Hello again and welcome back to The Mold Pros Blog.  This month we are going to talk about different organizations that can help you with your environmental illness.  Most people aren’t aware of how life altering and damaging mold toxins, bacterial toxins, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are to the body.  After people start exhibiting symptoms, they could go several years searching for answers and going from doctor to doctor and specialist to specialist without any solution to their problems. The lucky ones will have a friend, or hear a story about how dangerous environmental toxins could be to the body, and the symptoms caused by environmental illness match up to their situation.   Then becomes the journey of becoming as knowledgeable about environmental toxins as they can.  Some of the best practitioners in the field didn’t start their careers treating toxins, and only start doing so after their own health journeys took them there.  These types of practitioners make up some of the three best organizations to get help and information.  These organization are the Environmental Health Symposium (EHS), the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness (ISEAI), and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society(ILADS).  I will discuss these in the chronological order the events occur throughout 2022.

EHS is a great conference that focuses on multiple types of environmentally acquired illnesses.  The conferences generally happen both online and in person.  The in-person conference generally is somewhere in the Southwest of the US.  EHS was founded in 2015 with the merger of two groups:  Seeds of Doubt Conference(founded by Cheryl Gray, RD) and the Annual Updates in Environmental Medicine(founded by Walter Crinnion, ND and Lyn Patrick, ND).  I’ve talked with Dr. Patrick and Ms. Gray multiple times, and they are extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the field.    I unfortunately never got to meet Dr. Crinnion before his death.  EHS focuses mostly on non-biologic chemical toxins such as metals and VOCs.  They have videos and blogs on their website (https://www.environmentalhealthsymposium.com/) they help to provide insight in the identification and treatment of these illnesses.

ISEAI was formed in 2018 from a group of practitioners and indoor environmental professionals (IEPs) to help practitioners and patients become better informed by the myriad causes of environmentally acquired illness and the most practices on how to treat it.  The group provides a plethora of information on environmentally acquired illness from both a clinical as well as an engineering prospective.  It really starts from its amazing board which includes: Lauren Tessier, Mark Su, Michael Schrantz, Mary Ackerley, and Jill Carnahan.  This is kind of a who’s who of clinical specialist in this field.

This group also provides a lot of information for both practitioners as well as clients.  Their website (https://iseai.org/) is a great resource.  It provides a blog, videos, and a practitioner finder.  It has a longlist of recommendations for practitioners and IEP which may be close to you.   Other helpful items on their site include links to purchase videos of past conferences. Their 2019 conference, which was in Arizona, was one of the best conferences that I’ve been too. Listening to Dr. Naviaux speak on the cell danger response was very enlightening to me.  ISEAI providing avenue for great minds like his is what makes them great.  

The final organization that we will discuss is ILADS.  This conference started over two decades ago focusing on helping patients and practitioners deal with Lyme disease.   However, they have moved to focusing on a lot of topics that affect these patients such as mold, mycotoxins, CIRS, and VOC, etc.   This organization normally has its conferences somewhere in the eastern half of the United States.  In the past decade it has moved from Chicago, Boston, DC, and Orlando.  For practitioners there are many virtual events that they host as well as online training.  For patients they have a provider search which will enable individuals to find a practitioner that they mesh with and is close to them.  

With in-person conferences starting up again and the continuing need for patients to find information I hope this entry is helpful for people. As always if anyone is in need of assistance, please reach out to us and we will attempt to direct you to the right resources.