This podcast is sponsored by Micro Balance Health Products. Use code AUTOIMMUNEDOC for 15% off your order at www.microbalancehealthproducts.com

I'm really excited about this episode! I spent a lot of my early life in ENT offices, so I've personally always been really intrigued by the science of sinus inflammation and sinusitis for understanding my own health problems, but I've also been very discouraged by the conventional treatments and (lack of) solutions offered by conventional Ear Nose and Throat doctors.

Dr. Don Dennis MD FACS is different. As an ENT surgeon who was seeing chronic sinusitis every day, he started asking the question "WHY?" which led him to investigate the problems associated with air quality and specifically MOLD TOXICITY.

If you have listened to this podcast, you know I am passionate about air quality - whether it be molds, mycotoxins, allergens, particulates, VOCs, endotoxins, or whatever is in the air - we need to breathe clean air. I have interviewed clients, pediatricians, MDs, DOs, PTs, Indoor Environmental Professionals about this topic.

We KNOW that mold makes people sick - that info has been around since the Old Testament - but Dr. Dennis lets us know a little bit more about HOW and WHY this works.

Some of things I found the most interesting in our conversation:

• Molds like dark, warm, moist places and can colonize sinuses and noses. Cleaning out the sinuses with antifungals can be a GAME-CHANGER for some people! Dr. Dennis tells some amazing stories, and even plays audio from a patient herself.
• The immune system responds to molds in the environment with Eosinophils (white blood cells), and these eosinophils come into nasal mucosa and can form "pits", where mucus accumulates. The cilia can't effectively clear the mucus, so it becomes infected and inflamed, and the "microbial burden" grows, including Staph, Pseudomonas (normal residents of the nose) and MOLD, and these bugs can sometimes form biofilms which make them antibiotic resistant. Mayo clinic showed that over 90% of chronic sinus infections had a fungal component involved, and he discusses those studies.
• Molds release toxins called MYCOTOXINS. Mycotoxins ACCUMULATE in sinus tissue. When Dr. Dennis has biopsied and tested sinus mucosa, there are abundant mycotoxins stored in the mucosal tissue.
• The sinuses are RIGHT NEAR THE BRAIN. These tiny little airborne toxins can go right up the olfactory nerve into the brain and accumulate in the brain - they are fat-soluble neurotoxins - in areas like the pituitary that regulates our thyroid, adrenals, stress response, growth hormone (healing) and more.
• Someone might show 3 toxins on a toxin test (Dr. Dennis prefers urine mycotoxin testing), but when you biopsy their tissue, like the pituitary tissue in the brain for example, there might be MORE. It's hard to measure what all has accumulated in the tissue. In his words, it's a toxic soup up there.
• Because of his experience over the last nearly 40 years as an ENT, Dr. Dennis has a LOT of expertise on air quality and we discuss certain tools like ozone, ionizers, purifiers, mold testing plates, mold dogs, and more.
• Dr. Dennis has developed tools to help people - - both professionally as a sinus surgeon, but he also formulated all of the MicroBalance Health Products and EC3 products - they make mold neutralizing candles, cleaning wipes, fogging spray, laundry additives, and more.

If you have an autoimmune disease, mold toxicity, or sinus issues, you will love this conversation! Please leave a rating, a review, or better yet - send this to someone you love or care about - or anyone with a nose and brain :)

OUR NEW, 4-MODULE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM - MAKING SENSE OF PANS/PANDAS!!

Youtube video - Scientific Study Review - OCD and Autoimmunity

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder has been around for a long time. PANS - Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome, and PANDAS - Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep - are a little bit newer and trendier terms, but, it's because we are seeing more and more kids presenting with sudden behavioral shifts, motor tics, and OCD tendencies, and very often it's after Strep infections.

Did you know that these are AUTOIMMUNE CONDITIONS??

Here is a brief explanation of how that works, using Strep infection as an example. Check out the podcast for much more detail, or better yet, check out our online educational program Making Sense of PANS/PANDAS where we go deeper and I show slides, pictures, I review studies, I explain lab testing options, supplements, support strategies, additional resources, but you ALSO learn about the mental health side of things from my good friend and counselor Alicia Howe LCPC, who specializes in treating OCD.

SO - a kid (or adult) gets Strep throat (or many other infections). The immune system produces ANTIBODIES to "flag" Strep and produces INFLAMMATION to go "kill" Strep. We want this to happen. The problem is, that the body can "mistakenly" flag (antibodies) and attack (inflammation) its self - - THAT'S WHAT AUTOIMMUNITY IS - - and in this case, antibodies and autoimmune inflammation can impact dopamine signaling in areas like the basal ganglia - - that's why another name for this is autoimmune encephalitis or basal ganglia encephalitis. This can drive different responses like FEARS, ANXIETY, EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS, EATING DISORDERS, EMOTIONAL LABILITY, MOTOR TICS, OBSESSIONS, COMPULSIONS, and more.

As with ANY health condition or symptom, the key isn't some "miracle drug" to treat this condition, the key is to UNDERSTAND WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING - - because understanding the mechanisms helps you understand the solutions, and helps you get actual results. The hope of this podcast, and our online educational program especially, is that we can help parents or others suffering to understand a bit more about what's going on and what they can do about it - - so share this with somebody who you think it could help!

According to Dr. Google, "Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in the composition and function of the microbial community within a body, particularly the gut microbiome. This imbalance can lead to various health issues, including digestive problems, inflammatory conditions, and even neurological and mental health concerns."

In the medical or scientific world, you would have to live in a cave to not know the word "dysbiosis" - - it's ALL OVER the scientific literature, it's a popular buzzword on the internet, and along with "leaky gut" it's REALLY, REALLY important for autoimmunity - - but what exactly does that MEAN?!?! It just means imbalance of living things in the body, but it is a MAJOR DRIVER of inflammation, permeability, immune imbalances, histamine, autoimmune progression, and SYMPTOMS.

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the ear canal and that drives inner ear inflammation?

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the mouth and it drives gingivitis and cavities?

Did you know you can have dysbiosis of the sinus, lung, vaginal tract, or skin?

Dysbiosis is bad, it drives inflammation, and the solutions are generally to "pull weeds and plant seeds" - - but still - - HOW DO YOU KNOW, HOW CAN YOU MEASURE IT, and WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?!?!

That's what this podcast breaks down - - (some of) the tools I use in an effort to suspect dysbiosis (symptoms), detect dysbiosis (labs), or address dysbiosis (action steps) - - some of my favorite probiotics, antimicrobials, and more.

Bloating is one of the most common symptoms that I see, if not THE SINGLE MOST COMMON COMPLAINT I HEAR IN PRACTICE (but anxiety is up right there....).

Honestly, I see great results with bloating and feel confident that I can help improve this complaint, but over the years I have realized that there are different "types" of bloating - - there can be gas production, food reactivities, intestinal inflammation, uterine/ovarian inflammation, maldigestion, water retention, or all-of-the-above could be happening at the same time - and all these can lead to the feeling of abdominal distention and make someone say "I just feel BLOATED!"

I used to think that almost all bloating was fermentation of foods from imbalanced gut bacteria (dysbiosis - my next podcast episode!!!), but as I've helped hundreds of cases of bloating throughout the years, I now realize that not all "bloating" is the same thing - there is fermentation and gas production yes, which can come from Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), and this is STILL the single-most common driver, but what if it's NOT SIBO? What if it's SIFO (fungal overgrowth)? What if it's LOW bacteria in the gut? What if they have H. pylori or a parasite? What if it's not from gut dysbiosis? What are the MECHANISMS THAT MAY BE INVOLVED? How can we test for these things, and WHAT CAN WE DO?!?!

In this podcast I discuss how I approach these cases, what the mechanisms might be, and how I differentiate bloating from foods vs. bloating from inflammation vs. bloating from histamine vs. bloating from water retention vs. bloating from hormone cycles - and how I might address each of these differently so that someone comes back in and says "MY BLOATING IS GONE!", which is a great thing to hear :)

In this episode, I interview my friend and colleague Dr. Roberta Van Zant DO, a functional medicine expert in many areas, but especially Lyme disease and tick-borne infections.

Due to several reasons, including my background training as a chiropractor, scope of licensure (can't prescribe....), my practice style (cash-based consultations services - no insurance), and some other reasons that I discuss in the podcast, I personally don't dive as deep into infections as many other practitioners do - Lyme, Bartonella, EBV, CMV, HHV, HSV, Strep, Pseudomonas, Mycoplasma, etc - but that doesn't mean I don't think they matter in autoimmunity, they matter A LOT.

Everyone knows that infections drive inflammation. Everyone knows when they have the flu they don't want to get out of bed. Everyone knows when they have strep throat they can't hardly swallow. Everyone remembers 2020. My kids even know this stuff. Fevers, coughs, lethargy, earaches, belly aches, headaches - that's an immune response, and it's a GOOD THING most of the time. BUT, then it can get confusing when you go deeper than surface-level!

There are a lot of different "types" of infection - acute, chronic, something you picked up from your kids vs. something that's been living inside of your body that has become imbalanced (yeast, SIBO, etc) vs. something that "reactivates" like a virus....then there are RNA viruses and DNA viruses, there are tick-borne infections that can lay dormant or be passed in utero to babies, there are biofilm colonies of bugs (which Dr. Van Zant describes as a "party" that we don't know who all is at at the party, but we know it's going on inside of us.....I love that!), and there are GOOD BUGS TOO - and it can be confusing.

SO, in this episode, Dr. Van Zant and I discuss all of these things and more, including testing, treatment, some clinical tools we use, some reasons for why we do what we do when we do it, while both having the same goal - trying to help people get better.

In a recent podcast interview, a pediatrician friend of mine asked "Wait, who is this mold testing guy you keep talking about?" When I told him about Ben Kunze of Golden Environmental LLC, he was jealous, and rightfully so - there aren't many mold-testers out there who are as good as Ben, as honest as Ben, and who care about the people they serve as much as Ben. We REALLY, REALLY value having him here in Central Illinois, he has also become my friend and occasionally he kicks my butt on the mountain bike trails :)

If you are local, you should call Ben. MOST of my podcast audience is not from Central Illinois, but I still think this episode will be helpful and educational to hear what a GOOD INSPECTOR LOOKS FOR. I just had someone in my practice who had Ben out to her house, he found some really, really important puzzle pieces that needed to be addressed - but her house had been previously inspected and remediated more than once, but she was still experiencing weird health symptoms. She was MAD at the previous inspectors, but she was so grateful for Ben!! Unfortunately, we hear that quite often.

Ben Kunze has a great purpose-driven story. He was intrigued by mold and indoor air testing after a family member was experiencing health concerns that led them to discover mold, and he took on an apprenticeship under Martine Davis, a well-known mold/environmental inspector out of Wisconsin, then began his own testing business, which grew into a full-time job. Since then, Ben has tested over 1000 homes.

When you've inspected 1000 homes, you start to notice trends, patterns, common themes, mistakes, etc - and that is what this episode is all about - what Ben has seen and what YOU should be looking out for in your home. Ben's job is literally to snoop around your whole house - the roof, gutters, windows, plumbing, basement, attic, bathroom, etc. I am embarrassed to admit that Ben has been into places in my house that I have never even been! He spends several hours at each job visually inspecting, taking pictures, measuring humidity levels, and taking lab samples when indicated, and then he provides the results of course, but also gives an EXTENSIVE and DETAILED written report covering everything from lab values that were found to remediation considerations and priorities.

I tell people that Ben has two questions he asks when he's looking at a home/building:

1. If I were water, where would I go?

2. If I were mold, where could I grow?

His knowledge and experience are amazing, his service is amazing, and I've personally seen him impact hundreds of people's lives and their health journeys, and that's the point of this episode - it's a great conversation that covers a lot of important topics, and my hope is that it can be really helpful for someone who is trying to navigate the sometimes-overwhelming world of mold, mold testing, mold remediation, air quality in general, and environmentally-acquired illnesses.

As always leave a rating, a (good) review, or send this to someone you care about!

Michael Rubino is a name I've heard a lot the past few years in the mold and indoor environmental air quality world, which if you've listened to this podcast you know this is something I am also very passionate about. He wrote a book a few years ago called The Mold Medic, an Expert's Guide on Mold Removal that we have on our shelves (someone actually has it checked out right now!), he hosts a podcast called Never Been Sicker, and he's heavily involved with a few great organizations, including:

The Dust Test - one of the best available DIY lab tests for people who are suspicious of mold or want to test their home.....I actually reviewed Dust Test results with an out-of-state client this morning!

Home Cleanse - a nationwide mold and indoor air quality remediation service that can help make this seem less overwhelming, guide the process, connect you with local contractors, but also help make sure that things get done right....which is the most important part!

Change the Air Foundation - Michael is the chair of this foundation, along with a few key partners that we chat about in the podcast, and their mission is to make larger-scale impact on this problem of "air quality" and mold specifically by focusing on research, education and pushing for change from the top down (government) and from the bottom up (resources for YOU to clean YOUR ENVIRONMENT). They have a ton of free educational resources and downloads, and they even have helped push new legislation through improving "mold remediation" standards in my home state of Illinois!

In this podcast we talk in more detail about some of these companies and the things moving and shaking in the mold world, from policy changes to action steps you can take TODAY at home, so listen to the episode and click the links to learn more.

The companies that Michael is involved with tell you a lot about his heart for helping people and his personal mission and purpose - to educate people about the problem(s) we are facing that are associated with our air quality and the various components like mold, mycotoxins, and other indoor environmental allergens, irritants, toxins....and offer people solutions. This aligns so well with my purpose and mission - to educate about the underlying causes, mechanisms, and potential solutions for autoimmunity, in an effort to help relieve suffering - and air quality is one of the most important and most overlooked topics. I hope you enjoy this conversation, I know I did!

As always, please leave a rating, give a (good) review, or send this to someone you care about!

STRESS - we all got it. Haha - - What can you do? Try to understand it more!

I see all kinds of "stress-related" cases - autoimmune disease flares, stress-related gut flares, "adrenal fatigue" symptoms, being "easily triggered by trivial stimuli" like noises, lights, motion, even toxins, viruses, food triggers - - it's all "stress" in some regard. In this episode I talk about stress, and more specifically, I go into deeper detail about the mechanisms of stress chemistry - - not just cortisol, the most famous stress hormone, but also other components of stress - the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the HPA axis and adrenals, other stress hormones like neurotensin, neurotransmitters like epinephrine aka adrenaline, dopamine beta hydroxylase and other genetics, and the available functional testing and natural solutions, the pros and cons, my clinical thought processes, and really just rant on about stress for 45 minutes. I hope this helps someone manage their "stress chemistry" better!