Podcast Transcript
Open-Minded Healing Podcast
Mon, Oct 24, 2022 10:41AM • 43:15
Summary from the host:
*The personal experiences that led him into the Mold business
*A huge mold problem discovered at a major hotel in Hawaii, that led to gutting the whole building
*The interesting phone call with his dad, that brought attention to his childhood illnesses and their cause
*The day that all of Jason’s symptoms went away
*Health problems that can be related to the treatments vs. actual exposure
*How the buildings we live in and work in affect our health
*Why some people are able to detect mold in a space more quickly than others, or have a greater sensitivity to it
*Antibiotics and mycotoxins
*The effectiveness of using Mold Dogs
*Two different types of mold tests, and how combining the two is most effective for determining a mold issue
*The flaws of the ERMI test, and why you should avoid using it
*The test kits can give you the confidence that hiring a professional is a good decision
*The importance of caring for the buildings we live and work in, and how water related issues need to be addressed within days before becoming a mold risk
*Examples of mold related symptoms and illnesses
*Different research done around mold spores and the interesting results
*Ways you can address mold issues, including DNRS
*Healthy air is a nutrient, unhealthy air is a toxin
*Where you can connect with Jason Earle
*How Jason ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mold, people, test, mycotoxins, problem, home, kit, building, smell, dogs, find, symptoms, called, testing, air, antibiotics, epa, house, immune system, healing
00:04
Welcome to open minded healing where the topic is alternative health. We will be having conversations with the practitioners that offer a variety of alternative healing modalities as well as everyday people who have recovered their health outside of the MDS office. Join us with an open mind for conversations that may provide solutions to healing your own body on a mental, physical and spiritual level. I’m Marla Miller. Let’s begin.
00:36
Welcome, everyone. Today my guest is Jason Earle. Jason is an indoor air quality Crusader and the founder and CEO of the mold inspection company called one 800 Got mold, and the creator of the got Mold Test Kit. The realization that is moldy childhood home was the underlying cause of his extreme allergies and asthma led him into the healthy home business in 2002, leaving behind a successful career on Wall Street.
Over the last two decades, Jason has personally performed countless sick building investigations, solving many medical mysteries along the way, helping 1000s of families recover their health and peace of mind. He has been featured or appeared on Good Morning America, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, the Dr. Oz Show, entrepreneur, wired and more. So welcome, Jason.
01:31
Hi, Marla. Good to be here. Thanks for having me.
01:35
So today, we’re going to really get into the topic of mold. So let’s start with your story. How did you even get into the mold business? It doesn’t seem like something, you know, you’re little and you decide, you know, you want to be a fireman or a doctor or something like that. i I haven’t heard anyone say they want to be a mold expert. So I’m curious, what drew you to this business?
02:02
It’s a question that I get quite a bit. As you might imagine, because as you pointed out, there’s no academic track, I don’t think it’s something that people aspire to become expert in. But like most of the people that I know, that are in this space, doing good work, they come from a place of personal experience. And you know, you see this with people who who suffer from or overcome any sort of ill. And you know, you see this with people with addictions, who then go to work and service of other people that are still second suffering. And you see this with environmental illness.
So I’m one of those. I got into this space after already being a stockbroker for nine years. And, and actually, I was on a mission to to figure out what I really wanted to do when I grew up anyway, I had become disheartened with my place in society. It was money for money, and it didn’t align with my higher self in any way. You know, the people and people who really benefited from my success are the people who own the stores where I shopped, you know, and so, and my mom raised me to be service oriented.
She was a nurse, and she worked or worked her tail off, but she was she was very much the person who was there in a crisis. And her goal was to improve the quality of other people’s lives to her own detriment. Unfortunately, she was she was selfless to, to a fault. However, that aspect was was really impressed upon me as a child, where I worked at the hospital as a volunteer, where she worked and also stuff we do, you know, on the weekends for for our church groups and things like that. So anyway, I was I was very disheartened by by the emptiness of Wall Street. And so I went backpacking right after September 11.
I sold everything that I own it, but 20 pounds of stuff in a backpack, took a train from New York to LA but through Canada, and then flew to Hawaii. And while I was there, I was reading a lot of local newspapers. There were a lot of articles about a huge mold problem that had been discovered in the big hotel on on Waikiki Beach, the Kalia tower, and it had been shut down for mold furrow for a number of months at that point, they basically realized that they were going to have to get the whole thing. And it was like a $55 million mold problem on a $90 million new construction project. So it was really the story that caught my attention.
Even though I was reading it from a business perspective. I was caught by one particular story of a gentleman who was in his 40s. And he had developed adult onset asthma, something I had never even heard of before, as well as allergies and sensitivities to all these foods that he had normally consumed without any ill effect. And it was like a deja vu moment for me. I was suddenly reminded of my childhood issues and respiratory illness and all the concern and heartache that that caused. So I called my father from a payphone which probably isn’t there anymore, and said hey, do you think we had a mold problem at all Trenton road and he just laughed at me he uses Jason We had mushrooms in the basement of course we had mold wider as well.
And you know no matter how many times I tell the story, I can’t help but you know recall the the sort of just blase yeah way it was as if Oh of course basements have mold that was the pervasive sort of pervasive around mold in general. It’s molds been here for millions of years, you know, all that kind of stuff very dismissive. But for me intuitively, it felt like there’s something really big here. And I said, Do you think it had something to do with my illness as a kid?
And he goes, Well, I couldn’t help. Keep in mind that they smoked in the car. Well, I was severely, yeah, I’ll tell you, it was smoke in the car with the windows closed. And that’s just the way it was in the 70s. And 80s. You know, like, that’s just the way it was.
05:32
So what were you dealing with when you were a child? What were they,
05:36
at four at four, around four years old, I suddenly lost 30% of my body weight in three weeks, and was having difficulty breathing. And so they took me to the pediatrician who said you should take him to the hospital.
And they brought me to Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia, which is very well known for respiratory illnesses, and specifically asthma and cystic fibrosis. And so they presented family history and the sick little boy. And their first diagnosis was cystic fibrosis, which was devastating to both of my parents, but particularly my father who’d lost four of his cousins before the age of 14 to see if So here, I was their only child, and they’re seeing him, you know, potentially, I’m on that path. So six weeks later, they had a second opinion.
And that second opinion was that I didn’t have cystic fibrosis, evidenced by me sitting here at 46 years old, but actually I had asthma compounded by pneumonia, and which was my first big dose of antibiotics, which is another part of the health journey. And they tested me for allergies and I was allergic to every single thing. They tested me for every single thing. So it was the shortlist is grass, wheat, corn, eggs, dogs, cats, cotton.
So my clothes, my sheets, soybeans, were surrounded by it. I was raised in a small sort of hobby farm not working farm, basically, there’s just, you know, took care of rescued animals. And, and so I was surprised by all these things, cornfields and soybean fields and dogs and cats, and you know, you name it. So my childhood was was itchy. And Wheezy. So I moved out, everything went away.
07:05
Oh, my gosh, I can’t even imagine being allergic to that many things. So as a child, I can’t even imagine the anguish you would feel on a daily basis being allergic to everything around you. Yeah, well,
07:19
it wasn’t fun. But you know, it’s fun. I have a very, I don’t know if if this is a coping mechanism, or if it’s a psychological blind spot. But I have very few memories of pain or discomfort. I know I was in pain, and I know it was uncomfortable. But I don’t go there. It doesn’t, that I can’t access that, which is, I think, a huge advantage. But you know, the knowledge and the memories of the facts surrounding that whole period of my life, or you know, your indisputable, but I thankfully, don’t carry any sort of like trauma from that, which a lot of people do, you know, mold, mold can make you sick in lots of different ways allergenic toxigenic, but also inflammation.
And then also, there’s a neurological component to which some people refer to as psychosomatic, the it affects people psychiatrically and cognitively, and, you know, affects brain function. There’s lots of interesting research showing how these compounds affect people in very, very different ways. But the reality is, a lot of it is actually sort of a neurological trauma, their body shuts down, or they get huge, you know, inflammatory responses just by being exposed to the musty odor, you know, or the tiniest bit of something, it’s a disproportionate reaction that has been proven to be able to be reduced dramatically, with with certain methods. There completely oriented around the nervous system. Anyway, the point is that there’s lots of different ways and I’m fortunate to have been able to I 12 years old, moved out and all my symptoms went away, not immediately, but in fairly short order. And to this day, if you test me I’m not allergic to anything that I was allergic to prior. Now, that being said, when I when I have mold exposures of significance, where I’m not taking proper precautions, and things like that, I’ll notice things, they’ll get hives in certain areas.
And I’ll start to notice that I’ll have other other dermal reactions, but for the most part, it’s all gone. And so I didn’t think about that. I mean, when I was 12, my grandfather had grown out of his asthma. So that and that’s basically what they thought about me. My mom passed away suddenly, by our own hand when I was 14. And then I got Lyme disease when I was 15. And I missed a lot of school, and also had a huge amount of antibiotics at that point. Then I went to go work on Wall Street. And the reason I bring this up is because a big part of the byproduct of all of this stuff was that I think a lot of my health issues had more to do with the treatments around some of these things rather than the actual exposure. So like the antibiotics, for example, created all sorts of chemical sensitivities and gas or all sorts of dysbiosis.
So I ended up with a mold problem inside after I got rid of the mold problem outside and that and that carried with me for a long time where if I ate a bagel, I would have an out of body experience. It was like I was producing I was fermenting so much that I would actually you know, almost be drunk from simple carbohydrates took a long time to get my mind around that. But in any case, the way I got into the mold space was really because I put two and two together. And I became fascinated, not with mold, per se, in that moment, I was talking to my father on the paper. But the lightbulb really was I became fast fascinated with how the buildings we live in work and impact our health, it was almost instantaneous.
10:22
Well, and also how many people don’t even correlate it with mold, or have no idea they they experienced symptoms, but they just think it’s life or aging or, you know, associated with different things, and have no idea that it’s actually the building that they’re in.
10:38
Yes. So I mean, it’s established people establish a new baseline. As they get older that well, they just chalk it up to being older or whatever, you lower your, your standards, so to speak, because I think it’s easier to deal with than taking action. Because that could cost money. It could be it could be there could be shame or denial, all around that stuff. And everybody kind of knows you shouldn’t have in your house. But if you start taking action on it, then you may have to take a lot more maybe very costly.
We could potentially like it said, bring back bring some some questions about hey, what have you been taking care of a lot of people get all twisted up emotionally. And so they don’t take action on it. And mold does one thing it grows, it gets worse, it doesn’t get better. It does never feel heals itself and never goes away on its own. Even if you dry it out, you still have a mold problem. If you had one, you still have one and needs to be removed. And so people who deny and who who ignore this are actually making their problem much, much worse. It’s one of those things that you cannot sweep this under the rug, it’ll eat your rug.
11:33
Oh my gosh, that’s a visual you can’t put out of your head. So I know that certain people seem to have the ability to walk into a room. And they know if there’s mold because they are so sensitive to it. But I’m sure there are just as many people that walk into a room and have they’re oblivious to it, they have no idea. Do you know what makes that difference between those two people?
11:59
That’s a really good question. No one’s ever asked me that. There are a bunch of different facets to that, in my experience. First of all, women tend to have a much better sense when it comes to these things. And I found by the way, we used to use mold sniffing dogs, oh, that was how we made our name. And we use them for about 12 years. And we only use females, because they have a better sense of smell. And we find this to be true in humans, too. You know, mom can smell a dirty diaper across the room. That’s dumb.
12:27
So it’s not just dads ignoring it.
12:30
I’m here, I’m here to attest that men do not smell those things. Until they’re up close and personal. I think it’s an evolutionary advantage. I think it’s what’s kept our species alive, to be able to smell food when it’s spoiling quickly and not have to think about it’s a visceral thing. Also, the beginning of decay, anything that’s decaying around us is repulsive. You can smell rotting food, you smell feces, vomit, anything that’s in that process is a visceral repulsion.
And so mold is just the beginning of that. And I think our nervous systems and our immune systems are tuned in that when that smell is around, to to shut down, because you don’t want to read that stuff. sinuses close up respiratory airways constrict, whether you’re dealing with an asthmatic or someone who’s right, you got all that stuff is designed to protect you. But you know, we know the body can overprotect and then cause all these unintended consequences. So there’s the female aspect, I think there’s an evolutionary aspect.
And then I think also there is the hyper vigilant immune system and nervous system that gets tuned up when this stuff happens, and can pick up these odors, according to the research that I’ve been reading below the odor threshold, which is fascinating. So in other words, they can pick it up before they can smell it, even though the most likely pathway is the sense of smell. It’s being picked up on the nerve by the nervous system below the odor threshold. So before they can smell it.
That’s fascinating stuff. Right? That’s yeah, it’s a direct communication. And I think that that that communication is a gift. Let me just finish this thought for one second, because I think it’s really important. When when you have a mold from your house, and that molten musty smell pops up, that is not a problem. That is the sign of a problem. It is a problem by itself. But that’s the mold sending you a message, that there’s an imbalance in your home, and that you need to run towards and find the moisture problem, fix that moisture problem and then and then clean up the mold. The people that are sensing that and reacting adversely to it. Their body doesn’t know that that’s a benevolent message from mold telling you that you need it’s an alarm in your house. It’s an olfactory alarm. That’s the way I look at this stuff.
14:44
Yeah, that makes that totally makes sense. And I was just thinking like I know of someone who I think may very well have a big mold issue in their home who doesn’t seem to have noticed it. And then I have someone like My nephew who has mold issues, but he’s also had Lyme. And so I think his immune system is really like you said, maybe if this what you were explaining kind of on high alert. So when your your body is already out of balance, and some things have already happened, say to your immune system, your body is extra protective and he goes into a home and he’s not smelling it. I think he just senses it. He knows that it’s there. So that it’s kind of what you were talking about, I think, right?
15:31
Yeah, it’s subconscious, but it’s conscious. In other words, it’s, it’s happening. If people feel like it’s a cent, six cents, and it kind of is there’s a trigeminal nerve, there’s a nerve that runs down your face is super sensitive and picks up chemical threats. And it’s a straight line right into your nervous system. My experience has been when they say that they’re right, going into an assessment. I’ve had pregnant women on their hands and knees, sniffing saying it’s right here down a miracle I get up, I believe you, I believe you. And then we bring the dogs in and dogs alert right in that spot. You know, I mean, it was just like, of course, the whole place breaks out in laughter at that point, because everyone thought she was crazy.
And she was dead. Right? Yeah, we see that we see that a lot. You know, the thing about Lyme disease. And the thing about a lot of these biotoxin based illnesses, is of course, there’s you know, there’s this detoxification pathway issue that a lot of people have an MTHFR mutation, which apparently 25% or so the population suffers from, where you have a hard time detoxifying from from biotoxins and other toxins, and I find it fascinating. But people have to take a lot of antibiotics when they have Lyme disease.
And people often forget the antibiotics are mycotoxins in most cases, in many cases. I mean, that’s where they were originally developed. Penicillin is a mycotoxin. We take pills dense with mycotoxins, and then we wonder why after treatments we might have sensitivities to mold now there’s what’s which came first the chicken or the egg? I don’t know. But you know, you start looking at this thing. And you wonder are the antibiotics which are sometimes absolutely life saving, causing additional sensitivities or amplifying sensitivities mon mold trying to kill the other mold, it’s chemical warfare on microscopic level, we take that tune it up and make factories where you produce tons of mycotoxins, put them in pills, and then hand them to people.
So I just think that the overlap, there’s lots of reasons why. And there are some that are a little more, a little more obvious, but not as easy to see.
17:36
Yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah, makes sense. And it’s very interesting. So I guess the first thing you talked about using a dog to sniff out the mold, so you’ve changed that technique, right? Or do you do you still bring along a dog with you?
17:54
More mostly, because we are 100 got mold, we still do inspections. But we’re really focused on on the test kit business primarily just due to the ability for us to scale up and have a greater impact, and build more community around that and serve the underserved because of the the price point, our mole dogs were the heartbeat of the company for a long time. And we have still a huge endorser of mold dog. Anytime you’ve got a question about hidden mold issue, go look for mold dog in your area,
18:26
and find a mold doc, that’s
18:29
interesting. Google Google mold dog in your area, your zip code. I mean, there, there are not a lot of them, unfortunately, but you can also call the Florida canine Academy. I think it’s mold dash dog.com. And that’s Bill wittstein, who’s the dog trainer extraordinaire, who trained my dog and many others. But he trains dogs for everything. I mean, bombs, drugs, missing people, endangered species of snakes, you name it. I mean, he, he can train hard to find anything. And molds easy because it’s a static thing that’s producing chemical, popery, and it the dogs are incredibly effective. In fact, I will argue that I learned more from the mold dogs than they learned for me for sure. I learned more about how buildings leak how they were the defects occur, because you see patterns if you do 1000s and 1000s of these eventually figure it out.
And certainly the the perspective that I got from our four legged mold detectives, where it was incredibly insightful. So there are two kinds of mold problems. There’s the kind that that sequestered in a wall, that spores can’t come through. And that’s the musty odor can come through. And then there’s mold growth that’s on surfaces inside of a living space where those spores can become airborne. Those are two very different kinds of mold problems, right? Because the one will have high spore counts, or presumably will have a sterile the symptoms of it in the in air quality in terms of spore counts.
Our test kit measures that the stuff that’s in the wall where spores can’t get through, that’s trickier. And that really takes a skilled technician up qual Find Spectre, ideally mold dog, or you can test for those for that using a test made by a company called home air check. And that’s looking for the mold and VOCs made by mold. And so if you use our test kit, actually, our phenomenal test kit with that test kit from home air check, you end up with a rat a more holistic view of what’s going on in the air, because you’re looking for the gases and the particles and to hyper simplify air, you’re basically dealing with gases and particles.
And so when it comes to air pollution, we’re testing for mold related particles with a thermal test kit, and we’re testing for mold related VOCs and even manmade VOCs with the home air check test kit, and then you have a more whole view on things. Because you can tend to find false negatives with one or, or the other. But when you have both if you have a negative very high likelihood that you don’t have a serious problem.
20:54
Okay, well, that’s good to know about the two different kinds and how to address both of those with different test kits. When I wasn’t sure if I had mold in my home some years ago, I was told to get the aremy kit or the ER MI. So that was where you took like a cloth and you took samples from three different places in the home and the male didn’t and got your results back. How does that compare to either of those two tests you just mentioned
21:24
firmy stands for environmental relative Moldiness index. It’s actually technically not a test, even though it’s sold as a test. It’s actually an index, it’s a way of interpreting data from a panel of molds that are that were identified during an EPA experiment or an EPA research project. See Vesper with EPA was trying to figure out basically, based upon a, they were looking to see if they could identify what whether their house was moldy or not using this tool called PCR, everyone knows a PCR is now because it was the most common form of testing for COVID, where you can find very small amounts of organisms and a larger sample and then you can amplify it.
And so PCR is, you know, has become big headline news. But back then it was a new technology. And the EPA was was embracing it on an experiment on a research basis. And they they found a one particular area, they looked at 20 homes, took the molds from the that were in the moldy homes, and then they looked as if they weren’t deemed to be moldy, and looked at the molds that they found in there. And they came up with a panel, it was a very limited study 20 houses, okay, 20. And then they made an index off of that, and that’s 20 houses in one geographic area.
So it’s even more I mean, it’s just like so tiny Ermias 36 moulds I think 26 indicators and tenor common background anyway, the bottom line is that you’re supposed to initially have vacuumed up dust in your carpet in your bedroom in your living room. That’s called a compound sample, which has problems because you’re not, you then don’t know where the problem was. It’s in the living room, or is it in. And that’s a big problem, a big part of doing testing is to try to figure out where the problem is. And when you compound them, and you combine them, you lose that very important aspect of of, of investigative testing.
But there is no test I’m here to tell you is as the as the creator of a test kit, there is no one test that tells you if your house is safe or not or what to do next. All these tests are designed to give you a enough visibility to take the next step, not a replacement for a professional test can’t be it because the professional will tell you how to take that information and put it put it to use this idea of there’s a binary you know, there’s a good, bad or safe not safe from a test is a false narrative. And dangerous too. And it’s such that the EPA has actually posted on their website, Google EPA, mold and ErmI. And you’ll see that they tell people not to use it. They developed it, they own the patent, they get paid, or they did up until recently. Because the patents since expired. But the point is, is that the EPA who developed developed it says don’t use it for building diagnostics, and people keep using it anyway. So it’s a really good question because people use it a lot. And it’s an it’s wildly flawed, it’s prone to false positives. And it gives people the wrong idea that there is that there’s a test that is in itself by itself that can be actionable. And that no such thing exists, you know, in it, not yet at least.
24:30
Well, I’m glad you clarified all of that. Yeah, my test did come back very positive, high amounts of mold. And so I had a mold company come out that did the air. I can’t remember the name of that kind of test and they said we don’t see any evidence of a problem here. So then I dropped it after that. So we use
24:51
aero cell cassettes, which is probably what he was saying. They use these round cassettes in the in the house when they were testing. These are the spore traps that we use is with the Gamo test kit. So it’s the most common professional mold testing methodology. So you have to be looking at things and be willing to discard the useless data, and then be able to evaluate and have the experience and the training to figure out what makes sense. And that’s why there is no test kit that replaces a professional.
However, there are, there are ways for you to get closer to the point where you’d have the confidence to know that you’re, you’re on the right track, and hiring professional is a good decision. And that’s where the test kits can be useful. Because the main thing is you don’t ever jump from a test result, right to remediation, that would be like jumping from a pregnancy test kit saying positive directly to like scheduling your labor, rescheduling, you know, with the hospital, right, like, you know, that surgery, you know, remediations like surgery, you know, you there’s, you’ve got it, you’ve got to go the through the process, which is do yourself test kits, if you’re going to go that process, go that route, ideally find a qualified independent inspector in your area, and then have that person guide you through the process of remediation if in fact it’s necessary. But if you have anybody recommending Urmi,
26:09
run, walk. All right. So the first step would be getting your kit, say one 800 Got mold, plus the other one you identified, what was the name of that home?
26:22
So one 800 Got mold is the mold or mold inspection business if we don’t want to send people there, because that that’s on the, I mean, granted, if you feel like you need a professional inspection, we’re more than glad to help you even to help find a qualified professional in your area. But the Gottman test kit, which is@gmail.com and in fact for your listeners, we created a special welcome page where they can go to gmail.com/open minded healing.
And they can take a look there, we also have an ebook, The first step would really be knowledge, okay. The first step is really to do your own inspection. And so we created an ebook called How to find mold in your home. And it is something we get a lot of positive feedback on. It’s about 45 pages of inspection checklists and things to look out for as well as FAQs on what what is and what isn’t mold remediation, etc. There are also some additional resources in the back for how to how to find inspectors or mediators and things like that. So that’s actually the first step is to is to get get a little bit of education.
27:24
And they get that were
27:26
at gmail.com/open minded healing. Okay, great. And also there, you’ll see that there’s a link to the test kit, website. And there’s a coupon code there for anybody who wants to purchase one, they can get 10% Off with healing, 10 healing, killing number one, zero, the first step is really get a little more knowledge, the more you understand about this stuff, mold is something that’s never gonna go away. It’s here before we were here, and it’s going to be here after we’re gone. One of those things that you should get accustomed to and learn how to navigate.
It’s a basic life skill. Unfortunately, generational ignorance has gotten us to the point where we misunderstand how it works. And so that book will help set that straight. And if you feel that you need to take the next step, you know, you’re concerned because you either see something, smell something, or feel something. That’s what I always say, if you see something, smell something or feel something, do something, that’s when you might want to grab a test kit and collect some samples. You know, that’s a couple 100 bucks and see if you’re, if you’re if you’re if your gut feeling is right, I always say trust your intuition, but get the data. And yeah, you know, to test don’t guess,
28:34
perfect? Well, and I did use one of your test kits. And it was super easy to you just put the little cassette and turn it on, like in each different state and maybe three spaces in the house is the one that I checked, and then the results came back very easy to read. So it’s definitely a great place to start after the education to Yeah,
28:56
after the education. Otherwise, you know, a lot of this stuff I this is something you really do I encourage people to to consider it the fact that the building that you live in work in buildings that you live and work in are extensions of your immune system. They’re Exos skins and exoskeletons. And we it’s one of the four basic human needs, right? You know, you’ve got air, water, food and shelter, and shelter and air are kind of two sides of the same coin. But we focus so much on food, which is a big deal. And it can be the source of illness or the source of health.
But you only do that a few times a day and you can live with that food for a very long time. Water we’re all more aware with every passing day that the quality of the water you drink is super important, but you can get away without drinking water for a while. Air is the thing that that we do the most. And like most things that we’re exposed to all the time we take it for granted. So can you think of anything that you’re exposed to more than air? No. And what you take for granted you know, if you do the math, between 13 and 15 breaths a minute comes out to 20,000 times a day you breathe 20,000 times a day. The only thing you do more than that probably you As your heartbeats, but the reality is, is that in that 20,000 breaths, you’re often re breathing the same stuff over and over and over again, that’s the danger of indoor air quality is that a small problem in your house is actually amplified by 20,000 exposures every day.
And so that count that amounts to a huge exposure over time. And so that’s, that’s the real issue. My philosophy around this is the mold is not doing anything to harm us. It’s just doing what it’s supposed to do, which is bring stuff, turn it back into dirt is doing that it well if it’s doing in your yard, but not if it’s doing in your living room or your basement, establishing a relationship with your building, where you realize the building is here to protect you, it actually has a birthday in a debt that you could look at as an organism, and the longevity of the building is determined by how well you care for it.
And so I often think that the building doesn’t have an immune system, but then it does, actually, you have the building’s immune system. In fact, in many ways, we’re like the mitochondria, where the foreign DNA inside this building, that’s actually keeping stuff moving. But the building needs you as much as you need it.
And you there’s a mutualism or symbiosis, if you’re willing to play with that idea, you know, there’s a, there’s a relationship there that I encourage people to become more conscious of. Because when the building develops aches and pains, you want to be the solution, and you want to get to a quickly, you got 24 to 48 hours after something gets wet before it becomes a mold risk, according to the EPA. And according to the industry standard, you’ve got 72 hours before something gets moldy. So the guidance on this stuff is hours and days. Meanwhile, people treat these moisture problems in their houses if it’s no big deal. And and it’s very expensive to do that water damage is cheap to fix. Mold is very expensive.
And so you know, when you get that message, that musty smell, listen, and recognize that the building is sending you a message the same way your body does when it has pain, like inflammation, it’s inflammation for the building, and you’re getting that message. And then if you don’t deal with it, you end up with chronic inflammation, which we all know is zoned disease. So I could go on and on about just becoming more aware of what’s going on in the building. Because by doing that when the building heals, so to the people inside the building,
32:05
so maybe we’ll do a little rapid fire. We’ll see if this works. First, I want to know, what are some of the conditions you’ve seen the mold effect when it comes to someone’s health? Maybe like in even talking about the different neurological symptom or diseases? Whatever you’ve seen?
32:26
I mean, I can’t think of anything that it hasn’t. One of the things that I think mold does is it makes it it brings out latent issues that you already have. For example, for me, I am sure that if I were back in a moldy environment, I would be allergic to many of those things again, you know, the typical upper respiratory sinusitis. Chronic sinusitis is actually the most prevalent long term illness in America, respiratory illness in America, and affects 37 million Americans. And according to the Mayo Clinic, it’s mostly mold related. Most people who have sinusitis don’t know that, but they should. Asthma is 24 point 6 million Americans, of which 4.6 million are our mold and dampness related according to EPA, and Berkeley Labs, these are big numbers, you know, those are the obvious ones, then you get into the least less obvious ones.
We have multiple chemical sensitivities or something that’s now called tilt, where people become sensitive to fragrances and things like that. That’s a common mold exposure issue. I see people with really interesting symptom profiles that, that once their environment gets straightened out, suddenly, their their symptoms go away.
There’s a psychiatric facility that has about 500 new patients a month and they’re considering prescribing our test kit to all of their new patients because they’re finding inflammation in all of the cases that people who are coming in for non relationship matters. And they are looking at the environment as a primary source of that inflammation. So if you can imagine how many different illnesses are showing up at a psychiatric intake, you can look at mold as as a potential root cause or at least an aggravating component.
33:56
What would be an example of that? Mold rage
33:59
is actually a thing. People with emotional dysregulation is really common. cognitive impairment, brain fog, headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, you know, by the way, so let me depression. My mom committed suicide. She was also an alcoholic. But she was lived in a very moldy house the house I moved out of she stayed. And over the years medical research has has honed in on some interesting stuff. Dr. John Bennett with Ruckers her own house got flooded during Hurricane Katrina. She went down to investigate it she wore an n95 respirator which should have protected her from the mold spores and did but she got sick anyway because she got exposed to the musty odor.
And she was so interested in the fact that she got sick even though she was wearing a respirator that she began studying this and started testing fruit flies that are designed to genetically engineer to glow when they produce dopamine. And she tested these chemicals on fruit flies and they stopped producing dopamine. They they stopped reproducing them began flying downwards instead of to the light.
And they also developed what she called Parkinsonian like symptoms. And that those those results have since been replicated by other researchers. Just before that at all, yeah, really incredible. And there was some stuff at Brown University to where they looked at 6000 homes with 6000 homes, really significant study, they found a direct correlation between mold and dampness indoors and depression, these compounds can do some real harm.
At the very least, what they do is, if it’s not specific, they make you weak, it interrupts other normal processes is a fungi does this on a benevolent basis, in the forest under the floor, it’s just not supposed to do that to your house. And so interrupts all these natural processes. And again, it makes you weak. And when you’re weak, then opportunistic and latent issues have a chance to surface. And that’s, that’s what I consistently see.
So it’s sort of be the entire gamut of symptoms that you can possibly imagine if you have five people in a moldy house, they often have five different symptom profiles. But oftentimes, there are people saying they feel fine. And then the mold gets corrected. And suddenly, the humble ones will say, You know what, now I’m actually sleeping through the night. Now, I’m not feeling so anxious. Now. I’m not, you know, blowing my nose four times a day now. Digesting properly, I had no idea that it was the mold, you know, it’s that diverse?
36:19
Well, maybe we can end on a positive note, have you seen people heal once they discover they have mold, and they address it? Have you seen any success stories,
36:31
tons and tons and tons. And so every single person has a different path. In my own experience, my path was, first of all eliminate exposure, right. So if you’ve got a mold problem, the best thing you can do is remediate it. Obviously, if you can’t do that, then you should really get yourself some good air purifiers, I happen to be a big fan of mattify air. So the most affordable high quality filter that I’ve been able to find in recent years, and I don’t get paid by them for that tournament, but I’ll be glad to, but I really do think that their stuff is great.
I’ve got one right here next to my next to my desk, you need to first eliminate exposure or reduce exposure as much as you possibly can. And then you also have to look at your diet in most cases, and a lot of people are don’t recognize that that most mycotoxins are actually coming from food. So sugar, and grains, anything anything processed. If you eliminate that stuff from your diet, first of all, it will make you healthier anyway, it also is where you’re getting a lot of a lot of mycotoxins we actually import the food with the highest mycotoxin levels, more so than most other developed countries, we will accept sick food at our ports, whereas the EU Won’t we really have a strange relationship with food here in America.
But the bottom line is, is that oftentimes to truly heal, you have to remove all of those exposures. And you have to get to a to a diet where you’re you’re doing things that are less taxing overall on your immune system, and then doing things to accelerate the detoxification. You know, people love infrared saunas, any kind of sauna exercise, obviously, mindfulness is super powerful, because a lot of this can be neurological. And then I’ve also seen a lot of people have a lot of success with DNRs, which is a dynamic neural neural retraining system. Basically, it’s controlled exposures to things that set you off. And then you you observe your response, and then you start to be able to respond instead of react to this unless visceral thing. It’s hard work. But I’ve seen tremendous healing from that. And I
38:20
think they do themselves at home or in a doctor’s office, there’s a
38:23
course you can take, and they are doing them in person, I believe. Now, again, and my understanding is that you can do them online, most people don’t do well if they do them online, because there’s a tremendous amount of accountability that you get from being in a group, because you have to do the work, you have to, like, it’s a couple hours a day to do it. Right. And, and it’s hard, it’s hard doing that by yourself. It’s so it’s hard, especially if you’re dealing with mold related illness, where you’re just tired, and you’re not thinking right, and you just want to turn on the freakin TV. So going away, and having a tribe of people who are on that path with you seems to be very, very important factor there,
38:59
I’m so glad there’s help for people that if they do find they have a mold issue that they can turn to the things you mentioned and start to heal and get better, and that there is hope for a healthy future. So there
39:13
is the thing about indoor air quality is that it’s a very, it’s a relatively small investment to get it good to get to get it right. And the dividends that get paid from that are huge, and they’re life life giving truly can extend your life by taking care of the thing that you do 20,000 times a day, it seems so common sense when you put it that way. Right. You just keep Yeah, but the penalties associated with not making that investment are just as plentiful. And so it’s a true double edged sword. I mean, it’s one of those things where you really the investment has huge payoff and the lack of it has huge penalties.
So that’s that’s the thing to consider. When you’re looking at your budget saying should I buy air filters or should we go on vacation, invest in your air? It will invest in you. Healthy Air isn’t is is a nutrient to unhealthy air is a toxin. We don’t have a lot of control over many things in our life, we really don’t we want to, we wish we did. And this is an area where you have so much control. It’s a very rare area where you have control over the stuff in your life. And I feel like if you don’t take advantage of that, right, then you’re squandering an opportunity,
40:20
perfectly said. So I want people to know where they can find you maybe can restate your website or any resources that you want to put out there. And I’ll also put them in the show notes.
40:31
Absolutely. Just to reiterate, got mol.com/open minded healing is where you’ll find the ebook and coupon code for for the test kits. You can also just go to the homepage there@gmail.com. And scroll to the bottom, if you got questions that you’d like to direct towards me, I see all of them. So there’s a little contact form there at the bottom.
You can also if you want to, we’re just starting this where you can post questions to Facebook, on our Facebook page facebook.com/got mold, and we’re also just getting started on Instagram that got mold. Those are the best ways to get in touch. And of course, you can always just do the simple thing, which is send an email to questions@gmail.com. And I do see all those answer many of myself as well.
41:16
Perfect. So I do want to say I’m very glad that you were someone at a young age that really tuned into your purpose, and made a huge decision to leave a lucrative job on Wall Street. And maybe tell people real quick you are how old when you started working at Wall Street. That’s a very interesting fact.
41:38
16 I got my series seven when I was 17.
41:42
That’s astounding. And also you were in the Guinness Book of World Records. Yeah.
41:48
Yeah, I didn’t know it at the time. But that did make me the youngest licensed stockbroker in history. And there’s a Guinness World Record on my on my wall here. Yeah, totally accidental. I was the least likely kid in my, in my graduating class to end up on Wall Street, probably. I mean, I failed Algebra One. It was just one of those fortuitous things.
You know, I got recruited out of a gas station after I dropped out of high school and it was a fairy tale. That’s amazing. He took me under his wing. Turns out he was you know, managing director of a notorious firm, but I had the door open and I took to it. Well, I did that for nine years. The last two years. I own my own firm. So it was a it was a good path for me, but it served its purpose. Yeah.
42:27
Well, and it’s a testament to how much you truly want to help people. You want a better life for everyone. You want them to live a healthy life as well.
42:35
I do. I do. I I think you know, when one person heals, the whole world heals a bit, you know.
42:41
And that is a perfect note to end on. Thank you so much for being here. Jason.
42:48
Thank you for having me.
42:54
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