Mold Madness: Neurotoxins Overlooked 3

Mold Flood Story: The complexity of the psych presentation encourages missing an important underlying cause. More problems require more complete answers.

Flooding and Molds

In the last post I told you I would tell you about a woman from FL. The very morning I sent out that post a new patient came in who surprised me with a startling array of mold associations. Check this out.

Imagine this: Morning sunlight streaming in the window, greeting a new patient.

At first glance she looked gaunt [only 45 yo] with deep, dark circles under her eyes. As I shook her hand I noticed that she had very rough, dry hands, and sores on her wrist that looked raw and scaled. She sniffled, sat, and said that she had been treated with Zoloft for years 150mg, now down to 100, because it didn't work. Suicidal thoughts at least once/month for years.

First thought: Looks like a chronic medically ill patient. Right on that one: She had been treated for MS with multiple agents for years, with an onset of blind spots [“loss of eyesight”] in the right eye. Meds have helped but little with her deterioration and decrease of energy.

Hold that thought: the rest of the story is compelling-

Now take a moment to flash back to my last post sent out that same morning, and look at the symptoms of Mold Neurotoxins: Soon she was telling me about chronic headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and brain fog. I had to stop her right there – and ask her about Mold.

She is from NC, lives on a big tidal river down there, and her home has been flooded several times. They love the view. The river goes into the trees.

She could tell me in great detail where the flood line reached almost to the floorboards, and described in even more detail the trouble with black mold in the heating and ventilation system, and on the walls in the bathroom. Her whole family suffers from respiratory problems. She and her husband “seem to always be sick.”

She is afraid to look under the house. Down there, near the river, is only a crawl space. [This is an example of a moldy duct ->]

Moldy duct

Her kids are sick, she smokes marijuana about three or four bowl hits, 3-4x/day, out in the garage. She has chronic severe bowel problems, with “about” 1 BM/week. She has fibrocystic breast disease, and may have breast cancer [will have a biopsy soon]. [Stay tuned for the iodine discussion soon.]

Her periods abruptly stopped 2 years ago and before that she had serious post partum depression with her second child, after years of severe PMS with menorrhagia, and dysmenorrhea [bleeding and cramping]. She suffers from hypothyroid, eats predominantly high glycemic index foods and her immune system significantly compromised as she feels she is onset with rheumatoid arthritis.

Let me think, is this a complex presentation?

It would be easy to become distracted by any of these multiple
complaints and say to her: “Who wouldn't be depressed?” But this presentation is more than “psych.”

From a more acute, specialized medical standpoint here is the challenge: which is first, which demands immediate attention, and which one is setting the dominoes off?

From a systems standpoint all these presentations are significantly related. All of these symptoms could have a mold association. We will chase down all of these trails and will keep you posted on this person's progress and lab findings in forthcoming posts. Lets review the diagnostic possibilities and ongoing significant diagnoses:

1. Depression, with ongoing suicidal ideation and no plan
2. MS
3. Hypothyroid
4. Marijuana dependence [I told her detox would occur about 2 weeks from last use]
5. ADD, since childhood with clear history
6. Sudden Amenorrhea [no periods]
7. Adrenal Fatigue
8. Bowel dysbiosis
9. Mold neurotoxin exposure
10. Insulin resistance
11. Estrogen/Progesterone dysregulation history
12. Headaches
13. Dementia with confusion and memory loss
14. Iodine deficiency [coming soon]

Bottom line, she first must evaluate the current mold situation in her home to reduce exposure. In the meantime we will be ordering sputum testing [Download saliva-vs-serum.pdf] for hormone dysregulation, metabolic testing with the CMP  [Download sample_report_4300_v_01.pdf] to evaluate the metabolic status of her bowel, insulin resistance workup, nutritional review. And a little homework: Read Ultrametabolism.

Yes, I do think I have to be careful with her, as all this can be overwhelming.

-Will keep you posted. I certainly have some questions, do you?