027 - Mold, Mycotoxins and Autoimmunity

The Autoimmune Doc Podcast w/ Dr. Taylor Krick

Youtube Video: Mold Toxicity and Mycotoxin Illness
Youtube Video: Research Review - Neural Antibodies in Patients with Symptoms and Histories of Mold/Chemical Exposures
Youtube Video: Research Review - Mycotoxins Induce Neurotoxicity
I say this all the time, but mold toxicity is crazy. Indoor molds such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys produce mycotoxins, which are also crazy. Mold and mycotoxins can both disrupt the immune system in a myriad of different ways, which is why they are associated with autoimmunity in many ways.
In this podcast, I didn't want to just read stats or research, I wanted to talk about the mechanisms by which molds and mycotoxins can affect the immune system, which are varied and complex. The research is out there on mold, but it can be hard to find because mold toxicity goes by several names - Sick Building Syndrome, Dampness and Mold Hypersensitivity Syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Mixed Mold Mycotoxicosis, Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis to name a few - and there are many different molds, and many mycotoxins. When you work with patients and you are aware of these mechanisms, mold is an incredibly common problem. It never ceases to amaze me how many people I see whose symptoms or disease timeline correlate with a prolonged exposure to water damage, a damp or moldy environment, or a history of repeated mold exposures!
Mold is ubiquitous, so your body tries really hard immunologically to tolerate it, and sometimes it tolerates it for a looong time - until one day it stops tolerating it. Mycotoxins from mold can remain indefinitely in tissues, and many have an affinity for the brain, where they disrupt mitochondrial ATP production. Some molds and mycotoxins suppress the immune system, some activate the immune system, some suppress innate immune function and increase adaptive, some do the opposite. Some people have several mycotoxins present at once, doing several different things, along with other pathogens and toxins accumulating faster due to the effects of mold.
You can see how mold exposure and toxicity can quickly become quite complex immunologically!
Molds and mycotoxins can cause leaky gut, leaky sinus, leaky lung, leaky brain, they can deplete glutathione, impact the microbiome, increase pathogen burdens like EBV and CMV, disrupt Th1/Th2 balance, and turn on vicious cycles of inflammation (NFkB, iNOS, NO-ONOO, Th17) - - all of which are underlying mechanisms of autoimmunity.
When you hear all these various mechanisms, you begin to understand why molds and mycotoxins can contribute to autoimmunity, cancer, chronic infection, and even death, not to mention the most common symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, ENT symptoms, pituitary/thryoid/adrenal/reproductive imbalances, headaches, insomnia. There are a lot of mechanisms, and there are a lot of other variables, including genetics, history, exposure, and everything else in your bucket, but MOLD AND MYCOTOXINS are one of the scariest things on the planet!