This is a subject on which I will no doubt write often, as I continue to populate
Mind the Mold
with valuable insights and resources for fellow mold sufferers.
Most doctors are as useless when it comes to mycotoxicity / mold illness as they generally are in genuinely or effectively addressing other chronic conditions. (Excuse my frankness. But sorry, not sorry.)
Like many of you, I've spent many tens of thousands of dollars, and so far, 12 years of my life, seeking out a practitioner who could correctly diagnose what has turned out to be, at root and all along, mycotoxicity.
It having finally become overt and obvious to myself,
by
myself, I now find the environmental illness specialist that I've been consulting as my primary doctor for the past seven (long, tortuous and symptom-riddled) years, has no clue, and no will to learn, about mold illness aka mycotoxicity.
His understanding, like that of the vast majority of his peers in the functional medicine field, let alone the even more hopeless conventional arena, doesn't stretch past acknowledging those directly obvious symptoms that fit the description of “mold allergy” i.e. spores, ignoring their poisonous output of mycotoxins and the deeper, cellular, multi-organ / multi-system damage these stand to do. (But as you and I, at least, are very well aware, while mold allergy is only a
part of the whole big picture of mycotoxin illness, it's only a
slice of the pie. It's
far from the whole pie.)
That lack of knowledge and lack of interest is despite toxic indoor mold being among the most common, and the most prevalent, of all (severe) illness-causing environmental toxins.
So now, after being left to my own devices to flounder around for three-quarters of a decade
(but hey, who's counting?) to figure out what obviously had to be some singular, deeper-level
root cause underlying my numerous symptoms, I discover that, all the while, my constellation of conditions read like a textbook list of chronic mycotoxicity.
A bit of genuine interest, a bit of inquisitive thought, a bit more care factor, and a few well-placed and intelligent questions from this (expensive) "environmental illness specialist" might have seen the mystery uncovered years ago. Even having now brought it to his attention, he's largely uninterested.
How to Diagnose Your Doctor
How to know if a new doctor you're thinking of reaching out to, really knows his or her stuff when it comes to mold toxicity?
Firstly, they'll use relevant terms like mycotoxicosis, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), biotoxin illness, or toxic mold syndrome.
Secondly (and this, I've learned, is critical), you must
ask them outright: Have you treated patients suffering from mold toxicity? How did you know they had mold toxicity? What tests did you order? How did you treat them? What was your success rate, and how did you know you were successful? Have you ever experienced mold illness yourself?
Interestingly, most of the genuinely mold-literate doctors whose presentations, interviews and books I've found and have been researching, have themselves a history of having been made ill by mold. That's a very hopeful sign that you are dealing with someone that possesses knowledge and experience actually worth paying for. But also ask them about their symptoms and how they got themselves out of the hole with it.
Don't be scared to turn the tables and interview a potential health care provider. You're likely paying outlandish and, at this stage in your "journey" (don't you hate that word?), ill-afforded levels of moolah. I'm sure I don't need to remind you how much money you've already downed on practitioners who claim to know a whole lot more than they really do. You can't afford more wasted time and more wasted money, or any more months or years of unnecessary suffering.
