Tag: functional medicine

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Is Mold Making You Sick?

Are you struggling with non-specific vague symptoms that do not fit a known pattern for diagnosis? Have you been to a slew of specialist physicians and are still left without answers? Have you ever lived or worked in a place with water damage? Have you noticed your symptoms change or improve if you’re away from your primary home for an extended period of time?

If this resonates with you it’s time to consider mold as the root cause of your illness. 

Here’s why: Mold is dangerous to your health. Hard stop. 

Add to that, it is often overlooked as a source of illness since most conventional doctors are not trained in identifying it. 

But, don’t worry! It has become my mission to uncover and treat mold illnesses. My private practice is filled with people suffering from mold exposure, many of which were misdiagnosed or told there was nothing wrong and had they considered a psychiatrist.

Here are some of the most frequent questions I hear:

What is Mold, Mold Allergies, and Mycotoxins?

Mold is a type of fungus that loves to grow in moist, damp, and dark environments.

We are constantly exposed to mold in our outdoor and even indoor environments. Some people are more sensitive to such mold spores and develop mold allergies. You may recognize these symptoms to be watery/itchy eyes, sneezing, and or runny nose. Doctors can diagnose mold allergies through blood testing and such allergies are treated with antihistamine medications. Finally, some molds produce mycotoxins, compounds that are invisible and can be inhaled or absorbed through your skin. These are the toxins that may cause mold illness if you are susceptible.

How do you know if you have been exposed to or are currently exposed to mold?

Part of my approach is taking a thorough environmental history during our first visit together. I delve into the history of water damage, musty smells, visible mold in your current and past homes. In general, most people find themselves with mold in their homes if the initial water damage is not remediated properly, if there’s a hidden leak behind a wall, or if there is moisture intrusion in the house that’s not obvious, just to name a few scenarios. 

Why are mold toxins difficult for the body to process?

Your liver helps process mycotoxins through bile and ultimately they are removed in the stool. In some, this process is not successful and leads to recirculation of the mycotoxin. So your immune system may have successfully killed the actual mold; however, the mycotoxins that the mold secreted can persist in your body. 

Many people are exposed to toxic mold; however, not all become sick. Why? About 25% of people are genetically handicapped to deal with these toxins. Even if you’re not one of the 25%, anyone’s detox system can become overwhelmed if exposed to high quantities of toxins over a long time. This helps explain why some members of your household can become severely ill and others are fine while being exposed to the same mold environment. The molds that produce the most dangerous mycotoxins include Stachybotrys, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Alternaria, and Walemia. 

Are you suffering from mold toxicity?

Mold is always a part of my differential diagnosis in anyone who presents with a myriad of symptoms in multiple organ systems. At the Blum Center, our patients complete a Medical Symptom Questionnaire and when their score is more than 80, I often suspect mold. 

Some of the more specific symptoms include electrical sensations in the body, areas of numbness/tingling that leave neurologists perplexed, unusual tics/muscle spasms, seizure-like events, and dizziness. These symptoms are often paired with fatigue, brain fog, intense anxiety/depression, chronic sinus congestion/recurrent infections, and shortness of breath.

How do mold mycotoxins cause such chronic complex presentations?

The following explanation is based on the ground breathing work of Dr. Shoemaker who synthesized how mold toxins impair your body’s biochemistry and thus came up with The Biotoxin Pathway. 

Mold toxins can easily dissolve in water and fat allowing them to penetrate various tissues. 

  1. Mycotoxin enters your body through inhalation or food (this is less common cause of systemic illness), or are made in your body (i.e. think the sinuses or your gut that has been colonized with mold).
  2. Toxin enters your fat cell and triggers a cascade of events inside the cell leading to cytokine production. Cytokines send signals to activate the immune system causing inflammation. If you are one of the genetically fortunate, the immune system binds the toxins and prevents this cascade of events; however, in 25% of the population there is no process to turn off this activation so the inflammation persists. 
  3. Cytokines affect your brain chemistry, endocrine/immune systems, thus explaining why patients present with such a variety of symptoms that transverse multiple organ systems. This can lead to inadequate production of adrenal, sex, and thyroid hormones. Overall this will also affect your pain pathways (think decrease in endorphins), sleep (think less melatonin), and also cause increased intestinal permeability (think leaky gut). 

If mold is suspected, how do we evaluate it?

Although there are some serum blood markers that give us an idea if you are suffering from mold illness, they are non diagnostic. The best test we have at this time is to assess urine mycotoxins. There are several functional medicine labs on the market offering such testing including RealTime Labs and Great Plains Laboratory. 

As part of the evaluation, It is also important to determine where the mold exposure is coming from (i.e. home, work, or your car), particularly if it’s ongoing. To do this, we recommend you partner with an environmental indoor expert who is trained in how to properly assess the home’s health and perform accurate mold testing and then guide you in remediation (if necessary).

You may prefer to try your own home assessment. You can order testing through Mycometrics the ERMI test (Environmental Relative Moldiness index). You collect dust from your home which is tested for mold.

How is mold toxicity treated?

The journey is often complex with many detours. Two people exposed to the same mycotoxin may present with completely different symptomatology. Treatment progress/resolution often depends on your terrain (what else are you battling with, i.e. your gut health, tick borne infections, viruses, other toxins-i.e. heavy metals) and how sensitive you may be to treatment. 

My approach is influenced by Dr. Neil Nathan’s work, an expert in mold treatment. What does that mean? We assess your gut microbiome, look for exposure in your home (and bring in a home expert if needed), support your detox pathways (after all, we have to get the mycotoxins out of your body), use appropriate botanicals and/or pharmaceuticals for treatment and mold decolonization. 

In the meantime, what can you do to help your body with mycotoxins starting today?

  1. Increase foods that support your liver’s detox pathways such as cruciferous vegetables (think broccoli/kale).
  2. Increase antioxidants, think eating colorful fruits and vegetables that are rich in quercetin/polyphenols (i.e. pomegranates, berries, yellow peppers, green tea).
  3. Spice up your food with turmeric and curry powder.
  4. Move more! Sweating is one of your body’s key daily detox methods. Just remember to shower after exercising so the toxins do not get reabsorbed through your skin.

 

If you’re interested in learning more about mold illness, testing, and treatment please come see me at Blum Center! For more information visit www.blumcenterforhealth.com or call 914.652.7800. 

 

 

References:

Biotoxin Pathway:

https://www.survivingmold.com/resources-for-patients/diagnosis/the-biotoxin-pathway

 

“Toxic” by Neil Nathan, MD; published 2018

 

Resources:

https://iseai.org/about/

 

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How Infusions Can Help you Recover from Lyme Disease

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE living in the Westchester area, especially in the summer. Crisp evenings, proximity to beaches, and embracing the outdoors brings me so much joy. However, one thing I don’t love about Westchester in the spring, summer and fall are the Lyme disease-carrying-ticks that are everywhere.  The official name of the microbe that causes Lyme is Borrelia Bergdorfi.  And these annoying and harmful pests carry other infections, too, like Bartonella, Babesia, Ehrlichia and more.  Collectively we call these Tick Borne Illnesses or TBI’s.  New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are three of the ten states where the majority of Lyme cases are reported in the United States!  The problem is that we all love the outdoors and your favorite summer activities could be putting you at risk.

Most of you probably already know this and check yourself for ticks after every evening beach walk or nature walk.  If you don’t, then this is definitely your first line of defense.  If you find a tick on your body and it has been there for at least 4 hours, and has hooked itself in your skin, remove gently with a tweezer, and call your doctor.  You can save the tick and have it tested for Lyme.  At Blum Center we believe in treating aggressively, and recommend antibiotics (or sometimes we use herbal remedies) whether or not you develop a rash.  If that tick has latched onto you, whether or not is engorged or swollen, then treating right away is your best defense against developing acute or chronic Lyme disease.  

ACUTE AND CHRONIC LYME

Acute Lyme or Tick Borne Illness (TBI) usually happens in about 2-3 weeks after the infection, but can happen sooner or later than that too.  You might have a fever, chills, headaches, muscle or joint pain.  It can feel like a flu.  It can last 5-7 days and then go away.  The tricky thing is that some people who get infected by a tick never have an acute illness!  And many people with an acute TBI don’t ever remember having a tick bite!

That’s why many people (and doctors) don’t even think about Lyme when they develop chronic symptoms like fatigue, arthritis, muscle pain or brain fog that drag on for months and months.  There can also be other symptoms like intermittent fevers and heachaches and neurological symptoms like strange sensations and/or numbness or tingling anywhere in the body.  The good news is that WE do think about Lyme in every patient with these symptoms at Blum Center and do the testing and pick up hidden Lyme or Tick infections all the time.  

The name Chronic Lyme has been given to people who have these symptoms for months and sometimes years.  Some people have Chronic Lyme and don’t know it.  And even when they start treatment with antibiotics, they continue suffering with Chronic Lyme because once it’s been in your body for a long time, it’s very hard to get rid of it, even with antibiotics.

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE FOR LYME TREATMENT 

Treating your Lyme disease requires a very personalized approach, and our complete treatment program for Lyme disease is beyond the scope of this blog.  We use at different times, and for different people, antibiotics and herbal programs to kill the Borrelia Burgdorferi (or other TBI) microbe.  But treatment is a 1-2 punch:  the medication or herbs lower the total amount of infection in your system, and then the immune system has to clear out the rest.  You can see why a highly functioning and strong immune system is critical to treating Lyme Disease.

In addition to a strong immune system, once we start treating Lyme, there are a lot of toxins that are released and can cause you to feel very sick.  And these toxins and the Lyme itself can wreak havoc with your mitochondria, the little furnaces in your cells that make energy.  Therefore from a functional medicine perspective, whether you are currently being treated by us or other doctors, or are still recovering from Lyme Disease, you should add to your program support for the immune system, the detox system and the mitochondria.  And the most effective way to do this is with Infusions because high concentrations of the needed nutrients can go right into your blood and to your cells where they are needed.  

OUR CUSTOM INFUSION FOR LYME DISEASE

Susan Blum, MD, MPH, our founder and director and author of The Immune System Recovery Plan, developed our targeted Infusion for people with Lyme.  We call it our Mito Recovery Infusion.  The nutrients in Mito Recovery target all 3 systems that need support in people struggling to recover from Lyme or other Tick Infection:  it works deep within the cell to help rebuild the damaged mitochondria; includes NAC and glutathione for detoxification support, and zinc, selenium, vitamin C and B vitamins for your immune system.   Here are the details:

Bag #1 – Mito Recovery

B Complex– contains B1, B2, B3, B5, & B6 to help the mitochondria in all your cells function better and make energy.  This, of course, includes your immune system cells.

Vitamin C– a potent antioxidant, high doses of vitamin C helps your immune system work better and protects the mitochondria from injury

Magnesium– an electrolyte that is needed to keep your nervous system and muscles functioning properly & keep your body balanced and relaxed. Can also help provide pain relief (headaches) and help with sleep. Magnesium can act as an antioxidant in mitochondria improving mitochondrial dysfunction

B12– essential for all biochemistry and body functions that involve methylation, including production of red blood cells, DNA synthesis, neurotransmitters, liver detox, and maintaining health of the nervous system.  As we age, it is harder to absorb B12 from the gut, another reason to regularly get B12 by infusion.

Zinc– a mineral that boosts the immune system by decreasing the production of inflammatory cytokines, and has direct antiviral activity.

Selenium– powerful antioxidant that decreases inflammatory markers & boosts the immune system by lowering oxidative stress and inflammation.

N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC)- Boosts the immune system, increases Glutathione (antioxidant), decreases viral replication, & reduces inflammation.  

Acetyl L-Carnitine- Boosts mitochondria function and energy production. 

 

Bag #2:  Alpha Lipoic Acid: Powerful antioxidant to help prevent oxidative-stress related damage to all your cells and mitochondria, especially the brain and nervous system

Bag #3:  Glutathione: Powerful antioxidant that decreases inflammation and clears free radicals caused by oxidative stress, especially important for immune and mitochondria  function.  Powerfully protects the Thyroid and other tissues from damage.  Can help relieve respiratory symptoms by decreasing inflammation and mucus in lungs. Crucial support for liver detoxification and clearing heavy metals.  

Injection: CoQ10: required for optimal functioning of the mitochondria which are damaged from COVID.  Also supports the immune system and decreases the release of inflammatory cytokines. Depleted levels of CoQ10 have been linked to increased susceptibility to infection

Text or call 914-652-7800 to schedule an appointment and start feeling like your old self again!  If you aren’t sure if this is right for you, schedule a FREE consultation with our Infusion Director, Michelle Levins, NP.

 

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How Conventional Medicine Gets Autoimmune Disease Wrong

Here’s a common scenario in our practice:  A patient comes in with a prior diagnosis of autoimmune disease. Sometimes it is a new diagnosis, and the patient is worried about how to proceed. Sometimes it is a longstanding illness they have lived with for much of their life. In most cases, they are looking for help where the conventional approach to autoimmunity has failed them.

There are many different types of autoimmune disease. All have in common the curious fact that the person’s immune system has become misdirected. The immune system is meant to provide protection against infection and foreign invaders to the body – like bacteria, viruses and other pathogens. When one has autoimmune activity, it means that the person’s own body is under attack.  

Falling under the umbrella of autoimmune disease is a variety of ailments, which vary widely in prevalence, symptomatology and severity. Some autoimmune diseases are very common, like Hashimoto’s thyroid disease. Others are rare, like Scleroderma. Some attack a single part of the body, like Hashimoto’s, while others, like lupus, can be more systemic, attacking multiple organ systems. Other examples of autoimmune disease are rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Grave’s disease, Type I diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, and alopecia.

The Typical Conventional Response to Autoimmune Disease

Patients routinely describe that their physician — be it primary care or specialist — has diagnosed a condition or worse, a disease. Sometimes the patient is already on prescribed medications as treatment, but other times they are not.

Invariably, what they have been told is that there is nothing to be done:

  • “We will wait and see.”  
  • “You will probably need to be on medication at some point.”
  • “Let’s continue to watch your blood testing yearly and wait and see when symptoms develop.”  

Few, if any of these doctors, offer advice on how to potentially keep the disease from progressing. Or, if already in the throes of symptomatic disease, offer suggestions how to lessen the symptoms with anything but anti-inflammatory medications, replacement hormones or immune-modulating drugs.

This is a very serious problem, and a failing of conventional medicine. It’s exactly why our practitioners chose to continue their training with the Institute for Functional Medicine.

A Functional vs Conventional Approach to Autoimmune Disease

Let’s take the case of early autoimmune thyroid disease:

With Hashimoto’s, for instance, the patient will often be told that they have autoantibodies – which means there are immune markers in the bloodstream directed not against invaders, like bacteria or viruses, but actively attacking the body’s own tissues of the thyroid or its receptors. This is the basis of autoimmune thyroiditis, or Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, which often leads to low functioning thyroid and the need to take thyroid hormone medication.  

The conventional doctor will let the patient know that these antibodies are there, and that most likely the thyroid will begin to malfunction, causing too little hormone to be released into the blood and causing the symptoms of hypothyroidism – low energy, weight gain, constipation, dry skin …  When that occurs, treatment with thyroid hormone replacement will begin.  

This leaves many people wondering – what can I do now?  Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening?  Am I going down a road I can’t switch out of?  

How can one reverse the damage – or halt the progression of the autoimmune disease ravaging the body?

The Functional Medicine Approach

We like to think of a Functional Medicine approach to treatment as two-fold:

  • Doing everything we can to improve the immune system’s ability to rebalance while…
  • Lessening the odds of the immune system continuing to rebel — and, quite possibly, beginning another attack on another system in the body — which could then lead to another autoimmune disease.

How do we do this? First, we work to support whatever system or systems in the body are under attack – replacing nutrients or hormones that are lacking due to the autoimmunity. We frequently use B-complex, D3 and multivitamin supplementation; and, of course, hormone replacement, as needed in hypothyroidism.

Then, we work to build resilience and decrease inflammation in the body by using good old detective work to find the root cause, or triggers, of the immune dysfunction, and treat that. We look at food, stress, gut health, toxin exposure and infections.

5 Steps to Decrease Inflammation & Rebalance Your Immune System

  • Practice improving your emotional and physical response to stress. Getting good sleep and exercising is imperative. Mindfulness meditation and other mind/body techniques are helpful for reducing stress hormones.
  • Experiment with your food – discover sensitivities, triggers, and intolerances. We usually recommend an allergy elimination diet – taking out gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and eggs, along with other common allergens depending on your specific medical condition- for a short time and reintroducing to see if symptoms are affected by food.
  • Support your microbiome and heal your leaky gut.  Eat healthy whole foods and lots of vegetables and fiber. Start taking a probiotic. Our go-to is Dr. Blum’s formula, created for our patients. Learn More
  • Decrease your exposure to toxins and improve your body’s ability to manage exposures. Watch out for common toxins in food (herbicides and pesticides), cleaning supplies, and even in personal care products.  We recommend looking at the Environmental Working Group and following their suggestions for cleaning up toxins in the home.
    If you are concerned about the toxin build-up in your body, you might want to consider our 21-Day Simply Detox. It’s the exact program we use with our patients at the Blum Center for Health. Learn More
  • Be assessed with functional testing for nutritional needs and to rule out any chronic or acute infectious disease processes.  We will often request stool testing for microbial balance, in depth blood testing for nutritional needs, and more extensive saliva and urine testing for hormone balance.

If you live near the New York City metro area, come see us! We would be happy to help. People travel from all over the world to work with us. Come join our family!

Keep your eyes peeled for our new LIVE course: Immune System Strong!  Slated to start late September (it will be here before you know it!) Immune System Strong will feature 4 LIVE classes with me that feature tangible next steps that you will be able to implement immediately, as well as community, accountability, group coaching and access to the answers you need on a daily basis.  Details will be available soon! Get On The First-To-Know List (even if you’re only a little bit interested), because we’ll be rewarding with an offer that won’t be available to anyone else.) I want the special reward!