Could Your Gut Issues be Coming From Mold? with Lindsay Christensen

Today, in the Scheer Madness Podcast, our guest Lindsay Christensen, MS, CNS, LDN, A-CFHC, CKNS, talks about the dangers of Mold Illness, how it can affect your gut and the environments in which it can come from. Lindsay is a functional nutritionist and expert in nutrition therapy for Lyme disease, mold illness, and gastrointestinal issues. Having previous health issues due to mold, Lindsay is on a mission to help others recover from their sickness and escape the environments that cause it.

To know more about Lindsay check out her website: https://www.ascent2health.com

For more information about working with our team at Rachel Scheer Nutrition, book a free 30-minute call at www.rachelscheer.com/application and learn more about functional wellness coaching at https://rachelscheer.com/functional-wellness-coaching/

Listen ON:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scheer-madness/id1490423541
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5OLd9BtesW7Oe4nSH0QF9W 

Chapters : 

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:20 Who is Lindsay Christensen
• 02:40 Diagnosed with Mold Illness
• 09:40 What is Mold Illness?
• 14:20 Mold and Mental Health
• 20:48 Steps Towards Healing
• 31:00 Different Mold Types
• 33:30 Mold Illness vs Poor Diet

Connect with Lindsay:
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ascent2health/?hl=en
WEBSITE: https://www.ascent2health.com

Connect with Rachel:

Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

 

PODCAST TRANSCIPT:

[00:00:00] Lindsay Christensen: The client tells me there’s like mold growing all over their Bathroom Ceiling. I’m going to address that right away with them and like tell them these have a console with an environmental professional who can help you because that’s not, that’s not a great environment to be in to support your overall health.

[00:00:20] Rachel Scheer: Everyone and welcome back to another episode of sheer madness. Today I have Lindsay Christiansen and joining the show today. She is a functional medicine, nutritionist and help writer with a deep passion for functional medicine. She has her BS in biomedical science and an MS in human nutrition and a certified nutrition specialist and a Licensed Dietitian. She also has a ton of other credentials that I probably could not pronounce. So all around she is an incredible expert on all things functional medicine. And today we’re going to be diving into how mold can actually really negatively affect your gut. It’s not something that we tend to think about quite a bit when it comes to overall our gut health. And with Rachel shared nutrition, we deal with a lot of people who are struggling with IBS, autoimmune conditions. And we run a lot of this functional medicine testing on people. And although it’s not something you look for first and foremost, we have had a lot of clients come back with more disease, Lyme disease, heavy metal toxicities. So this is really what we want to dive into here today. And this is what Lindsay specializes in. She helps clients with Lyme disease, mold illness, autoimmune disease, and mast cell activation disorder. So Lindsey, welcome to the show.

[00:01:51] Lindsay Christensen: Thanks for the intro. Rachel. Thanks for having me on. I’m really excited to be here.

[00:01:55] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, I’m excited about diving into this topic, because I have not had an expert yet. Come on. talk specifically about mold disease. I’ve talked a lot about many things that can negatively affect the data, no fee can play a positive role. Stress can play a big role history of antibiotics, medications that we don’t think often about toxins, and how that can really negatively affect our gut. So I really want to dive into that. But before I do, I’d love for the listeners just to get to know you a bit more. One of the big reasons I got into gut health was because of my own story, my own gut issues. So I would imagine you probably have a little bit of a backstory with what got you into this field, right?

[00:02:40] Lindsay Christensen: I absolutely do. I’ll try to give you the short version. So in short, I’ve dealt with mold illness myself. So that’s kind of how I fell into this niche. But in my late teens, I started to experience a variety of very bizarre health issues. It took a number of years to finally be diagnosed with both Lyme disease and mold illness along the way, like you name a symptom, I probably experienced it. But among my most troubling symptoms for many, many years were gastrointestinal issues. I tried, you know, all of the things that’s how I was actually introduced to functional medicine was, you know, initially, I just thought it was my God. And that was it. And once I resolved that I would be in great shape. Little did I know that my environment was impacting me as well, especially in the case of mold exposure, and that I learned ultimately had a really, really massive impact, in my case, on my gut and working on addressing that mold exposure and recovering from it ultimately helps me finally recover my gut health. So yeah, definitely. It was a journey and I think it was very little known that mold could cause issues like, you know, eight to 10 years ago. Fortunately, it’s becoming a bit more known but still, it’s not the first thing you know, many people think of,

[00:04:08] Rachel Scheer: yeah, I’ve always said with a lot of my clients, you know, when you hear hoof prints Singapore’s first and then eventually when we’re not really healing and getting better, we need to start thinking this week, the zebra and a lot of my clients that Rachel’s geriatrician you know, will do all of the testing and we run having adults, but we don’t typically right off the bat run extensive mycotoxin testing, Lyme disease, tick borne illness or anything like that, for somebody who’s dealt with gut issues that just continues to relapse and relapse. So whether whether it’s SIBO or just any kind of gut symptoms, that’s when we can really start to think you know, are we may be dealing with some kind of an unaddressed toxins that are really playing a role in our gut microbiome, our gut lining our immune system, because I know all of those things are affected. So I always love though hearing different people’s kind of pain, the passion stories, because I really think that’s how experts are often born is because they go through something I know for myself, I probably would not be as obsessed with gut health. If it wasn’t for almost having my own large intestine removed, and then having to learn so much about the gut microbiome, although there may be some weirdos out there who are just like, I just want to learn about wine. Actually, history, but usually there’s some kind of a connection there. What were some of the symptoms you are experiencing? Anyway? He got symptoms, for sure. Yeah,

[00:05:33] Lindsay Christensen: yeah. So more specifically, on the gastrointestinal front, I struggled with severe constipation. I won’t mince words, like if it was really bad. And you know, the recommendation to take some magnesium citrate or take probiotics, you know, that did not do the trick for me. I eventually learned I was struggling with SIBO. And that for some people could potentially stem from mold illness, or even some combo mold online. So chronic constipation, a lot of bloating, didn’t really seem to matter what I ate or didn’t eat, I, you know, I had bloating, almost chronically rapidly escalating food sensitivities. So you know, that’s like a systemic reaction. But for me, I linked that, you know, back to my gut, so everything from FODMAP sensitivities, to histamine, you know, couldn’t eat, couldn’t eat, tolerate grains, or, you know, fruits anymore. So those are some of the main, some of the main issues. And even, this is a little bit harder to like, envision, but kind of, like dysmotility. So poor gut motility, where I didn’t have like that proper, you know, urge to go to the bathroom. And that is not a fun way to live. So those are some of the main main GI issues that I had.

[00:07:01] Rachel Scheer: Yeah, yeah, that analyse your symptoms are very aligned with a lot of what I dealt with. And, you know, that’s where it’s so common for people to just say, hey, it’s the food is the issue, just pull out a laundry list of all of these foods, but FODMAPs. And then we see these people who are dwindled down to have had some kinds eating five foods, and that’s all they can tolerate. And they’re, they’re just thinking, I just have all the sensitivity in the food is the problem. But the problem is not the food. The problem is the gut and what’s happening in the gut, especially with how are you low was probably causing a ton of leading up regulation, the mast cell activation, and all of these things that were happening on the gut level. I think, you know, some people go a little bit beyond that, right? Okay. It’s not the food field, the gut, get the microbiome in a good place. Maybe we do figure out we have SIBO. And we try to treat the SIBO whether that’s with antimicrobials, antibiotics, you know, but then we can’t really get that full healing, you know, to really take place. I know for myself, I would constantly relapse, I had SIBO, to add relapse and relapse. And that’s where I really think we oftentimes have to think about the root causes aren’t always just the bacterial overgrowth. It’s what’s causing the bacterial overgrowth in the first place, it’s what’s causing the lack of motility. I had poor motility but a lot of mine was coming from more of a metabolic related issues, very low calorie diets, you know, exercising, thyroid was really, really low to the motility and my gut had slowed down where your as it sounds like was coming from more so an environmental toxin issue. So now as a root causes plural, but oftentimes, it’s not just SIBO SIBO is actually in a way a part of the symptoms of what’s there.

[00:08:53] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, yeah, I think it was, as we’re learning mold exposure, you know, for one, it can directly impact the gut microbiome. And that can impact motility like literally the nerve function in your gut. But also being in a moldy environment chronically is stressful, and that can actually up regulate your body’s stress response. And that in turn, can drive impairments and gut motility for some people.

[00:09:23] Rachel Scheer: So it’s, as you said, it’s like root causes, there are multiple, definitely multiple factors at play, for all root causes are a big thing to look at. Especially as the body is so interconnected. Diving into, you know, your mold illness, and how that, you know, really what’s happening in the body with the gut. First, for those who don’t know, like, what is mold illness anyway, probably some people who are listening and they’re like, mold, what are we talking about here? Like food molds, environmental molds.

[00:09:53] Lindsay Christensen: What is really mold illness? Yeah, so I know if you’ve never heard the phrase mold illness before it probably Sounds like out there. But when we encounter mold in an indoor environment, it’s not just inconvenient. Like it’s not just smelly and kind of gross, it actually can impact our health in many ways. So typically, mold is going to grow in an indoor environment that’s experienced water damage. And that could be from an outdoor leak or an indoor leak. But that combination of the presence of water and enclosed environment with frankly, like building materials, that mold likes to eat cellulose based materials like like drywall, or something that multiple consume. And when that mold starts to grow inside it inside your home or office or school or dorm room, it releases different toxins that can impact your health. Some of the things that releases are responsible for that like musty moldy smell that most people find off putting. A lot of people don’t realize that that smell is an alert like that this is not something you want to be you don’t want to be hanging out in this place. But there are also other toxins that the mold can release as it as it’s growing, including mycotoxins and so mycotoxins are mold, toxins, and there are a whole variety of them. Some of them have impacts on the gut, some of them are more like they can damage DNA. So we don’t have a lot of research on the impact of mycotoxins on humans. But there’s a lot of research on their impact on animals, actually, because it’s a big a big problem in agriculture, actually. So yeah, so mold not just smelly, not just kind of this yucky thing that can be an inconvenience, but it can actually release compounds that can can harm your health. So that’s what mold mold illnesses that response to those toxins.

[00:12:02] Rachel Scheer: Yeah. And you mentioned it leads to gut issues that can lead to immune issues. They’re a bit what are some of the ways that you’ve seen that mold really ends up negatively affecting the body.

[00:12:17] Lindsay Christensen: So I can describe, definitely like correlation. So there’s research pointing to the fact that certain mycotoxins can cause leaky gut. Again, it’s animal research. But I have worked with many clients who’ve had mold exposure, and then we run their GI map and Zonulin is elevated. Sorry, and that is a marker of leaky gut, that can be measured in school. And definitely, that also correlated with symptoms of leaky gut like food sensitivities and brain fog. So leaky gut would be one. Gastrointestinal manifestation. Also, mycotoxins can drive an imbalance between the good and the bad bacteria and yeasts and other microorganisms in the gut. So we may see lower levels of beneficial gut bacteria in a soil test, you may see higher levels of the less helpful or more pro inflammatory bacteria. I often see elevated levels of Candida, which is a yeast and the stool microbiome, of people who have had mold exposure. And then also, it’s very possible to have gut inflammation as well in response in response to mold spores and mycotoxins. So those would be like three of the big effects, supported by the research to that that can be caused by mold.

[00:13:47] Rachel Scheer: All of that going back to the gut, which I would imagine, you know, would also then manifest in other areas of the body two, just because we know that they’ve got really is connected to so many systems in the body between the brain between the detoxification of hormones, the conversion of different thyroid hormones, throughout the guts, micronutrient digestion and utilization, sometimes they’re too. So how then, you know, where we have intestinal permeability, maybe we have some inflammation that’s happening in the gut, we have some dysbiosis. So imbalance of the good or the bad bacteria, maybe some pathogens, how have you seen whether it’s through research or your clients, this now affect other areas like their mental health?

[00:14:34] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, well, that the gut brain connection can definitely be impacted by mold. And there there actually is research referring to sick building syndrome, which is another way of describing Moldex exposure more specifically in people and people who have this sick building syndrome are known to experience anxiety. Depression is a big one. on those would be the kind of the two main mental health symptoms and then brain fog. You know, that’s not a mental health disorder, but it’s something a lot of people experience with mold exposure. So kind of feeling like they’re trying to, you know, move through fog in order to get a clear thought out. Definitely hormones can be impacted as well. So if your body is being inundated by toxins from mold, and it’s trying to get rid of those, detox those those toxins chronically, there’s going to be less opportunity for it to handle things like hormone metabolism and detoxification. So in women, I will sometimes see symptoms of estrogen dominance when they’ve been exposed to mold. Personally, at one point, I was diagnosed with PCOS, which was incorrect, but it actually for me, cleared up once I got out of the moldy environment. So you know, there are other forms of hormone imbalances that could potentially be linked to it. And then mast cell activation is another like body wide response that can happen when somebody’s been exposed to mold. Mast cells are immune cells. They’re really important for your body, they help defend you against bacteria and parasites and things but they also can become excessively active when you’re chronically exposed to mold. And that can cause people to start developing a lot of food sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, issues tolerating supplements, because their immune system is like recognizing everything as a threat. So those would be some kind of outside the gut potential outside they’ve got symptoms.

[00:16:51] Rachel Scheer: And you guys, what she’s talking about, especially related to hormones is, you know, our estrogen, especially as detoxify eliminated through the liver and the gut. So you can imagine if we have a high toxic load, and this can be having to imagine to whether it’s with mold or heavy metals, or this could also be other kinds of toxins when our toxic load is high. Our liver is really trying to get rid of these toxins, which makes it harder for the body to detoxify and eliminate things like estrogen. And then our last phase of detoxification for estrogen is actually through the gut. And as Lindsay has talked about, is, you know, poor motility, constipation, dysbiosis, and imbalance and bacteria, which also then negatively affects our our body’s ability to eliminate estrogen. So now we can have estrogen dominance and symptoms that are weight gain heavy menstrual cycles, you know, sometimes the misdiagnosis of things like PCOS like she had. And that’s why it’s so important to really get to the root causes are all and very often with Western medicine. They may say, hey, how PCOS very often, or not often do I really see them talk about even things like estrogen dominance. But even if you do work with someone who diagnoses you with something like estrogen dominance, that’s why getting to the reason of why you’re not detoxing properly is important, why your levels of estrogen are high. And it’s not enough to just say, hey, here’s your symptom cluster based diagnosis. And we’re going to treat the symptoms with whether it’s medication or supplementation, but you really need to know data bit and find what all of these root causes are, and then develop a plan to heal overall because when you just literally mess or Lindsay has literally just mentioned, you know, so many different things that can be off in the body as a byproduct of, you know, just toxins and of itself. So I think that’s super important for everybody here to just hear overall

95% of your body’s serotonin is produced by the bacteria that resides in your gut. And this explains why when my gut was wreck or when clients come to work with me at Rachel share nutrition, they don’t just suffer from things like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, but they also have symptoms of anxiety, depression, and brain fog, because our gut and our brain are highly interconnected. And as Hippocrates says, all disease begins and ends in the gut. And this is the exact reason why I am so passionate about taking a functional root cause based approach for any chronic health condition, gut issues, mental health, illness, autoimmune conditions, stubborn weight loss, you name it, me and my team do a comprehensive analysis looking at all these different systems, so we can test instead of just guess, and then develop a customized nutrition plan and protocol to address these root causes and balances in the body and restore function. If you want to book a free 30 minute call with anyone for my team, click the link in the show notes or visit Rachel share.com.

I want to kind of get to know a little bit about how you started to begin your healing journey. You know, so you’ve probably had like the relapses, right with the gut issues, you tried all the different supplementation, the magnesium citrate, I know for myself, I even at one point got put on, you know, prescription laxatives and was even using an enema, you know, just trying to get my body to empty. So I want to know how miserable that is. But once you found out you had mold, what were some of the steps you began to take for your body to begin to heal.

[00:20:48] Lindsay Christensen: So the first step for me was getting out of the environment that was exposing me to mold and in my case, it was a, it was multiple environments over the course of a number of years. And this can be the hardest part for many people dealing with the environment. Like I won’t mince words, it’s not easy. Fortunately, at the time, the environment that was currently moldy wasn’t apartment. So I just I left I moved out of it ended up replacing, you know, certain certain pieces of furniture and things. Another big step for me actually, because I was so sick, I actually ended up moving to an environment that is a lot drier, where it’s less, homes are less likely to have mold. And I’ll be honest, that made a big difference to me. Certainly not everybody needs to do that. But I was really unwell. So moving to more of a dry, arid environment really helped. Once I got out of the moldy environment, pretty quickly, I began to just like better tolerate the different treatments that I needed in order to detox from the mold and mycotoxins and heal. Prior to that, you know, when I was still in that exposed to that mold, detox didn’t work for me, I always felt worse. So that was kind of step two, you know, getting into the rhythm of doing kind of a slow and steady detox process, and a lot of gut work and talking like, you know, six or seven rounds of gut protocols. Fortunately, at that time, I was a practitioner, so I could like put myself on, on protocols and things. But it took me a while to regain my gut health. You know, I had spent years living and going to school and things in environments that had moms, so yeah, so the detox and got rebuilding processes were huge. And that allowed me to start coming out of that hole where I was, you know, reactive to so many foods, I had been down to like four or five foods for six or more months at a time. So like, I had to rebuild nutrient stores as well, because I was so depleted in that way, too. So those are some of my my initial steps.

[00:23:05] Rachel Scheer: I love that you say getting out of the toxic environment, because I think that’s also an analogy for more than just mold toxicity, but we can’t heal in the environment that made us sick, whether that’s a toxic home, literally with mold, or literally with the people that were around. But creating a safe environment first and foremost for healing is always going to be so essential. So I mentioned that first. And then I’m curious, you know, as you started to do some of these different protocols, did you start with the gut first or more so with detoxification?

[00:23:42] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, good question. I actually started more with the gut. And that’s, you know, if anybody knows, me, as a practitioner, I often start with the gut with clients too. So I, you know, I like to work off of a test off of testing. So I ran a stool task and knew where I was starting as far as imbalances go, and really began working on addressing dysbiosis or that imbalance between good and bad bacteria. That was really like the first step for me in terms of gut healing, I really significant levels of elevated levels of bad bacteria, and then really bad leaky gut. So that was kind of second thing I worked on. And then once I addressed those two pieces, I was able to do more like binders. For people who don’t know what the binder is, I’m referring to things like activated charcoal or bentonite clay. These are substances that can help literally, like bind on to mycotoxins in the gut and get them out of your body. And I guess another part I should add, because constipation was one of my main issues. I got to work on basically retraining my gut, you know, to have regular bowel movements. So I On, it was unfortunately for me, it’s something I kind of had to figure out on my own because nobody had answers for me. So I ended up needing to do some work there so that I could eliminate properly. Because if that’s not working the Gup protocol and detox steps, may not, or I should say that they’re probably not going to work super well for you, if you’re not, you know, taking out the trash. So that was huge for me as well.

[00:25:26] Rachel Scheer: Did you have to do like pelvic floor therapy or anything like that.

[00:25:30] Lindsay Christensen: Um, so I ended up doing a lot of vagus nerve work, actually. So I did some brain retraining programs, and actually, for a while have taken certain nutrients that support motility, and that vagus nerve, that made a huge difference for me. And then there’s also kind of an informal term for a process of like Babel retraining. So basically, I started building habits in the morning, each day, that would kind of signal to my body that it was time, you know, time to eliminate. And it’s not glamorous, and you know, it takes some time. But that was crucial for me. And my health started to improve so much once I was back into a rhythm.

[00:26:25] Rachel Scheer: So yeah, for me, it was really working on that nervous system in large part helped your your services so similar to mine, it’s just a different root causes, and what caused the body to be off in the first place that I had to go through very similar stuff. And I did a little bit of pelvic floor therapy, I found that to be somewhat helpful. But really, I think when for myself, I was able to address the stress and a lot of the parasympathetic sympathetic response that helped a lot, which was playing a big role on the gut brain connection ultimately there for me. So I think that’s interesting that you hadn’t work that interesting, but it’s, it’s cool to hear that you had to work on that system to simultaneously, welding is protocols for healing the guts to be able to get that bone healing? And I know so many of my clients are probably wondering, are people listening to the podcast, but, you know, for someone who’s dealing, let’s say, with mycotoxins or other toxins in their body, and their gut has been badly affected, how long do you think that typically takes? For them? Good healing? is a question I get a lot. And I’m just hearing your answer.

[00:27:30] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, well, it really depends. I would say probably a six month timeframe, at least is is realistic to start seeing, like noticeable changes and how your guts working for you and how you’re feeling day to day. You know, the guts pretty dynamic, it can change quickly. But if you’ve been kind of building up this toxic burden, for a while, you know, with mold and mycotoxins, it’s not going to be an overnight shift. It’s more of a long haul process, but it’s worth it. For sure.

[00:28:09] Rachel Scheer: I think I kind of know that answer for sure. But everyone’s always one and sunny here. And I’m gonna get better. But some expectations, and I know too, it depends on how dysfunctional the gut has become, for somebody who has severe dysbiosis, leaky gut, maybe they have some pathogens, it’s going to take them a lot longer to help that in conjunction with mold, versus somebody who may be just has a little bit of some dysbiosis there and some toxins. So it’s always for everybody, listen to me very dependent on your toxic load. And also how dysfunctional the gut is, overall there too, and how long it’s going to take to fully heal. I think the beautiful thing though, is when we can remove the stressors, and we can give the body what it needs to heal, like, it is so possible to heal. I mean, you Carolyn story of my story of almost having my large intestine removed. So it just takes, you know, getting the answers that you need. I think also working with somebody who knows what they’re doing, of course, like someone like Lindsey, especially in this department who can relate and connect, because I think it’s the hardest thing ever, when you work with someone who kind of knows a little bit, but they haven’t really gone through it themselves to like, fully know, like, like, I get it like it was it’s hard. And I get what you’re going through. And this is really what it’s going to take and you know, being with someone every step of the way, and knowing that hey, it’s not a quick fix, but we can heal and knowing really what that pathway is going to look like. And I think for anybody listening when like my clients aren’t your your clients to Lindsey have had just like, hey, this is what’s off. Here’s kind of the game plan and it may be six months or longer, but what we’re going to do in order to, you know, address the body and maybe some modifications of course along the way based off of how do you if you’re responding but it’s just the This weight lifted off of just having information there.

[00:30:04] Lindsay Christensen: Yes, this can be. I mean, any complex chronic illness can be overwhelming to go through on your own. But mold illness, it can feel very, very isolating, especially if other people in your household are not affected in the same way you are. So definitely, I think having a practitioner on board who’s well versed in, what it is that you’re dealing with, not only will give you more support, but can also help accelerate the healing process so that you’re not, you know, getting caught up doing things that aren’t going to be helpful or, you know, missing out on certain pieces that are really crucial. So yeah, I agree with you partnering with somebody who gets it can can make a world of difference.

[00:30:50] Rachel Scheer: With different mold types. Another question I just thought of is like food based mold versus environmental molds, because some of the testing you can run like, I think most people come back with like a little bit of mold. I feel like now that I’ve done this for a while on people in like, which ones are one, we can kind of understand which ones are more harmful, but to like, when you really, really need to treat because it’s kind of common for most people to have a little bit of mold crack, base mold, it’s found in rise, coffee, things like that, in your opinion, what are the differences and like this type of mold is really bad, we need to get out and maybe a little bit more normal? Or should we just make sure we’re always getting any kind of mold out in the body?

[00:31:36] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, good question. So the consensus is definitely that like, we’re all consuming some small amounts of mold and mycotoxins through certain foods and there are some foods that contain that are more likely to contain more than mycotoxins and others like coffee grains, would be those would be two big ones. So, in general, hopefully, our bodies should be able to process those food based mycotoxins and get them out of the body. However, for somebody who’s already dealing with a pretty high mycotoxin burden in their body, one potential strategy that can be useful is to try to eat a quote unquote low mold diet, just to try to reduce as much as possible additional incoming mycotoxins, you know, from other foods. So and then one other comment on that is that even if your body is able to get rid of those mycotoxins in a timely manner, they could potentially exert some effects along the way. So like, as your body’s processing them, I recently came across a study looking at they described it as like low level but chronic mycotoxin intake was found, I think it was through greens mostly was found to promote leaky gut. And so for somebody who’s already sensitive, you know, a food food source of mycotoxins could be stressful to their body, and might be something to limit while while recovering. But definitely the environmental exposure is, you know, the more threatening source of mold and mycotoxins. If you’re dealing with with mold illness. Yeah,

[00:33:25] Rachel Scheer: that makes sense. And like looking at symptoms to Yeah, absolutely. Everybody and all of that. That’s super helpful. So what would you say, for somebody who is dealing with gut issues? Let me actually rephrase this question for somebody who is struggling to heal their gut. At what point do you feel like they should start thinking, Hey, maybe I have some mold toxicity or some toxins in my body, versus someone who maybe just needs to do some microbiome testing and clean up their diet a bit there?

[00:34:00] Lindsay Christensen: Yeah, great question. So well, if you’re working with a practitioner, hopefully the practitioner has questions on their initial consult questionnaire, what have you where they’re screening for environmental exposures? I actually, yeah, I asked us right up front, like have you ever lived in a water damaged building or been exposed to mold? Even if I don’t use that information initially, with the client? I, I know that I can turn back to it if the initial response to gut healing is not what we hoped for. Oftentimes, I find that individuals who have mold or mold illness playing into their gut symptoms, they may experience a little bit of improvement with, you know, the typical style of gut protocol used, but it’s definitely they’re definitely not where they want to be yet and we may even try multiple rounds and they’re still not where they want to be. And that would often be the point at which I would suggest digging more into the mold and environmental piece. I like to see what we can accomplish first. But it always depends, you know, the client, the client tells me there’s like mold growing all over their Bathroom Ceiling, I’m going to address that right away with them and like tell them you know, please have a consult with an environmental professional who can help you because that’s not, that’s not a great environment to be in to support your overall health. So it depends.

[00:35:29] Rachel Scheer: And I totally get that. I think for anybody who’s listening, you know, the first question to really ask yourself is, do you feel like you’re exposed to mold? Is there currently mold in your home? Do you smell it? Do you need to get some things tested? Because that can be a big indicator, especially if you are someone who already has symptoms, and you have gut symptoms, and you think that you could have been exposed to mold previously, and other living arrangements are currently right now, you know, that can be a red flag to maybe consider, okay, do I maybe have mycotoxins in my body? Do I have other kind of toxins that are playing a role in inhibiting my overall healing. And then thereafter, what she’s really saying, as if you’re someone who’s doing a lot of the work to heal your gut, so maybe you have cleaned up a dime, you’ve addressed some of the stress side, and you’re doing some different protocols there, hopefully working with the practitioner, you know, along this journey, but you’re not really getting the results you want maybe getting a little bit of progress and not really seeing the full healing, that may be a good time to think, hey, is there maybe something that I’m missing? Could there be toxins that are unaddressed ultimately in the body, and that’s where running some more extensive testing that most people don’t run right off the bat, like, it’s normal to just straight up on a bunch of mold pesty, Lyme disease or things like that. But it may be a time to say, hey, there’s something else that could be going on that is fully inhibiting my healing? Most people, you know, you haven’t address the nutrition side. First and foremost, you know, you haven’t tried to send different, you know, more standard gut protocols, I’d say that’s probably a good place to start. First and foremost, before you start thinking, I got some holes in the body or anything.

[00:37:14] Lindsay Christensen: Well said, yeah, don’t freak yourself out. Every single time, but it’s something good to have on your radar, should you need to think about it at some point. Well, this has been so helpful for all of my listeners here.

[00:37:24] Rachel Scheer: And I know a lot of people will really benefit. I have had quite a few clients with mast cell activation, people who have came back and they have had toxins in their body and are going through, whether it’s a detox Protocol, or they’re going through a gut healing journeys, I know this is going to be so valuable for everybody. Is there anything you think the listeners should know about? Mold or gut healing? That I haven’t asked you?

[00:37:57] Lindsay Christensen: Good question, I think we’ve been pretty far I guess, I would, I would just repeat again, like don’t underestimate the impact of your environment, both physically, and as you alluded to earlier, actually, like, mentally and emotionally on impacting your gut health. So an environmental piece can be huge. And if you feel like you’ve done a lot of work and aren’t where you want to be digging more into the environmental piece, including potential mold, could be quite helpful. You can’t

[00:38:31] Rachel Scheer: heal the environment that made you sick. Mm hmm. Yeah. And I love when you put two functional medicine people together, we can go into all different areas. So thank you so much for joining the show here today. Lindsey, where can people learn more about working with you learn more about your website and everything that you got going on?

[00:38:51] Lindsay Christensen: Yep, absolutely. So my nutritional practices called ascent to health. People can find more information about my nutrition services on my website. I’m sure you’ll link to it somewhere. But it is the sent the number two and then health.com. My Instagram handle the same, it’s sent number two and health. Those are the two two places I’m most active blogging on my website, and then posting more educational content on Instagram. So yeah, those are two good resources. And I also have a regular email newsletter. Right in routinely sharing and photos that people can can sign up for that on my website as well.

[00:39:34] Rachel Scheer: Everybody goes, subscribe on Lindsay website. We’ll put all of that on the show notes if you want to get some more information about working with her or getting all of the valuable information that she’s putting out there. And it’s been an honor to have you on the show here today. And Lindsay, thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge.

[00:39:52] Lindsay Christensen: That’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:39:56] Rachel Scheer: All right, you guys. Thank you for tuning in. This has been Scheer Madness.