This podcast is sponsored by Micro Balance Health Products. Use code AUTOIMMUNEDOC for 15% off your order at  www.microbalancehealthproducts.com

I'm really excited about this episode! I spent a lot of my early life in ENT offices, so I've personally always been really intrigued by the science of sinus inflammation and sinusitis for understanding my own health problems, but I've also been very discouraged by the conventional treatments and (lack of) solutions offered by conventional Ear Nose and Throat doctors.

Dr. Don Dennis MD FACS is different. As an ENT surgeon who was seeing chronic sinusitis every day, he started asking the question "WHY?" which led him to investigate the problems associated with air quality and specifically MOLD TOXICITY. 

If you have listened to this podcast, you know I am passionate about air quality - whether it be molds, mycotoxins, allergens, particulates, VOCs, endotoxins, or whatever is in the air - we need to breathe clean air.I have interviewed clients,  pediatricians, MDs, DOs, PTs, Indoor Environmental Professionals about this topic.

We KNOW that mold makes people sick - that info has been around since the Old Testament - but Dr. Dennis lets us know a little bit more about HOW and WHY this works. 

Some of things I found the most interesting in our conversation:

• Molds like dark, warm, moist places and can colonize sinuses and noses. Cleaning out the sinuses with antifungals can be a GAME-CHANGER for some people! Dr. Dennis tells some amazing stories, and even plays audio from a patient herself.
• The immune system responds to molds in the environment with Eosinophils (white blood cells), and these eosinophils come into nasal mucosa and can form "pits", where mucus accumulates. The cilia can't effectively clear the mucus, so it becomes infected and inflamed, and the "microbial burden" grows, including Staph, Pseudomonas (normal residents of the nose) and MOLD, and these bugs can sometimes form biofilms which make them antibiotic resistant. Mayo clinic showed that over 90% of chronic sinus infections had a fungal component involved, and he discusses those studies. 
• Molds release toxins called MYCOTOXINS. Mycotoxins ACCUMULATE in sinus tissue. When Dr. Dennis has biopsied and tested sinus mucosa, there are abundant mycotoxins stored in the mucosal tissue. 
• The sinuses are RIGHT NEAR THE BRAIN. These tiny little airborne toxins can go right up the olfactory nerve into the brain and accumulate in the brain - they are fat-soluble neurotoxins - in areas like the pituitary that regulates our thyroid, adrenals, stress response, growth hormone (healing) and more.
• Someone might show 3 toxins on a toxin test (Dr. Dennis prefers urine mycotoxin testing), but when you biopsy their tissue, like the pituitary tissue in the brain for example, there might be MORE. It's hard to measure what all has accumulated in the tissue. In his words, it's a toxic soup up there. 
• Because of his experience over the last nearly 40 years as an ENT, Dr. Dennis has a LOT of expertise on air quality and we discuss certain tools like ozone, ionizers, purifiers, mold testing plates, mold dogs, and more. 
• Dr. Dennis has developed tools to help people - - both professionally as a sinus surgeon, but he also formulated all of the MicroBalance Health Products and EC3 products - they make mold neutralizing candles, cleaning wipes, fogging spray, laundry additives, and more. 

If you have an autoimmune disease, mold toxicity, or sinus issues, you will love this conversation! Please leave a rating, a review, or better yet - send this to someone you love or care about - or anyone with a nose and brain :)