7. Chronic exposure to mold.

Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker MD, author of The Mold Warriors, has provided some astonishing insights into the effects of biotoxins on chronic conditions. In particular, mold and lyme produce toxins that can make people chronically ill for months, or even years. Dr. Shoemaker has found that certain people have a genotype (HLA DR 14-5-52B) that makes them more susceptible to biotoxins than the general population.¹

People with this genotype lack the ability to recognize bioxotins, tag them, and eliminate them from the body. Without this ability, the toxins continually circulate within the body. They constantly cause the immune and inflammation system to turn on—and never turn off—since the toxins never leave the body.

More specifically, mold and lyme (found in lyme disease) produce a fat-soluble toxin that gets tied up in a cycle where it kicks off the body’s inflammatory cascade, and attaches to the brain and nervous system (making it also a significant neurotoxin). The toxin also binds to cholesterol, making it difficult to eliminate effectively from the body since the body generally wants to hang on to—and reabsorb—cholesterol.

One major problem for people who are genetically predisposed not to recognize biotoxins is that they can’t really get away from them, because they exist readily in the environment. People with chronic fatigue syndrome and other "fatiguing" type conditions feel like they have the flu all the time, mainly due to chronic exposure to mold found in everyday living. And their situation becomes even more desperate because most doctors are totally baffled by chronic conditions due to biotoxins, and don’t know how to treat them.

The symptoms of chronic mold exposure are extensive. Anyone who has eight of the following symptoms should consider mold as a suspect in causing illness:

Fibromyalgia Respiratory distress, coughing, sneezing, sinusitis Difficulty swallowing, choking, spitting up (vomiting) mucous Hypersensitivity pneumonitis Burning in the throat and lungs (similar to acid reflux and often misdiagnosed as such) Asthmatic signs; wheezing, shortness in breath, coughing, burning in lungs, etc. Irritable bowel syndrome, nausea, diarrhea, sharp abdominal pains, stomach lesions Bladder, liver, spleen, or kidney pain Dark or painful urine Dirt-like taste in mouth, coated tongue Food allergies/leaky gut syndrome/altered immunity Memory loss; brain fog, slurred speech, occasionally leading to dementia Vision problems Swollen lymph nodes Large boils on neck (often a sign of anaphylaxis) Yellowing of nails, ridges, or white marks under nail Thyroid irregularities, sometimes leading to complete dysfunction; adrenal problems Headaches Anxiety/depression, heart palpitations - confusion, PTSD Extreme blood pressure, cholesterol, or triglycerides irregularities Ringing in ears, balance problems (very common), dizziness, loss of hearing (aspergillus niger)

Chronic fatigue (also included under this classification directional confusion) Intermittent face flushing; almost always systemic, called the Mylar Flush (neurological) Night head sweats, and drooling while sleeping, profuse sweating Multiple chemical sensitivity; only upon exposure to Stachybotrys and Chaetomium Nose bleeds (stachybotrys) Bruising/scarring easily; rash or hives, bloody lesions all over the skin (Often systemic, skin) Reproductive system complications; infertility, changes in menstrual cycles, miscarriage Sudden weight changes (Detoxifier genotypes tend to gain weight, non-detoxifier genotypes tend to lose weight) Cancer Hair loss, very brittle nails, temporary loss of fingerprints (in rare cases) Joint/muscle stiffness and pain Irregular heart beat/heart attack Seizures, inadvertent body jerking, twitching, inadvertent facial movements or numbness in face Hypersensitivity when re-exposed to molds, which can lead to anaphylaxis Anaphylaxis upon re-exposure to mycotoxin producing molds

Surprisingly, Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker has found that mold can be treated with a medication called Cholestyramine (CSM), a non-absorbable anion-binding resin used to lower cholesterol for over 40 years. The physicochemical properties of CSM enable it to bind to a diverse variety of toxin molecules, including biotoxins.


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¹Shoemaker, Ritchie C., Chronic Neurotoxins.com http://www.chronicneurotoxins.com/ Accessed July 2006

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Article ID: 479