . . to mention a few. Because mold does not have a stomach, the food required by the mold is digested in the hyphae. The hyphae are so full of acidic crystals that they are extremely difficult to photograph because they are blindingly bright. The hyphae can be incredibly long; they bifurcate and go every which direction; and they have segments that sort of resemble bamboo. The joints in the hyphae appear to be vulnerable areas because when a patient takes a good antifungal herb, the hyphae fracture at the joints and then white blood cells attack. This is actually fascinating to watch because when the mold's system is completely functional, mold is supreme and the white blood cells try to avoid the mold or they are vanquished.

Photo credit: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISCELLANEOUS/hyphae1.jpg

When the hyphae are visible in plasma, you see a sort of vacuuming effect with scores of erythrocytes being sucked into the tubular structures. Then, they are suddenly swirled and look sort of like a red smoothie, not everyone's idea of a perfect banquet. Patients with this problem are often anemic and cold. Being viable, this is not quite the end of the nightmare. Eating is a metabolic process so there is also waste generated. The musty odor you smell in a damp house that has been locked up is due to the off-gassing of the fungi. Some fungi produce an acrid odor.

Because the mold processes are so varied, it is not surprising that there are many possible symptoms of mold infection. Unfortunately, it is also true that to-date I have not found a single herb or formula that addresses all of the problems. For instance, Jatoba seems to really help with the allergic reactions and fatigue, but in darkfield, I did not see any threat to the hyphae much less a lessening of secretions of hemolysins.

Other formulas help with coughing, skin rashes, joint pain, hemolysis, and mycotoxicity. This latter is one of the last to be conquered because even those who were fortunate enough to find satisfactory treatment for the infection are often saddled with the residual toxins for decades. In fact, these toxins can be the source of various physiological complications such as edema (and excess weight) because the retention of fluid is necessary for the dilution of the mycotoxins. It can also contribute to the development of secondary problems such as gastric distress and cancer. It may therefore be the underlying cause of death.

A subscriber-correspondent who has herself been through a horrific ordeal with mold sent a link to a study of Ayurvedic rasayana herbs and mycotoxicosis. Earlier, this year, we released the formula as Mold Chikitsa. I would recommend taking it carefully, meaning that detox can be tricky. Try to imagine a warehouse full of toxins that have to be eliminated, mainly via the kidneys. It's very difficult to know exactly how many toxins will be mobilized with each dose of a detoxifying herb, but there are two critical factors to observe and monitor. First, you want maximum kidney efficiency so as not to circulate the toxins and then reabsorb them. Depending on the person, this may mean supplementation with a kidney support formula or simply more fluids. For others, it may mean very small doses at wide intervals until the body is able to handle the load and flush out the toxins.

Next, you want to pay careful attention to redness, itchiness, and odor because if the toxins are not eliminated via the kidneys, the skin might become an auxiliary organ of elimination. You then want to reduce your dosage so as to give the kidneys a chance to catch up on their work.

Because I am a fanatic about perfection, I honestly do appreciate your feedback, but because some feedback is very detailed, try to be as succinct as possible. If there are specific symptoms that require more management, I'd like to know in order to perfect the protocols for a wide variety of users, each with different histories and starting points.

Many blessings,

Ingrid

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2012

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