My Experience with Mold

everything I am doing to remediate

Hi hi lovely friends. A little update for you if you’ve been following along on social media, and if not, here’s the low down:

For a little while now I have been feeling off. It started out with a bad sore throat that lingered for weeks, turned into a sinus and allergy issue with an occasional fever and chronic bloody noses. Migraines. Itchy skin. Poor sleep.

Something was wrong, and my body knew it.

I went to the doctor & everything was negative, everything looked ‘normal enough’. I was told it was probably just environmental—meaning bad air quality, pollen, allergens, etc…which made sense to me because the Canada fires were effecting the NYC air quality, and I do occasionally get seasonal allergies. So I started working on supporting my lung health as best as possible. Until this weekend, when I went to grab a pair of jeans in my closet and noticed they were soaking wet.

Slowly, I started grabbing clothes around it, and every single one was soaking wet, covered in mold, stinking of mildew. WTF?

I pulled everything off the closet shelves and behind it all….a damp wall covered in mold. The entirety of my closet was soaked, mold growing all around it. The irony that as soon as I discovered this, I immediately started bleeding out of both nostrils (I’m sorry for the visual….). In this moment I will say I had a slight panic attack. I have heard the horror stories of mold toxicity. I let fear take over and started freaking out.

When I posted about this, the responses were overwhelming (in a positive way). Reminders that my body is smart, it is resilient and knows how to heal. Funny encouragement like it is going to be OK humanity used to live in caves. And more than anything, so many people relating and dealing with the same issue. Tons of helpful tips and tricks. Abundance of advice. You guys made me feel so much better. Everything is going to be ok…move one step at a time.

With the help of my landlord we discovered there was a hole in our roof that allowed the crazy rain this season to leak into the closet, and the crazy humidity to allow that mold to thrive. The roof is now patched up, and soon there will be a mold remediation that we will be gone for. The entire closet wall will be torn down and replaced. So for the past week Cooper and I’s day-to-day has felt a little flipped upside down.

But through this process there has been so much learning! So I want to share all the helpful advice I have received and what I have been personally doing to not only feel better internally but also to create an environment that prevents this from happening again in the future.

So let’s get into it……

PS: I am no expert on this. I am just sharing what I am currently doing + helpful advice I received. I will continue to share more as the situation progresses. Please consult a professional before making any changes—none of this is medical advice.

1. Find the root & remediate

Just like we can’t just treat symptoms in our body without finding the root cause to prevent further symptoms, it is the same with mold. Finding what is causing the mold and fixing that before getting rid of the mold is key. Ours was a leak in the roof as previously mentioned, so the first thing for us was to get that patched up. Depending on severity, this differs in every situation. Many people say they leave immediately. For us, we have hope that the remediation will solve the issue.

2. Get rid of mold

Remediation. For us this will consist of tearing down the closet wall and getting rid of the mold (done by our landlord and an expert). For now we have just closed up the space with a tarp.

AND then we need to get rid or salvage all the things that were contaminated by mold. This was primarily clothing for us and items nearby. A lot of stuff we had to throw out, some stuff we did laundry normally that was affected but not terrible, and then there was some stuff that was wet & smelled that I wanted to try to salvage. So this is how we cleaned it:

• #1: Wash cycle with epsom salt + lots of white vinegar (like, a lot), hot water

• #2: Wash cycle with EC3 laundry additive + clean detergent, hot water, repeat

So in total we did three cycles for each one load of laundry. Most of the smell is gone and it looks clean. We will continue to add some of the EC3 laundry additive in future cycles as well to make sure everything is gone. We don’t have an outdoor space, but if you do have access to one drying clothing out in the sun after this cycle can also be wonderful to get rid of mold.

Also got the mold solution concentrate & air purification candle to spray every day items that were exposed and also help further purify the air. Beeswax + plants (like Peace lilies, snake plants, spider plants, and Boston ferns), pure essential oils (like tea tree, eucalyptus, oregano) can all also help to purify the air.

3. Purify airborne mold

We were super lucky to already have multiple air purifiers in our space (this has always been something I prioritized) so when we found out there was mold we cleaned and replaced the filters and pumped them up to their highest setting.

My favorite air purifiers are the Air Doctor + the Jaspr.

We also cleaned out all other filters, like our AC filters (using the mold concentrate mentioned above).

4. Reduce moisture & dehymidify

Mold loves humidity, and New York has been extremely wet and humid. So we got a dehumidifier to put in the closet, and WOW let me tell you that thing was full of water within a couple hours it was insane how much moisture was pulled from the air. Reducing moisture will help to prevent mold growth and spreading. I think we will probably get another one soon too just to keep in the bathroom & living area for preventative measures.

A friend also recommended moisture absorbers to put in areas with clothes/linens to prevent mold in the future so we got a few of those as well.

5. Detox & support lung health

Things I am doing for now other than my typical nourishment.

AGAIN: Please do your own research!!!!

To Detox

• Deep Diaphragmatic Breathing (about 70% of toxins can be released through breathing) I have been prioritizing breath-work, especially outside in nature

• Sweating!!! Sauna 3x a week and I take Chlorella Manna as a binder before and/or castor oil on my liver (I also like doing castor oil packs a couple days a week)*

  • Look at #3 on this post to see my sauna tips

• Liver Cleanse & Support Tonic (I do this in my morning water—”glow” works as a discount)

• Lymphatic Support (manual massage is my favorite. also love the vibration machine and boots!!!)

To Help Cleanse Mold

• Colloidal Silver (under my tongue in the morning and before bed)

• Chlorophyll (in my morning water)

• Mold and Mycotoxin Cleanse Tonic (I do this in my morning water—”glow” works as a discount)

For Lung Health

• Lung Health Tincture (I do this in my morning water—”glow” works as a discount)

• Mullein Tea + Lung Health Tea (I am drinking tons of herbal tea + manuka honey)

Overall Immunity

• Acupuncture!!!! This has changed my lifeeeeeee

• Propolis Nasal + Throat Spray (“glowwithella” works as a discount)

• Histamine & Immune Supplement (“glowwithella10” works as a discount)

• Shilajit (“glowwithella” works as a discount, I do a few drops in my water)

• Immune IG (I blend this in my matcha or smoothies)

• ParaX (great antimicrobial, antiviral, antibacterial). I do not do this daily.

I am not planning on doing all this long-term. Just short term until remediation is done and I begin to feel better.

*Important to make sure you are also have bowel movements daily when detoxing

6. Trust your body.

This is the most important thing. Release fear. Release stress. Do not attach yourself to sickness as an identity. Do not make “healing” your life. Live. Give your body the tools it needs to thrive, trust that it is resilient and knows how to heal, do your best, and move forward. If you need to get out of your environment to do that, then do it.

I honestly believe this is more important than any supplement. Releasing fear and stress. Getting outside in nature. Taking deep breaths. Moving the body. Nourishment for the body and mind, your body knows how to do the rest.

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I really hope no one else is dealing with this and that this post is completely irrelevant to you!!!! But I did get so many questions on what I am doing now so I wanted to share. This is all so new so I’m sure things will change rapidly, but I wanted to get this out there to you since you have all been so supportive and helpful to me.

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions. Sending you all lots of love! I’ll keep you updated, also stay tuned for Meal Shortcuts this Sunday, followed by Q&A on Wednesday and then Top 10 Favorites (August Edition) the following Sunday!

Talk to ya soon. XO - Ella