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Dr. Jessica Tran discusses how to avoid and correct Mold Toxicity with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
6:05 The diagnosis of mold toxicity is difficulty to make, since the symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, skin rashes, respiratory problems, cognitive and neurological issues, fatigue, and headaches could be indicative of many other conditions. Mold may be a diagnosis of exclusion, after other causes have been ruled out. Patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s may have mold toxicity as a trigger. In fact, Dr. Tran said that she has seen a handful of patients with triple negative breast cancer who have all had tremendous mold exposure. Patients who have multiple chronic illnesses, say somebody who has hypothyroidism, Lyme infection, allergies, etc. will often have a mold allergy or mold sensitivity or a mycotoxin issue. We can get mycotoxins from our food, which most people will eliminate on their own. But these patients may have a compromised ability to eliminate mycotoxins. The key is to take a good, detailed history.
14:12 Dr. Tran likes to screen patients who she suspects of having mold toxicity with a urine test through either RealTime Labs or Great Plains but she likes to have them take either liposomal oral glutathione 500 mg three times per day the day before or an IV Glutathione drip or push the day before collecting the urine. This will increase mold excretion. Without doing the glutathione challenge, you can have someone who has been exposed to mold and is reacting to it, but they may be a poor excreter. It may be stored or stuck in their body and not coming out. It’s the same concept when you test for heavy metals and do an oral chelator challenge and then test the urine. Dr. Tran talked about the Autism study when they looked at the baby’s first haircuts looking for mercury to see if mercury was related to autism. But they found the opposite–those with autism had lower levels of mercury. But what this study really showed was that the autistic kids were poor mercury excreters.
20:25 The best ways to test your home for mold is to contact a mold expert to come and impect your home or office. If you want to test it yourself, the ERMI kit is better than the HERTSMI, since the ERMI looks at more forms of mold and is more extensive than the HERTSMI. If your budget is very limited, you can get a petri dish from Home Depot or Amazon and just leave it in your home for a couple of days and then mail it in and they send you a report.
21:57 A Functional Medicine approach to treating mold problems should include looking at the whole person and also look at food allergies and other environmental allergies. For the mold component, treatment should start with glutathione, either liposomal or intravenous. You should also add phosphatidylcholine, which helps improve the lipid membrane. Dr. Tran says she may also use binders like psyllium, bentonite clay, and/or activated charcoal. She finds that cholestyramine is fairly harsh, so she does not use it. Dr. Tran will also look at the gut, esp. since mold has a relationship with candida overgrowth.
Dr. Jessica Tran is a board-certified Naturopathic Doctor who is practicing Functional Medicine at the Wellness Integrative Naturopathic Center in Irvine, California, where she practices with Dr. Darin Ingels. The website is WellnessIntegrative.com and she can also be found at DrJessicaTran.com Dr. Tran’s office phone is 949-551-8751 where she sees patients in office or remotely.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also specializing in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure and also weight loss, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Podcast Transcripts
Dr. Weitz: This is Dr. Ben Weitz with the Rational Wellness Podcast, bringing you the cutting-edge information on health and nutrition from the latest, scientific research and by interviewing the top experts in the field. Please subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast on iTunes and YouTube, and sign up for my free ebook on my website by going to drweitz.com. Let’s get started on your road to better health. Hello Rational Wellness Podcasters. Dr. Ben Weitz here. Thank you so much for joining me again today. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, please go to iTunes and leave us a ratings and review. That way, more people can find out about the Rational Wellness Podcast.
Our topic for today is toxic mold, its effect on our bodies, and how to get rid of it, with Dr. Jessica Tran. Exposure to mold and mold toxins, known as mycotoxins, affects many people and often is an undiagnosed underlying trigger for many other symptoms and conditions. Many people are unwittingly living or working in water-damaged buildings, and this exposure may be causing many negative effects on their health including skin rashes, respiratory problems, cognitive, neurological issues, fatigue, headaches, joint pain, even increased urinary frequency, and a list of other symptoms. When looking at a patient from a functional medicine perspective, we usually focus on likely underlying triggers and root causes of their health condition, and mold may be one that is sometimes overlooked. Research indicates that mycotoxins can bind to DNA and RNA and cause damage, alter protein synthesis, increase oxidative stress, deplete antioxidants, alter cell membrane function, act as potent mitochondrial toxins, and alter apoptosis, which is important for killing off cancer and other cells that we don’t want in the body. Molds and mycotoxins can negatively affect our hormones including our sex hormones, thyroid, and adrenal function. In some cases, POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and a bunch of other conditions can be caused by mold exposure. Other conditions that may have a mycotoxin component include various cancers, diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, lipid problems, Crohn’s disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, MS, Alzheimer’s disease, et cetera.
This is why we’ve asked Dr. Jessica Tran to join us today. Dr. Tran is a board-certified naturopathic doctor having completed her naturopathic degree from Bastyr University. She also completed a three-year specialty environmental medicine fellowship, and she also recently completed an MBA in health care from UC Irvine. Dr. Tran is extremely knowledgeable about mold and mycotoxins and environmental conditions, and this is why we’ve asked her to join us to share some pearls of wisdom with us today. Dr. Tran, thank you so much for joining us.
Dr. Tran: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Dr. Weitz: Excellent. How did you become interested in environmental medicine and studying mold and patients suffering with mold toxicity?
Dr. Tran: It was through my fellowship program at Southwest that I became more familiar with mold. It was never on my radar. It wasn’t anything I ever learned in undergrad or even living in Seattle where it’s very moldy and damp. I rarely had encountered anyone or any patients that came in for us with symptoms that remotely resembles mold, toxicity or mold allergy. I was probably seeing them, but it wasn’t anything that was exposed to me at that time.
Dr. Tran: In my fellowship program, because I was at the Center of Environmental Excellence there, we saw patients from around the globe, and it was there that I had patients come in, and it was through my mentor and faculty director who through our history uncovered that patients who were living in water-damaged homes or had exposure to mold had chronic illnesses that after seeing 40 or many, many different doctors, their symptoms and condition wasn’t resolved.
One of the things that really fascinated me was that you can have mold exposure and not even see it in your home because it could be behind the drywall of the home, and patients would usually have a history of, “Yeah, we had water damage. We cleaned it up,” or, “The toilet overflowed,” but we then … Part of the fellowship program, you learn about building practices and how to ask certain questions. We have our patients or a home inspector go in, take a look, and lo and behold, sometimes people would have black mold behind their shower wall or in their bathroom or even in their home or kitchen sink, roof leak, and that was really where I learned a ton about patients who were exposed to mold and having mycotoxin issues.
Dr. Weitz: Cool. So, what would make you suspect that a patient that you’re dealing with may have an underlying mold problem that’s part of their health struggles, especially when symptoms of mold toxicity could also be caused by a number of other things?
Dr. Tran: That’s the hardest aspect. It’s usually for most … As a general practitioner, it’s really hard to know because patients are coming with fatigue, joint pain, and all these other things that are so many different things that you can have value … they have … For me, sometimes, I’m one of the last people that patients see, and it’s a diagnosis of exclusion. If it’s something that a doctor hasn’t looked at, it’s something that I usually ask. One of the things that are strange, rare, peculiar, or that patients will come and being overlooked is patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s. To this date, I’ve had a handful of patients who have triple negative breast cancer, and hands down, every single person has had a tremendous mold exposure. So there’s certain cancers that I believe-
Dr. Weitz: Wow.
Dr. Tran: Wait. We don’t know if it’s the culprit, but it’s definitely an association that we see. It’s definitely something that’s, for me, just my bias is strongly correlated that I see in my practice. We take an environmental perspective, environmental history, and part of the history, somebody who has many chronic illnesses, I would say three or four conditions, like hypothyroidism, Lyme infection or other allergies. Most of them will struggle with a mold intolerance, and that could be mold allergy or a mycotoxin issue. The mycotoxin issue, we get mycotoxins from our food, right? So we’re all exposed to mycotoxins to some degree. Our body naturally will eliminate mycotoxins on its own. But as you know, people who struggle with metal issues, their ability to eliminate may be slowed based on their genetics. So they may have a compromised ability to eliminate. Even though, naturally, we all have the ability to eliminate it, some people eliminate slower than others, and because it’s slower there’s a buildup that occurs, and we develop this toxic burden, and it’s not just with mold, it’s with other things like metals in the environment, glyphosate, like different herbicides. You know, pesticides we’re exposed to also. So it’s the totality of everything that we have to look at. But definitely, the mold mycotoxin issue is huge, and it’s hard to really know if it’s how big a factor it is. I’m always asking a patient about whether they have water damage in their home, and most patients who are mold-sensitive will know because through their history, with their itchy eyes, runny nose. When they walk into a damp room, they’ll know. Others may not. So it’s a good history, is what I’d say.
Dr. Weitz: So what percentage of patients that have symptoms of mold toxicity or that do have mold toxicity know that their home or office has mold that they’re getting exposed to?
Dr. Tran: Surprisingly, I believe, and maybe my patients are more educated. They will say to me, “I think my home … ” Maybe I’m mold-sensitive because I’ve read about it online. But for most patients, I don’t think … They don’t suspect because it’s never anything that they’re clued into.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Tran: So I actually believe it may be more diagnosed than we ever realized it to be because it’s something, but it’s not really talked about or taught in conventional medicine. Most conventional practitioners will send a patient to an allergist. The allergist will do a skin scratch test. It may not even show up because the mold, allergy is not IgE-mediated–it may be a delayed response. So we may-
Dr. Weitz: An IgE or IgM reaction.
Dr. Tran: Yeah, so there are patients who are immune-compromised that are more susceptible to getting certain mold infections, especially in their lungs. When patients are immune compromised, that’s recognizing how much medicine. But for people who have a low-level toxin exposure with mold accumulation, it may be overlooked.
Dr. Weitz: You mentioned triple negative breast cancer, and we’ve had a few patients with that over the years, and that’s really a grim prognosis, very hard cancer to treat. Do you find that treating the mold increases their prognosis?
Dr. Tran: It’s hard to say. But in my experience caring for these patients, with triple negative, their prognosis is better, and I think it’s because we’re doing everything else, right? We’re changing their diet. We’re helping them change … decrease stress. I think it’s everything together. But I say that with the triple negative breast cancer because there isn’t anything … The prognosis is terrible. Some patients go around different chemotherapy agents, which usually have no evidence, which blows my mind because it’s supposed to be a research … science-based.
Dr. Tran: But I know they’re doing their best. They’re trying to find the best regiment for patients. I find a lot of my patients with the triple negative breast cancer and comparing to people who decide to go conventional versus integrating Functional Medicine, alternative medicine aspect, they do better because of everything they’re doing, the diet, lifestyle, supplements and hormonal balance. Even though estrogen/progesterone isn’t playing a role, there’s cortisol, the adrenal glands, right? So that plays a role too. We have to address that.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, and I’m not convinced. Even though they’re estrogen-receptor negative that estrogen metabolism still isn’t important in these women.
Dr. Tran: Oh, and it’s gut, right? Gut function?
Dr. Weitz: Right, yep.
Dr. Tran: Gut function’s essential, right?
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Tran: Our microbiome is very important. How our gut … You know, B vitamins are important. If the patient has dysbiosis, they’re most likely to have an altered level of beads. I mean, we know that there’s so many different co-factors in our body that we need for metabolism, essential detoxification. I really believe for triple negative and certain types of cancer, it’s the depletion of essential nutrients that leads to altered or uncontrolled growth of cells, right? So that’s why when we see patients with certain cancers, we’re always looking at nutrient levels. How can we support them from that? And food is medicine. We start there first and look at how will they absorb. We can see that we go through higher levels of intervention. We may need like IV nutrient therapy.
Dr. Weitz: Right. Do you find any tests useful for screening patients for mold toxicity? Such as, say, some of the urine tests?
Dr. Tran: They can be useful, yes. So the caveat for that is that when you do these urine tests, it doesn’t tell you what your burden is. It tells you your level of exposure, and it tells you you’re able to excrete. Similar to toxic metals, so we … There are some people who are non-excreters. They don’t excrete well. What I do find in the patients who are poor excreters, they’re not going to have a high level of mycotoxins in their urine. It’s going to actually show a low level. It’s counterintuitive, but then what I learned, and I learned this through Dr. Tim Guilford that glutathione binds to mycotoxins.
So what I’ve done in patients where I know they’re living in a water-damaged home. I know they’re … They have every classic symptom that the urine test shows that it’s negative. I do a glutathione challenge. So the day before, I will either dose with liposomal glutathione throughout the day, with 500 milligrams three times a day. Or I’ll do an IV bolus of glutathione drip or push and then collect the next morning first urine void. Then you’ll see it.
Dr. Weitz: Cool.
Dr. Tran: I do have a case. I can show you with the lab results at the presentation. So whole family has exposure living in the moldy home, and there’s one … The mom has very high levels of leukotoxin, and of fragilis in the home, from air samples in the home. Her urine test shows that she’s exposed. Her friend who has developmental delays and issues, his levels showed very little, like nothing. Nothing excreted out. The interesting thing is that the son saw my colleague in the office, Dr. Ingle. I recommended the tests. He saw the results. He’s like, “Oh, okay. No exposure.”
Dr. Tran: But when you look at … because they’re exposed. The kid has to have some excretion. But what it tells me is that this kid is a poor excreter. He’s probably very, very burdened but he’s not excreting well.
Dr. Weitz: Did you do the glutathione and retest with him?
Dr. Tran: Yeah, and so you will see when you do the glutathione and then you retest. You see a greater level of excretion, maybe not a ton. I have a handful of cases where that’s the case, where toxic mold exposure. Their practitioners will do … I see them. They will see other practitioners around town. They have a test. It’s negative, and I’m like, “Let’s try this. Let’s try a glutathione challenge test,” and then lo and behold you see a greater expression of mycotoxins, and I believe it’s because it’s stuck, stored or what not in the body, and not excreted well. We see that with metals. So it’s my experience in metal toxicology with the chelaters. I drew from that to apply in this situation.
Dr. Weitz: Meaning when somebody comes in, you suspect might have heavy metal toxicity. Instead of just measuring their urine, you give them a oral chelater, and then you measure their urine the next day with the idea that the chelater is pulling the metals out that then will get excreted?
Dr. Tran: Exactly. That’s the exact concept because we don’t really … When we’re doing a first morning urine challenge test either for mold or heavy metals, just first … No chelater. First morning void just shows us what the patient is exposed to and how well they’re able to eliminate. It doesn’t tell us what’s bound … For metals, we know this from metals really well, is that certain metals will bind very strong to proteins and make certain enzymes non-functional. It’s the affinity of these metals that bind it so strongly when you have a chelating agent on board, it pulls it off and then freeze it up, and then you excrete it out through the urine.
Dr. Tran: So, same concept. I don’t know if you’re … Are you familiar with the autism study When they looked at the baby’s first haircuts and looking at mercury?
Dr. Weitz: No.
Dr. Tran: There’s a study looking … because we had believed that mercury was implicated in developing autism. So there’s a study that looked at babies’ first haircuts, and we expected to see a higher level of mercury excretion in kids on the spectrum. But the opposite was what the studies showed. It was in fact the neurotypical kids. The control’s had high levels of mercury versus the autistic kids, and that study demonstrates and illustrates the fact that the autistic kids are poor excreters since their genetics doesn’t allow them to excrete. That’s the takeaway from that study.
Dr. Weitz: I see.
Dr. Tran: We have a study similar, which I’ll talk about. Same thing with children on the spectrum do not excrete ochratoxin very well either. So you’ll see the control group will excrete really well, but the children on the autistic spectrum will not excrete ochratoxin very well. The study doesn’t take the leap to do a glutathione challenge test or anything. They hopefully one day will get there. But the research does show that there are people who just do not excrete very well.
Dr. Weitz: Cool. So what’s the best way to test your home for a mold or mycotoxins?
Dr. Tran: There’s different ways to test. So you can do a spore trap analysis. You have somebody come to the home, measure the spores in the home. You could do … The inexpensive way to do it is … I tell some of my patients. You can get a petri dish. You go to Home Depot or buy on Amazon online a petri dish mold, you know, test. Just put it in the home, and if you just leave it in there, in the home for a couple days, then you send it back and you get a report. It’s not very expensive.
Dr. Tran: I usually recommend patients to get it evaluated by a mold expert or somebody who comes in the home. They can do the moisture test testing, looking at indoor mold samples and outdoor mold quality. There’s some people who will talk about the ERMI and the HERTSMI. So we’ll go over that at the presentation, the pros and cons. But in a nutshell, the ERMI is a more extensive evaluation. The HERTSMI is looking at the five molds, mycotoxins, like producing molds that Shoemaker believes are most … has the most adverse effects on our health. So those are the differences in a nutshell.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, so let’s get into treating. So how do you treat a patient that we believe strongly or is confirmed from testing are sick from mold or mycotoxin exposure?
Dr. Tran: For treating a patient, you also have to not only look at the molds. You look at the whole entire person. You have to look at the food allergies and there are other environmental allergies to get the best resolution. There’s some people who will just treat in isolation, like feel like we will do a disservice if you just do that. But there’s some people who just want just the mold component. If you look at just the mold component, what the evidence shows is that liposomal glutathione, IV glutathione does bind into the mycotoxins. If we’re talking about mycotoxins alone, you know, glutathione, in conjunction with phosphatidylcholine, because it helps improve the lipid membrane, is essential because we know it impairs cellular … a lipid bilayer. So phosphatidylcholine is another oral or IV. It’s something that can be used. Looking at the gut microbiome is really important.
Dr. Weitz: So it’s interesting. You talk about liposomal glutathione is something that binds to the mold. I’ve been hear people talking about liposomal glutathione or the forms of glutathione as a way to push the mold out and then using clay and charcoal and pectins and things like that to bind it.
Dr. Tran: Yes.
Dr. Weitz: One of the experts calls it the push-catch strategy.
Dr. Tran: In my experience, if we had to pick one, glutathione’s my favorite.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Tran: The binders, yes. Some people like to use cholestyramine. I find that it’s really harsh. So there are other binders that are good like psyllium, bentonite clay, that’s good. It’s hard to find a good source of it too. It’s fairly inexpensive. Some people will take activated charcoal at nights.
Dr. Weitz: Right.
Dr. Tran: I think it’s essential for us to know how to schedule it so patients don’t deplete their nutrients more than they are depleting their nutrients.
Dr. Weitz: Right, because those binders if they’re consumed at the same time with foods that have a lot of nutrients or nutritional supplements, they’ll bind with those two and take them out.
Dr. Tran: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We’ll do a lot of gut work too when patients are exposed to mold. Some patients are like, “Why do I have to look … Why are you making me do a stool test?” I’m like, “It’s part of the evaluation,” because it’s not just … because mold has a relationship with patients with candida too. Some people who have an overgrowth of candida will just experience symptoms of mold, allergy, and toxicity to a greater degree. So we want to make sure we evaluate it, and we treat it appropriately. That’s why I like the sensitivity testing, our functional comprehensive stool analysis, because we can actually treat with the correct nutraceutical.
Dr. Weitz: Cool. Of all those binders, I’ve seen clay, charcoal, cholestyramine, chlorella, zeolite, modified citrus pectin, beta-sitosterol, glucomannan, diatomaceous earth. Can you sort those out? Or what are your two favorites? Or do you like to use some in certain cases?
Dr. Tran: I would say my favorite would probably be the bentonite clay and activated charcoal.
Dr. Weitz: Okay.
Dr. Tran: And there are super soluble fiber products that I like to use too. I think fiber’s important because it also helps, and it really depends on the patient’s budget too. So, activated charcoal is relatively really expensive, and it is something that’s put on board for just to help. If they can do with different fibers, and we rotate the fibers, that’s something that I like. Some people can’t tolerate one fiber over the others. That’s why you have to understand what theIr intolerances are too.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, interesting. Hey, have you noticed that we seem to be in this charcoal phase of consumer products? I mean, in fact, in my household, my wife had brought home a toothpaste with charcoal, a facial mask with charcoal. Occasionally, we have a treat of ice cream made from coconut, and they have a flavor that is charcoal ice cream.
Dr. Tran: I think that’s a new trend and fad.
Dr. Weitz: I mean, it’s … Everywhere is charcoal.
Dr. Tran: I was with a friend this weekend, and I ordered a lemonade charcoal, and she was like, “What is this?” I’m like, “It’s lemonade charcoal. It’s a trendsetter.” We went and had an amazing bowl in Los Angeles, and it had charcoal, and she was like, “I can’t … Why is there charcoal in everything?” I’m like, “Just wait. In a couple of months, six months from now, it’s going to … support everyone there. But it’s trending here in LA. Yeah, it’s every … lemonade, yeah.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I guess we haven’t had a new fruit that only grows in the Amazon that’s the new super antioxidants. So we got charcoal now.
Dr. Tran: I could tell you about other exotic fruits that hasn’t been well talked about.
Dr. Weitz: Oh okay. Maybe we could start a trend right here on the Rational Wellness Podcast.
Dr. Tran: I’ll bring that to you next time, other botanicals and nutrients that aren’t trending yet that that we can tell about, yeah.
Dr. Weitz: Okay. We’ll be the trendsetters. So when you’re treating a patient for mold or mycotoxin toxicity, do you have them avoid foods that may contain mold or … And do you have them avoid eating mushrooms, by the way, which is another trend is foods that have dried mushrooms in them, like reishi and chaga and whatever the latest trendy medicinal mushroom is-
Dr. Tran: Cordycep.
Dr. Weitz: … that’s put in coffee and tea and everything else?
Dr. Tran: Yeah, so, it really depends on the patient’s tolerance, and that’s of the other thing is making sure we understand the patient’s food intolerances. In general, most providers who are treating patients with molds, they avoid all of it. Even avoid the mushrooms. Avoid cheese, everything. I find that some patients will be able to tolerate taking cordyceps or reishi for adrenal support when they’re mold sensitive, but there are other patients who cannot tolerate it. So it’s patient specific. You really have to identify their needs, yeah.
So as a blanket statement, I think, in general, sure, you can avoid. But I think mushrooms have such beneficial uses, and I also there are good uses of mold. Not all molds are bad.
Dr. Weitz: But we could very easily say since these are common foods that have mushrooms, and they’re also very common allergen, say, avoid wheat, corn, cheese. There’s a few other common foods that also are probably irritating to the gut. You could easily take those out as part of your program and improve their overall health. Take out alcoholic beverages.
Dr. Tran: Yes, yeah, you can.
Dr. Weitz: Should we be using an air filter?
Dr. Tran: Well, in Orange County, LA area, I think we should … air filter.
Dr. Weitz: What’s the best kind of air filter to get?
Dr. Tran: It depends on what you’re trying to eliminate. So what I tell patients-
Dr. Weitz: Mycotoxins.
Dr. Tran: So if you’re looking to get rid of mycotoxins and mold spores, you want to look for an air filter that has a MERV 8 rating at least. Each filter will have a different rating. I’ll show that to you in the presentation. There’s different types of air filters and qualities, and the issues of the air filter is … You can have charcoal, carbon filter, air filter, or you can have one with ozone. Then people will say that certain air filters will emit too much EMF. So you have to look at the EMF excretion. You know, the emission of EMF.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I just did a podcast with Oram Miller, and he’s the EMF guy. He spoke in our last Functional Medicine meeting as well.
Dr. Tran: One of my favorites air filter, which is the IQAir Air … You know, he and other people will say, “It emits too much EMF for certain patients.” So I like the IQAir, Blueair or the Austin Air are the three top air filters that … It was just passed down from me … I’m just regurgitating that information … and in our industry is what we recommend to patients. There are other ones like-
Dr. Weitz: So what are those three again real quick?
Dr. Tran: The IQAir.
Dr. Weitz: IQAir.
Dr. Tran: IQAir is big and bulky, but it’s beautiful. It’s quite expensive. The Blueair is nice and sleek.
Dr. Weitz: So we can turn our home into a blue zone with the Blueair filter.
Dr. Tran: Yeah. The Molekule, which is newer. I have one in my office. It’s-
Dr. Weitz: Could you repeat that last one because you broke up a little bit.
Dr. Tran: Oh, I apologize. My internet. I am hardwired, though. Is the Molekule. The Molekule is the last one that a lot of you were … or a lot of people have been talking about. I actually have three in my office. I love it.
Dr. Weitz: Oh, wow.
Dr. Tran: I have every single one in my office. I have the Blueair, Austin Air, just so that I can show patients the different types of air filters they can pick for their home. I think honestly, like anything at Costco is good too. If they want to go Target, most products at Target are sufficient too.
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, but don’t buy your fish oil at Costco.
Dr. Tran: I know. I don’t get that. But yeah, it’s interesting. But yeah, but quality of Costco fish oil is just …
Dr. Weitz: Oh my God.
Dr. Tran: We’ll talk about … I don’t know. Do you talk about that on your podcast because I don’t think the consumer, the public knows about the quality of their own fish oils.
Dr. Weitz: I haven’t done a podcast just on that, but it’s definitely something I’m passionate about, but I definitely should.
Dr. Tran: I have lab results for patients who take my supplement, and then they want to go to Costco to get it for less expensive, and their numbers change, and I’m like, “Well … ” I just don’t pay attention because my staff deals with the dispensary side. I mean, dispensing supplements, and I’m like, “Well, what supplement are you taking?” They show me this Costco bottle. I’m like I cringe.
Dr. Weitz: Oh, I know, and it’s the size of a garbage can, and it costs $20, and you go, “What do you think?” You think you’re going to get caught?
Dr. Tran: They’re like titanium dioxide. I mean, which is more than a lot of supplements and more patients can be safe. But there’s a lot of coloring and fillers, and I haven’t even … Yeah, you read the label, and you’re like, “Wow.”
Dr. Weitz: I know.
Dr. Tran: But it is something, and if it’s what they can afford, something is better than … But I don’t know. It depends on the situation.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, Jessica. So thank you for providing us with some very interesting, useful information about mold. How can listeners and viewers get ahold of you? How can they contact you?
Dr. Tran: At my office or through Gmail?
Dr. Weitz: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, what’s your website? And you can give out your office phone number, and you do consultations in person, and do you also do them remotely?
Dr. Tran: I do for certain situations, yes. So my website is wellnessintegrative.com. My office number is 949-551-8751, and I’m on drjessicatran.com. Instagram is Dr. Jessica Tran. I also have a Facebook page, I guess. People message me through that, my Facebook.
Dr. Weitz: Okay, good.
Dr. Tran: That’s Dr. Jessica Tran-Naturopathic Doctor.