Tag: hormones

Healing Mold Illness: What’s Working For Me

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For a bit of background, we moved into this house just over three years ago. There was visible black mold in several rooms even then, but I didn’t think too much about it. Just a bit of mold! Clean it, and it will be fine!

Within a few months of living here, I began to experience unexplained weight gain. I thought it was my diet, and started every more restrictive diets and fasting protocols – all to no avail. In fact, probably made it worse.

Hormone imbalance, under-active thyroid, sluggish liver and stressed adrenals all began to show up.

It took me 2.5yrs to figure out what was going on, and only then because myself and younger children (the only members of the family who were home at the time) all fell sick with dry coughs and fevers, after I had cleaned mold off the walls. That’s when I started to investigate mold illness, and join the dots!

We weren’t in a position to move house immediately, given our rural area and lack of available rentals, so I committed to making the best of a bad situation.

In the world of mold illness, there’s this running theme about long-term strict avoidance of mold. Many people move out of their moldy home, and basically toss out all their belongings, and start over again.

But that wasn’t possible for me, in our current location and situation

And the thought of spending the rest of my life, or even the next five years, constantly worrying about whether there’s mold in the bathroom or air-conditioning unit, of every building I step inside, is not something I’m down with.

Too stressful and too unattainable. In my situation, rather than seeking to control outside forces (mold & fungi), I have instead chosen to focus on my inner terrain, and resilience to withstand the outside forces (not just mold and fungi, but all the toxins we’re bombarded with on a daily basis.

This approach has covered a) Increasing nutrition and b) decreasing stress.

A) I’ve been taking 20-40mls of fulvic acid per day, which acts as a binder against some mycotoxins (toxins produced by mold). There’s not a lot of research on this, and what has been done has focused on mycotoxins in livestock feed, nevertheless, it does show binding activity of humic & fulvic acids, and I definitely notice that mold flares subside quickly if I dose on fulvic.

Fulvic also contains 70+ minerals & trace elements to support immune functioning and detoxification pathways. It binds to heavy metals at a rate of 5 – 100x higher than clays (bentonite, etc). This is the brand I use, and it’s very high quality (They are in Australia, but do also ship internationally. Use code ‘radical’ for 33% off the 3mth and 6mth supply products, which makes it very cost-effective)

Also, taking beef liver and oyster capsules, for zinc, Vitamin A and copper (plus many more), all of which help to build the ‘inner armor’ against toxins coming in (including mycotoxins)..

B) Stress lowers our defence system. We all know it. I was trying to do too much, selling products, selling on eBay, trying to grow a following on five different platforms. I had to whittle back a lot of those things. If I stay up too late, I’m vulnerable. It’s not coincidence that my symptoms are more noticeable when I haven’t had enough sleep.

In addition, I do try to minimise spore numbers in the house, via keeping windows open as much as comfortably possible, and keeping on top of house-dust, vacuuming regularly with HEPA vacuum.

Polyester Pants & The Disappearing Alpha Male

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Way back in 1992, they tested polyester as a male contraceptive, and guess what?

It was 100% effective.

Fourteen men wore a polyester ‘sling’ around their prized jewels (similar to men wearing polyester underwear) and after an average of 139 days, all 14 men were found to be azoospermic. (In plain English, that means zero sperm. Zilch, Nada. No chance of making babies).

There was also degeneration noted in the tubules. It took approximately 150 days for them to regain fertility, after ceasing to wear the sling.

Polyester (polyethylene terephthalate) belongs to a class of chemicals (phthalates) that are known endocrine-disrupting, in particular, they disrupt testosterone production.

Similar studies were conducted on dogs, with similar results, and showed that polyester decreased testosterone levels.

Another study divided men onto groups wearing different textile underwear. Over the course of 12mths, men wearing polyester underwear had less and less intercourse (they became increasingly impotent/less interested in sex, although the effect was reversible after ceasing to wear polyester underwear).

A similar study on mice found that polyester underwear (however did they wrestle mice into miniature underwear? 😅) decreased their potency by a whopping 87%.

Mens testosterone levels have tanked by more than half, in the past few decades, and one need only look around to see that has vast (and perplexing) implications for society.

If you want to #bringbackalphamales ditch the synthetic clothing and bedding, ditch the synthetic perfumes and fragrances (found in nearly all big-brand personal care products, deodorants, detergents, etc) is a great place to start.

Given the ubiquitous nature of polyester and other phthalates in the environment, we cannot eliminate exposure, but we can reduce it. Making sure our diet has adequate zinc is one way to protect the reproductive system from endocrine disruptors.

Zinc Protects the Reproductive System from ‘Gender-Bender’ Chemicals

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Zinc is such a super-hero.

It has protective effects from many of the toxins we’re being bombarded with, on a daily basis. That includes the ‘gender-bender’ chemicals that disrupt and create havoc on our hormones.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is structurally similar to diethylstilbestrol (DES), the drug given to millions of pregnant women from 1940’s – 1980 that greatly increased the risk of sexual disorders and cancers in their offspring (and their offspring’s offspring). Although BPA is less estrogenic than DES, it is probably more pervasive in our environment, due to widespread use.

Bisphenol-A, found in many plastics (including baby bottles and children’s drink bottles/lunchboxes) and epoxy resins is one such chemical. BPA has been shown to be toxic to the reproductive system, especially in males. Studies on rats shows that zinc deficiency increases toxicity of BPA on the male testis. Zinc has also shown to be protective against neuro-behavioral disorders caused by BPA toxicity.

Another endocrine-disrupting class of chemicals are those known as phthalates, also ubiquitous in the environment, in vinyl furniture, fragranced products (air fresheners, personal care products, shampoos, nail polish, detergents, soaps, etc). One of the ways we are being bombarded by phthalates is via our clothing – polyester (otherwise known as polyethyl terephthalate) in particular.

A study on rats, published last year (2020), showed that zinc supplementation protected from the endocrine toxicity caused by phthalates.

Although zinc is a super-hero, it must be kept in balance with another super-hero mineral, namely copper. Check out this case study on what can happen if you supplement with isolated zinc. Fortunately, she was able to recover most of her symptoms, but this person, who was poisoned by their zinc-based tooth adhesive material was not so fortunate.

It is far better to get zinc from food sources, such as oysters and red meat. Oysters are, by far, the world highest known source of zinc, but they also contain copper. Beef liver is another good source of both zinc and copper. If you are not a fan of the taste of either, you can take it in capsule form, which can be found on the NourishMe Organics website (use code ‘nourishme’ at checkout, to get 10% off)

The #1 Reason Why Menopause Is A Nightmare for 85% of Western Women

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In all the time I spent living in the Pacific Islands, in contact with perimenopausal women, I never once noticed anyone suffering symptoms, or heard women discussing it.

My own mother and her sisters were going through the change of life, and on my visits home, I’d often hear them talking about the hot flushes, or joking how they want to lock themselves into a refrigerator.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me, and I began asking around the Islander women. They didn’t know of anyone who had suffered symptoms leading up to menopause (officially complete after one year without a period).

And that makes sense, if you understand the process of menopause. During perimenopause, our ovaries gradually cease production of sex hormones, and our adrenal glands take up responsibility. This process begins to happen, gradually, from around 35 – 40yrs old.

As you can imagine, a stressed and depleted pair of adrenals, such as most Western women have, due to chronic stress and over-busy lifestyle, is going to struggle to keep up. Hence why the wheels begin to fall off for so many women, in their late 30’s – early 40’s, as their ovaries begin to wind back production of estrogen and progesterone, and a shortfall becomes evident, because their adrenals are already depleted from years of stress. If not corrected, menopause becomes a nightmare.

85% of Western women report experiencing menopausal symptoms, hot flushes, night sweats, aches and pains, forgetfulness and mood swings.

Of course we cannot discount the added stress of going through menopause in a society that glorifies youthfulness. Many older women say they feel ‘invisible’ and unnoticed. Contrast to more traditional societies where growing older is not resisted, but embraced. Older women become more noticed, more heard, more respected.

Ladies, if we want to go into our ‘golden’ years, vibrant and well, we MUST get a handle on stress. The best diet in the world can not compensate for the damage and destruction caused by chronic stress. We simply were not designed to live lives of constant frenetic pace, over-commitment and juggling a thousand things at once.

We are beings, not doings.

Consider this permission to start carving out time to rest 🙂