You know those days when you wake up, and your body is just achy?
I don't know if you've ever had one of those, but it's probably the worst. It feels like every muscle in your body is sore, even though you didn't do anything yesterday. It's as if your entire body is contracting at once—and it's not a pleasant feeling.
Body aches can be caused by many things—stress, exhaustion, dehydration, or even a bad mattress. But there's one thing that's likely not on your list: toxic mold.
As it turns out, toxic mold can affect you in more ways than just making you feel gross when you walk into your home. The cumulative effects of the mycotoxins mold creates can actually cause body aches and pains that last for days or weeks and even for a lifetime.
When I had all-over body pain, It was so painful that I couldn't get up. I thought maybe it was just normal aches and pains or all in my head because that's what the doctors said…
But when my son started having the same symptoms, I knew something was wrong.
I've been researching different causes of body pain and have found one that seems to be the reason why: toxic mold and other toxins cause pain and inflamtion.
Over ten years ago, we discovered that our house was full of toxic mold and this was causing the all over body aches.
Step One – TEST
The only way to know if you have toxic mold is to test and the best way to test is to do the HERTSMI through Mycometrics Laboratories.
HERTSMI is a mold test that analyses the dust sample provided for 5 molds: Aspergilus Penicilloides, Aspergillus Versicolor, Chaetomium Globosum, Stachybotrys Chartarum, Wallemia Sebi. It takes about two weeks to get results back from HERTSMI, but you can pay to have the results quicker.
Some people don't want to test because they are either sure they don't have a mold problem or they are afraid to know how bad it is because they don't think they can afford to fix it!
The truth is, once we know what's causing our health issues—and how bad it is—we can start taking steps toward resolving them. If you don't know, you can't fix it.
It's hard to believe that something so small could cause such big problems in our children's lives, but when you think about how many people live in homes with toxic mold issues and don't even realize it, it makes sense.
Getting rid of the mold in your house is only half the battle—the other half is taking care of your body so it can recover from the damage done by exposure to mold.
Here are some of the things I did to help speed up our recovery:
1. Supplements-Japanese Knotweed
First, I took supplements that helped keep the inflammation down in my body. I found that Japanese knotweed worked for me—but it didn't work for my son. Maybe our bodies just reacted differently to the herb, but it's worth a try if you're looking for something to ease those aches naturally.
Japanese knotweed can be used as a supplement to help improve your immune system and reduce inflammation. It contains an amino acid called resveratrol (you may have heard of this one before), which has been shown in studies to have anti-inflammatory properties and even some potential cancer-fighting properties.
I prefer buying the powder and making my own capsules because it saves money. Here is the powder I use – Japanese Knotweed is also called Hu Zhang Fen. I use 00 Capsules.
2. Vitamins, Minerals and Oils
Most people don't realize how important vitamins, minerals and oils are for your health.
Our food is not as nutritious as it once was so supplementing is necessary for good health.
Vitamins and minerals help with everything from brain function to mood regulation—but most importantly, they help protect your immune system from being suppressed by exposure to allergens, like mold spores and other toxins.
I highly recommend magnesium and calcium supplements as well as vitamin C supplements—they all work together to help ease muscle and nerve spasms. Magnesium also helps calm nerves, which can be helpful when you're feeling anxious or stressed out. You can find a great combo product here: http://calmagstore.com
Oils are an important part of releasing toxins because our fat cells store the toxins. If we can supplement good oils, our fat cells will release the bad oils with the toxins and as long as we have binders on board to mop up the toxins – that's part of getting better every day!
3. Gentle Stretching
You might be thinking: “Isn't exercising supposed to do more harm than good?”
Not necessarily.
Stretching is great for your body to heal because it relaxes your muscles and helps them regain their elasticity—which means they'll be able to spring back into shape when they need to. Plus, it just feels good! If you've got a joint injury or arthritis, gentle stretching can help alleviate pain and increase flexibility.
So I started doing yoga and pilates everday—nothing aerobic. Just resistance to your body weight and easing into movement. I started with 5 minutes, then 10 minutes. My goal was to exercise for an hour straight. That took time, patience, and recovery!
What I found was, yes. I was sore and tired from exercising.
I gained function and over time I got better and had less pain.
The key is to be gentle with yourself. You don't have to go all-out with a set of squats and pushups. Ease into movement, and let yourself get used to the feeling of being flexible again.
Here's what you need to do: schedule some time for movement daily. Do what you can—sometimes 5 minutes is all you can handle, but if you can handle more, do it! And don't worry about how much progress you're making towards better health—just take small steps every day towards feeling better and getting rid of those pesky aches and pains.
4. Avoid over-the-counter medications and pharmaceuticals if you can
It's hard to believe, but sometimes the thing that helps you feel better is not actually the thing that is supposed to help you feel better.
When I was suffering from body aches, and my doctor prescribed me some drugs to treat them, I was surprised at how much more pain I felt afterward. I started looking into why this was happening, and I discovered a lot of information about the side effects of over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs.
I know, I know— when you're in pain and tired of aches and pains, it can be tempting to pop a pill. But if you want to get rid of body aches for good and keep yourself feeling great, then maybe it's time to rethink the way you deal with pain.
For example, Tylenol depletes glutathione in your body which is essential for optimal health. It takes more than a week for your body to replace what was lost with one dose of Tylenol.
So if you take two doses daily, that's two weeks without glutathione! If you do this every day for months or years… well, let's just say that things won't be good.
It's time to listen to your body
When facing pain, it is crucial not to neglect your body. Some back pains can lead to spinal degeneration and other serious threats. If you want to maintain or become healthier, you'd better listen to your body and treat the cause of your pain instead of masking your symptoms using medication that has harmful side effects.
There are ways to educate yourself on your body and how it is telling you what is wrong with it and what to do with that information… if you want to learn more about the method I use to identify health challenges, please contact me at heather@agoodhealthadvocate.com.
I'd love to help you on your way to healing!
