Episode #19: Winning the War on Mold in Your Home

Summary

In this enlightening episode of the Peak Performance Podcast, Coach Kyle and Dr. K dive deep into the persistent problem of mold in residential environments. They explore the origins and favorite haunts of mold within the home, effective strategies for prevention and eradication, and practical tips for identifying and dealing with mold-related issues. The episode not only discusses the environmental aspects but also touches upon the health implications of mold exposure, providing listeners with a thorough understanding of how to maintain a mold-free home.

Takeaways:

  • Identify Mold-Friendly Zones like common areas in your home where mold is likely to grow, such as bathrooms, basements, and under sinks, to stay ahead of potential infestations.
  • Implement strategies such as maintaining optimal indoor humidity levels below 50% and ensuring good ventilation to prevent mold growth.
  • Recognize the health implications of mold exposure, such as respiratory issues and allergies, and understand when to seek medical advice.
  • Learn about the most effective ways to remove mold, including the use of professional-grade dehumidifiers and opting for mold-resistant building materials during any home repairs or renovations.
  • Gain insights into selecting the right mold remediation professionals, focusing on those who offer comprehensive solutions that address both removal and future prevention.
  • Explore DIY methods for detecting mold through moisture meters and thermal cameras, and discuss why solutions like hydrogen peroxide are preferred over bleach for cleaning mold-infested areas.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Mold

01:57 Understanding Molds Habitat 

04:25 How Mold Manifests in the Home

05:06 Detailed Look at Airborne Mold

08:50 Water-Based Mold Issues

09:40 Roof Leaks, Drywall, and Other Building Materials

15:55 Testing Methods for Mold

19:46 Sourcing Reliable Mold Remediation

23:26 Air Purification and Mold Prevention 

25:29 Bleach is NOT the Answer

28:32 Taking Care of Your Health and Home – Where to Start if Mold is Present

31:06 Conclusion

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by Toxic Roots.  The optimal resource for online health coaching for optimizing performance and removing toxins. Click on the link below to get started on finding your toxic roots. 

Website: https://www.toxicrootswellness.com/

Instagram: @toxicrootswellness

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Sources and Recommendations:

People

Peak Performance 

Dr. K 

Coach Kyle 

Transcript:

Kyle Hulbert (00:00)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Peak Performance Podcast. I’m Coach Kyle.

Ben Kosubevsky (00:04)

And I’m Dr. K, thank you for joining us today as we discuss mold in the house. Now we’ve already spent a lot of time discussing mold and its symptoms and how it affects people, but now we’re gonna talk about its major location, which is your house, how it gets there, we’re gonna talk about how to prevent it, how to get rid of it if you do get it, and some other key facts about it.

Kyle Hulbert (00:26)

Very nice. Well, Dr. K, you are back, officially, from riding a horse across Africa. How was that?

Ben Kosubevsky (00:33)

It was so much fun. I couldn’t go like now having done that, I don’t think I could ever go back into a Jeep Safari. The horse part was just so much better.

Kyle Hulbert (00:42)

So you got like with the animals. You were on an animal with the animals.

Ben Kosubevsky (00:47)

Oh yeah, elephants were like 100 feet away just staring at us, giraffes even closer.

Kyle Hulbert (00:52)

Crazy. That’s awesome. Did you get like super sore?

Ben Kosubevsky (00:55)

Surprisingly no, but we’ve been practicing as you know for the last, I’ve been practicing for the last year. Alexandra, my wife has been practicing her whole life, so.

Kyle Hulbert (01:01)

Yes, ma ‘am.

Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. I saw some cool pictures. And then you stopped in London on the way back. How was that?

Ben Kosubevsky (01:07)

Yeah.

it was just a layover to make the 30 hour flight time less miserable. That’s cool. Good city to visit.

Kyle Hulbert (01:17)

Yeah, London’s nice, but I just kind of, and this might offend some of our UK listeners if we have any UK listeners, but I say London is like America, except it’s, it’s rainier.

Ben Kosubevsky (01:28)

I mean, you can say that about every major city.

Kyle Hulbert (01:31)

that’s fair. I mean, Seattle, Seattle is like the rest of America except more rain.

Ben Kosubevsky (01:37)

Well, you know what else they have besides rain? Mold.

Kyle Hulbert (01:39)

Hm. Mold. Lots of mold. Yeah, that’s true. Seattle’s a bad one.

Ben Kosubevsky (01:45)

pretty much Seattle, London, Miami, all these great cities. Where there is mold, yes. It’s where mold is.

Kyle Hulbert (01:48)

Florida, all of Florida. Yeah. So the conditions for mold essentially, I mean, you’re really looking at like high amounts of rain and humidity are the biggest factors for like geographically avoiding mold. Is that track with you?

Ben Kosubevsky (01:57)

Hmm.

Oh yeah, definitely. You know, mold’s favorite thing is wet and hot. That’s what allows it to grow. That’s its ideal environment. So any place that has that, it’s going to grow. And sure, outside is definitely a big thing for that. Like floor is hot and sticky, but also your bathroom is hot and sticky. And so is under your kitchen sink and a bunch of other places.

Kyle Hulbert (02:31)

Yeah. What’s interesting is geographically, you know, mold, you said like wet and hot. It does not like cold. it can’t grow in sub -zero temperatures oftentimes. So a lot of places in the North don’t have nearly the mold issues because they’re frozen eight months a year. So it’s really, it’s really this, this warm, humidity areas that, that are the greatest defenders, but that’s not to say, like you mentioned that even if you live in the North and you have a leak in your house, you’re not going to have an issue.

Ben Kosubevsky (03:00)

Right. I mean, the only places that your house could leak and you’ll have an issue, maybe like Arizona, where it’s so dry that everything dries out. But in the North? Yeah, I just want to add to that freezing thing you talked about up North, which is now unfortunately getting less and less. You know, where I grew up in New Jersey, we used to get sub -zero temperatures and now it barely snows.

Kyle Hulbert (03:08)

Yeah, that’s true. Move to the desert.

Ben Kosubevsky (03:24)

But that freezing thing has affected a lot of things. It used to kill off a lot of ticks and mosquitoes and all that stuff. Now that stuff doesn’t die anymore. So there’s a lot of problems coming from that, including now those, those areas are now more susceptible to mold because it doesn’t get so cold.

Kyle Hulbert (03:33)

Interesting.

I didn’t know that about the ticks and mosquitoes. That probably opens it up for more Lyme disease transmission and things like that.

Ben Kosubevsky (03:41)

Mm -hmm.

Probably, yeah.

Kyle Hulbert (03:47)

and what is malaria for mosquitoes? I don’t think we have an issue with that here.

Ben Kosubevsky (03:51)

I don’t think that’s a thing in America.

Kyle Hulbert (03:53)

Well, getting back to mold. So when we look at mold in your house, and we talked a lot about it biologically and biofilms and that stuff. So we’re not going to go into that. We’re going to really focus environmentally today. You know, there’s two main categories of where it manifests in your house or how per se. And the first one is airborne. And the second one is kind of water damage spots. So water damage is the thing that everybody talks about all the time. Like be careful if something leaks.

then it could cause mold. The airborne one, though, is more insidious because a lot of people don’t realize it’s happening and nothing has to break for it to happen. It can literally just happen over time because of the humidity. So airborne, you want to dive into airborne or water damage first?

Ben Kosubevsky (04:44)

I mean, without prelude, let’s get into airborne first.

Kyle Hulbert (04:47)

Let’s do it. So let’s start with the fact that mold is everywhere. It’s outside, it’s floating around. So how does it get in our house in the first place? It is in the air. There’s some degree of mold everywhere in the air. And so what happens here is outside, this mold is in balance. It’s in balance with other chemicals, you know, the natural environment. It’s the mold is finding the dead things, decomposing it. It’s doing its job. What happens when we get inside is we often give mold a place to live.

becomes out of balance and starts to take over the balance. So in terms of airborne mold, especially in hot places, when you’re running your air conditioning constantly, what this air conditioning is doing, how it conditions the air is essentially it cools down parts of the air conditioner, which causes condensation. The condensation drips off and drains out to the house. But there’s always that moisture inside your HVAC system. So.

It doesn’t have to break, but there is moisture in your HVAC system. So how do we mitigate this or how do we approach this? First, actually, let’s take a step back. Humidity. So what do you think the perfect humidity is to live in Dr. K?

Ben Kosubevsky (06:00)

So you really told me the answer, but I’m gonna say what most people think, which is probably 60 to 65%.

Kyle Hulbert (06:07)

Yeah. If you actually read on the internet, a lot of times it says it’s anywhere from like 49 to 60%. It’s the most comfortable for humans. And there is some, there is some benefit there in terms of like, if you’re not drinking enough water, being in a more humid environment actually helps. But the issue here is that certain mold species can grow in the air and in the environment.

with a relative humidity of north of 50. So anything north of 50 is really what you want to try to mitigate. This can be done a lot of different ways. There’s dehumidifiers you can buy on Amazon that are relatively inexpensive. The best way to do it is to hook up a dehumidifier to your HVAC system. So it will dehumidify the air before it gets into your air conditioner. So it’s nice and dry air as it’s pumping it into your

air conditioning system. So that way, that the condensation that forms is little to none, and you can still cool the air without having a lot of this moisture build up in your AC system. That’s the best way to do it.

Ben Kosubevsky (07:16)

Do you have any recommendations on how to find a reputable company to actually install that? Because I’m sure they’re not all created equally.

Kyle Hulbert (07:23)

almost every HVAC company can install it. you just want to get the right unit. So April air, makes one of the most popular best units out there. it’s probably, I think it’s like 1600 bucks. so it’s not terribly expensive and you should find an installer that puts it in for south of 500. and this is a whole house system. So this is.

You know, you plug it in and your whole house is dehumidified. so probably about 2000 bucks all in is what you can get it for. But the April air, depending on your house size, they have like a 60, 70, 80, 90 pint system. That’s how they measure it. I mean, pints per day, the dehumidifier can pull out of the air. but the key to installing it, and if you’re interested in this, this is what you really need to talk to the HVAC person is you need to install it previous to your air handler.

So you don’t want to install it post your air handler because then you’re not pulling that humidity out of the air before it’s going through the cooling system. So you want it to go before your air handler so your air handler is getting the dry air.

Ben Kosubevsky (08:21)

Makes sense. Okay. So reducing your humidity is the best way to prevent airborne mold. What about water?

Kyle Hulbert (08:32)

Water? Water damage?

Ben Kosubevsky (08:33)

water damage, water base mold.

Kyle Hulbert (08:35)

So water damage is basically you got a few key spots to look for. So your plumbing is your probably number one offender when your sink isn’t hooked up right or someone…

puts something onto the sink and hits the pipe and it jiggles the fitting and it starts to leak. So that’s probably the number one place. Number two is probably the roof. So if your roof is old, it can develop leaks and those leaks as it goes through your shingles or whatever your roofing is, you know, it’s hitting your wood decking, which is an organic material. It’s important to know that mold grows on organic materials only. It cannot grow and thrive on inorganic materials.

So something like concrete mold cannot grow on now if your concrete is dirty It can grow on the dirt on the concrete, but it can’t grow on inorganic materials So as it’s dripping through the roof, It’s hitting your decking and then it’s hitting your trusses and Then it’s hitting your drywall drywall is probably the number one offender for roof leaks Because of its nature it soaks up water

and it holds it. It just, when water hits it, it soaks it right up because of how dry it is, the material it’s made out of. And drywall is encased, it’s an inorganic material encased in two layers of paper, which is an organic material. So it can grow on both sides of it, even if the moisture is held inside the drywall.

Ben Kosubevsky (10:12)

interesting. So the moisture inside is just feeding the mold.

Kyle Hulbert (10:16)

Yep. So when it gets wet, the moisture soaks up into the inorganic material in the inside and then basically can feed it from both sides into the paper on the outside. Yeah. So they do make, like if you’re building a new home, they do make mold resistant drywall where they make it out of inorganic material. The paper is essentially inorganic, which is helpful. But it’s more helpful to prevent leaks in the first place.

Ben Kosubevsky (10:27)

That’s crazy.

Well, I think the biggest issue with that, especially when you’re building a house is how do you keep the builder or how do you get the builder to make sure everything stays dry while they’re building it.

Kyle Hulbert (10:54)

That’s tricky. for me, I like to time my builds and I came from the construction company and industry. So when I build a house, I am very involved in it. So, I like to plan and time the build. So the framing and all the exposed wood is done in the dry season. that’s the best bet. Your second thing is do the framing, get that thing framed, decked and dried in. And if you push your builder to dry it in,

This will make sure that the wood is covered and protected, and that makes sure that the shell sheds the water so it’s not getting inside. Now, if you wanted to go way deeper, there’s a good book, the title of it is Escaping My Mind, but we’ll link it in the show notes. And this speaks about other materials to build your house with that you wouldn’t have to worry about those problems because they’re inorganic materials. So…

Ben Kosubevsky (11:30)

Makes sense.

Kyle Hulbert (11:49)

It goes deep and there’s different ways you could do it. You could do like sprayed concrete shells and things like that. It gets expensive. It gets complicated. It gets hard to source. So the best thing to do if you’re a normal person is just try to have your builder time it with the dry season and then have them dry it in as fast as possible. Get that roof on.

Ben Kosubevsky (12:08)

makes a lot of sense.

Kyle Hulbert (12:10)

So back to roof leaks. This is, this is a matter of basic maintenance. So you should go inspect your roof every once in a while. Go up in the attic, take a flashlight, look for any signs of water damage. If your roof is getting old, call an inspector, tell them to inspect it. Think about replacing it. don’t let it get to the point where it starts leaking. You know, if you’ve had the roof or the house for 20 years and the roof’s never been replaced, it’s still not leaking.

It’s probably time to replace it. Just, just to get ahead of it, replace the roof and then you won’t have to worry about it. Yeah. And then the plumbing, this is really just about, you know, being careful and watching. So if you’re noticing any signs of water damage, investigate, find out where it’s coming from or have a contractor do it for you. you know, don’t just ignore things. Really, if you see a stain in the bottom of your cabinet, that’s coming from somewhere. So find it, find where it’s dripping.

you know, have a contractor come out and identify it and fix it. It’s very important to identify these things early. So mold can grow on a surface 48 to 72 hours after it’s wet. So if something starts leaking and you’re able to stop the leak in the first day, you’re able to dry it and then hit it with a dehumidifier, most likely you’re not going to have mold growth on it. So if you can find and identify quickly, you’ll avoid that issue.

Ben Kosubevsky (13:37)

Okay, that’s a good tip. Don’t sit on the moisture, you know, get on it right away, okay?

Kyle Hulbert (13:43)

Yep. So main offenders, like you said, under sinks, roofs, showers, bathrooms, interesting enough, the bathrooms. so, I worked in construction a while ago and there was a house that was complaining of mold in their closet and their master closet. Right. We’re like, there’s no, there’s no water in the master closet. How’s this happening? So we would go in and investigate and we’re talking to people and we’re talking and talking and talking.

And it out they have two daughters that both take like ridiculously long, ridiculously hot showers in the master bathroom for like an hour plus. And it created massive amounts of humidity, so much that it was piling into the master closet and causing the shoes and the things to mold in there. So when you’re in the bathroom, and this was the key here, they were not running the fans.

Ben Kosubevsky (14:32)

Oh no.

Kyle Hulbert (14:39)

So there are fans in the bathroom that you turn on that help pull that moisture out. that’s their job. That’s what they’re doing to you. And they were not running them. So.

Ben Kosubevsky (14:44)

Sure.

So for our listeners out there, if you’re trying to create a home sauna, purchase one. It’s cheaper.

Kyle Hulbert (14:52)

Yeah, there you go. So literally when you shower and it’s a hot shower, click on that fan, and leave it on, leave it on for a while. Like after you’re done, like go get dressed and like before you leave the house, go back and turn it off. That’ll give that plenty of time to bring all that humidity out of the house. Because if you, if you have that time and it can clear it, you’re not going to have an issue. But if you’re constantly building it up and you’re not clearing it, that’s when you’re going to have an issue.

Ben Kosubevsky (15:20)

that makes a lot of sense too. I want their hot water heater though that lasts an hour but that’s besides the point. Okay so that’s where mold comes from. So what’s the next thing we want to cover? Testing maybe? How do we test for mold?

Kyle Hulbert (15:25)

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, we can do testing.  there’s quite a few ways to do testing. first one’s a visual inspection. So, you know, do a thorough walk of your house and look and see if there’s any water damage areas that are discolored. once you train this skill, you can become very good at it. I can now walk through the house and identify water damage areas within minutes. just because I’ve done it a lot. this will give you a clue that there’s is mold damage. If you’re seeing water damage, evident.

on the ceiling in cabinets on drywall. Chances are you already have some mold there. So that’s the first step.

Ben Kosubevsky (16:12)

Okay, so besides visual inspection, I’m gonna point out a couple of tips I’ve learned from my patients. The cheapest thing is probably to get a moisture meter and you just, once in a while you just run around your house, everywhere that’s attached to water, especially places like the back of the wall of the bathroom and kitchen cabinets, all that, just run around with the moisture meter and touch and make sure. The next cheapest thing is to get a thermal camera and really look around your house. That will really identify any wet spots.

Kyle Hulbert (16:41)

Mm -hmm. that’s a great one. And you can buy them for like 150, 200 bucks now, they plug into your iPhone.

Ben Kosubevsky (16:46)

Yep. Let’s check Amazon. Now, I think you and I both really like this company. They’re called EnviroBiomics. It’s basically a Swiffer pad that they have you take one pad and dust your house in all high concentration of dust areas. And that’ll show you if there’s actually any mold present in your house. Now, one tip that I’ve learned, you don’t want to do this in a recently cleaned house. You want to do it, you know,

don’t clean for a week or so and then do this because you’ve been doing a recently clean house it’s not going to pick anything up.

Kyle Hulbert (17:19)

Yeah. that’s probably the test I would recommend for most people. If they want an actual test to see species, to see kind of the burden, that is the one I would recommend. A lot of people go to air testing first. and you can order kits online for air testing. There’s a lot of issues with air testing.

Ben Kosubevsky (17:37)

Like the fact that mold isn’t actually airborne.

Kyle Hulbert (17:37)

The

Yeah. A lot of times, the mold spores or the, the mycotoxins, they’re not in the air. They’re not just floating around. So when you test an air, if you get a positive test on an air test, chances are you have a big problem. It’s, it’s bad at that point. And a lot of times what you’re doing is you’re sampling undisturbed air. You’re walking into the house just on the ground and you’re testing this air. Now, if you were to take your dust and swoop it around and then test it, you would probably get a positive reading.

Further, the air testing cannot account for any of those areas that only get disturbed when fans are on or your cat walks along the top of a bookshelf or anything like that.

Ben Kosubevsky (18:20)

So if you’re insistent on air testing, take a shop vac a clean shop vac and blast around your house first. Let’s stir up all that dust.

Kyle Hulbert (18:28)

Yeah, would recommend like a mask if you’re going to do that.

Ben Kosubevsky (18:33)

I recommend you don’t do that, but if you really insist, then that’s what you should do.

Kyle Hulbert (18:35)

Yeah. And, there’s a lot of, it’s interesting because there’s, it’s a terrible industry, right? There’s a lot of people that are like kind of sketchy and mold testing because they want to scare you or whatever. And a lot of times they don’t know what they’re doing. So if they’re not giving you a dust test after doing a thorough visual inspection, sometimes they’ll do dust test, air test and visual inspection, which is good.

But if they’re not giving you a dust test, then that’s probably not the expert you want to use.

Ben Kosubevsky (19:05)

So  we bring up a good point is, you know, I have a lot of patients with mold issues in their houses and basically none of them like their mold inspectors or mold remediators. They all start out great, they all start out saying the right words, which they probably learned in their training. But then towards the end, it falls apart when it actually gets time to fix the problem. So how do you find a good mold remediator?

Kyle Hulbert (19:28)

 good luck. So, so this is probably one of the, like, you know, contractors are hard to deal with in general. This is probably the hardest category of contractors to ever find a reputable one. maybe solar panels is up there. those are another one that’s very difficult, but this is, it’s so difficult because so few people know what they’re doing from a biological perspective. So when you get ServPro, when you get these mold remediation places, all they’re doing is just.

They’ve maximized the way to bill so they can hit your insurance company. And basically they want a lot of show and they’re not a lot of go in terms of, Hey, we want to actually clear the house. So it’s healthy to live in. They just want to make sure that they’re on the surface job is done. so that’s a, that’s a big issue. when it comes to actually, I’ll bring this up. I like sharing this with people. The Bible actually has a good mold remediation protocol. So I think it was back in like Deuteronomy where.

where there’s all these rules about like how to interact and how to, how to cleanse yourself and all that. So they have this section on if your house has mold. So their protocol is something to the effect of go in, deconstruct the house, clean all the rocks, reconstruct it. You can go away, come back in seven days. If the mold is still there, you do it again. You deconstruct it, clean all the rocks, rebuild it and wait another seven days. If the mold is still there, you burn it to the ground and leave it forever.

Ben Kosubevsky (20:56)

I mean, I think that still applies. If you have to remediate your house more than once, sell the house.

Kyle Hulbert (20:56)

You

Yes. If, if you go through remediation once or twice and it has not fixed the problem, chances are you didn’t have the right contractor or the problem is too large of a scale or systemic within the building. You probably need to move. You probably just need to find a new house, but going back to try to actually answer your question is self -education is key. So you want to find a contractor that will do what you tell them to do. And then you will educate yourself as to the proper.

mold remediation and removal techniques. And that’s something that we could help here at the Peak Performance Podcast for Toxic Roots. And we can help kind of guide and resources and things to look at.

Ben Kosubevsky (21:43)

Yeah, I’ll put out a shameless plug for Coach Kyle right now. He is available for hire if you do need help with consulting, with building or remediating. He can help guide you through that process.

Kyle Hulbert (21:55)

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, that is, it is very complicated, but the, your best shot is to work with someone who knows what they’re doing virtually or in person and then just guide the contractor. So if you find a good contractor, they’ll do what you ask.

Ben Kosubevsky (22:07)

And so here’s what I’ve learned to ask. Ask your mold remediator, hey, once the mold is out, is it still dangerous to me? Is there anything that I should do once the mold is out? If they’re like, oh no, the mold’s fine, once it’s gone, you’re fine. They’re usually not a good remediator. The good ones understand how dangerous mold is and would encourage you to see your doctor and get treatment for it and not just wait a few days for it to go away.

Kyle Hulbert (22:30)

Yeah. Yeah, that’s very important. Also another, telltale sign. If you have a mold inspector that shows up without a mask, he’s not the right guy. If he is looking for mold and starts digging into things without a mask on, he is not the right person because he doesn’t understand the impact that mold can have on your health

Ben Kosubevsky (22:42)

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Kyle Hulbert (22:55)

So that actually leads us to kind of, I guess we didn’t really go into remediation when we touched on it, but I won’t go too far into it because it’s so detailed and so nuanced depending on the situation. But I’d kind of like to flip back to kind of airborne and purification process because a lot of people think that like, hey, I can buy an air purifier and I can stick it in my bedroom and I’m good. I’m protected from mold, right?

Ben Kosubevsky (23:13)

Sure.

Kyle Hulbert (23:24)

And to some degree it will help, but it’s not the end all be all. So there are stages of air purification and how you can do it in your house. Especially like post remediation, you’ll definitely want to be on top of, you know, cleansing your air. And the best thing you can do is a whole house HEPA plus filter. So what this looks like is in a perfect system. So say you have to get your house remediated.

You’re probably having to spend a lot of money on this. So if you’re already remediating your house, this is probably a good time to go ahead and install the dehumidifier. After the air runs the dehumidifier, you put this HEPA plus filter in. And what this does, it will remove all particles, mold spores, mold itself, before it gets to your HVAC condenser. And then your HVAC condenser can do its job clean and pure. So.

That is probably the number one solution for air purification because it’s going to purify from the whole house. That is if you have returns on your HVAC system in each room. A lot of production homes have one or two major returns with filters in each area. It will not effectively cleanse the air because it’s not pulling the air from all the bedrooms and all the various places in the house. So that’s the best option. If that’s not feasible, something like an air doctor or a molecule,

in all of the sleeping rooms and then a big one in the main living area is probably your next best off and for air purification.

Ben Kosubevsky (24:56)

Okay, so I want to clear up a myth now. I’m kind of changing the subject, but how do you clean mold? Is bleach the answer?

Kyle Hulbert (25:03)

You’re good.

Bleach is not the answer. Bleach actually, believe it or not, bleach is mold. So it will change its color and make it appear like it’s gone away, but it has not. It’ll actually kill somewhere around 70 % of the mold. And the remaining 30 % gets really pissed off and digs into whatever material you’re trying to cleanse. So, you know, here’s your organic material. Your mold doesn’t just live on it. It lives slightly in it.

And then you see the part that’s on it. So if you kill the part that’s on it, you didn’t kill the part that’s in it. So that part remains, it lives, it comes back stronger. And it actually, it actually pumps out more mycotoxins So mycotoxins are the toxins that mold makes as a defense mechanism. So if the mold senses that it’s under attack, ah, 70 % of my mold colony just died. It’s going to go to war.

it’s going to start sending out these toxins to kill whatever is trying to kill it first. So bleach is definitely not the option. When it comes to organic materials, your best option is to remove the material. So if you have mold growing on drywall, wood, anything organic, remove the material and replace it. That’s the best option. If it’s inorganic materials, say your toilet bowl, your tub,

you know, sink, things like that. Hydrogen peroxide is a really good option. Ozone is a really good option.

Ben Kosubevsky (26:44)

and vinegar as well.

Kyle Hulbert (26:46)

Vinegar, I do believe it does have some mold killing effects. I’m not 100 % sure if it actually kills 100 % of it. It will help remove it though.

Ben Kosubevsky (26:53)

So stick with hydrogen peroxide and ozone.

Kyle Hulbert (26:58)

Yeah, I’d stick with hydrogen peroxide and ozone. And what I do with the hydrogen peroxide, I buy it, bulk hydrogen peroxide. So I get it like in a gallon and I get super strength. I’m not buying the 3%. I buy like 35 % and I dilute it down to about seven or 12. It’s very powerful. Like use gloves. It will literally like burn the dead skin cells off your hand. Spray it down. Wait a few minutes. You’ll see a bubble. Scrub it up, spray it down, scrub it up, spray it down.

Ben Kosubevsky (27:18)

Mm -hmm.

Kyle Hulbert (27:26)

about three rounds of that, that’ll take care of it.

Ben Kosubevsky (27:28)

So not 3%, don’t use what you could buy at the grocery store.

Kyle Hulbert (27:33)

Yeah, most likely that will kill some of it. I like to use a higher, stronger percentage.

Ben Kosubevsky (27:39)

And locally you can get that at your local feed store. It’s used for horse stuff or you can buy it online. They have like a silly website, right? It’s like hydroperoxide .com or something.

Kyle Hulbert (27:47)

He’s like, yeah, like bulk hydro peroxide .com or something like that. Yeah. And you can buy it literally. I think you can buy it at Home Depot, Lowe’s. I think you can buy it at like, chemical stores that sell like, you know, science experiments, things like that.

Ben Kosubevsky (28:01)

So now that we’ve cleared up that myth, which is a very prevailing myth, what should we talk about next?

Kyle Hulbert (28:08)

Well, I mean, we’ve gone over the broad brushes. I mean, I like to talk about like how to approach this. So like you think you might have mold in your house, right? So overall best thing to do walk through visual inspection with a thermal camera. If you’re seeing areas that are showing water damage or mold growth loop in an expert, like that’s your first shot. Like find someone that you can work with.

A health coach slash contractor is probably your best bet. Someone who knows how to approach it from a biological perspective and create a plan. There’s no need to freak out. In fact, Dave Asprey often says half of the damage caused from mold is just your fight or flight response based on you freaking out about mold, which I think there’s a truth to that. As we can see in our conversation with Caitlin, we had previously.

you know, she had this kind of PTSD worry about it. number two, after you started the process of, you know, planning for remediation, planning to fix it, working with a health coach contractor, get with a doctor who can do testing for heavy metals. So find your doctor that can do a test for heavy metals, because if you have heavy metals and you get rid of it, like we talked about in our other episode, chances are most people can mitigate the effects of mold in their system. If they remove those heavy.

 you for watching. for watching.

Ben Kosubevsky (29:36)

Yep. That’s exactly what Caitlin was talking about in her podcast is that now she started the process of chelation. She’s no longer sensitive to the mold.

Kyle Hulbert (29:45)

Yep. I would say very few people in terms of percentage wise are truly, truly mold sensitive. I’d say sub 10 % in my experience.

Ben Kosubevsky (29:57)

Yes, that’s when we do blood work for mold, we test for infection and we test for allergic response to it. And very few people are actually allergic to it, they just have it. So once you clear it out, symptoms go away.

Kyle Hulbert (30:08)

Mm -hmm. Yep. And to clear it out, you got to get those heavy metals gone because those are the biofilms. That’s what the biofilms are made out of. So that’s from a biological perspective. So visual inspection, if you see you have a problem, get with a contractor, start working with them for remediation, work with someone who knows what they’re doing, hire a consultant if you need to to make sure that process goes well. In the same time, go to a doctor that knows about testing for heavy metals, that knows about working with mold.

Ben Kosubevsky (30:16)

Yeah.

Kyle Hulbert (30:36)

to work and help mitigate the health symptoms of it.

Ben Kosubevsky (30:40)

Yeah.

Kyle Hulbert (30:41)

That’s kind of the process.

Ben Kosubevsky (30:43)

I think that about sums it up then.

Kyle Hulbert (30:46)

Sweet. Well guys, I know we try to cover mold comprehensively. It’s a very nuanced discussion inside your house and there’s systems, there’s HVAC, there’s plumbing systems and things that we can get into real depth. So if you have any questions, please hit us up. Hit up the Peak Performance Instagram or you could send us an email on our email. If you have any more questions, we’ll dive into it. We’ll do an answering Q &A session here soon. And then that way we can answer your questions more directly.

Well, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much guys for watching. Please rate the show and follow us. It means a lot. It helps us out a lot. And I am coach Kyle.

Ben Kosubevsky (31:26)

And I’m Dr. K. Thank you everybody for joining us and we’ll see you next time.