FAQ

Keep in mind this FAQ is made for people with CIRS or biotoxin illness, environmental allergies, etc. For the average Joe, it’s excessive. For someone whose immune system is going nuts, like people who have autoimmune symptoms or psychiatric symptoms or chronic fatigue, it really helps.

Helpful Links:

Doctors:

CIRS practitioners and proficient practitioners you can work with (most docs are not aware of CIRS yet). If you don’t want to pursue CIRS find an integrative doctor or naturopath who is at least aware of mold’s dangers. I would tackle this problem from a dietary perspective (the lion diet) and an environmental perspective. Getting out of mold is KEY, and treatment differs between practitioners. I’m trying the CIRS treatment now so we’ll see how that goes, so far it’s working but getting out of exposure has worked the most.

Symptoms/Health Testing:

Blood test – find a practitioner you can work with. I worked with Judy Cho initially to just get all of my labs back as fast as possible. I’d recommend this as well as finding a CIRS-proficient doctor, or naturopath.

NeuroQuant – looks at your brain – used for Alzheimers but it’s able to detect changes from mold/bacteria and Lyme disease as well.

VCS test-kit and online – looks sketchy but it’s legitimate. Make sure to try to pass as hard as you can. Good for checking for exposure.

MARCoNS test – tests for MARCoNS in your nose.

GENIE (transcriptomics blood work to monitor genetic changes):
Testing Instructions and Test for sale

VIP compounded: Hopkinton Drug 800-439-441

Lab testing you can order yourself

Legitimate Environmental Inspection and Testing Companies:

Testing your house yourself: HERTSMI-2 and ERMI Tests: https://mycometrics.com and https://www.envirobiomics.com/ and the Endotoxin Test

Explain the ERMI-2 results: explainmyermi.com (you don’t NEED this but if you want a simplified version of the test you received this looks handy).

Professionals: The following companies I’ve either used myself or come recommended.

We Inspect – Environmental testing company (expensive but great!! Top of the line). We used them to test our Miami and my family’s Canadian properties. They travel.

Environmental Analytics – located in AZ but will travel and do Zoom calls. Very knowledgeable. I used him in AZ after a septic leak. He’ll test properties to find out what’s in there and help organize cleaning and tell you how to clean over Zoom.

Mold Authority – located in NY. Recommended by knowledgeable doctors.

Finding the Mold – NJ, Connecticut, NY, Maryland, Washington DC, PA, VA, DE – looks great, comes recommended.

Legitimate Environmental Cleaning/Remediation Companies:

These companies should do full-on renovations and remediations and as little as a deep environmental cleaning with no renovating remediation as well.

Home Cleanse – A full-on contractor and remediation company extremely knowledgeable in remediation and luxury houses (expensive but top of the line). We used them in Miami and will use them on any future remediation needs. He also travels.

Texas Mold Inspectors – Located in Texas. I haven’t used them but they were recommended to me and look good for cleaning and remediation.

Mold Fix – Located in California. I haven’t used them but they were recommended to me and look good for cleaning and remediation.

Reliable Remediation – I haven’t used them but they were recommended to me and look good for cleaning and remediation.

Cleaning Products:

Mikhaila’s Amazon Cleaning Products – Air purifiers, vacuums, microfiber clothes, soap, bucket, swiffers and more cleaning products are all here!

AirOasis Air Purifiers – 10% off iAdaptAir air purifiers.

Cleaning Products and Air Filters

Travel:

Hotels/travel

Medication:

Get treated from a CIRS-specialized doctor or at least a doctor that is aware of mold. Most likely that’ll be a naturopath or integrative doctor. The binder (I use compounded cholestyramine) was a lifesaver. The peptide is compounded VIP: Hopkinton Drug 800-439-441.

Legal/Lawyers:

Just Well Law – So far just this lawyer but she’s putting together a list of other lawyers that will help people damaged by the building they moved into.

How to find a clean place to live (home, rental, or hotel):

If you want to move, or you’re able to move out of your moldy place – here are some tips to more easily find a new place. Here’s a good podcast on finding a rental/house too.

Warning: 50-80% of houses have water damage. It’s not an easy task finding a clean home. If you’re in high-humidity environments, or you’re looking for places with a basement, you’re going to have an even more difficult time. I moved from Florida to avoid this problem. Drier climates have less mold (not that they don’t also get housing leaks).

Look for new builds (less than 5 years old). New builds don’t mean they’re safe but just because they’re new there’s a higher chance they haven’t had a flood or water damage, or a neighbouring unit hasn’t leaked into the property. That being said I got super sick in a moldy house that was less than 5 years old so you have to check everything else anyway but this can be a good place to start.
Do not get a house with a basement. If you have the option – just avoid this. They’re notoriously difficult to remediate. If you’re stuck with one – see below in FAQ but if you’re finding a new house – avoid basements.
Avoid flat roofs. Flat roofs commonly pool water and leak. Try to get a house with a pitched roof.
Newer construction is safer. This is just because it hasn’t had as much time to leak and grow mold, not because it’s necessarily less prone to mold.
For condos – you want to be somewhere in the middle and not near a pool floor. The top units are near the roof which can leak, and the bottom units can flood. Condos are tricky because if your neighbor’s unit floods – so can yours. That happened to me when I lived in Nashville and I got quite sick.
No carpets. This is more difficult with hotels (although you can search for wood floor hotels), but for homes and condos, don’t get ones that have carpeted floors that aren’t removable. Those are impossible to clean, and actually pretty disgusting. Any spill that’s been spilled on there is going to grow something that’s going to cause issues. Any animal that’s peed on it. Just avoid. Like I said, a deep thorough carpet clean just can’t clean it enough – particularly for someone with allergies or CIRS. If the carpets are removable, make sure you remove them before you live there.
Get it unfurnished. You don’t know what’s happened to furniture and moldy furniture and mattresses are enough to make someone with CIRS sick.
Smell the home you’re looking at. Seriously. Take a good sniff of the outdoor air, and then walk in and smell it. If it smells musty just leave. Musty smells mean there are most likely leaks on a structural level. If there are other smells – sometimes it smells like paint, that’s also not a good sign especially if it hasn’t been recently painted. That can signal that there’s mold eating the paint on the drywall. In an ideal situation, you walk in and the indoor air smells like the outdoor air. If people are using scented air fresheners, I would avoid that too because they might be unknowingly covering a smell they don’t like. Plus those are bad for you anyway. If the smell is neutral proceed to step 9.
Look for signs of water damage. You can usually see water damage. Not always for sure, sometimes it’s hidden behind drywall but sometimes there’s some sort of sign, even if it’s small.
- What does water damage look/smell like?:
  - musty or paint smell when it hasn’t recently been painted
  - stuffy smell that’s somewhat unpleasant
  - actual visible mold of any color (duh)
  - bubbling paint
  - paint cracks
  - moldy toilet tank water (it should be clear)
  - shower grout mold/darkness
- Where is water damage commonly found?:
  - HVACs – check every HVAC and filter. You can usually see the mold. If the HVAC is moldy, it means that the air that’s been circulating is moldy/bacteria-ridden and it’ll be layered on the whole house. Check the toilet tank to confirm if the air is moldy. If it’s just an HVAC issue, the HVAC can be thoroughly cleaned or replaced, and the house can be cleaned 2-3x and the problems should improve (if there are no rugs and it’s unfurnished so that the mold that’s landed on porous furniture doesn’t stay there after the problem is fixed).
  - check air duct vents for dust – a bunch of dust is not a good sign and should be ERMI-2 tested
  - underneath window frames (check for streaking down the paint on the wall or bubbling paint around the window frames)
  - entire perimeter of window frames (cracked paint or mold)
  - underneath every sink (rust, water spots show signs of leaking water)
  - in the shower grout/shower – ideally your new living space doesn’t have mold in the grout. If it does – there can be mold under the tiles. It can be a bigger problem than it looks.
  - every toilet tank (the back of the toilet) – the negative pressure from flushing will suck in indoor air into the toilet tanks. If there are spores in the indoor air, they’ll grow in the toilet tanks. It’s an actual sign of air quality looking in toilet tanks.
  - laundry rubber – this can somewhat be ignored. If its moldy you’ll need to replace it for sure, but it’s not necessarily a sign the whole house is off.
Feel the vibe. This sounds like hippy dippy nonsense but if you go in somewhere and you’re immediately stressed out, it could easily be your body telling you to leave. Don’t ignore these signals, they’re actually really important when you’re starting to become aware of the health of your surroundings. They’re signals your body is giving you. If a place gives you calm relaxing vibes, that’s a good sign. If you go in and you think it looks good but you want to get out, get out.
ERMI-2 test it. If the home passes all of those steps, and you think it’s pretty good, ERMI-2 tests actually lab test the mold and endotoxin levels in your home through a lab. This gives you a score, comparing your home to that of the average level of mold in a house. For people with CIRS, they need at minimum an ERMI-2 score below 2, and ideally below 0. (The range is -10 to 30). More about the ERMI-2 below. These can have a 24-hour turnaround for a few hundred dollars more, or generally have a 48-hour to a few-day turn around.

How do I test for biotoxins in my environment?:

How to ERMI-2 Test:

Order from these sites (be prepared it’s kind of annoying): MyCometrics and Envirobiomics (I used mycometrics.com). The mycometrics site is pretty bad but their testing is great. Go directly here to order. and you can select how fast you want the shipping, and to what country.

Test by taking a wipe and wiping in one direction (don’t scrub, just wipe in one direction). Wipe as much dust as you can get on it. If you want to find out where a leak is you can use a different test for each wipe so you can figure out which room is impacted. If you just want to know the levels in the house, wipe everything you can. Wipe where dust accumulates – so on top of the door frame, window frames, fridges, cupboards, moldings, the corners of the walls and the floor, anything dusty. Wipe in one direction, collect as much dust as you can, seal it in the bag they provide, fill out their form, and ship the bag choosing the lab results speed you want. They’ll email you the results.

How to HERTSMI-2 Test:

The HERTSMI-2 test just picks some of the more toxic strains from the ERMI-2 and gives you a different score. You want a score under 11 for someone with CIRS (and again, ideally much lower).

You can actually just convert your ERMI-2 into a HERTSMI-2 by converting it on this website, you don’t need a separate test.

What’s a good ERMI-2/HERSTMI-2 score?:

You want an ERMI to come back under 2 or even under 1 for very sick people, and a HERTSMI-2 under 11. The likelihood of these tests coming back clean if you haven’t actively been aware of this biotoxin issue is pretty low. I’ve seen some rentals come back around an ERMI 5 that are able to be cleaned from dust and then the score lowers.

What happens if my ERMI-2 and HERTSMI-2 scores are good but I still feel awful?:

If your environment is scoring low but it’s still making you feel sick in it, it could be a sensitivity to chemicals (that should reduce with CIRS treatment) but keep an eye on your cleaning products and any paint smells that could contribute to your symptoms – use zero VOC paint if renovating and unscented cleaning, hair, and other products. If you’ve moved to a new place or remediated your old place and still feel sick and you’re sure it’s not the environment, and you haven’t done CIRS treatment – do the treatment. CIRS patients can’t get better due to genetic changes from biotoxin exposures without treatment although removal from exposure should help!

How to remediate a moldy/water-damaged home:

Don’t remediate your own house if you can possibly avoid it. You need people that know what they’re doing to remove moldy walls, etc. Don’t wipe it, don’t expose yourself to it if you’re sick. One company that is very good for remediation is homecleanse.com, I’ll try to find more. I’ll try to add more here about what to do if you can’t move. The bad news is if your home is seriously damaged and you are seriously ill, you’ll need to get out of that environment before you can heal. If you can prove water damage by ERMI-2 testing you should be able to get out a lease but there are multiple lawsuits people are involved in if they’re stuck in this situation. It’s not a good one to be stuck in.

How to environmentally clean your house properly!:

If your house is high in bacteria and smells weird (any smell is weird btw) but there’s no structural mold damage that you can find, and there hasn’t actually been water damage–you may just need to environmentally clean your house to get the ERMI-2 score down to a reasonable level (ideally below 2 and for very sensitive people below 0). This type of cleaning is what anyone sensitive should be doing at least monthly and if you’re chronically ill, weekly or every 2 weeks at minimum. If you score below a 5-6 on the ERMI-2 a lot of the time that’s fixable with just a few deep environmental cleans, and you don’t need remediation. This can make a world of difference to your environmental health issues, and it’s doable by anyone. If you hire people to do this be careful of the company because they might skip steps, doing it yourself is probably better if you’re taking it seriously. Link here to everything related to cleaning you can peruse through (affiliate links but these are products I use!)

1. HEPA Vacuuming: Get a new vacuum. Don’t use a vacuum that has been in other homes. Buy a vacuum extender as well for ceilings and walls. Central vac systems are great for not re-circulating air in the home but you can buy a regular hepa vacuum as well. Get a new filter, canister, or empty/clean the canister outside. Turn on the vacuum outside for 30 seconds to clean it out. Some suggestions for high-quality vacuums: expensive but high-end Miele HEPA canister vacuum, more affordable HEPA upright vacuum by Shark (still good!). These are affiliate links but they’re also the best vacuums out there in my opinion and the opinion of a number of environmental cleaners.

Vacuum surfaces (ceilings, blinds, cabinets, walls, large pieces of furniture, floors) from top to bottom so dust doesn’t just fall over the lower surfaces. E.g. start with the ceilings then hit blinds and curtains and then furniture and do the floor last.
Get a vacuum extender if you need one!
Damp-wipe vacuum tools and attachments with a 5% ethanol solution between each room to minimize cross-contamination.

2. Damp-Wiping: After vacuuming, damp wipe all non-porous surfaces (ceilings, blinds, cabinets, walls, large pieces of furniture, floors). Use microfiber cloths moistened in a mixture of 5 drops of dish soap to a quart of water. For dish soap I’d use an unscented brand for sure. Branch Basics is non toxic but seventh generation unscented is fine too. Palm Olive gives me chemical sensitivity issues. Don’t re-dunk the microfiber cloth in the solution or you’re just spreading around dirty water. Throw the cloth away and replace it with a new cloth roughly every 4’x10’. Replace the solution for each new room. Here’s a bucket if you don’t own one already.

3. Dry-Wiping: Last but not least dry Swiffer! Use dry unscented Swiffer cloths to remove any remaining dust particles. Don’t use the smelly scented wet Swiffer pads. Throw away and replace with a new dry Swiffer pads roughly every 10’x10′. If dust is accumulating faster than that then steps 1 and 2 weren’t done thoroughly enough.

4. Decon 30 spray: This is a botanical but strong disinfectant that can be used on rugs, walls, furniture, etc., if you want. We spray any new rug we get with this after it’s thoroughly cleaned before bringing it into the house! Not super integral like the first 3 steps but handy to have around as a disinfectant. Here’s the large version to refill spray bottles.

How to set up your home to avoid water damage and mold:

Use these products to keep things clean (I’ve uploaded air purifiers, cleaning products and vacuums, etc. to my Amazon store – it’s a referral store but they are the products I use). Read the section on environmental cleaning as well.

Get rid of moldy stuff:
- If you find mold in your house, remediate it, ideally with professionals. If the drywall has mold it needs to be removed, not cleaned. Any product or item you own that’s water damaged that you can throw away, do that instead of cleaning it. By water damage I don’t mean it got wet and dried out, I mean it got wet and stayed wet. If wet things dry in 24 hours (sometimes up to 48), they’re fine. If they stay damp that’s when mold and bacteria starts to grow.
- Throw away porous items if they’ve been exposed to water damaged air for longer periods of time (for instance if your HVAC was moldy)
- Throw away items that have visible mold growth or a musty smell. Nothing is worth keeping if your health is on the line.
- If you don’t have CIRS and you won’t throw away clothes or porous items with actual mold on them (you should!!) you can wash them with borax multiple times (3x) and clean them but again; this isn’t ideal.
Buy Air purifiers:
- Use HEPA air purifiers in each bedroom and each main area and office. I use IQ air (the big ones in each bedroom) and Air Oasis and I’ve used Molekule in the past. They’re all good. IQAir in my opinion is the most heavy duty one but it’s also loud and big. Air Oasis has terrible reviews on Amazon but I love it, it’s quieter and smaller. Both can suck in particles that are 0.003m big (so partial bits of spores).
- Air Oasis have the best ones IMO for CIRS. Air Oasis also doesn’t release any ozone.
- Move air filters around fairly frequently if they’re not in every room but for people with mold damage or environmental allergies you should have one in every room and they should be on all the time.
Vacuum:
- Vacuum with a vacuum that actually works. Miele C3 with hepa filter – available on Amazon.
- Vacuum using HEPA vacuums ceiling, walls once a week and floors twice a week if you have CIRS.
Clean!:
- This is key. Don’t have a dusty house. Keep your house clean. Read the “How to Environmentally Clean” section and do this.
- BLEACH does NOT work and there’s some evidence it makes it worse
- To clean use vinegar, decon 3, 8% hydrogen peroxide (available on Amazon).
- If you do find mold growth and you aren’t sick, you can clean it using 8% hydrogen peroxide. If the problem pops up again you need to look into professionally remediation to see where the water is coming from.
Laundry:
- Take your clothes off and don’t re-wear them.
- Wash your clothes with EC3 additive for laundry, and the EC3 laundry detergent (both available on Amazon). You should do this even if you aren’t going into moldy places.
- Wipe your front-loading washing machine with vinegar and thoroughly dry after use, and keep the door open. Ideally get a top loading machine because the front loaders get moldy easily.
Dehumidify:
- Keep your house below 45% in humidity to inhibit growth.
Desiccant packs:
- Keep desiccant packs in your closets and cupboards to keep them dry if you want! Although ideally your house is below 45% humidity without these. Links on Amazon.

What if I can’t afford remediation?:

This is tricky. If you’re scoring above a 7 on on ERMI-2 chances are there are actual structural issues that need addressing. If you’re hovering around a 5-7 on an ERMI-2 you may be lucky and your house is just dirty. If so, check out the FAQ below this one. Now if your house has had actual water damage or isn’t built structurally soundly and there are leaks, and if you’re chronically ill, you can’t cut corners. Don’t just hire a random mold remediation company and ideally don’t do it yourself if there’s actual structural damage. This needs to be taken very seriously. Sometimes walls need to be replaced, windows, floors (depending on where the mold is). Most “mold” companies will come in and dry out the damp areas using a high powered fan, cut out the wall just surrounding the moldy area, paint it and tell you it’s fixed. In reality those fans blow spores everywhere and they don’t remove enough wall (more than just the perimeter where there’s visible mold needs to be removed). I’ve linked a few companies on that bottom of this page that I trust for remediation and I’ll keep adding to that. If you can’t afford to hire someone, do it yourself. Pay to get someone to test and identify water-damaged areas and the important thing is tearing out what’s moldy.

What if I rent?:

Here’s a good podcast on finding a rental/house. If you’re already renting don’t assume you can just go to your landlord and they’ll fix the mold problem. I’ve done that. It doesn’t work. They also won’t know how to remediate and they’ll hire cheap companies that won’t remediate properly either, so don’t rely on them to fix the problem. However there are steps you can take if you find mold in your rental unit.

The least they could do is replace moldy HVACs if there’s an issue there. That’ll at least help air quality.
HERTSMI-2 and ERMI test (linked in helpful links) and see what comes back. If it’s high – find a company that’ll also come in and ERMI-2 test, send that to your landlord and tell them you want to move due to mold or have them cover remediation. This could work but also could be ignored.
If they won’t fix the problem and you’re stuck in a moldy living situation and you’re sick you really do need to figure out how to get out of there. Linked below is a legal firm that may be able to help if you can prove illness – but getting into a clean area is key. Even if that involves tenting it up somewhere for a while.
Environmentally cleaning can do A LOT to clean up your living situation. You want to remediate any actual leaks to stop the problem but cleaning can do a lot on it’s own. It’s worth doing regardless.
ERMI-2 test the next place you rent prior to moving. I wouldn’t tell the landlord you’re going to test the place because they probably won’t allow it as showing high levels of mold can cause insurance issues for them so they usually say no. So just sneakily test it when you look at the unit. If the score is under 5-7 it’s pretty good and you should be able to environmental clean it well and keep it clean.

People with CIRS need to live under 2 but sometimes rental places just need to be thoroughly cleaned. Moving out of your current place is ideal if your ERMI-2 comes back over 10 and getting new stuff (clothes and porous furniture) and cleaning anything coming with you thoroughly before bringing it to the new rental is vital when you move. It’s a massive pain but then the problem is solved for your living situation. If you’re not sick with CIRS then your body can handle more biotoxin load and if you won’t part with your stuff there are some ways to wash it thoroughly (see cleaning/avoidance). It’s just not good enough for CIRS.

How do I know if I’ve been re-exposed to biotoxins?:

Don’t get too paranoid about it. If you feel sick and start getting symptoms again that’s probably re-exposure and you should use your binder ASAP. My symptoms include brain fog, irritability, my skin breaking out, difficulty sleeping, sleepiness during the day, and eventual muscle pain and muscle weakness and a stuffy nose or a drippy nose. Also consistent yawning in a new environment or the urge to pee suddenly. Obviously the longer I’m in exposure, the worse I get. It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes for me to start feeling symptoms though, it’s quite fast.

What blood markers to look for in re-exposures:

Get baseline symptoms (score 5 points)
Day 1 – C4a rise (scores 5 points)
Day 1- VEGF up, then a fall (2.5 points each)
Day 2 – leptin increasing (5 points)
Day 2+3/2 – MMP-9 increase (5 points)
Cases usually score 20 and controls score 8

How are biotoxins attacking on a cellular level?:

CIRS biotoxins make ribotoxins – which means by attacking ribosomes (specifically the sarcin-ricin loop looping both halves of ribosomes together) in cells they stop proteins from being made by the cell that help remove the ribotoxins. Ribotoxins cause the cell to reduce ribosome activity by 50% in order to not die. Part of the reason they shut down ribosome activity is because 25% of cellular energy is used to make ribosomes. So the cell kind of just pauses and waits for the ribotoxin to not be an issue anymore which doesn’t happen to CIRS patients without treatment.
Innate immune system activation from antigens signals to DNA to slow down nuclear-encoded mitochondrial gene activity (mitochondrial genes exist in our DNA – which helps code for mitochondria). Messing this up reduces how much energy we have by screwing with the electron transport chain etc. Cause of chronic fatigue.
A ton of other ways depending on the toxin:
1. Trichothecenes disrupt membrane-associated ligands CD 80/8⁴³
2. Polycylic ethers stop acidification of endosomes
3. Bordetella toxins impact intracellular targets
4. HLA as ligand is blocked by high IL-10
5. CLTA blocks T-cell adhesion
Plenty of evidence showing biotoxin accumulation in the brains of dementia patients.
Constant activation of the innate immune system.
Brain edema and atrophy.
Gene changes.
Multi-system organ failure.

What’s the Biotoxin Pathway?:

Why don’t people just get better if they’re not being exposed?:

Regular people without a genetic predisposition would get better after exposure to biotoxins if they remove themselves from the environment. Even people with CIRS will definitely feel better in a clean environment but people with a genetic predisposition have two issues that can lead to chronic illness after exposure, even if the exposure is gone:

The biotoxins are not identified by the immune system and remain in the body’s tissues.
Biotoxins cause actual gene changes (that can be reversed with treatment) but won’t be reversed without treatment.

Why can’t I just treat this with antifungals?:

Antifungals don’t correct transcriptomic abnormalities (gene changes due to biotoxin exposure) and CIRS isn’t a fungal infection. They also may contribute to grey matter atrophy and breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria in MARCoNS. They can also cause bacteria and fungi to create biofilms for protection (way harder to get rid of). If you do have an actual fungal infection, that’s a different story.

Why can’t I skip steps and just take VIP?:

VIP is the peptide that’s been shown to help reverse grey matter atrophy from biotoxin exposure and is supposed to make you less susceptible to biotoxins in the future. Shoemaker suggests that some people with multiple chemical sensitivities use a very diluted dose of VIP to reduce sensitivities. The reason that it’s the last step in CIRS treatment is (simply put), if your body is still in an inflammatory state and you’re basically having a cytokine storm, there isn’t any evidence that VIP (a hormone) can work properly. The other concern would be that exposure to VIP may reduce its efficacy later on. There isn’t really research done here but it’s a concern.

What about Lyme disease and babesia infections?:

Confirmed cases of Lyme may need Lyme and CIRS treatment together (antibiotics for at least 3 weeks plus CIRS treatment if necessary). VCS tests look better for people treated for both Lyme and CIRS within 4-8 weeks – see VCS testing for examples. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had Lyme for – treatment length is the same, so that’s fun. Co-infections of babesia should be tested by positive thick films or low haptoglobins or hamster infection. Do not rely on IgG or IgM testing – too many false positives. NeuroQuant can give a better diagnosis of Lyme than most blood work – look for enlarged thalamus and small putamen. CIRS treatment results in normalizing blood markers (CIRS markers) but antibiotic treatment does not. Antibiotic treatment shouldn’t be used if there’s no bacterial membrane left from the Lyme – just an inflammatory response. CIRS treatment seems to work instead on the post-Lyme inflammatory syndrome. Lyme can also be tested using transcriptomics.⁴⁴

What are intensification reactions?:

An increase in CIRS symptoms when starting treatment with binders. In my experience binders feel good but when they make their way through your digestive tract they re-expose you to what they’re binding (toxins) and that causes immune system flare-ups. BM’s daily are necessary and these symptoms do abate (for me over a two week period). Re-exposure makes intensification reactions worse even with the binder. High-dose fish oil (2.4g/EPA and 1.8g DHA using a 875/67 enteric coated capsule) can help reduce these reactions and people with high MMP9 or MARCoNS or lyme co-infections are more likely to have them. VCS shows a fall in column/row E followed by D by these reactions.

Are there other treatment modalities for biotoxins?:

Shoemaker sticks to his way of treating this, and fair enough, it’s backed up by a ton of peer-reviewed research. I think there are benefits to some of the following though as long as you’re not doing something silly like going to a water-damaged building to get these treatments. By benefits I mean they can potentially help speed up healing, but what’s really going to work is removal from exposure and the binder then VIP:

Diet:

Try the Lion Diet for CIRS. It helps. There’s no evidence for this in scientific papers (yet) but thousands and thousands of people that probably have CIRS say otherwise. I know it’s saved my family’s lives while we searched for the root cause of our inflammatory responses from foods. Studies coming showing a reduction in CIRS blood markers, but it theoretically bypasses the glucose metabolism suppression by feeding cells ketones (unless ketone are impacted as well – waiting on that info), avoids any moldy food, avoids any plant toxins that could cause inflammatory reactions to a permeable gut/brain barrier due to increased MMP-9 and low MSH, and the diet basically eliminates leptin resistance and helps massively with weight loss and appetite regulation. Diet is absolutely key.

Infrared Saunas:

I think infrared saunas can reduce toxin exposure extremely effectively. There’s a ton of evidence they extend lifespan and help your body sweat out toxins.⁴⁵,⁴⁶ 10/10 recommend. Clearlight Saunas are great, get a low EMF one⁴⁷, but even the personal saunas you can get on Amazon that make you sweat work.

https://www.hightechhealth.com/far-infrared-sauna/
https://1lovehealth.com/products/sauna-domes/

Ozone:

Ozone increases oxygen to the cells – and reduces cytokine levels.⁴⁸

I think it helped me a bit – and for oxygen-starved cells why not?

EBOO:

EBOO filters your blood through a filter and adds oxygen.⁴⁹ Again, why not?

Stem Cells:

I can’t see why this wouldn’t help… if you have a genetic predisposition and you can’t make antibodies to certain toxins, wouldn’t someone else’s stem cells bypass this issue by differentiating into cells that might present the proper antibody? No idea. I’m going to try it. They also help fight bacterial infections so at least there’s that.⁵⁰ Just don’t go to a sketchy place.

NK Cells:

CIRS impacts your NK cells. NK cells are used to attack virally/pathogen impacted cells so wouldn’t an infusion of these guys theoretically help.⁵¹ Again, don’t go to a sketchy place. Spend the money.

Glutathione:

There’s a paper I read that says glutathione increases gliotoxin’s cytotoxicity (a toxin released by a type of mold). A lot of naturopaths and doctors will administer glutathione as a high dose push and I can tell you, that made me feel awful. I’m not sure if it was an exacerbation of gliotoxin or a detox reaction or just too high of a dose. I’d recommend doing drips separately from vitamin infusions and in drip form not pushes. There are also some lower-dose oral glutathione supplements that I’ve just started that seem to be helping! Biotoxin exposure can cause super low levels of glutathione which can mess up vitamin b12 and folate synthesis among other things so I would assume getting those levels up should help you feel better, just be careful and go slow and remember that each supplement you add in matters and can make you feel better but also make you feel worse.

Vitamin infusions:

I haven’t noticed they helped my out of whack vitamins due to biotoxins, but they probably do. I did start injecting folate and that brought my folate up so there’s evidence of that anyway. Keep an eye on all your vitamins including fat soluble vitamins – particularly if you take a binder. It can’t hurt to infuse more. I’d say go for it.

Other binders:

I’ve found activated charcoal is useful (not nearly as good as CSM, and not peer reviewed, but helpful symptom-wise when I had nothing else). I used at least a tablespoon in a glass of water. This is at least 6g per dose 2-3 times a day. There’s also zeolite and sodium bentonite (I don’t know how well these work but they seem extremely tolerable). Zeolite – some people say if you take too low a dose it actually gives more detox reactions than a high dose – 15g per day. Sodium bentonite – 2.4g per day.⁵² Again, these won’t fix the changes CIRS does to your genetics and you need to be out of exposure but if you can’t get your hands on CSM I’ve had some success with those binders.