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The Root Cause Nobody Found: How Black Mold, a Functional Medicine Hour, and One Question Changed Everything | Episode 30 · The Brain Dump

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Sandy Boone, therapist, coach, and nervous system educator with 30 years in healthcare and mental health.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I built two practices, got diagnosed with ADHD at 50, and learned the hard way that healers need healing too.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I help female therapists and healers regulate their nervous systems, reclaim their lives, and stop being everyone's everything.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Braindump with Sandy Boone.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you a story about the time I called the Navy, the army that's on the ocean.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I knew something was wrong before I said it.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was reaching for the word.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I knew exactly what I meant, and what came out was a description instead of a noun.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like my brain had the concept but couldn't find the label anymore.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the moments that scared me the most.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it happened once, but because it was happening regularly.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Words were slipping, my thinking felt foggy and slow and unreliable in a way that it never had before.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was developing a low-grade paranoia I couldn't explain, and I thought I might be losing my mind.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the part where I tell you what was actually happening.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I had been living and working inside of a house full of black mold for months without knowing it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: My body, which had been doing everything right, exercising and eating well and thriving, had quietly stopped being able to clear the toxin.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: The conventional medical system had no explanation for any of it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'd been to the hospital with what looked like appendicitis, fever, elevated white cell count, abdominal pain, physical exam consistent with appendicile involvement, but the CT scan was essentially normal.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: They were going to send me home.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: My husband advocated for me to stay overnight.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: By morning, my white count had significantly decreased, and my glucose was elevated despite not having eaten anything since the morning before.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I walked out of that hospital knowing that the traditional medical system was failing me.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't know what was missing yet.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: A functional medicine practitioner in one hour connected every piece of it to the mold exposure that had started three months earlier when my husband pulled up a section of flooring and found black mold underneath.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: That single hour changed the trajectory of my health, and it's also why I do what I do.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Before I tell you what a functional medicine deep dive actually looks like, I want to describe the person it's designed for.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are probably this person, if you've ever been to your doctor and been told that everything looks fine, and you know in a way that is not anxiety and is not hypochondria that everything is far from fine.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Something is wrong, you can feel it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You just can't get anyone to confirm it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You may have unrelenting fatigue that doesn't respond to rest.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not tired because you didn't sleep, tired in a way that sits in your bones regardless of how much sleep you get.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You may have done the logical work of therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, the things you're supposed to do.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: But you're still not feeling present, connected, or alive in the way that you know you should be able to feel.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: You may be looking at a growing list of prescriptions, one medication to address a symptom, another to address the side effects of the first one, possibly a third to manage what the second one created, and wondering if there's a way to understand what is actually driving all of this rather than adding another layer of management.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You may be disenchanted with the current medical system.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not bitter necessarily.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've had good doctors who are doing their best within a system structured around 15-minute appointments and reference ranges rather than optimal function and root cause.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: You may be on the verge of being handed a label that doesn't feel right.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Underneath, that's persistent, insistent, knowing something is wrong and I am not crazy.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you've already received that label and you just don't want to follow the traditional medical trajectory.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are not crazy.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: You may just need someone who knows where to look.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let me finish the story I started at the beginning.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Before the mold, I'd been the healthiest I'd ever been.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was exercising consistently, eating well, feeling strong and clear and present.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And things started shifting in ways I couldn't explain.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It started with knee pain, not the kind that happens after a hard leg day.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Persistent, achy, showing up when it had no reason to.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was constant.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I went to the doctor.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: The x-ray was normal, the MRI was normal, labs looked great, and then it went away somewhat mysteriously.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Months later, in the middle of COVID, I woke up in the middle of the night nauseated.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I developed a fever, abdominal pain that given my medical background, I recognized immediately.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I drove myself to the hospital because I was fairly certain it was my appendix.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The clinical picture supported it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Fever confirmed white blood cell count elevated, physical exam consistent, and then they ran a CT scan and found essentially nothing.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: No appendix inflammation, no explanation for the presentation.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were ready to discharge me despite giving me IV pain meds.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: My husband pushed back and got me admitted overnight for pain management and observation.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: By morning, my white count had normalized.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: My glucose was elevated despite not having eaten since the previous morning.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I left that hospital with no answers and the distinct sense that something was happening in my body that the system around me wasn't equipped to find.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: A few months later, I found a functional medicine provider.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: She spent a full hour with me taking a history.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: She ordered labs that my conventional providers hadn't considered.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: She called me after the results came back and told me she was 99% certain it was a mold toxicity issue.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: That mold had likely always been a sensitivity for me, but I had stopped being able to clear it effectively.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: She asked if I had a mold exposure.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I thought back to the soft spot in my floor three months before everything started going sideways.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: My husband had pulled it up to make the repair, and underneath it was black mold everywhere.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'd been working from home in that house, in that mold for months without knowing it was there.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: My results, she told me, lit up like a Christmas tree.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The treatment was long and it was slow and it was so terribly hard.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was exhausted in a way that required midday naps I'd never needed before.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The mold was gone before the symptoms fully resolved.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: The weight I had gained didn't leave with the treatment.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I continued to gain despite doing everything right, which is what sent me deeper into functional medicine training so I could understand my own body better.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be honest with you here.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I am still heavier than I'd like to be.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I am still on my own journey, but in so many ways I am also healthier than I've ever been.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: My brain is clearer.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: I can feel the difference between a building with mold and one without within five minutes, my body tells me.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: The word retrieval problems are mostly gone.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: The paranoia is gone.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: The fog that had me describing the Navy as the army that's on the ocean is gone.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: What the functional medicine lens gave me was not a cure.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It gave me a map.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Short of the ADHD, my brain is definitely calmer these days.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let me walk you through what happens when we book a root cause roadmap deep dive with me.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: It starts before we ever get on a call together.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you reach out, I send you intake documents, a symptom questionnaire, and a lifestyle questionnaire designed to give me a picture of what's been showing up for you physically and emotionally, and the context in which it's happening.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I also ask for any lab work from the last year and any functional medicine labs you may have had done previously.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: When we sit down together, this is a real conversation, not a clinical interrogation.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: We talk.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: What's been showing up?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: What have you tried?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: What worked?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: What didn't?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Where have you been told everything is fine when you know it isn't?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: What do you suspect might be going on, even if you don't have the language for it yet?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I go through whatever labs you've brought with a functional lens.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is where normal doesn't mean optimal, becomes rather real than abstract.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: A thyroid panel that falls within the reference range may still not be supporting the level of function your brain and body need.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Iron levels that don't flag as deficient may be low enough to contribute to fatigue, brain fog, and mood dysregulation.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Glucose, cortisol, mineral patterns, all of these tell a story that standard interpretation often misses.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of our time together, we have co-created a plan that is doable, not a list of 47 things you're supposed to do perfectly starting tomorrow.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: A bird's eye view of the direction we're heading and the next steps that are actually manageable given your life.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: There may be supplement recommendations.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: If so, I provide access to those through my professional account so you don't have to navigate that on your own.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I need additional information that your current labs don't provide.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: When that's the case, I can teach you how to advocate for those labs from your own PCP if there's something a primary care physician would order.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: When they require a functional medicine pathway, I facilitate that process with you.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is never more complexity.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is the simplest, most targeted intervention that addresses what's actually driving your symptoms.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because the fix, once you find the root cause, is often surprisingly straightforward, not fast.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: The body didn't get here overnight and it doesn't heal overnight.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But often it's simpler than years of unexplained symptoms would suggest.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that surprises most people consistently in these sessions is the moment we trace a current symptom back to its root cause, or the moment I name a symptom that they didn't express to me.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because the symptom they've been trying to manage for years often has an explanation that nobody had looked for.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: When that explanation surfaces, something shifts, not just informationally, but in the body.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Relief sometimes, frustration that it took this long to find it, often both.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: The conventional medical system is extraordinarily good at many things.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Acute care, emergency medicine, complex diagnosis within a standard framework.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: These are real strengths worth honoring.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: What it is not structured to do is spend the time required to look at a person's full picture, trace symptoms back through history, and ask what is driving the pattern rather than what is the name of the pattern.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: A 15-minute appointment is not enough time to find mold toxicity.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is not enough time to look at a year of labs through a functional lens and notice what's present at a subclinical level.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is not enough time to understand what a person's life actually looks like and what their body has been navigating.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: An hour is sometimes enough to change everything.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: To work with me and find out what your picture looks like, check the show notes.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: I called the Navy the Army that's on the ocean because black mold had been quietly disrupting my neurological function for months, while my conventional labs looked largely unremarkable.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: One hour with a functional medicine practitioner connected all the dots that a hospital admission, multiple doctor visits, and normal imaging had not.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a criticism of the people who cared for me in those settings.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: They were working with the tools and the time they had available.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is an honest description of the limits of a system that was not designed to look for what is actually wrong at the root.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: The person who needs a functional medicine deep dive is not a hypochondriad.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: She is not someone who hasn't tried hard enough or hasn't been to enough doctors.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's someone whose body is telling a story that the standard framework hasn't been able to read.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your body is not lying to you.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It may just need someone who knows the language.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you are the person I described today, tired of being told everything is fine, looking for answers that the standard system hasn't provided, and ready to look at the whole picture, check the show notes.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find everything you need to book your root cause roadmap at sandyboon.com.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where we start finding what your body's been trying to tell you.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being here.