Latest / Motherhood Alliance Podcast / Is Mold Silently Making You Sick? w/ Dr. Mitch Sutton | Reclaim Health
Transcript
- Britney: Hey everyone, we are Britt and Dreya from motherhoodalliance.com and we are excited to welcome you to a four episode series with Dr. Mitch Sutton, a chiropractor and the founder of Reclaim Health. Dr. Mitch is a powerhouse of knowledge. You're going to learn that in these four episodes as he specializes in not only the nervous system, but also immune dysfunction, barrier permeability, which is like the gut and the brain blood barrier connection, mold toxicity, eczema, allergies, asthma, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Andrea Renkas: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Motherhood Alliance podcast. We are back here with Dr. Mitch from Reclaim Health, and we have had just awesome conversations on all things, immunity, blood brain barriers, all sorts of stuff. If you guys haven't listened to any of those, make sure you start episode one, go one, two, three, well worth your time. Just so much information. And Dr. not only educates us, but he also gives us ⁓ Britney: Using advanced testing and targeted support, Dr. Mitch helps patients truly connect the dots of their health in order to understand how their body is actually functioning so they can stop guessing and they can actually start healing. And when he's not helping patients reclaim their health, he is a husband and a dad of two girls. We are really excited to introduce him to you now. Andrea Renkas: so many things that we can do even just while we're at home, like the things that you have in your kitchen, really great stuff. I just highly recommend taking a listen to that. We're going to kind of switch gears a little bit in this episode. We're going to be talking about mold. And this is something I think a lot of people are ⁓ more in tune to. It's definitely something that affects, I think, more people than ⁓ realize. And I know for you, Dr. Mitch, you actually have a personal story on ⁓ had affected your family. I guess why don't we start with like what is and then maybe if you don't mind like go into kind of your story and how you found this out and you know you're so healthy. Your family's doing great but something you just couldn't figure out and you had to do your own detective work. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, man, mold is never this is one of those things, right? Like, that is never the first thing that I ever want to jump to for somebody. But it's also kind of, you know, the the process of elimination a lot of times. Now, for us, out that had, toxicity in our house. In my oldest ⁓ Andrea Renkas: Yeah, I know. I Dr. Mitch Sutton: I think she was probably around like, maybe four months of age. And all a sudden, ⁓ like having some some blotchy skin, right, like started breaking out and having some of these issues. And, there's this whole like, confidence hit of, ⁓ we do all right things. And we do this and we do that, right? Like we live this lifestyle, the wisest happening, ⁓ And you know, we went through the usual culprits, Like, okay, let's look at food stuff, right? Let's see what ⁓ wife was eating at the time. And if there was anything that was ⁓ through into breast milk that was creating some issues, right? We did that. God, think ⁓ she's, every months we did a food test on her and just like it continued to get worse, Like continued to have more and more stuff and like bigger reactions to things. And I was like, It's not the food, okay, let's look at infectious agents, Like we ran a stool test. nothing spectacular showed up in that, But equally then at the same time, my wife was also having some issues of her own that like two ⁓ completely different symptom presentations, And this also when COVID stuff was like when we were home all the time. And all of a sudden, right, like, and again, I ran urine, I ran blood, I ran hormone, I ran all of the things that I knew, And like nothing was changing. And then it just kind of like dawned. I was like, it's the environment, what is it that we're constantly being exposed to that is creating issues? And so like I did, I basically did three different tests, Like, okay. little, you know, like you get your little Petri dish test that you put in the corners of places to see what was going on there. I did a reactivity test with my daughter and I did an actual toxicity level test with my wife. And basically is all the same one. So I was like, ⁓ ding, ding, ding, we got winner. ⁓ And yeah, Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: cleaned up, you know all the all the places that we we Suspected that were anything that was going on and like and we got out of there now In this process to write like understanding this there's a great book His name's dr. Neil Nathan's called toxic Technically 25 % of the population cannot remove the toxin from mold. yes, fungal species mold stuff, Like infectious agent, but it's not necessarily the infectious agent. It's the toxins that are released by it. And what creates a lot of issues. Now, ⁓ Britney: When you say that they can't release it, you're saying once it's in their system, they can't clear it out of their body? Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, they can't detox it appropriately. Yeah. So that sucks. And this is why too, I was like, well, why am I not affected? come I feel fine? I'm in the same, all of these pieces and turns that my daughter has my wife's liver. It's that whole thing. But it's... Andrea Renkas: Yeah, that's a lot of people. Yeah Dr. Mitch Sutton: There's a lot of different processes that get inhibited. But also technically, some of these toxins also go and block more of liver pathways. basically, you clog funnel with the toxin. And then over time, you just continue to build more more more more toxins circulating through your system, which is why things progress and get way worse. Britney: Yeah, let's stay sciency for a second because prior episodes we talked a little bit molecular mimicry, which is something that you're seeing a lot with autoimmune or those types of things. So first of mold, like if there's mold in your drywall and you don't even know it, how is that getting out to you? What are we actually inhaling? And then what is it doing in the body? You just mentioned liver. ⁓ Is mold always of affecting our liver or is it affecting other things? So let's get a little bit like Dr. Mitch Sutton: So this is now technically like just wrap it, tie it a bow and all of this stuff, you either inhale it or you ingest it. So it directly affects a barrier. And so that is ⁓ inside some of those tissues, ⁓ then that's where you're also seeing some of that constant inflammatory response that stimulates and affects a barrier, which then again is what shifts immune system, which is where, again, then it led me down this entire path of like, okay, how does immune system work? And what's the the asthma and the allergies and the eczema and then, okay, that's exactly how an autoimmune system presents. And then that's exactly how degenerative brain issues go, ⁓ all those things kind of, I mean, Like it forced me to do this, Cause I had the conversation with pediatricians. I had the conversations with the allergists. I talked to anybody who would talk to me of like, why is this happening and what's going on? And, you know, here's your steroid. Here's your this. Here's your that. ⁓ to suppress of these things and like, ⁓ they're going to grow out of it. Nope. So again, just with a lot of these issues and I feel like a of people that do ⁓ they've had to do it out of necessity because they've had solve some of their own issues that have happened in their family. ⁓ Britney: So like for you guys, you were living in an environment that had it. And so they were constantly getting doses of it. For somebody who has, maybe they stayed in an Airbnb for a week and that had mold and then they leave and they go home where there is no mold. You just said 25 % of the population can't clear that on their own. how does it affect, let's talk about the 75 % of the population that can. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. Britney: Is that something where they might get some mild symptoms and then their body can detox it on their own? Or how does that work? Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, most part right like depending on how long that you've been in that environment, are you to get some possible like increase, you know, sinus mucus, right? are you going to clear throat a little bit may have a little skin irritation with some of those things. And you leave and you go home and everything goes back to normal, when you see what increased mucus production skin issues, right lung, whatever, Like that's just a sign of something irritating and inflaming the system. And if those things resolve, then you kind of be like, well, that inflammation is no longer there and everything's kind of okay. But when it persists, ⁓ that's, when we start to see like, ⁓ boy, okay, ⁓ what part, because ⁓ like the the but there's also certain processes of like, you can't eliminate the toxin if it already set off this reactive state and things. Like you gotta deal with the reactive state first before you can start eliminating some of the things because if you it too hard, too fast, then you'd explode all that stuff back inside the system and then you see things flare up worse, it's a nightmare. ⁓ Yeah, but like each, well, and then two, understanding which one that it is. Each mold toxin a certain ⁓ Andrea Renkas: Wow. Dr. Mitch Sutton: elimination detoxification pathway in the body. understanding which one it is, ⁓ also tells you what pathway that needs to be supported. Then also each toxin has a higher affinity for certain binders, charcoal works great for some, ⁓ some it even touch, Some it's bent like clay. Some it's there's something called saccharomyces ballardii. Like there are all certain ones that have a higher affinity for these things and like knowing which one it is, is what helps you get rid of it, it helps to know the path of what to walk through to go through some of that stuff. ⁓ But. Andrea Renkas: Wow. Britney: So let's say somebody's having some symptoms. You figure out it's mold. I'm just trying to process, obviously if it's in their home, then you have to remediate the environment. You have to change the environment if that's where it's stemming from. But how are you testing to know, first of all, what's the type of mold? What's system? What you just talked about? What's the binder you need? What's the so and so you need? And then the whole process of changing your environment, wholly overwhelming. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. Yeah, so there's correct, right? So it's first you got to you first you see what it is, Like is this what it is? There's a urine test that is helpful, but like not always helpful, because that shows your ability to detox. if inhibiting your visability to detox, then you may not see that show up on that test. blood test that full on is gonna tell you. There's something called C4A that is ⁓ a complement immunological marker elevates screaming high when you got mold stuff. There's something that's called melanocyte hormone that is gonna be super low. There's VEGF that's important. There's another one that's called VIP that show certain inflammatory like blood flow things, right? Because technically in new blood vessels come from ⁓ hypoxic So how white blood cells kill stuff? Okay. Is that it takes the water inside the cell and then it steals from oxygen from the surrounding tissue and turns it into hydrogen peroxide. So then that tissue becomes hypoxic, right? You're getting oxygen there. then body's going to create more blood vessels around that tissue to try and continue to feed the oxygen to the area. And those are all tissues that kind of show you all those things. that blood test is spectacular at yes, ding, ding, ding. This is hands down for sure. But then if you could do both them, then it tells you a hundred percent we have it. And this is the one that it is. And this is the direction that we have to do to get it out of the system. And there's this piece you have to baby step it Like you got to pull a little bit because if you pull too much, you're going to explode it. but then the more that you eliminate, the more that you can do to pull it, So you slowly build into this process. Yeah, yeah. some of the signs, if that's where you're going with this, ⁓ there's the constant thirst, There's this weird stiffness in your neck. Britney: snowball. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Right, like not an adjustment headache type of a stiffness. There's also just like you're just chronically in pain, there's this also MMP marker that's on there that basically is like burrowing through your tissues that's creating more inflammation because of the toxicity, which creates a lot of pain. This one always gets me every time. Weird ⁓ constant static shock. Yeah, I know. So, so okay. Britney: Okay. You know what's funny is I'm laughing, but there's somebody listening right now that's going, that's me. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, right. I had one that she was holding on to such a an electric charge that she'd walk past a computer and the computer would fritz out. Yeah, yeah. It's wild. So okay. Yeah, so like why that that happens, There's this there's this this blood marker, it's called melanocyte stimulating hormone that ⁓ is made the same become pro hormones, Like you have this Andrea Renkas: Yeah. What? Britney: What? Andrea Renkas: She's like thinking it was a superpower or something. Dr. Mitch Sutton: the beginning structure of a hormone and a lot of times it breaks off into two hormones. That ⁓ comes from also this hormone called ACTH, ⁓ Corticotropin Hormone, which is basically tells adrenal tissue to maintain your normal blood fluid. So if that's low, then you're not maintaining your fluid level and you're... You're shoving water out of your kidneys all the time and you gotta pee a lot, which you're also then pulling the electrolytes out of the system as well, which then you're creating this imbalance in just the normal electrolyte charge that's in your body, which is why then you have a lot of static shock. But that's also why you gotta pee a lot and that's also why you get lightheaded and dizzy and all those pieces. Yeah. Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Britney: Very interesting. Well, I feel like it is almost helpful that there's some specific symptoms that are unique because I guess originally I was kind of thinking people all the time are walking around just not feeling well, right? And that's why they seek out people like you, or they're ⁓ I'm having some some stuff on my, my skin is a little bit weird. And I just constantly feel like my, just like I'm a little bit bloated all the time. And I don't know if it's my hormones, but something is off. They just know something is off. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Right? Britney: So it is helpful to hear that there's some unique symptoms to mold. But at the same time, as you were talking before, it sounds like some of these tests that you run, if somebody's just like, I have no idea what it is, if it's hormones, if it's my gut health, if it's mold, somebody coming to someone like you, like you can do tests and the tests will tell you, hey, red flag, it's mold. Okay. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Correct, correct. And usually, people are coming in with a bunch of tests already ran, in the sense of some quality testing that's like, nobody can figure out what this is. it's like, ⁓ my God, you don't want to hear those words, right? Because it's like, if this is what it is, then we're in for a journey here. Andrea Renkas: ⁓ yeah, yeah. when we're talking detox, we're also talking, are we talking like cleaning out your liver, your kidneys? how are we ⁓ detoxing? Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. So it did well and this is like the catch of this too. It depends because again each toxin likes to sequester in certain organs, there's whole it's hepatobiliary recirculation process, Like your body tries to conserve your bile, So reabsorbs it, okay. Now, if again, like that inability to eliminate and it holds on to that bio, then you recirculate that toxin back inside your system. There are some that directly affect kidney, There are some that directly affect liver. There are some that directly affect neurological function. There's some that directly affect immune system, There's some that also reproductive ⁓ organ, all of have ⁓ identifying which one it is is also helpful to know which route do we need to go through in order to help like start working on eliminating some of the stuff inside the body. Now are you constantly being surrounded by it, do need to change your environment or have you had this past exposure and yes, you've changed environments throughout the years and like something still persists, ⁓ There's that conversation that needs to be had with it too. Britney: So when you're talking about mold, I do think about window sills, know, where they get the condensation, they can get the black mold. What are some other common areas that people might be having exposure to mold or different types of mold to just be aware of? Whether it's in your kitchen that you're not ⁓ mold or what are some other areas just to be aware of? Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, is now a very, yeah, we're super sensitive to this now, like, we check all of these things. ⁓ Coffee machine, that has some sneaky amount in there. Sometimes we get our we get our air ducts pretty regularly, because there's certain things that get stuck inside there. Honestly, this is helpful, right, like Everybody go home that's listening, go home and crank your bathroom fans to the highest unit that can. Okay, so just in the bathroom fan, There's different speeds that it goes through, if you can crank that and just crank it all high as possible to just get rid of the humidity, the excess humidity from sitting in there, Because like we've all been guilty ⁓ of sitting in shower for 30 minutes, super hot, because it just feels great, there's those pieces of like how to ⁓ make sure that the ventilation is also working appropriately. Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: ozone emitting air purifiers, like we have a couple of those in our house. actually this ozone ⁓ really neat because it actually, there's studies that show that it actually goes and kills it in the home. you just do all precautionary things. Britney: Okay, quick question on that. And then I want you to continue your checklist that you're going through, because this is really important for people to hear. But when you say something like that, this is just how my brain thinks, especially because we're always being thrown new wellness solutions. I'm never like a bandwagon jumper. And so I'm always just like, well, wait, what about, so ⁓ the ozone if it's killing mold, does it have any negative effect on humans? Because if it's killing something that's alive, technically, ⁓ Andrea Renkas: ⁓ yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Mm-hmm. Britney: How does it not have a negative effect on us? Dr. Mitch Sutton: So technically what it does is it breaks down the cell structure of particulates in the air. Okay. You know there's light coming in from the window and you see all the fuzzies. those are all just like air particulate stuff that so what ozone does is it goes and it breaks that structure and it all just like drops to the floor. Now, technically ⁓ house air like five times more full of than outside areas. Can there be some, I'll say a little bit of some sensitivity, especially breathing in, there's some stuff that's in your nose, ⁓ there's some stuff that's in your lung tissue, 100%. But also saying this, people go and get ozone therapy. They shove ozone directly inside your veins to just ⁓ oxygenate system. Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: All that that's doing is you're just creating a higher oxygen rich environment, which what ⁓ bodies do in general. So yeah, like there's and I know right like there's ⁓ Britney: Okay. Andrea Renkas: That makes sense. Dr. Mitch Sutton: there are people that like you may have to walk into it a little bit because if you just have stuff that's stuck inside nasal cavity or stuck inside lung tissue, like, can you feel some negative effect from some of those things? Yes. but it's it's the part of we've been breathing it in for years. ⁓ doing fine. You know, Yeah. Yeah. Britney: Mm-hmm. Sure. Yes. I always just a little bit like, ⁓ wait, what? Okay, so continue on your list of like other things. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, well, and even to like dental work, right? Like holistic dentists, you do your ozone therapy, that kills all the bacteria, the placking, that's what you use it for. It's just super high amount of oxygen, basically. So. Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Britney: Yeah, sure. Okay, cool. Alright, what else do you check in your home? Or in your car, or wherever else we should be thinking about. Dr. Mitch Sutton: ⁓ okay. Andrea Renkas: Shower, yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: out like bathrooms, bathrooms are important. we, again, with whole bathroom fan and like, I probably clean out the grout, pretty often more than most or my wife makes me do it. ⁓ then also like the ⁓ the caulk, right? And all the the silicone stuff you put in there, like I replace that every once in a while. where you have pipes, honestly, well, and this is to check in basement, making sure that there's no cracks in foundation and like you have water leaking in in certain places. It's such a Andrea Renkas: What about a fireplace? ⁓ there be anything with that potentially? Dr. Mitch Sutton: And... Hmm, honest, that's a great question. I don't have a great answer for you on that one. But yeah, correct. it's the piece of again, no or go where you know water could have the possibility of leaking out into your house. So kitchen, bathrooms, where those pipes going to be coming through. Andrea Renkas: Yeah. If there's any leaking, I spoke, but. Britney: and window sills, I feel like, are always ⁓ place. Dr. Mitch Sutton: window sills. Yeah, like we clean ours, you know, we do the whole shebang every year, do all the things, right? But again, saying it, Your body has the ability to deal with it, but 25 % of people have a hard time. And that's where, okay, making sure that you do the appropriate things and help your body eliminate whatever binder that's needed based on what the results are of like, sometimes we do that every once in a while. And this is just because I can do it, I retest my family and just be hey, we're checking these things where we're at, like what's going on, making sure that we're all healthy, you know, all those pieces. Britney: Well, I think it's just really encouraging for someone who, if they ever experienced this, which hopefully they don't, But if they do, they can come to someone like you, they can get the whole family tested and, through those tests, you can understand who's going to be able to detox better than others. And then you can help through this journey. Man. Yeah. ⁓ I feel like mold is just one of those Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Britney: low level fears that everybody has of is there mold in my house? Especially if you're dealing with chronic things. Like my son has always had eczema and allergies and we've gone through numerous things to help start to ease it, but it's just always like, ⁓ this the culprit? So yeah, it's... Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, and this is like more often than ⁓ my God, Brittany, I don't want to say this, But with kid stuff, with kid stuff, ⁓ usually there's some of environmental thing that's triggering something usually, because like what else you haven't been around enough to like hurt your body, you know, like in some of those scenarios, Britney: Yeah. Well, I think all of these episodes together though, these were so great. These were so great. I love we a little sciencey, but also like realistic. think you're so easy to talk to. I really appreciate you being willing to come onto the podcast and talk through these different topics with us, because no matter what somebody's going through, there is testing that can be done. There are things that we can do to, to work. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. Britney: you know, to work through it and to change our, to change our environment and change our body. And like you said, you're not like a magic wand guy that's going to just tap them on the head and things are going to be fine. They have to be willing to put some work into it, but there is hope in resolving these issues. So I appreciate you coming on. We always end our four episode series with our guests by asking though, what is the future of Reclaim Health? What does the future hold for you? Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. ⁓ man, been a lot of dreaming about this. This is something, like I love this, I was, I don't know how to not do this. everything that comes out of me ⁓ something to do with how your works and like the health of it, And I'm hoping that someday, and again, this not this being. passed through me, ⁓ whenever I'm not able to do this anymore, that somebody else ⁓ is take on the torch, But there's, I don't ever wanna stop seeing patients, because that's, like you lose, you just the reality of the sometimes, Because like we're all people, And ⁓ we all got stuff and we're all this together and trying to help each other out in whatever way that we can. Would I love to, I don't know, Because I've seen those routes. I don't know if oh, we have Reclaim Health all over the country. I don't want that. That sounds too much. I've thought about Reclaim Farms, Okay, making sure food and going through this is also a piece like a mineral spring. like there was actually, this was really neat. when we went to Bozeman, Montana ⁓ and this spring and my daughter went in there and skin issues were gone. ⁓ in just some of those things, like, that's really cool. that would be something really neat to also have, Andrea Renkas: That's amazing. Dr. Mitch Sutton: yeah, I don't know. I'm a book right now. ⁓ Britney: ⁓ Dr. Mitch Sutton: there's some, it's literally like, it has to do with your barriers, some of those pieces that, like that topic's not, like, and again, through all of the education that I've gone through, like nobody just specifically talks about this piece of what you can do and why. And, where's that gonna go? Who knows, no idea. ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ I have a... ⁓ Andrea Renkas: Ooh. Britney: do you anticipate that coming out? Okay. It's just works between family and all the other stuff, right? ⁓ Andrea Renkas: Yeah. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah, yeah, right. Like I've had ⁓ one of my one of my chiropractic buddies, he he did a book and this is a couple years ago and just like, Okay, how did you do this? And it's just jot down all your stuff, like whatever thoughts and like you organize and you put it together later ⁓ wherever it comes together, it's gonna come together. And also too, like I know that my knowledge is never going be fully done, in learning some of these things and are there gonna be more stuff that I'm gonna wanna put in there that's important to see? Britney: you have lots of ideas, so we're excited to continue to follow you and... Andrea Renkas: Yeah, I feel like you need to get on like Ben Bickman's podcast and some of these other guys, you know, you'll have to promote your book on there. And that's how you're going to take off and get on the grand stage. ⁓ Yeah, I see it for you. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We'll get there. We'll get there. So. Britney: Well, I'm glad we could, yeah, we could be your first podcast experience. We're excited. We're excited for everyone to be able to listen to these episodes and share them. think so many people are going to be impacted by just even the education that you've shared through these. So thank you again for joining us. Dr. Mitch Sutton: Yeah No, thank you very much. I very much enjoyed this.