Updated on November 7, 2014

Reader Comment

Had another comment sent in that I ended up talking on a bit to the degree that I thought it might be better placed as a blog post.

Loni’s Comment

THANKS so much for sharing all your research and experience.

You prefer the BEG spray for treatment or the ozone stuff? And about how much is the cost for treatment w/ the BEG, since its compounded, right? I thought the components of it were still antibiotics though, which has me concerned if I’m quite certain I have the mold/mycotoxins too. I’m not sure which, if MARCoNS tests positive, I should address or try first, the amphotericin B or the BEG or one of the others????

Recently discovered black mold on some underside (roof) of plywood in attic, on 3 , 4 or more sheets, though don’t see moisture. I was very sick from mold in previous home, and couldn’t figure out why I’ve been so much worse again in this house,(where I’ve been last 10 yrs) for last 6 months to a year. I think the mold exposure could explain it.

Also been diagnosed with LYME, viruses, Mycoplasma, jaw infection etc. So it’s hard to know which is causing major worsening of symptoms, or just combination of all. After watching this though, makes me think I should consider testing for the MARCoNS too, though I really have enough to deal with! 🙂

What to Focus On

The last paragraph of your comment gets to the heart of the matter. The real question in dealing with chronic illness is what to focus on. LYME, viruses, Mycoplasma, jaw infection, and so on is quite a list already. Add in Biotoxin Illness and it becomes even more overwhelming.

So here’s the deal. If you have Biotoxin Illness, this should be your main focus. Period. To understand why I feel so strongly about this requires you to get two main points.

First Main Point

The first main point is that I don’t know anyone who’s been clinically diagnosed with Biotoxin Illness (not just taking the Biotoxin Illness Test but getting confirming lab work) that recovered the bulk of their health without addressing the mold factor – regardless of what other issues they had.

Show me one person that was properly diagnosed with Biotoxin Illness that had a full recovery by just treating Lyme, co-infections, dental issues, and whatever else. I bet you can’t. (If you do find one, I’m guessing they somehow ended up in a pristine environment and didn’t have a really bad mold genotype.)

Sure you can take all sorts of herbs and medicines to suppress the immune system, drive down inflammation (antibiotics), improve thyroid function, and such (some of which have very serious and lasting side-effects). Regardless of whether you’ve got Biotoxin Illness or not, some of this will no doubt help. In fact, for those that don’t have an inability to clear Biotoxins, they may very well fully recover their health and go on their merry way.

However, if you really do have Biotoxin Illness and you simply dabble a bit here and there in treating it, well, good luck. It’s going to be a long, hard road. Personally, I suspect this happens a lot. People get diagnosed with mold, Lyme, heavy metals, parasites, and so on and lump them all together. They try a little chlorella to mop up toxins, they think their houses are OK without testing, they get their mercury fillings removed, and so on. They may even get better to varying degrees but never fully recover.

Since they “tried” to address the mold factor, they incorrectly conclude it’s not that big of a deal. Since they weren’t ever properly diagnosed with CIRS (Biotoxin Illness) let alone treating it well, they don’t test the main inflammatory markers either. As a result, they remain loaded up with toxins that are causing massive inflammation and don’t know that this is where their focus should be. So again, the take-away on the first main point is that if you’ve got Biotoxin Illness and don’t treat it very seriously, you’re always going to be “circling the drain” to one degree or another.

Second Main Point

This brings me to the second main point. The second main point is that if you do have Biotoxin Illness and make it a top priority, there are plenty of cases of people that had a whole array of diagnoses that simply fell away after treating the mold factor – in fact just about everyone with Biotoxin Illness has a list just like yours. That’s not to say that there aren’t people that have been diagnosed and had trouble following the protocol for various reasons, but if they got better it’s because they found alternative approaches while remaining focused on dealing with Biotoxins. Note: Be advised Biotoxin Illness is not simply someone that has mycotoxins in their urine, has a fungal infection, has gotten exposed to mold, etc. (see What is Biotoxin Illness). I’m talking about properly diagnosed Biotoxin Illness (see Are You Moldy).

So with my logical, mathematician’s brain (taught High School math in my youth), I look at these two main points and I conclude it makes much more sense to pursue Biotoxin Illness – assuming you really do have it. I don’t like risk. Biotoxin Illness is all the risk I need in my life. Given the low risk in the initial steps in treating Biotoxin Illness compared to loading up on an immune suppressant like “Methotrexate” or “Adalimumab”, well I’ll try the easy way first.

Sure you may have Lyme, viruses, Mycoplasma, and a jaw infection that is further bringing down your health. You may even need to address some of these issues at the same time as Biotoxin Illness to get you to a place where you can handle taking the binders, or treating MARCoNS, and so on. I’m totally cool with that. Although, as noted, I’m not going to want to take on therapies that can totally mess up my body before I see how much relief I can get clearing Biotoxins. Given that there is a proven protocol to treat Biotoxin Illness that has very little risk (at least the first few steps – more in another blog), it just makes good sense to see what you can wring out of the Biotoxin Pathway before diving into more risky and murky alternative medicine waters.

The bottom line is that it just drives me bonkers when I see well-intentioned experts of all sorts that haven’t taken the time to really study Biotoxin Illness just flippantly throw volumes of in-the-trenches data from Dr. Shoemaker that says Biotoxin Illness is very real and you can get super, major symptom relief by taking it seriously. Instead, they focus in on their areas of specialty ignoring the critical mold factor. Ten years ago when the implications of mold weren’t as well known, its understandable that not all chronic illness experts would be up to speed on mold. Today, its totally unacceptable.

OK, I’m stopping my rant now. I know I’ve made this point before, but I guess there is some part of me that needs to try to bring a bit more clarity to it because here I am writing about it again. (My apologizes to those that got it the first time and sorry Loni for using your comment as a platform to make these points. :blush1: )

Attic Mold – MARCoNS – First Steps

Getting back to Loni’s questions, the first task at hand is to really determine if you’ve got Biotoxin Illness – see Are You Moldy. If you do, then the first step to treating Biotoxin Illness is to live and work in places that are relatively mold free. This is easier said than done in many cases and it would require several blogs to cover this in detail. However, you can get a HERTSMI-2 or ERMI done by MycoMetrics and this is a good place to start. If you need help interpreting the results, go to HERTSMI-2 on Dr. Shoemaker’s website.

By the way, it sounds like Aspergillus/Pennicillium in the attic. You may have been able to hang in there (10 years) as long as you did simply due to the fact that natural convection currents in an attic are up and out – from the eaves to the peak. Look to see how your bath fans and any other fans are vented. Hopefully, they’re not just dumping into the attic or at the eaves as is common in older houses and with remodel jobs. In any case, having whole 4’x8’ sheets covered in mold is super major – assuming you’ve got Biotoxin Illness. Even if you don’t have CIRS (Biotoxin Illness), it’s no trifling matter. I want to do lengthy blogs on how to do mold remediation properly but be advised, with this level of mold I think it’s going to be tough to remediate to a level that will work for CIRS folks. Sorry :wassat:

Later on, after making sure you’re not being loaded up with toxins from your environment and have started taking Cholestyramine (CSM) to mop up toxins in your body, you can test for MARCoNS (nasty nasal bacteria). I would recommend BEG spray for MARCoNS but you’re right, it does have two antibiotics in it and for some this is a real problem – although I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact that antibiotics are derived from mold. In my estimation, having a major infection that close to your brain is a much bigger issue.

I’ve provided alternative ways to treat MARCoNS for those that just can’t handle BEG spray. From what I’ve read, these alternative approaches fit my criteria of having relatively little risk with very real upside potential. Of course, you’ll want to test before and after to confirm whatever method you used actually worked. If you do find another way like Dave Asprey, please post it here so others can benefit (although I like ozone from all my reading, I’ve never tested it for treating MARCoNS).

BEG spray is compounded and I want to say I thought it was around $200 but I could be remembering that price wrong. Once MARCoNS are gone, you can decide for yourself if you want to treat any possible nasal fungal infection using amphotericin B. In other words, BEG spray is for bacterial infections and amphotericin B is for fungal infections.

By the way, I need to mention that if you do have Lyme, then Dr. Shoemaker’s protocol says that you should be treated with antibiotics for a few weeks before starting binders like CSM – not months or years. I know there is a lot of controversy here, but if you’ve got CIRS, you’ll remain sick even if you knock out Lyme simply from the Lyme Biotoxins that remain floating around in your bloodstream. Why run the risk of seriously messing up your body with lengthy antibiotic treatment if there is a strong chance that the real issue after a short course of antibiotics is an inability to clear the leftover toxins? Again, this to be covered in another blog, but be aware that if you go on CSM and get a bad reaction after having attempted antibiotics to treat Lyme, then you need to question if you got the little Lymie buggers.

Well, this has turned into a rather lengthy reply. I apologize if I’ve come across too strongly. It’s just that in all my reading and personal experience, it’s super important to determine if you’ve got Bitoxin Illness and then take it very seriously if you do.

All the best.