Mold Toxin Illness and Lyme Disease go hand in hand, but this 3-step healing protocol is helpful for preventing and overcoming myriads of ailments whose root cause is associated with toxins or pathogens (ie. harmful microbes). The reason for this has to do with your microbiome (ie. all the microbes in your body).
Experts say that at least 70% of your immune system is in your gut where an amazing symbiotic relationship exists with your microbiome. The reality of the microbiome is that it is made up of both beneficial and harmful microbes. One of the functions of your immune system is to regulate it. If your immune system falters, this allows the microbes to get out of control. The way one doctor put it, they’re eventually going to compost you. Pleasant thought, isn’t it?
Even when you’re as healthy as can be, you’ve got all kinds of pathogens lurking within, lying dormant like terrorist sleeper cells, just waiting for the opportunity to strike. These pathogens have been accumulated over the course of your life and along with many others may include common bad guys such as Salmonella, Staph, CRS, MRSA, or Borrelia burgdorferi which is attributed to Lyme Disease.
A healthy microbiome is made up of mostly good microbes. Among other things, beneficial microbes not only help suppress bad ones, they also teach your immune system to recognize the bad guys. This delicate symbiotic relationship is obviously one to nurture and protect. Dysbiosis (ie. imbalanced microbiome) can cause a variety of symptoms from mild to severe and lead to a break down of bodily functions and diseases including digestive system diseases, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancers, etc.
Unfortunately, many aspects of typical American lifestyles, microphobic practices, and conventional medicine harm your beneficial microbes and hurt your immune system in the process. All kinds of system disruptors can create dysbiosis, including many toxins that hurt you and your microbiome. And anything that disrupts or distracts your immune system can create the opportunity for pathogens to gain an advantage. This is why healing from anything is a time to slow down and really focus on nourishing and rebuilding your health (eg. a healing sabbatical).
Mold toxins are powerful system disruptors and are unfortunately very common. They can hurt your microbiome and your immune system. As you’re getting bombarded by mycotoxins, any opportunistic pathogens hiding out in your body can take advantage of your weakened immune system and flourish, creating any number of additional problems. If you’ve had a tick bite in the past, you quite possibly have stealth microbe Borrelia burgdorferi and other common co-infections that have been waiting for an opportunity. This can then result in Chronic Lyme Disease.
When I started learning about all of the above from my now favorite Lyme/mold doctor years ago, some of it was hard to believe. I had to fact check things and what I found is that conventional wisdom does not keep up with the exponential growth of research. As a result, much of what the average doctor practices is based on decades old understandings: it seems the solution to every problem in conventional medicine is “kill it, cut it out, or chemicalize it” and if that doesn’t fix it, the problem must be in your head. Fortunately, more and more people and doctors are learning better.
A Common Sense Approach
I call this my 3-step healing protocol only because I adopted it as mine, not because I came up with it. This is what many competent doctors recommend:
- Quit adding toxins to your body
- Remove toxins from your body
- Heal your body of toxin damage
If you think about it, this is fairly self-evident. But it can be difficult to figure out the details when you’re in the middle of a health crisis. Let’s break it all down.
1. Quit adding toxins to your body
In order to stop adding toxins to your body you must understand what they are, where they’re coming from, and then make whatever changes are necessary to stop being exposed to them (eg. mold avoidance). A few examples of toxins that can hurt you or your microbiome include mycotoxins, antimicrobial cleaning products, chlorinated drinking water, chemical residues and additives in food, many ingredients in personal care products, off-gassing from numerous new products containing glues, plastics, chemical coatings, etc. Lookup common sources of indoor air pollution just for an example.
2. Remove toxins from your body
Our bodies are designed by God to naturally detox on a continual basis when our systems are functioning. System disruptors can interrupt these natural processes. Optimizing health naturally optimizes toxin removal. But there are ways to speed up the process! In a previous post, Top Expert Explains Toxin Buildup in the Body, he also explains the importance of binders so the toxins can be expelled rather than keep circulating and doing damage. Some doctors understand this and know which tests to perform to identify which specific toxins are present and prescribe binders that work best for those toxins.
3. Heal your body of toxin damage
It’s tempting to jump to this step, skipping the first two. But healing will never really happen if you continue getting injured! You have to stop the influx of toxins and get them out of your body. Your body naturally wants to heal itself and in many cases can do so without any intentional intervention. Again, health optimization aids this process.
With at least 70% of your immune system being in your gut, what you put in your gut plays a significant role in your ability to heal. In another amazing symbiotic relationship designed by God, plants produce nutrients and chemicals (ie. phytochemicals) that our bodies just happen to use to heal and stay healthy. Unfortunately for people in industrialized nations who have turned to industrialized “food” and “medicine,” they get highly processed or synthetic versions of the real thing in the form of prepackaged food, vitamins, and drugs. Nutrient-depleted, chemical-laced “food” doesn’t create a healthy gut – it actually creates disbiosis!
Many edible plants that have gone missing from the dinner table also have medicinal qualities (a notable exception that’s still common is culinary herbs). Big Pharma isolates and copies key ingredients from plants, then mass produces overpriced synthetic versions, all while convincing the public that the real thing is somehow primitive. Actually, the real thing has all of the active ingredients that work synergistically together to produce the beneficial effects without all of the side effects the synthetic versions are infamous for!
Thousands of studies have been published showing the effectiveness of herbal medicines whose use has been refined for thousands of years. One example is a John Hopkins University study that found seven different herbs kill Borellia (the bacteria behind Lyme Disease) and some were more effective than the synthetic antibiotics that are commonly prescribed in conventional medicine. Herbal antibiotics don’t wreck your microbiome the way synthetic antibiotics do and they actually have a broad range of additional benefits – it’s a win-win!
The doctor I’ve learned the most from was actually a conventional doctor whose life was dramatically affected by health problems. The medical establishment that he believed in couldn’t help him. He eventually discovered he was suffering from Lyme Disease and mold toxins. After much searching he finally discovered relief in a source he least expected: medicinal herbs. He went on to devote himself to helping others and has written a couple of excellent books. Dr. Bill Rawls has also crafted herbal protocols that I have greatly benefited from.
Gut Revival Kit
One of the common symptoms I’ve experienced as a result of mold and Lyme is food sensitivities. I learned the importance of healing the gut as the highest priority for all the reasons explained above as well as the cascading problems that “leaky gut” can lead to, including various autoimmune diseases. The Gut Revival Kit is designed to balance and nourish your gut microbiome, calm and soothe the lining of your gut, and purify your GI tract through detoxification with a natural binder that’s also a super-food. All ingredients are sourced by a doctor who understands the importance of chemical-free and mold-free supplements. A couple of the most important elements included with the Gut Revival Kit is a 6-week educational email series and a 3-phase elimination diet to identify food sensitivities and heal the gut with recipes, grocery lists, meal plans, and more. I have eventually been able to re-add foods to my diet that I had been reacting to.
Restore Kit
This is the ultimate healing protocol for ailments whose root cause is associated with toxins or pathogens (eg. mold and Lyme). Dr. Rawls combines the best of protocols from mold-illness pioneer Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker’s mold treatment, renowned herbalist Stephen Buhner’s Lyme treatment, and his own experience and extensive research. Dr. Schoemaker is widely recognized for diagnosing and treating mold-related illnesses, helping countless victims rather than gaslighting them like most of his peers. The late Stephen Buhner (?-2022) was known for his extensive work in herbal medicine, writing numerous books on a wide range of topics including herbal antibiotics, antivirals, and treatments for Lyme disease (probably the reason for the John Hopkins study mentioned above). The Restore Kit supports the immune system in managing your microbial burden, provides whole-body detox by supporting key organs of the body, includes a 6-month educational email series, and access to conversations, courses, and live workshops with Dr. Rawls.
I started with the Restore Kit before learning that I should have started with the Gut Revival Kit. So then I paused the Restore Kit while doing the Gut Revival Kit for a few months. My wife researched for me to see if we could save money by buying the herbs elsewhere and found that these comprehensive kits are very competitively priced, plus we don’t have to organize a protocol, source each individual ingredient, ensure purity, quality, etc. If you’re interested in trying these yourself, there’s a referral program that gives us both $20 off if you use my referral link. (This is not an affiliate program but is part of a rewards program with all kinds of ways to earn rewards.)
