About Our Guest- Ann Shippy – Mold & Mycotoxins
Ann Shippy, MD is on a mission to help create extraordinary wellness by using cutting-edge science, testing, and the latest genetic research to find and treat root causes—and not just the symptoms—of illness. As a former IBM engineer, Dr. Shippy became frustrated that traditional medicine couldn’t find answers to her own health ailments, so she left a decade in engineering to adapt her skill set to the world of medicine.
She attended the University of Texas Medical School and has a thriving practice in Austin, Texas. She is board certified in internal medicine and certified in functional medicine. Creating custom blueprints and real-world health solutions for those suffering from any combination of physical, environmental, genetic, and individualized health concerns, she insists on using science and personalized attention to treat the patient in totality—and not just bandage symptoms. She is on a tireless mission to help create a world of wellness… “because every life matters.” She is the author of two books, Shippy Paleo Essentials and Mold Toxicity Workbook: Assess Your Environment & Create a Recovery Plan.
Full Podcast Transcription
Ann Shippy, MD 00:02
A lot of times these small issues are hidden, they’re behind the walls and you don’t even know that they’re there, especially if you’ve had a known water leak or intrusion. But you know there’s been one and you’ve got some health things going on or somebody in your family has, it’s really important to get to the bottom of that.
Diva Nagula 00:21
Hello, and welcome to another episode of From Doctor to Patient. Today I am joined with Dr. Ann Shippy. Dr. Shippy is on a mission to help create extraordinary wellness by using cutting edge science testing, and the latest genetic research to find and treat root causes, and not just the symptoms of illness. As a former IBM engineer, Dr. Shippy became frustrated that traditional medicine couldn’t find answers for her own health ailments. So she left a decade in engineering to adapt her skill set to the world of medicine. She attended the University of Texas Medical School, and has a thriving practice in Austin, Texas. She’s board certified internal medicine and certified in functional medicine, creating custom blueprints and real world health solutions. For those suffering from any combination of physical, environmental, genetic, and individualized health concerns. She insists on using science and personalized attention to treat the patient in totality and not just bandaid your symptoms. She’s on a tireless mission to help create a world of wellness because every life matters. She’s the author of two books, Shippy Paleo Essentials and Mold Toxicity Workbook; Assess your Environment and Create a Recovery Plan. Hi, Ann, how are you?
Ann Shippy, MD 01:25 Great to be here.
Diva Nagula 01:25 Thanks for joining me today.
Ann Shippy, MD 01:27
Thank you, I’m happy to be here.
Diva Nagula 01:28
It’s really interesting. I enjoy talking to functional medicine, integrative medicine practitioners. And I always try to get a understanding and a sense of why they got into integrative and functional medicine. And for me, it was not too long ago where I got into the field of integrative medicine, functional medicine, I used to practice in interventional pain management. And then unfortunately, I was struck with illness, with stage four non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And as I really discovered what this was all about I determined that it was a combination of factors that led to the diagnosis. It was more lifestyle than anything else I wasn’t eating right, I was stressed out all the time I was working a lot didn’t have any coping strategies, didn’t have a sense of community. All this led to the diagnosis for me. So you have a very interesting story in terms of how you became a doctor, and then how you went into functional medicine.
Ann Shippy, MD 02:14
My body has been my greatest teacher actually. Yeah, I thought I was basically blue blood kind of thing. I had a chemical engineering degree and then got my master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering. And I love working for IBM and managing teams to do great things like get rid of chlorofluorocarbons, years before they were mandated by the government. So I just thought I’d found my career path and I was really happy and loving it. And then I went on vacation one year and came back and my body was just really broken. And I went from doctor to doctor did every test, every medication that was suggested, and even the band aids didn’t work very well to try to help me feel better. I couldn’t keep any weight on, I was so skinny that people thought I had cancer, that I worked with. And I was just hurt. My gut was just hurting all the time with no answers. But I had some faith in my body. I just knew that it could get better. So I started thinking, it was before the internet, I just started reading books and then I looked for integrative practitioners, I went to see a nutritionist and naturopath. I drove several hours to see this immunologist that was kind of practicing outside the box, tried herbs, just everything that I could think of that might help my body to heal and finally a piece together what needed to happen. So my gut started working again and I could put weight on and feel good again. And by that time I had gotten so fascinated with how the human body work that I literally woke up one morning and decided I was going to go to medical school. So it’s been a long haul but it’s been so worth it because I get to do the things that I love to do. As an engineering manager for IBM, but really make a difference in people’s lives and hold that space for hope that people can really heal even when their bodies feel pretty broken down.
Diva Nagula 05:12
Right. And you were an internist for some time, and then something happened that switched you over into functional medicine, right?
Ann Shippy, MD 05:20
Yeah, when I finished my residency in internal medicine, I had a one year old, and a five year old, so my body was kind of tired again. And I needed to stay in Austin. There were like two integrative fellowships that I could have done, and it just really wasn’t an option for me. But I knew I needed additional training. But I joined a small internal medicine group with two other women, and really loved that too. But I started realizing, Oh, my gosh, I’m doing the medicine that didn’t provide the answers for me. And I happen to get sick again. I developed a couple of autoimmune disorders. One sjogren’s syndrome that was so bad, I really couldn’t have conversation without a piece of gum in my mouth, and I couldn’t wear my contacts anymore, that kind of thing. And then also, then my lab work showed that I had antiphospholipid antibody. So was at risk for having a stroke. So right at that time, it’s about 16 years ago, when functional medicine was starting to be on the map, like you could find them. So I went and did the trainings that I could do with them and then several months later I was armed to start my own practice, to be able to do what I do now, and start to see that when the body has everything that it needs, all the nutrients and you managing stress and not being overwhelmed by environmental toxins, and you account for any little genetic glitches that you have, that you really can be super healthy.
Diva Nagula 07:07
Right? Was your the second bout of illness, was that related to something that you had initially
years before?
Ann Shippy, MD 07:14
I think it was mildly related.
Diva Nagula 07:18
Just autoimmune in general?
Ann Shippy, MD 07:19
Yeah, I think I didn’t realize at that point… it turned out I had celiac disease that had been triggered by a parasite that I had picked up on my vacation. So even once the parasite was gone, I still had some cilia in my gut and the antibody test didn’t show the issue so I think there are a lot of people with low grade celiac that aren’t getting diagnosed like that. But I didn’t understand at that point, how meticulous I needed to be to keep the autoimmune issues at bay. And then I think my body had just really filled up with environmental toxins. So I had a mouthful of amalgam fillings, even though IBM was really careful about the chemical exposures, I still had quite a bit. And then I just didn’t know that things like aluminum foil, aluminum cans, aluminum deodorant, that you shouldn’t spray your house with pesticides, I slept in a couple of houses that were newly built. So there were the paint and the carpet and all that outgassing. So I think it was just a tipping point for my body. After all those years of stress, I think my body was probably pretty depleted from having two babies while doing it. So it just was the perfect storm. But I’m so grateful for that. Because it, it helped me find my path that I had totally changed my life for that I might have had to wait another 5 or 10 years to find before they really before functional medicine really became prominent. And it helped me to understand that you can totally reverse autoimmune diseases, they can just go away if you find the right pieces of the puzzle to help each individual. And even though it was really scary at the time, it’s like oh, my God, lI’m not taking those medicines! Those mandates are not for me. And there is that, you know, those months of uncertainty of how’s this all gonna go down?
Diva Nagula 09:25
It’s absolutely amazing. Now you’re dedicated your whole life and career to helping those who have health issues that are similar to yours or health issues that haven’t been able to be treated by conventional medicine. So it’s great and I applaud you and everyone else who enters the field of integrative medicine and devotes their life to providing services and integrative medicine and functional medicine to people so it’s great. One of your specialties and expertise you have so many is mold toxicity and I really want to take more of a deeper Dive into mold toxicity. Like what exactly is mold toxicity? And why is it so dangerous?
Ann Shippy, MD 10:08
Yeah, thanks for asking that question. It’s so important because I think it’s a hidden epidemic in our country and actually many other countries as well. And that was my next learning from my body. A few years into my functional medicine practice, I started getting really sick again, I was losing my hair And by Monday morning, I was so tired, I could hardly get out of bed when I should be rested. And I had so much pain in my body, and you as a pain specialists can appreciate this, like I had so much pain, I didn’t want my kids to hug me it is so uncomfortable to be hugged. And I started having neurological symptoms, I had so much weakness in my right arm that if I had a full glass, sometimes it would slip out of my hand. So I had gone to an environmental health conference about a year before and learned that there was something called toxic mold. So I realized, oh my gosh, I’m missing this in some of my patients. And around the time that I started getting sick, we had a bunch of big rainstorms here in Austin, but I still didn’t put two and two together, that that was what was causing my issue. So mold is it’s something that we need on the planet, it breaks down things that need to be degraded. But when it’s in an indoor space, or high amounts in our food, the byproducts that mold makes from its process of living can make two things one called mycotoxins, and then the other would be called mVOCs, and those are the odors that you can sometimes smell for mold. But these mycotoxins, there’s 1000s of them, some of them are really dangerous, and some of them are not that dangerous, but because they’re so many it’s like stone, it’s a chemistry study, because it’s so many different things. So the different mycotoxins can cause different issues in different people. But it basically starts to poison your immune system, how well your liver and kidneys can work, how well your mitochondria can work, the little organelles inside the cell to make energy, it can damage the cell membrane, so that the chemical messengers in your body don’t work very well. So it really can affect almost every system in the body. So increase the risk for infection, increase the risk for cancer, and cause some pretty severe neurological issues, then even it can be a trigger for the autoimmune diseases too. So it used to be kind of my diagnosis of last resort, like, do all the other things that I knew how to do first, and then go to mold. But now if I get the sense that somebody’s like, the puzzle pieces are adding up to mold is an important piece of this, we go right there. And then a lot of people hear me speak or read things that I’ve written, and they’re like, oh, okay, that might be me and actually reached out to me, and it’s helped them with their mold,
Diva Nagula 13:13
Right. And you’re inflicted by this. And so it took you some time to determine that this was the cause of this illness that you were experiencing. Whereas was anybody else in the household facing this type of issue as well?
Ann Shippy, MD 13:27
Such a great question. So I think I was the most susceptible, because I probably still have more work to do to help my body to detoxify. So basically, my barrel had filled up, a little bit of metals, a little bit of chemicals, a little bit of pesticides, all those kinds of things. And so I think my tipping point was probably more severe. But it did affect my kids too. So one, it really affected his mood. And the other one it affected his capacity to learn. So, about the time that I was really getting sick, his third grade teacher was really complaining about his behavior. So anytime she tried to start to teach a new concept it would be so upsetting to him, how it felt for him to learn that he would get agitated. Sometimes you’d have to, like physically roll around on the floor, get out of his seat. And he also had a lot of sensory issues. So we could never get tennis shoes on him. He just wore crocs we had to cut we had to cut the tags out of his clothes, and he had just a really short fuse. Anything that frustrated him would really get upset. So this was in November timeframe. By the time we went through the holidays, have the follow up with the teacher in February. She’s like everything’s fine.
Diva Nagula 14:55 Wow!
Ann Shippy, MD 14:57
So it was more in retrospect, for the kids, I didn’t realize that it was affecting them. And that often happens with families. Like one person is generally much more affected than the others. But then either once they’ve remediated or moved, we see other benefits from the other family members.
Diva Nagula 15:18
And you moved as a result of this exposure, or was it just a kind of a coincidence that this happened?
Ann Shippy, MD 15:23
Oh, no. So my story is I got on the phone, it’s sometimes hard to see right in front of your face. So even though I started to see a little bit of signs that there had been some water intrusion, both in my office in my house. I didn’t know that that’s what was causing it, I had gone to see all my traditional medicine, people that I really trust in Austin, I had called a couple of colleagues around the country that I really trusted, and nobody had any idea what was going on with me. And this is just grace. One of my patients that I had helped with getting recovered from multiple chemical sensitivity came in one day, and I thought I had everything all together, I looked like everything was fine, make up on… so at that time, I worked at a round table, to see my patients and she was doing great. She leaned across the table, and she’s like, Dr. Shippy, I think you’re being affected by a mold called chaetomium. She’s just a really intuitive, she must have been just watching me very closely. And she had been affected by mold in the past. And she told me about it, over the time that we had been working together. So she leaned across, and she’s like, what time do you get up work today? And I’m coming to your house, because I can sense it, I get some symptoms in my body when I get re-exposed. I was like, ok, you’re right, something’s going on with me. 530, I’ll meet you there. She walked in. And within a few minutes, she did not feel well in the house. She’s like it’s definitely chaetomium she’s like you can’t sleep here, you can’t be here. Don’t take anything with you. That can’t be totally washed down. And get your kids out of here. And so I did I was fortunate that my parents took me in for a few weeks, while I figured out where I was going to move to and what I was going to do. And I really found that I had to totally simplify my life, there were things that were so affected from being in that mold for years, that I couldn’t clean them, I couldn’t take them with me. But fortunately I learned so much about how to detoxify and treat mold very quickly by what worked on my body and what didn’t. So then I had to look for other things that worked and now I have a really nice toolkit of things that can really help people get better fairly quickly. So I really started recovering very fast after I got out and boosted my mitochondria and helped my detox pathways work better.
Diva Nagula 18:15
It’s interesting. So you probably had some exposure for a long duration of time. When you did leave home or during that few weeks of time when you were with your parents, did you get better? Or was the damage done? You know, it was so profound on your body that it needed just more than being away from the area of toxin exposure?
Ann Shippy, MD 18:36
Yeah, I wasn’t taking any chances. It just made sense to me, my immune system was screaming the alarm bells. So I needed to address the immune system. And then especially with the neurological things, I knew my mitochodria were effected. And so it’s definitely some trial and error over months, but I would say within seven or eight months, I could lift my purse again, I didn’t have to worry about dropping things I could work out again, and then within a year, I had full strength back, swing a tennis racket and that sort of thing.
Diva Nagula 19:23
Obviously, your exposure was probably on the spectrum of moderate to severe. What are some common symptoms that people should look out for in the spectrum of mold exposures?
Ann Shippy, MD 19:35
So it can really be any system in the body. So if you feel like your, your mood is off, more than normal. So like that short fuse that I was talking about, feeling more anxiety, depression, OCD, some of these odd neurological things like I really thought I could have ALS because I also had a lot of muscle cramping and twitching. So those are things to look out for, hormonal imbalances, so if you’re having symptoms of menopause when you shouldn’t be, either it’s too early or too late. It’s kind of crazy skin rashes, like, there’s not a good answer for that skin rash, and digestive symptoms. So a lot of people will get feeling of heartburn, nausea, even diarrhea, abdominal pain, when they’re around mold. Oh, then I had to have another experience. It’s okay, my body, like I even had COVID. I had to learn about COVID from getting it, which was great, because now I know what to do for people with COVID. So I think I had kind of minimized the pulmonary symptoms that can come with mold. So I developed asthma for the first time in my life. So like, all of a sudden, 95% of buildings that I went in, I would feel sort of breath like I couldn’t breathe. So that’s if you have new onset asthma, a lot of these chronic sinus infections can also be for mold. So it’s a lot of different issues. And then there’s a lot of associations with cancer and really disrupting the immune system. It can threaten the immune system with developing autoimmune disorders, especially things like the thyroid, and then also just depleting the immune system. So you’re more likely to get infections.
Diva Nagula 21:47
I mean, there’s a lot of constellation of symptoms. So there’s a lot of different disease processes that actually have very similar constellation of symptoms. When should we test ourselves for mold toxicity? When should that be at the forefront of our thoughts when we’re feeling ill?
Ann Shippy, MD 22:06
Yeah, I think if you’re having some kind of constellation of those things, combinations of those things, odd neurological things, new onset gastrointestinal things when you can’t find another source of it. This on mast cell activation, where people are having a lot of histamine reactions. I go there a lot sooner now, because I don’t want people to wait till they’re falling off the cliff. So and then, of course, a lot of times these mold issues are hidden there behind the walls, and you don’t even know that they’re there. But especially if you’ve had a known water leak or intrution, the toilets overflowed, or there’s been a little roof leak. If you know there’s been one and you’ve got some health things going on, or somebody in your family has it’s really important to get to the bottom of that. In most places in the country, if a leak isn’t dried within 24 to 48 hours, there will be mold. Now drywall usually has some deposits of mold spores in it so it just needs to get a little wet have a chance to grow. And then even if the leak is stopped, that desiccated mold in that wall or wood can still be dispersing some of the mycotoxins and the mold spores.
Diva Nagula 23:43
And what if you go through a remediation process after a leak’s been discovered? You know say it’s been after a few days you know or maybe even a week and you know you see that the seeping of the water by the wood and the drywall is elevating and is the remediation process, with the dehumidifiers and the drying, is that sufficient to remove the source of the mold? Or is it too late at that time?
Ann Shippy, MD 25:05
Yeah, I feel like it’s too late. In fact in the last couple of years, there have been a couple of things that have happened in my office and immediately we take off the floorboards rip up any flooring, and get the dehumidifier in there. And in the one time that it was, either we didn’t realize it for 48 hours could because it happened over a weekend. We just ripped all of the drywall out, because it’s just not worth the risk.
Diva Nagula 25:38
I agree with you. For diagnosis purposes. you were talking about earlier, that there is like over 60 or so mycotoxins to test for what do we do? I mean, if we’re suspecting a mold exposure, what’s the diagnostic process that a person goes through?
Ann Shippy, MD 25:55
Yeah, so a lot of this isn’t covered by insurance. So a lot of it depends on what the budget is because mold gets really expensive, I am still recovering from my mold issues, getting rid of everything and because when you’re that sick, you do what you need to do. And then remediating removing those kinds of things. So just knowing there’s going to be budgetary constraints for most people, sometimes we’ll do things sequentially. And sometimes, if somebody is really sick, we’ll just do, just go for it. So I like to use two different tests to look for mycotoxins. They’re two different technologies. And so depending on how a person’s detoxification pathways work, I get different answers. And it’s kind of like a Venn diagram, right. So the bigger scope I can get, the more I can make sure that I’m not missing something. So they’re both urine tests. So one is called Great Plains Laboratory, and they have the most broad list of mycotoxins that I can look for. And then the other ones called real time lab. And with real time live, what I like to do is a glutathione challenge. So I have people do the urine collection without glutathione, just kind of a random test. And then I have been take glutathione, a large dose of liposomal glutathione. And then retest in about eight hours and see how much additional toxin comes out. Because some of us that are most susceptible to mold, toxins don’t make glutathione very well, which is one of the main things that helps to get rid of a lot of different chemicals and heavy metals. And so then that also gives me an idea about treatment, when we see it really low on the baseline testing, and then it goes up, I know, okay, good, I’m gonna help them get their toxins out of their body. And then sometimes we were colonized or infected with mold. So I’ll do some samples that help with that, like, in a lot of times people have gotten some mold in their sinuses or in their gut, don’t have a great way to get their lungs. There’s also another urine test that checks for some of the other byproducts of mold that can help to identify the colonization infection kind of thing. And then I just sometimes one of the tests that I do, I actually have to send off to Germany. So one of my patients was feeling like she was not recalling things very well. So she’s in her mid to late 60s. And she’s like, yeah, I just can’t find the words as well. And I don’t feel like my brains working as well. So we sent this test off on her and she had some aflatoxin one of the mycotoxins sitting on one of her APOE genes, that was then affecting her brain. So we did a bunch of treatment to help to detoxify her. And within seven months, we recheck that test the epigenetic marker from the aflatoxin was gone. And her memory was working great, she was recalling names and words and everything much better. So we have a lot of tools in our toolbox that can really help us to, to look at what the impacts of mold are. And then one of the biggest issues is actually finding the source of the mold. So a lot of the mold inspectors are not very rigorous about the testing. We’ve been doing it for years and they really don’t fully understand the health implications of mold. So they’re not using the latest technology and being able to test for what’s going on in the house. And actually part of my job is retraining and working with my patients. Because they need to understand, hey, we know there’s a mold exposure, you need to help us find it. So there’s a lot of numbers still just doing these air samples that don’t pick up some of the worst molds, because there’s fours are, are really large, and they just don’t float in the air very well. So we do need to do some of those air samples, to make sure that we don’t miss something. But using dust in in the house and checking it both for mycotoxins and for the DNA of the molds really gives us a better view of what’s going on in that building. So what I recommend to people is, if you bring a mold inspector in, and they’re not wearing protective garb, they’re not wearing respirator and covering themselves with protective clothing, they don’t understand. To me, that’s one of the most dangerous jobs there is to go into these buildings that are more than likely moldy, and they’re not taking care of themselves, it’s very dangerous to be, opening up these air conditioning units and putting probes into walls that are suspicious. And not making sure that they’re not getting a huge exposure. So that’s one of the tips on selecting an inspector.
Diva Nagula 31:30
Yeah, that’s a great tip. Obviously, some of the treatment involves mechanical, where you have to get the inspectors in to find the source of the mold and then obviously go through the process of removing and drying and so forth, and eventually might have to move. But we’re talking earlier about a glutathione challenge. And I’m a big glutathione fan, but wanted to talk more about that, as that’s one of the ways we can treat and improve our detoxification systems. But in general, like can you go over and give us like a broad overview of glutathione.
Ann Shippy, MD 32:05
Yes, glutathione is something that we make in our bodies, it’s one of the most powerful antioxidants like I think it’s even really beneficial to be on right now with all the COVID going on, because it really helps the immune system to work better. That helps to, directly, helps to reduce inflammation. And we know inflammation is our enemy, for lots of things, but especially with COVID going on, and then it helps to pull out those toxins, a lot of toxins. So I give my desert island list, I could only pick a couple of supplements, but what I pick, and that would be one of them. Because I know genetically, my body does not make glutathione optimally. But then a lot of people have low glutathione just because of the daily little exposures that they have, that they don’t realize that they’re having from environmental toxins, so it just gets depleted.
Diva Nagula 32:59
Right? And I know glutathione can come in a multitude of forms, plus there’s precursors that you can take that will convert into glutathione. What’s the optimal way of getting glutathione for ourselves externally?
Ann Shippy, MD 33:15
Yeah, I find that most people do best with a liposomal form of glutathione, which just means that instead of digesting it and breaking it down into its components, it gets absorbed in the right molecular structure to go to work right away. So I’m really picky about the brands, there are three brands, but I love the brand that I have for my company, it’s Every Like Well, and then there’s one called Readisorb and then one called Research Nutritionals. And what I love about these is that they’re doing the research like they have research projects that are going on with universities and that kind of thing to just probably help so the effectiveness of glutathione treatment for different things.
Diva Nagula 34:07
And would you say that that is as effective as intravenous glutathione?
Ann Shippy, MD 34:13
Yeah, so sometimes I do like to use them combined. So the liposomal, what it’s doing is raising your baseline level to get to a steady state. What an IV does is it gives you a little burst. That burst gets utilized really quickly when it’s an IV. So if I have to pick one or the other, I’d rather people just do the liposomal. But then if you can also get in for the little boosts with the IVs occasionally I think that can be helpful too especially when you’re in more of a crisis or if you’re getting a proactive IV for some other reason.
Diva Nagula 34:55
Is the glutathione that’s given intravenously is it gone because our body just uses it because
we’re so depleted on a regular basis?
Ann Shippy, MD 35:05
Well, once it gets into the bloodstream like that, it just very quickly gets utilized.
Diva Nagula 35:15
Is there a specific dose you recommend if you’re doing liposomal versus intravenous?
Ann Shippy, MD 35:22
Yeah, just depending on the patient. So the more sensitive a person is the slower we start and very carefully ramp up. So I might start as low as 50 to 100 milligrams, and then just gradually see how they do. So now with the liposomal. We can use a few 1000, sometimes, either all at once, or kind of split out during the day, and everybody’s a little different. So you don’t want to have somebody do too much of a dump to off often. So just kind of working with the individual person to see what they feel best on and what they tolerate.
Diva Nagula 36:08
And I’m assuming after lan infusion, or some sort of maintenance, that there’s going to be a
continuous detoxification effect as a result of the administration of glutathione.
Ann Shippy, MD 36:19
Yes. And then I really think, for most people, it’s important to have some kind of binders that we put in, to kind of tidy up, scavenge up anything that’s been released. So I like to use modified citrus pectin, some clay and charcoal. Again, everybody’s a little bit different. But most people, if they add those in, that works as well. Infrared saunas are great for a lot of people, spread it out a little bit, and then make sure you shower off right away, so it doesn’t get reabsorbed. There’s some really good data on hyperbarics really helping to augment the excretion of toxins in general, but also specifically for mycotoxins. So there’s a lot of avenues that we can put together to help the body significantly get that toxic load down very safely. I just want to caution people, because a lot of people think, Oh, well, it’s a good thing, if you have a detox reaction, that means it’s coming out. Well to me, we want to avoid those because that means that there’s an overflow into a place that it shouldn’t really be going. So I think about detoxification as being like a series of dance, that if you open up one too much, you’re going to flood the others. So we need to be careful about opening things up. So one of the key things too, is making sure that gets healthy. So you need to be working on having a good healthy gut. Things are moving daily, and there’s not any pain or inflammation so that you don’t end up just reabsorbing what your body’s worked so hard to get rid of.
Diva Nagula 38:09
That’s awesome. That’s a great overview of how to treat, but for practical sake, when people are looking to purchase a home or rent a new apartment, or looking at a new office, like what should we do and look out for, if there has been mold exposure that’s been present? Or in the past that’s been covered up or semi remediated? How do we know?
Ann Shippy, MD 38:33
You’ve got to test, and sometimes, you know, in Austin right now, the market is so hot, it is hard to get a long enough period to do that testing, so that you got to not lose your deposit. So just look for the obvious signs, you know, look at the air vents, see if there’s anything growing on them. Look around all the windows look under all of the sinks around any of the doors, make sure that the grading around the house, like there’s not some landscaping that’s above grade A
and sprinkler systems hitting the house, walk up in the attic and make sure that there’s not anything that looks like it’s leaked. So a lot of times just in that more detected visual inspection, you can find the suspicious things, but if it all looks super clean, then you’ve got to get a dust sample. So there are several companies that you can order your own kits from. Real Time Lab does environmental testing. There’s a lab called Enviro Bio Mix, that you can order your own swabs, and then a company called Homebiotics, which is a probiotic for the house. They just really a test that they can do as well. So you know, they’re all pretty good. But I would definitely try to do The dust testing that’s looking for the presence of the DNA of the mold, and the mycotoxin test.
Diva Nagula 40:08
This is all do it yourself type of test, right? You don’t need a professional to do this?
Ann Shippy, MD 40:12
You can do it yourself, or find a professional but in some areas, it’s really hard because they
just haven’t caught up with the technology.
Diva Nagula 40:24
This has been fantastic. Where can people find more about you and what you do?
Ann Shippy, MD 40:30
We are putting out information that I think is important every week on AnnShippyMD.com And then also Instagram and Facebook @AnnShippyMD, it’s pretty easy to find me. I would love it for people to watch my TEDx talk that I did this last year, on how you can teach your genes how to behave. That’s a blog on the website. Because what I want people to know, we’re talking about once people have already gotten sick kinds of things here. But there’s so much that you can be doing on a day to day basis that can make a tremendous impact in the trajectory of
your health, by helping your genes, how to how to do the right things. And it’s just the day to day things that can be so powerful to keep you healthy.
Diva Nagula 41:21
That’s such great information to have. And I’m going to make sure that we put all the information about your website, you and your books, as well as all the great pieces of information you’ve given us on our show notes. So thank you so much for being a guest on the show. And I hope to see you in a few months at the conference.
Ann Shippy, MD 41:38
I hope so to look forward to meeting you in person. You’re doing such a great service by getting such good information out.
Diva Nagula 41:45
Thank you. Thank you very much.