In this podcast, we talk to Eric Johnson Kealy Severson, and Alicia Swamy from Exposing Mold, a great website, and a great Facebook page. These three mold pioneers have discovered the best way to heal from mold poisoning is "AVOIDANCE." Here is a sample of what you’ll hear: Kealy Severson Kealy grew up in moldy homes and had mold-related illnesses most of her life. Then, as a practicing acupuncturist and herbalist, she and her husband found black mold under the kitchen sink. She said, “What I observed was my family of five – which I thought all had normal health symptoms like bloody noses, recurrent infections, and mood disturbances that I had justified as normal – was actually part of this exposure. So I started to get this picture of how vast this symptom presentation could be.” She started making videos and soon connected with Erik Johnson. “Eric was the only person that I could ask questions who had an answer that made sense. My other colleagues or other doctors, like my doctor, just wanted to check my thyroid.” Soon the two connected with Alicia. Said Kealy, “Something clicked when the three of us got together. When Eric and I paired up with Alicia, that's when the magic happened. It's like this the synergy between the three of us. We joke all the time that between all three of us, we're a fully functioning person. We're on fire! Alicia Swamy Alicia also felt a deep connection to Erik. She said, “I just resonated with what Eric had to say. And I felt like my life was so in danger and I was so desperate and I wasn't really receiving help from quote-unquote mold literate doctors. They were actually making me worse with their protocols that I just decided to take the plunge into avoidance.” With few options, Alicia decided, “I am going to do what I have to do. We packed up and left our home vacant and we set out for nowhere. I think the number one most important thing for people who are dealing with mold is really having support, and belief that you are going through something and it is environmentally driven.” At first, she got better. Then there was a second exposure in a basically brand new apartment on the outskirts of the desert. “I'm like what the hell? What's cooking? And so I really started at that point, really practicing strict strict avoidance. I didn't really get a grasp on it initially. And I think a lot of people don't. I think that's why it's so important to consult with a coach or someone or team.” Alicia says it's so important to be aware of every single thing in your environment. “That's most important and we didn't do that originally, but we did that the second time, and I rebounded quickly. Unfortunately, I am a hypersensitive individual. That means I cannot stand being in a very toxic environment with black mold for very long so I have to navigate my life and myself according to how I feel. And I think that the most important tool is believing – believing in your body and trusting yourself, and trusting your senses to get through these toxic exposures. It's not going to be a supplement, a treatment, a test. All of these things are nice to have. They're nice little tools to put in your toolbox. But that's not the sole thing that you should be focusing on.” Erik Johnson Erik is a true pioneer in the world of toxic mold poisoning. He was first poisoned in Truckee High School, near Lake Tahoe in California. Then poisoned again in the Army. Thankfully. his military training in bioweapons protocols helped him develop the avoidance practices that allow him to live almost a normal life. He has learned to avoid even the smallest amounts of cross-contamination which can lead to reactions that seem far in excess of the level of toxins involved. The key for Erik is to be outdoors as much as possible. He said, “Being outdoors seems to kick the body into detox mode. It appears that after you've been triggered by the sensitizing agent – Toxic Mold – that you become susceptible to other volatile organic compounds in your environment such as formaldehyde or if there's any propane wafting through the air, anything that you can inhale. We seem more vulnerable to it. So I feel that a major portion of recovery is just spending time in nature, out in the fresh air.” Erik described an avoidance hiatus. “It's just the concept that when you’ve been fired up by mold, your body locks down on all toxins, it doesn't want to release any of them. During the late Tahoe outbreak, whenever everybody was trying every conceivable detoxification regimen that anybody could invent, a couple of us discovered that just by going out to the desert – which is only an hour to the East of us – just spending time out there in a pristine location, we had more recovery than anything that anybody was doing back in town. So that was the basis of getting clear which was just an experiment to find out, ‘Can you go out to a really pristine location and achieve some kind of recovery...
