Chris Williamson just released a documentary sharing his complex health journey and tying it back to mold in his home. Jordan Peterson was just released from the ICU with complications that they also believe stemmed from living in a moldy home. You're starting to hear about it more and more and more.
This guide explains why that's happening, what to do about it if you suspect you're going through something similar, and most importantly how to prevent it from happening to you, or from happening again.
I got sick from mold in my 20s. Since then I've spent more time than almost anyone I know researching this subject, meeting with the top experts in the world when it comes to environmental health, and testing dozens of products related to having a healthy environment. I've built tools like our non-toxic database and our mold master class. To be honest, I've committed most of my adult life to understanding how this happens and what to do about it. The aim here is a clear understanding of how all this stuff works and happens, without all the fear-mongering.
To get the full understanding, we have to start at the very beginning.
How we built mold into our homes
Pre-1970s: breathable homes
These were homes built with plaster, real wood, and very minimal insulation, because they had lots of air leaks — in the window sills, in the attics, in the crawl space — which let moisture escape. The air exchange between the air in the home and the air outside was high, so humidity rarely stayed long enough for mold to grow.
1970 to 1980: the homes seal up
Between 1970 and 1980 there was a pivotal turning point in history where we started building our homes differently. In 1973 there was an oil crisis. That led to energy-efficient mandates for home building, and builders began to build buildings tightly sealed to make sure there was no lost heat. But in addition to keeping the heat inside the buildings, it also keeps the moisture inside the buildings, especially from showers, cooking, and HVAC condensation.
At the same time there was a material shift happening in what people were using to build homes. This is where we saw the introduction of drywall, oriented strand board, and fiberglass insulation. All of these materials are moisture absorbent and highly prone to mold.
Then, last but not least, we had the HVAC evolution during this period, where central air systems became commonplace. That sounds great in theory, but the ducts were designed extremely poorly, were often not sealed properly, and were unbalanced, and these spread moisture unevenly throughout the home.
The net effect is that indoor air humidity started to rise and started to stay there for longer periods of time, alongside new building materials that could easily mold and colonize inside the home.
1990 to the 2000s: synthetic materials and fast construction
This is where we see the introduction of synthetic building materials and fast construction. Say hello to drywall dominance, where we have these new paper-faced gypsum boards that mold absolutely loves. This material replaced plaster in almost every single home. And if these things weren't perfectly installed — which they never were, because everything was being built fast and cheap — then you add vinyl wallpaper and tightly sealed windows, and that just becomes a moisture sandwich that traps everything inside.
To add fuel to the fire, we now have lots of subcontracted builds, which basically just means the quality completely falls through the floor and there's little to no oversight on construction or quality control. Everything is about how quickly can we get this job done and how cheaply. So the subcontractors would often just miss blatantly obvious things that any normal builder would catch, and start cutting corners on the flashing, the window sealing, and the ventilation, because it's "good enough."
The result is that during this time we produced the most mold-prone buildings ever built. Even mild humidity or a roof leak could cause the entire house to mold on the inside in a matter of weeks.
2000s to now: better materials, tighter homes
Things got a little bit better. We have the introduction of ERVs and HRVs, some mold-resistant drywall, and some new building materials that are a little bit safer. It's a big upgrade from what was produced in the '80s and '90s.
But this is a huge but. We have the introduction of green home building, which is all about efficiency. What becomes good for the environment becomes extremely bad for the occupants. The tighter the home, the more efficient it is, the more prone it is to mold. And we're still dealing with the rampant problem of builders building for cheap and fast. Even in brand new builds in places like Austin or Miami, these mold and humidity issues are completely out of control. It all has to do with how these homes are built and how they're maintained.
Why some people get so sick
That's what happens in the home. But why do some people get so sick?
Genetic susceptibility
Around 25% of the population has specific gene variants that make them more susceptible to mold, because their body doesn't know how to recognize and remove mycotoxins, which are the toxic byproducts of mold. The gene variants that make this really hard are HLA-DR and HLA-DQ. These people can't tag the mold toxins for clearance properly, so they recirculate them in the body instead of excreting them.
This can trigger something called chronic inflammatory response syndrome, a multi-system inflammatory illness first discovered by Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker. Common symptoms include brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, light sensitivity, muscle aches, skin issues, temperature dysregulation, and chemical sensitivity. Mycotoxins are also a known trigger for autoimmunity, which can create a whole host of different symptoms depending on which tissue is being attacked.
Mycotoxins and microbial VOCs
Certain molds release mycotoxins, which are poisonous secondary metabolites, and microbial VOCs, which are volatile organic compounds. These can damage mitochondria and nervous system tissue and disrupt hormone balance. They also affect the gut lining and immune modulation, leading to histamine overload, gut permeability, and immune dysregulation.
The thing is, even if someone's not genetically susceptible, with high enough exposure they too can get very, very sick. Living in a damp house for a long time will eventually make anyone sick.
Immune system dysregulation
Chronic mold exposure causes the innate immune system, which is your first line of defense, to always be switched on, while the adaptive immune system — the T-regulatory cells — get confused or suppressed. This imbalance leads to inflammation without resolution. The body is fighting, but it never wins.
Inflammation and bioaccumulation
Once inflamed, the body's detox pathways slow down big time. That's the liver, the lymph, and the kidneys. Mycotoxins can lodge themselves in fat, in the sinuses, and in your brain. Over time this creates systemic inflammation, which affects hormones like cortisol and thyroid and the nervous system, and it disrupts your sleep. People with persisting stress, infections, or gut issues have a much harder time dealing with this because their detox and repair systems are already kind of offline.
Why some people don't get sick
There are a few reasons. They clear toxins really effectively, with robust glutathione. Their immune system doesn't overreact to the spores and mycotoxin fragments. Their exposure dose is much lower and shorter, and their gut and microbiome neutralize some of those toxins before absorption.
There are two major ways we come into contact with mold: we breathe it or we eat it. And mold often hits us the hardest when we're the most vulnerable, because it's an opportunistic microbe. People who are under a lot of stress, or have a weakened immune system, and have that genetic susceptibility are the most at risk.
Why you're hearing about it now
It's not that people haven't been sick with mold in the past. It's that we now know this thing exists. In the past, people would just get slapped with a diagnosis like chronic fatigue syndrome, or some type of autoimmune condition, or a neurodegenerative disease, and then you're given some medication and it's like, we don't exactly know what's wrong with you, best of luck.
Now these things can often be linked to a moldy environment, and we have tests to verify mold and mycotoxins in the body and in the home. And because more well-known people are coming out about the fact that they're getting sick from mold and being honest about what's really going on, more people are hearing about it, more people are testing, and more people are getting diagnosed.
So now people who have been living with anxiety, brain fog, gut issues, or skin issues are thinking, I wonder if this has anything to do with my environment. They rip up the carpets in their home, they see some black mold, and they go, wow, I need to get out of here. They move out of their building, they start to get better, and they start telling everyone about it.
The pattern I've noticed in high performers
This is where it gets really interesting. A pattern I've noticed within myself and some of the other people coming out and telling their stories about their journey with mold is that this type of illness seems to affect high performers more than the general population.
Anyone could get sick if they stay in a moldy building long enough. But once they figure it out and get out of that environment, what's the difference between the people who get better and the people who don't? Aside from the genetic susceptibility we talked about earlier, there's a mental and emotional component that is a through line among everyone I see who really struggles with this. These people don't understand how to actually rest and feel like everything's going to be all right even if they're not performing. There's an inability to take the foot off the gas pedal and truly rest. It comes from a deep emotional root — this incessant need for more, to keep pushing, to achieve.
When your system is compromised like that after living in a moldy environment, it's very stressful on your internal state to have this pressure to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep doing more. It wears down your immune system. It taxes your nervous system. And it shuts down your body's ability to truly heal, long after the threat is gone.
What to do if you suspect a mold problem in your home
- Find the humidity, moisture leak, or water damage that could be the source of the problem. If you have an active moisture problem in the home, that is step number one. You need to find it and it needs to be taken care of.
- If you can't find it on your own, hire an inspector to do a very thorough investigation. They should be able to find the problem and run a gamut of tests. I'm working on a video right now about how to test your home for mold, so know that that resource is being built for you.
- Once you find the problem, fix it and then remediate it appropriately. We cover exactly how to do this in the mold master class I built, because it's honestly too much to cover in one video and it goes way into the weeds.
- Buy some air purifiers for your home. At least one for your bedroom, if not one in every space where you spend the most time. The most important thing when it comes to air purifiers is that you buy one powerful enough. Most air purifiers don't have enough actual filter power to do the thing you actually want it to do, which is filter out the mold spores. Otherwise you're basically wasting your money.
- Reflect on why this situation happened in the first place and how you can prevent it from ever happening again. Whether that's adding extra drainage for your roof, building out a bit more flashing over your windows, or putting a leak detector under your sink, you need to make sure this problem doesn't happen again. If it was a one-off thing from a storm, that's kind of outside of your control.
All of this happens as a byproduct of something happening or not happening inside the home.
How to stay ahead of it
The most important thing I've learned is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Most of the reasons mold develops inside a home, other than how these homes are built, is that people don't have awareness, or they don't actually maintain their home the way they'd maintain their car or their body — especially if they're a tenant and they're renting.
There are some very simple steps that give you the best possible chance of not dealing with a problem like this in the future.
- Do a simple visual inspection every 3 to 6 months. Take some time getting to know your house and making sure it hasn't incurred any water damage or has any leaks, odors, or humidity problems. That looks like walking around the outside of the house, going up onto the roof, going into the crawl space or the attic, checking the vents and the HVAC, under the sinks, behind the washer and dryer, around the toilet, around the shower or bath, and anywhere else water could be. Just make sure everything's working as it should and nothing has gone awry.
- Watch your humidity. Buy a humidity meter, or check the one on the thermostat if your house has one. Ideally you want your humidity somewhere between 35 and 50%.
- Put leak detectors in the obvious spots. Under the sink, behind the toilet, behind the washer and dryer — basically all the places where water could leak or you could have a moisture issue.
- Change your filters. Swap the HVAC filters every 6 months, and stay on top of the filters in your standalone air purifiers.
- If you're really concerned, book an inspection on a schedule. You could make it a regular occurrence that every 6 months a mold inspector comes out and tests the home.
- Act fast after a water event. If you have a leak, a big storm, or a flood, be on top of it right away. If something needs to be fixed, hire someone, get it fixed and get it remediated as soon as possible.
This is just simple maintenance for the home, the same as what you'd want to do for your car or for your body.
If you think you've already been affected
If you're concerned that you've been affected by mold and you're going through mold illness, you're definitely going to want to find a functional medicine practitioner who specializes in mold and knows exactly how to treat it. There are also two tests right now that I know of that are worth exploring if you want to verify that you're dealing with mold.
Don't freak out
My biggest advice after going through years of dealing with this stuff, and finally coming to a place where I feel like I have a good understanding, is just not to freak out. You're armed with the right information now. You know what to do, and you can move through this situation with grace. You don't have to be totally paranoid and neurotic.
You have to be calm and maintain composure in what could be a stressful situation, because this might require some financial investments. You might even have to move out of your home. I'm not saying that you do, but there are possibilities where you might be changing your environment and making big financial commitments. If you can stay calm, you can stay focused on the goal. You now know exactly what needs to be done.
