How to Deal with Toxic Mold Exposure

Introduction

[00:00:00] Detective Ev: What is going on my friends? Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, aka Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show on toxic mold exposure.

We’re talking to Bridgit Danner. She was actually a guest on one of our Instagram Lives, and I did extract the audio from there to put it on this show. It basically just sounds like Bridgit and I recorded a phone call as opposed to an actual podcast.

So, for me, I don’t really mind that stuff. I feel like you guys are in a similar boat because I’ve done this before, and we’ve never had one person comment back negatively with it. But if it does bother you, let us know. It’s not something that we do every week or even every month. But if someone comes on our Instagram and shares information that I really believe would be valuable on the podcast, it’s always something that ideally, I would love to take out of there and then put onto here so that we don’t have to steal a whole other hour of the person’s time.

Because we’re never going to be able to schedule it back-to-back. You’re going to have to schedule it on a whole different day. And some people like Bridgit, they’re pretty busy. They’re working with a lot of clients, so it’s very nice when they come on, help us out, and just share information with our audience for free.

Toxic Mold Exposure: It’s Everywhere

If you like this episode though, something to keep in mind if you’re not already following us on Instagram, I would definitely recommend that. It is @fdntraining on Instagram. And when you go to @fdntraining, you’ll notice that we have other Lives that, again, never made it to the podcast, but there’s great content. They are basically Evergreened in terms of Instagram. They’re saved there for as long as we can imagine using Instagram and you can go back and watch them at any time.

We also have additional talks that Reed has done, even I have done at conferences for FDN. So, there’s a bunch of content there that would never make it to the podcast and vice versa. If you guys want to check that out again, one last time, fdntraining on Instagram.

But for today, we will get to our very good episode that just happens to sound like it was recorded on a phone call. We’re going to be talking all about toxic mold. It’s not really something that’s come up a lot on this podcast as a full episode. We have had guests that touched on it in part. But it’s kind of cool that this is the main focus of the entire episode.

I still have a ton to learn about this. In my opinion, it’s one of those things that is conceptually similar to EMFs, where it’s like everywhere. So, sometimes the stress of it can probably be worse than the actual exposure itself. I’m not saying that so literally. Clearly if you’re sleeping next to black mold, that would probably be worse than the stress of thinking about it. Also, if you live next to a cell tower, that would probably be worse than the stress of thinking about EMFs.

Toxic Mold Exposure: There’s a Lot to Learn

It’s a little balancing act that we have to do between the stress of knowing that this is everywhere versus also being aware because it is a real threat. How can we act on it when we are dealing with it? Without further ado, let us get to today’s episode.

Hello, my friends. Longtime, no see. It’s your buddy Evan Transue, aka Detective Ev. We are inviting in the one and only Bridgit Danner today. This is going to be a good one. I’m excited to see you guys. We’re talking about toxic mold. Hello Bridgit. How are you?

Bridgit Danner: Hi. Good. Thanks for having me.

Detective Ev: Yeah, thanks for coming on. This is exciting. This is a topic that I have plenty to learn about. I’m very fascinated by pretty much anyone in this space, so I’ll have quite a few questions for you. I just appreciate you coming on.

You know how there’s like these little subsections in the functional health space? I feel like this is one that I have a lot of ignorance around. There are plenty of people who take this super seriously and specialize in it. I just want to make sure that I can at least have some skin in the game here and know what we’re talking about. I feel like you’re the person to do it with.

I do the podcast for us, the Health Detective Podcast with Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. If you don’t mind, I always like to start the questions out the same way there, and I will do that here today.

An Environmentalist from a Young Age

My first question really is just how did you get into this space? What I mean by that is like, were there certain health symptoms or issues that you were dealing with before you ever got into the world of natural medicine? Or did your passion come from a different thing?

[00:03:52] Bridgit Danner: Different things. I was young and healthy at the time, but I was like an environmentalist from a really young age. I just sort of was. I was just always very concerned about animal welfare and the whole ozone layer. I was just sort of attracted to the natural part of natural medicine.

[00:04:10] Detective Ev: Very cool. I asked that because I didn’t know if you had a particular story yourself with this. A lot of people do. But interestingly, that’s at least somewhat similar to Reed Davis, the founder of FDN.

He was in environmental law before he got into this. He did not have any health issues, thankfully. He’s like, I literally went to a doctor every now and then. But he made that connection between the things going on with the environment. Basically, I think he said, if this is affecting the environment, what we’re doing, what’s happening to the humans? What’s going on with us?

So, when did you decide though, that you were going to go to school for this? Because I see that you’re an acupuncturist. I mean, that’s a fairly big commitment to do something like that.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Living in a Moldy Home

[00:04:45] Bridgit Danner: Yeah. You know, at the time when I was researching and getting into the world of natural medicine, there was a lot less out there to learn about and choose from. I literally was like picking my acupuncture school out of some kind of library catalog book. The internet was still early days. Functional medicine, nothing. No one’s talking about it.

I hadn’t heard of naturopathic medicine either. I was into herbalism and cooking. So, I just thought, this is cool and interesting. Like most of us, I just kept adding tools. I really added the tool of functional medicine cause of my own mystery illness as I was a practicing acupuncturist, not knowing I was living in a moldy home.

So, I took a lot of steps. I took the FDN course. I was doing pretty good on some of the FDN protocols. It was also summer though, and as soon as fall hit and it got very wet, I really hit a new low with my health. A few months after that, I found out it was mold.

[00:05:45] Detective Ev: Got it.

That was the part I was missing. I didn’t actually realize that you experienced this yourself. So, this is even more interesting then. Again, I’m coming from a place of admittedly a fair amount of ignorance when it comes to the mold topic cause it’s pretty complex. I’ve always kind of wondered, is it that people are kind of already sick and then mold becomes one of these variables? Or are there really healthy people that are just getting affected by mold?

Toxic Mold Exposure: Mold Was the Last Thought

The reason that I wondered that is because, and this is anecdotal, but my aunt and uncle were redoing part of an addition on their home a few years ago. When they ripped up the walls, there was black mold in their living room. My little cousin hangs in there, they both hang in there. All three of them are healthy as can be.

It was pretty gross, it was spread all throughout it. They must have been getting exposed to at least some degree pretty regularly, and they seem to be fine. It’s kind of weird how that can affect people differently. We’ll talk about that later, I guess.

What finally led you to realizing it was mold because you’re obviously a very well-versed person in this stuff? Was that your first thought that it must be mold in the home?

[00:06:44] Bridgit Danner: No, it was pretty much my last thought. I think it often is, which is why you can be in the home for a long time, potentially, without having a big crisis.

But I would wonder if the example you gave, were they in perfect health? What is going on with their gut or their rest? Your immune system or your body is trying to deal with it as best it can.

And you’re right that some people are coming into it with more of a background of other bodily stresses, genetics, age. However, there are definitely perfectly healthy people who move into a moldy home and get perfectly sick. There are all sorts of examples.

Yeah, I don’t know if I answered the question or not.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Most Don’t Realize It’s an Issue

[00:07:30] Detective Ev: Well, you did and more. And that makes sense. That’s a worthy point of going towards. Because, yes, my aunt and uncle look fine right now.

We have a comment here. Seem to be fine. That’s interesting. They may have things happening that are unseen or unfelt.

That’s a good point because it’s not like my aunt and uncle are super into health either. So, they might not even recognize certain things that could be going on or they might have been getting close to it.

The other thing too, I’ve always acknowledged my own bias with the idea that, oh, well is it only sick people that are getting into the mold stuff. Well, what I really think it is, is that people that are already aware of their health issues from a holistic standpoint happen to be aware of mold because the average person does not realize that this is an issue at all. You know, they would never think twice about mold in their home, I don’t think.

So, how did you finally realize that it was mold. Cause you said it was the last thing, but how did you actually realize it?

[00:08:14] Bridgit Danner: I was going to a naturopathic college and getting IV therapy. I had already done another round of cleansing, like a 30-day cleanse kit.

Well, first of all, I had gotten really sick. I had strep throat; I didn’t recover from it. I had just, now we can look at this, started working exclusively from home, just a few months prior. But I never thought about it being my home until I was at this naturopathic college getting all these IVs.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Learning from Trial and Error

I was like, nothing you’re doing is helping. Can you please test me for other things? So, they did test me for some autoimmunity and other things. But they asked me, what’s changed in your home? Such a huge question.

Despite the fact that I had heard a little bit about toxic mold, this was still some time ago and it wasn’t talked about as much. I just had never considered. I had switched over my whole home for non-toxic cleaning products and stuff in my journey. But again, just never thought about mold.

You know, most mold is not seen by the way, like 90% of it at least. It’s not like, we were looking around, it’s mold in our home or anything like that. So, them asking that question prompted a conversation in our home.

We ended up getting a mold inspector who found lots of problems. Then as we started ripping up the house, we really saw the problem like your aunt and uncle. Then I made a bunch of mistakes in that process. I got a lot sicker. I definitely learned from trial and error making errors. That’s kind of why I’m trying to come back and be like, here’s just some things to think about as you go through it yourself.

[00:09:46] Detective Ev: Cool.

So, when we’re trying to define this here, cause this might be a good place to start, what is toxic mold? Because again, I’m coming from this more ignorant perspective. There’s mold that grows on foods, there’s mold spores that are in the air and nature every time I walk in the woods.

When we’re talking about a toxic mold, what does this mean?

Toxic Mold Exposure: Mycotoxins

[00:10:04] Bridgit Danner: There’s actually only about a dozen toxic molds, and there’s thousands and thousands of other molds. Any huge load of mold, you don’t want to put your face on like a moldy orange or whatever. Any load of mold isn’t great for you even in your home.

But these toxic molds, basically as the molds are growing and going through their life cycle or protecting themselves, they’re admitting these things called mycotoxins, which is like a toxin that comes from a mold. Those affect all us mammals in a lot of different ways. It includes your pets, includes livestock.

That was where a lot of the research was done because they were eating moldy feed and developing reproductive problems and illnesses. You know, that’s a big industry. So that’s where a lot of the earlier research was done.

These mycotoxins can travel anywhere they want, literally, in your body. They’re often inhaled, basically right up into your brain. They can cross those barriers; they can break down the blood brain barrier. They can enter basically any cell, enter your mitochondria, and they’re toxic. They’re just disrupting everything.

That’s another reason it can be hard to identify, is it mold? Because like for me, some of my related symptoms were like chronic back pain, irregular periods, anxiety, a little insomnia, a little digestive stuff. And guess what everybody would tell me when I would go in to to ask about it. I’ll give you a guess.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Often Connected to Chronic Cases

[00:11:34] Detective Ev: Well, I don’t know what they would tell you. Cause I’m almost thinking from the perspective as like a practitioner, what would I say if someone would come in with something like that? I wouldn’t guess, cause I’m an FDN, right? But I would not say mold, that is for sure. That would be last on my list.

[00:11:45] Bridgit Danner: I would say most people told me stress. That’s what most people told me, even though I was working literally my ass off to get better, you know?

And that, I say, I’m also crusading for now. If you can’t figure out your client’s case and you just tell them they’re stressed, that’s some very lazy work. And I’m sure that you would not be doing that kind of work. Like we’re all stressed in modern life.

So, if you are really trying to tackle your symptoms and it’s not working, you know, I went through the FDN course too. It’s amazing. Like say, you’re trying to balance your hormones, you’re trying to fix your gut, and it’s just not working, it’s not getting through, this can often be mold. Because it’s just in the background causing this inflammation, like literally breathing, interacting with most of the day. You just really can’t get better. I think it’s often connected to these chronic cases.

[00:12:36] Detective Ev: Okay. Knowing what you know now would you or do you test right from the beginning with people with chronic illness? Because obviously it’s great if someone’s even willing to acknowledge this at any point. It sounds like, again, so many of these people unfortunately would get dismissed.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Lab Testing is Readily Available

We live in a bubble. Of course, we would never say just stress to someone or at the very least, we’d be so careful with getting to that point of saying that. Sometimes I guess it could be, but that’s not where we would ever start.

But yeah, you’re right. The rest of the world, they’re going to tell, especially someone with those symptoms, you’re just stressed. Chill out a little bit and you’ll be fine.

But knowing what you know now, is there a way to catch the mold stuff earlier so that people don’t have to go through the ringer with different practitioners and different protocols before they finally realized, oh yeah, none of that worked entirely. So, now I gotta go do this whole other thing with the mold.

[00:13:22] Bridgit Danner: Yeah. I mean, luckily a lot of functional practitioners are looking for mold now and have access to those tests. You can get tested yourself. Most companies, you have to do it through a practitioner. But I think Realtime Labs, you can get a body test directly from them. You can do some home dust testing or plate testing by yourself.

You know, we sell it with a consultation because interpretation, even though it looks like simple results, can be wildly misinterpreted through our emotions as we see the test results. So yeah, luckily the urine testing is pretty straightforward now, which is fantastic.

You know, I’m in a very unique place where people are pretty much coming to us already knowing they have mold or they’re on the cusp of it. People sort of say, well, how are you convincing people mold is real? I’m like, by the time they’ve come to us, they get it.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Repair Work is Rebuilding All Systems

And, you know, most of our tests are positive. I think there’s a range. And then there’s, just like with FDN, like by the time your immune system has been affected probably for years by molds and other systems have been dysregulated, there’s other things going on as well.

So, we try to phase in different testing according to the person’s budget. It’s really rebuilding all systems when we’re doing our repair work.

[00:14:44] Detective Ev: Okay. So, let’s say I had someone coming exactly like you, because a lot of our practitioners do work with people like you with those exact symptoms, is it a big enough problem that people really should be including this in maybe some like preliminary work or is that not always the thing that should be done right from the get-go?

[00:15:01] Bridgit Danner: I would say if it’s a client who’s coming to you, and not only do they have this spectrum of symptoms, but they’ve also tried a lot already and tested a lot already, a hundred percent. Yeah. You know, if this is like your first time, they’ve seen you and they’re like, I’m a little off, yeah, do the basics first. Do foundations first.

[00:15:19] Detective Ev: Fair enough. I think that’s an objective approach with this. And then when it comes to dealing with the house stuff, I feel like this is at least 50% of the battle, if not more.

Toxic Mold Exposure: A Big Proponent of Moving

How do you approach that with a client or what can they do? Because from my understanding the remediation’s really expensive. I mean, I guess you could move, but especially if you’re in a house where you have a family, that’s not always the most practical thing.

Is this one of those things where you just gotta do what you gotta do and maybe spend a lot of money? Or are there other ways to get around this a little better, like if you do discover it in your house?

[00:15:51] Bridgit Danner: You know, I get this question a lot. I think there are maybe some scenarios where you’ve had a new water damage that you’re dealing with and nobody’s really sick. It could be a small problem, so to speak.

Usually that’s not, again, what I’m seeing. I’m seeing someone’s been sick for 10 years, really sick, can barely work, you know, still in the home. I am a big proponent of moving, for the most part, whether you’re renting or owning. Cause the possibility of redoing it so well that you can go back and live there safely, I don’t think it’s very high. And that gets really expensive.

You do have to disclose if you have mold and you’re an owner or you know, repair, there’s different ways to handle it. But yeah, I mean, my family remediated and moved and lost all our stuff. I don’t say it lightly, I had to go through it too. Maybe it’s just human nature or the fact that our brains have turned to mush, but people don’t want to move. It’s like again and again and again I’m having to deal with that. It’s just interesting.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Not Taking It Seriously Enough

I have to give like a loving push honestly, because it’s really made a huge difference in my case and in so many cases. So again, it depends. But please, I would just say don’t be like attached to something that is making you sick, frankly.

[00:17:14] Detective Ev: Fair enough. I mean, I was just wondering. I’m like, is that really just the answer? You kind of have to do what you gotta do sometimes.

I did not know that you had to disclose that. That makes sense. I’m kind of glad that that’s there. I don’t want to believe that people could just toss this off. But you’re also so right about how there is such a lack of seriousness or effectiveness with the remediation even sometimes.

My business partner and I, we were looking at places to rent for a local business that we have. You won’t even believe this, maybe you will cause you work in this space. Some of the listeners might not believe this. I walked in and I was checking the place out by myself with the realtor at the time. There was mold on the wall visible cause this place hadn’t been used in a while. So, I pointed that out.

Now I’m no mold expert, but I’m like, that looked a little funky. I could see that. He said, oh yeah, they’ll put something over that, and you guys will be good to go of course, before you come in. So, he didn’t even talk about the idea of like actually getting rid of this. He was suggesting that they were going to, I guess, seal it up or something. And I was like, yeah, I think we’ll look at a different place, thanks.

Toxic Mold Exposure: It Isn’t Being Handled Properly

My new freaking out thing has been, not freaking out in the sense of actually being stressed about it, but just trying to be conscious of it. We’re in a different place now. We had already been running there, we’ve been in business for like a year. There was a leak the one day coming into the ceiling from like the second floor.

I had these guys come in and because we have the contractors on site, all they did was like replace the panels for us and stuff. And I never know what to do cause I feel like an idiot. On one end I know about this stuff, but I’m like, what can I do if they don’t take this seriously in the moment?

Thankfully no one has symptoms at the business. My girlfriend works there all the time. She feels good. She’s going through FDN. I feel good. Clients feel good. I know this, it’s almost like I wish I didn’t because it’s not doing anything yet. But at the same time, could I be proactive with this?

This is a real problem though, is my point. I don’t necessarily have a question there. I’m just saying this is a real problem in terms of like even when mold is recognized, people aren’t handling it properly.

[00:19:05] Bridgit Danner: No. In the construction industry right now, landlords, you know, it’s a mess. It’s kind of all about money and speed.

I have a friend who has co-founded a non-profit about mold advocacy. That’s basically their mission is to first go, like state by state, and then hopefully nationally to have certain standards for how things are handled.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Mold Advocacy

You absolutely should not paint over mold, but that’s very common. It’s a very common solution and people don’t even think there’s anything wrong with that.

There’s like big employers who, their employees are really sick, and they’ve run their own mold tests. So, the company runs a test, and they say, oh, there’s nothing here. I mean, it’s just insane. As a practitioner, I’m basically like, please don’t deal with that. Like go take care of yourself.

But I’m really glad that some people are working on this advocacy level. His point is like, you know, right now we have very strict guidelines with things like lead and asbestos, and that’s just, we all know that. What is for mold? Nothing. So, if mold could be like those two, it would be a very different conversation and your rights as a renter would be different.

[00:20:17] Detective Ev: Great point. That’s the thing, it’s genuine because there’s the money aspect and then there’s genuine ignorance. You just talked about that’s not the way to handle it.

It’s not like this realtor was hiding this from me, that’s the worst part. He said, this is what we’re going to do. I’m like, bro, whoa. I’m not on board with that at all. I’m like, I can sit here and lecture him, or we can just look at the next unit. Because I wasn’t going to do that. And so, this must be happening all the time.

That kind of leads me to the next point that I had. If this is happening all the time, perhaps not even always getting treated effectively.

Toxic Mold Exposure: What to do When Buying a House

Let’s take the circumstances, I’m sure this does come up more often than I realize. The family’s living in a home. This is a childhood home or something, and they realize, wow, this is bad. They’ve accepted that they have to move. I don’t mean this in such a pessimistic way, I’m just really trying to dig into this here. How can I go into a next house truly knowing that it doesn’t have mold?

Because I know that they have to disclose it if they know. But there’s plenty of places that probably don’t even know. And I mean, it’s not like we’re talking about someone buying the wrong supplement and, oh, sorry, you had to get another one the next day. We’re talking about shifting their entire lives.

Is there anything that you recommend to clients when they are moving that they can do to really help actually understand or know for a fact that there is not mold in this next house that they’re going into?

[00:21:27] Bridgit Danner: Being a hundred percent factual if you only have a short period of time might be a little tricky, but there’s a lot you can do that is fairly helpful.

So, like you saw mold, you could also look for any kind of water staining, any kind of brown line on the ceiling, white crusty line on the ground, any like little black stuff on the floorboard or the sink or around the bathtub. You know, look under the sink and see if that piece of wood there is all damaged and ask what happened. Just generally ask what happened.

Things to Ask and Look for When Buying a Mold Free House

You know, has there been water damage? Has there been mold? Like do you clean the gutters? You can look for things like the grading of the ground around the house should be away from the house, right?

Is there a crawl space? Crawl spaces are notoriously moldy. Is there a basement? How does it smell? Use your five senses first, right? Is it moist? Do you see anything? Can you touch anything? You smell anything? If you’re sensitive to mold, sometimes just being in a new place, if it’s strong enough, will get you to react.

Yeah, there’s some things you can do. You know, how old is the roof? Especially if you’re buying, is it well maintained?

You know, in the market it was so crazy for a while there, no one was even getting any inspections. They were just taking a house as is. You have no idea the cost that could be involved in refurbishing that house. So, there are some things you can do.

You can even have sometimes conversations, especially if the market is softer, which I think it’s getting softer again. If you want to run a test and FedEx it, you could potentially do that in your review period. Or get an inspector to come out and be really savvy about mold. Again, not all of them are, just like the contractors aren’t.

When the industry is growing, there are more, like a holistic realtor I interviewed. There’s a mold lawyer. You know, it is growing. You may not find them right next door, but it’s slowly growing.

I think somebody was just telling me there’s an agent in Tucson, I’m in Arizona, who specializes in, like finding homes for people who have chronic illness.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Wi-Fi, EMFs, and Mold

[00:23:31] Detective Ev: Pretty cool. We have an audience question here, Bridgit. I actually should have invited you guys to do that. You’re more than welcome to ask any questions while we have her on.

This is great. Someone asked, can you discuss mold and how it affects EMF sensitivity?

[00:23:44] Bridgit Danner: It’s mostly the other way around that like EMFs affect mold growth and activity of mold. It like stresses mold in your environment. Then often, having mold infection often makes your blood-brain barrier more permeable. So, moldy people seem to be more sensitive to EMFs. Then mold sort of activates in the presence of EMFs and Wi-Fi.

I’m sure you guys probably have had other guests talk about ideally really minimizing your Wi-Fi and EMFs especially if you find you’re sensitive. But they do seem to have like a symbiotic reaction. Maybe that’s not the right word, but they definitely react with each other.

I hope that answered her question.

[00:24:25] Detective Ev: Yeah. Thank you for asking. Again, anyone else can ask anything they have. I wouldn’t even have thought about the connection between those two things.

One of the things that I wanted to know too, with the symptoms, is you had unfortunately for you, symptoms that are quite common in our space. Like everyone kind of has some anxiety. I’ve never had a client that was a female that did not have some issue with her cycle. I’ve only really worked with women under the age of 40, so they all have a cycle, but it’s messed up in some ways.

Are there any symptoms at all that might be unique to the mold thing that people can look out for? Or is it kind of just anything goes?

Toxic Mold Exposure: Other Symptoms to Look For

[00:24:59] Bridgit Danner: Well, those were sort of my early symptoms. And I think I was healthier than I appeared because I was being like religious about my routine. You know, heaven forbid you bring a processed food into my home, like kind of a lifestyle. So, I think that did kind of keep me going.

Then when I sort of hit my crash, it was just like a deep fatigue that wasn’t responding to anything. Needing a lot of sleep. And then for me, like when we started ripping up our house, neurological stuff got a lot worse, like my eyelids twitching all the time, losing things, really poor recall, like my brain was so fried right then.

I couldn’t remember a thought that I just had. I’d have to stop and try like 10 more times and be like, oh yeah, that was it. Just simple stuff. Like if I’d open a tab on the internet, I’d be like, what was I looking for? You kind of lose self-awareness, like that’s not normal.

And I just still went about my work life just like that. I think over time, and I guess everybody’s timeline is different, things can get definitely more severe. So yeah, a little bit of like menstrual stuff and digestive stuff, you’re right, is pretty common, but it can definitely start going into the severe category. Then like I said earlier, you’re just not responding to the other things that you are trying. Those things to me are signs that something else is going on.

Toxic Mold Exposure: To Support or Not to Support?

[00:26:28] Detective Ev: Got it. I’m glad to be learning about this more today because I think about how many times, even myself as a practitioner, I hope I didn’t miss a piece of the puzzle with someone because I didn’t really check out like, where do they live? Like what is it like? When you finally realize that, okay, yeah, there’s mold in someone’s body, what the heck is the process of getting that out?

Let’s say you moved, and somehow, we knew it’s a hundred percent mold free home. You definitely got out. Would the mold in your body and the microtoxins specifically, would they eventually go away? I mean, I’m not saying that you don’t want to help them along, but would they eventually just go away or are you almost always going to have to have some intervention there to get this out fully?

[00:27:04] Bridgit Danner: You know, they can maybe go away, but it’s definitely not guaranteed. When I first started doing this work, people would have a positive test or symptoms, would be like, oh, it’s from something I lived in some years back. I was like, what?

Now, I, a hundred percent, see that as being more common. So, I think you can potentially. You better be like pooping, exercising, eating real food. If you’re doing a lot of good foundations and you’ve moved out, you may. But for me, you know, I was already doing all those things, but I was in the moldy home like eight years. Even moving out, doing all the foundations, I really still needed to support my body in a lot of ways.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Perfect for the FDN System

So, antioxidants, binders, glutathione, lots of fish oil. You know, I still had to be really careful with my diet and like cheese or alcohol or sugar. I still needed a lot of rest. If I look back, I wish I had given myself more hormone support, like hormone replacement earlier on, because I think it would’ve made me feel more energy and better to the things I was still having to go through.

But yeah, I still had infections that I was dealing with, and it took a long time. It’s actually a perfect thing for FDN cause it’s really like looking at so many different systems. You could almost take a lot of the premises of FDN, just then add some premises about detox. Like doing sauna, doing dry brushing, doing binders. That’s kind of what it is in a nutshell.

[00:28:37] Detective Ev: That was the irony about where the leak was. It was in our infrared sauna room. I’m like, Okay. I don’t know if that’s a perfect one-to-one equation, but if it’s going to happen in any room, I thank God it was in that one.

If someone is in a situation actually like myself, I don’t know that we have mold. I mean, it could be happening, the panels were pretty much removed immediately. So hopefully something positive happened there. But let’s say there is mold in our business, and we just started last year. We’re in a lease. The contractors aren’t going to do anything about it. Or more likely I would imagine is someone is in that home. They are totally on board with you. They’re like, yeah, we will move. We physically just do not have the money to do this right now.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Doubtful You’ll Heal in That Space

Is there anything that can be done in the home? Can windows be open, can air filters be bought? Or is that just not even going to cut it when it comes to the mold thing? I never knew if that stuff like really helped.

[00:29:22] Bridgit Danner: Yeah, I think there’s different opinions on this. Like the coach who works for me has some protocols to make a safe room that you basically, I think, just sleep in. But some different like botanicals and I don’t even know the whole procedure for the safe room. You know, I’m less of a fan of that kind of thing.

If you do have a new rental, yeah, opening windows, running diffusers. I would not buy an air filter because the motor will become contaminated. You cannot use it again. That’s a really common one. Yeah, do not spend a thousand dollars on it.

I had a client who was very, very sick, disabled, rash all over her body. She’s like, oh, well, we have a piece of land. We’re going to build a house. It’ll take two years. So, I’m like, okay, let’s try to think about what we can do. She had a screened in porch. I’m like, I want you to basically live in that until you think of another solution.

They can ultimately do what they want to do, but I just know you will not get better in that space. And sometimes it takes like some creative thinking.

[00:30:25] Detective Ev: Well, I actually really appreciate how you approach this stuff. You’re super kind about it. Be like, this is what it is. I’d rather someone that’s straight up.

Realistic and Confident Practitioners Appreciated

You know, a lot of practitioners, and I think it happens because of the resistance of certain clients to do certain things, they’ll take on the client that’s resistant and then they’ll start molding to, no pun intended. That was really lame, I’m sorry. They’ll start shaping themselves in their protocols to the client themselves.

You’re really doing the client a disservice. Well, Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So, you don’t want to do this, so yeah, we can do that instead. And yeah, it’s only 70% is good. You’ll never really get better, but hey we can do that.

No, I’d rather have someone that gets on here and is like, this is what it is, this is how it needs to be handled. But I also appreciate the recognition of just being realistic. It’s one thing when we’re asking someone, all right, can you remove gluten from the diet? Virtually everyone can do that if they chose to, regardless of how much money they do or don’t make. But it’s a choice.

The house thing, that’s pretty freaking big. I mean, that’s a huge thing for a lot of people. Maybe they’re in a house, now they know the mold thing, maybe that depreciated in value. And they’re like, we’ll go negative if we try to solve this right now. Maybe they only got in six months ago.

It’s really complicated, and I actually commend you guys for doing this type of work. Which segues perfectly into my next question. I think we all know the kind of population that you serve, but I always like to ask it directly. I mean, who is your ideal client? Is it exclusively mold people or do you still work with a variety of different types of individuals?

Who Is Bridgit’s Ideal Client?

[00:31:40] Bridgit Danner: Lately, it’s heavily mold. Although, I just came from a more of a person, acupuncture background and then kind of women’s hormones. Then to more like gut and detox.

So, I think we still have some clients who come and just run a GI MAP with us or have a case review. But we’re definitely getting more and more into the mold for sure.

[00:32:00] Detective Ev: So, if I’m at the end of my line and worked with a bunch of practitioners, I’ve recognized probably that mold is a factor here, and I’m like, I’m ready to just talk to Bridgit and her team. I’m ready to do something here. What would that look like? How long do people work with you on average?

I think it’s always helpful for people to get some type of perspective, because there’s still 20 people actively watching this right now while we’re doing it. So, I’m guessing someone out there is probably suffering, and they might be wondering, yeah, what does it look like to go work with Bridgit?

An A La Carte Practice

[00:32:24] Bridgit Danner: Yeah. Our model is a little different, we’re pretty education based too. Well, I have a book on mold that’s just on Amazon, right? It’s really easy to access.

We have free books on mold. We have YouTubes on mold. We have a supplement shop and a lot of education on supplements. You can do a lab review with us if you’ve already run labs, you can just talk to us. You can run a new lab with us.

It’s a little more a la carte than some practices. I find it works pretty well for chronic illness folks because they have often done a chunk of work already and then maybe they want to add our piece. Or they’re already working with so-and-so, but they want to also talk to us. I’ve found out that’s sort of how it is.

So, it’s kind of working for us and working for them. It’s pretty flexible. You can kind of get in where you fit in with us.

[00:33:14] Detective Ev: Cool. If you guys have any last second questions, feel free to throw them on. Technically, I can steal 20 more minutes of Bridgit’s time if we need to.

Where to Find Bridgit Danner

I’ll kind of organically wrap it up here. Other than the obvious of Instagram, is there any place that you’d like to shout out where people can find you?

[00:33:27] Bridgit Danner: We also have this Mold Summit starting in about a month. It’s free, and there’s like 35 experts.

It’s like mold inspection all the way to like making your new non-toxic home, the whole process. It’s totally free to join. I don’t know if you have a link handy, but I can put your link in the comments later. It’s in my Instagram bio, for sure. I’d love to invite people onto that and just pick out a few talks you want to listen to.

[00:33:53] Detective Ev: Excellent. I’m not normally a summit guy, but I like this. I think it’s important and I need to know about it if for no other reason than just selfish ones for the business. But also today with clients, we need to know what’s going on and I like to have an extra tool in my tool belt, especially if this is already affecting so many people.

Now the final question I’d like to ask you today, again, it’s normally like how I kind of set up these podcasts.

I typically ask if I could give the person a magic wand, what would they get everyone to do for their health. I think I’m going to just edit it a little bit today and say, if I could give you a magic wand and you could do like one thing for every mold sufferer out there, or you could get them to do one thing, I don’t know if this is too simple, but like what is the one thing you might get them to do?

Signature Question

[00:34:34] Bridgit Danner: I get them to move, move out of their house. I mean that’s, again, like often the hardest one. But sometimes people ask me that tip.

Actually, one of my tips for recovering from mold or whatever is just like everyday movement and outdoors. I think they’re incredibly healing. Some people who go through mold actually go live on BLM land, like free camping. They’ll just live for like six months, out of a tent and just really minimizing their exposure, really simplifying their life. People heal that way.

So, you know, if you’re not going to that extreme, you can still get outside a lot more, you can still move more and sort of like let nature heal you basically.

This conversation gets really complicated around detox and there are just some fundamental things, like you asked, things that really can improve with a lot of the basics.

[00:35:29] Detective Ev: I did 60 days of camping in the pandemic. I did it for the circadian rhythm benefits, but I always had wanted to do it. I’m like, well this is about as good a time as ever, right? I’m never going to be able to do this probably again.

I mean, the 60 days, I was already pretty healthy. I was in a good spot. I’d been doing this for years. You can’t beat Mother Nature. I don’t think you can out supplement her. I don’t think you can out lab test her as an FDN.

Toxic Mold Exposure and Hormone Recovery

Most people can’t live that way unfortunately, in today’s world. But if you get any chance to do that, or you can maybe even just change your family vacation every year from instead of a week down the shore which probably has a ton of mold in that house, you can do a week, literally, all camping together. I think that makes a world of difference.

Someone did sneak in with a last second question, so thank you very much for this. They said, have you seen women recover their hormones after mold exposure?

[00:36:13] Bridgit Danner: A hundred percent. Yeah. You know, my periods are better now at 48 than they were at 35. Yeah, a hundred percent. There’s a lot of hope. It does take some time, even like pretty serious brain degradation, can repair. It’s just sticking with it.

[00:36:31] Detective Ev: This is a great question. I totally believe that that’s true. The body has an innate healing ability, and that’s not hippie woo-woo.

I just got a paper cut the other day on my body. I didn’t have to tell it to heal, and this scab is almost completely done. Right now, it’s like the last little bit. I guarantee two days from now when I wake up, I will not even be able to see that a paper cut was there.

It is that same innate healing ability that heals the paper cut that heals your brain, that heals the hormones, whatever. I just think that the difference is the paper cut, it was easy to find the stressor. Right? Evan don’t rub the sharp edge of the paper across your skin again, and you won’t get the paper cut. Easy.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Can Develop Cancer from Mold

When we’re talking about the hormones or the brain and then something as complicated as mold or all the other things we have to deal with in today’s world, there’s just a lot of little hurdles to overcome that are preventing ability. I don’t want to oversimplify it. It’s more complex than that, but that’s really it, guys. Just remember, it’s not some hippie stuff to say that the body can heal. You already know that it can, it does it all the time, every time you’ve gotten a cut.

Really, we’re activating that same thing. We’re just digging through all the stuff that we have to, to get there. Sometimes it’s mold, sometimes it’s something else. And for some people it’s a combination of a lot of things. But we’ve heard incredible healing stories in the world of FDN and you’ve seen it yourself too, Bridgit. It’s just awesome what people can do.

Someone says that, oh, she said that’s great news to hear. Woohoo for periods. Awesome.

[00:37:47] Bridgit Danner: Yeah, for periods, fertility.

You know, the one thing I’ll say is like, do take this seriously because you can develop things like cancers from mold. So just don’t sit on it. Don’t say I’ll move in five or 10 years. That takes that time to develop. You know, those are some of the things that can be irreversible, potentially.

But if you’re in a stage where you’re just having symptoms and you know you have mold, yeah, you can definitely turn it around. So that’s awesome.

Conclusion

[00:38:13] Detective Ev: Excellent. Bridgit, thank you so much for coming on today. You’ve genuinely sparked my interest in this topic. I’ll probably hop on that summit and end up buying cool stuff that I didn’t need, but I’m going to choose to do it.

[00:38:23] Bridgit Danner: You know what we’re going to do? I’m going to announce to you, it’s like informal. We’re actually going to do a practitioner course too about, just about mold.

[00:38:29] Detective Ev: Make sure you message us when that’s out because I’d love to get you back on the podcast. Our practitioners, I feel like would love that.

[00:38:35] Bridgit Danner: Yeah. I’m really excited! Because yeah, my weak points are like Lyme and EMFs, we all have like weak points, right? So, if we can kind of plug that for people and they can be on the front lines of like identifying it, that’s fantastic.

Thanks for having me.

[00:38:49] Detective Ev: Yeah, if you guys just tuned in a second ago, we’re talking about mold today. You can go back to our pages, and you will be able to see this. Just give it a few minutes to get shared and then you can rewatch what we did. So, thanks again.

Bye everybody.

[00:39:00] Bridgit Danner: Thanks for your time.

You can always visit us at functionaldiagnosticnutrition.com.

To hire an FDN coach, go to fdnthrive.com.

For a FREE Health Review, go to fdnthrive.com/match/.