Episode 149
Jason Earle:
Is The Air In Your Home Causing Your Symptoms?
In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Jason Earle, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-MOLD and creator of the GOT MOLD test kit. We dive deep into the world of indoor air quality, mold testing, and the intricate relationship between our living spaces and our health. Jason shares his journey from Wall Street to becoming an indoor air quality crusader, offering invaluable insights on mold detection, remediation, and the often misunderstood aspects of mold-related illnesses.
First Aired on: Jul 22, 2024
Episode 149
Jason Earle:
Is The Air In Your Home Causing Your Symptoms?
In this eye-opening episode, I sit down with Jason Earle, founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-MOLD and creator of the GOT MOLD test kit. We dive deep into the world of indoor air quality, mold testing, and the intricate relationship between our living spaces and our health. Jason shares his journey from Wall Street to becoming an indoor air quality crusader, offering invaluable insights on mold detection, remediation, and the often misunderstood aspects of mold-related illnesses.
First Aired on: Jul 22, 2024
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Jason Earle is an entrepreneur and indoor air quality expert with over 23 years of experience in the field. His personal struggle with childhood asthma and allergies, which disappeared after moving out of a musty farmhouse, sparked his interest in the connection between indoor environments and health. Today, Jason shares his expertise on mold testing, the impact of indoor air quality on our well-being, and the importance of a balanced approach to addressing mold issues.
Episode Highlights
The Truth About Mold Testing
We break down the limitations of various mold testing methods and emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive approach.
- ERMI (Environmental Relative Moldiness Index) testing is often inaccurate and can lead to false positives
- Air sampling alone may not detect hidden mold problems
- The GOT MOLD test kit offers an affordable, high-quality option for initial screening
- Professional inspections should include visual assessment, not just sampling
Debunking Mycotoxin Myths
Jason challenges common misconceptions about mycotoxins and their role in mold-related illnesses.
- Airborne mycotoxins are not typically the primary cause of symptoms in moldy buildings
- Microbial VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are often more problematic than mycotoxins
- The musty smell associated with mold growth is composed of neurotoxic compounds
- Food sources may be a more significant source of mycotoxin exposure than indoor air
The Building-Body Connection
Jason explains how our living spaces can profoundly impact our health and immune function.
- Buildings can be viewed as an extension of our immune system
- Modern construction materials and methods can contribute to indoor air quality issues
- Proper moisture control and chemical reduction are crucial for a healthy home environment
- Regular maintenance and vigilance can prevent many mold-related problems
A Holistic Approach to Mold-Related Illness
Jason advocates for a comprehensive strategy to address mold sensitivity and related health issues.
- Focus on "air, food, and attitude" for overall wellness
- Neural retraining can be a powerful tool for recovery from mold-related illness
- Reducing chemical exposures and improving diet are essential complementary steps
- Cultivating a balanced perspective on mold exposure is crucial for long-term health
Practical Tips for a Healthier Home
Jason offers actionable advice for improving indoor air quality and preventing mold growth.
- Address water damage promptly (within 24-48 hours) to prevent mold growth
- Be aware of signs of potential mold problems: musty odors, visible growth, or health symptoms that improve when leaving the building
- Open windows regularly to improve air circulation and reduce indoor pollutant levels
- Consider professional inspections if you suspect hidden mold or have a history of water damage
Notable Quotes
"Our indoor environment is this really cool place where you have a disproportionate amount of potential for control, unlike any other area of your life."
- Jason Earle
"If you see something, smell something, or feel something, do something. And do it quickly, because it only takes 24 to 48 hours for a moisture problem to turn into a mold problem."
- Jason Earle
Other Resources:
Connect with Jason Earle
Watch this interview:
Episode Transcript
Jason Earle:[00:00:00] you could paint this picture of the building as an organism, uh, with lungs like the HVAC, and the plumbing is circulatory, and the nervous system is electrical, and, you know, you start looking at the building, wow, and the building gets sick.
Jason Earle: Usually it's from, you know, a failure to, to shed when in water, water gets in the walls, it gets sick, it develops inflammation. Inflammation is, shows up as mold. Mold sends a pain signal, it's the musty smell. You go all the way down here and you, what you realize is when the building gets sick, we get sick.
Jason Earle: And then when the, when, and then when the building heals, so too can we.
(Intro Bumper )
Julie Michelson:[00:01:00] Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today I'm joined by Jason Earle, a man on a mission. Jason is an adoring father, incurable entrepreneur, and indoor air quality crusader. He's also the founder and CEO of 1 800 GOT MOLD and Michael Lab USA, as well as the creator of the GOT MOLD test kit.
Julie Michelson: Jason's experience with chronic illness, loss, and childhood challenges led to his current perspective that the best gifts in life don't come wrapped in pretty paper. In today's conversation, Jason shares how he moved toward a life of contribution as a mold and wellness expert. We discuss the home as the extension of the immune system and how it can make you sick or support your wellness.
Julie Michelson: Jason guides us through mold testing and remediation, do's and don'ts, [00:02:00] and shares his truly educated and balanced perspective on health and healing.
Julie Michelson: Jason, welcome to the podcast.
Jason Earle: Still good to be here.
Julie Michelson: We, in full disclosure, I had to, you know, we just had to stop like mid sentence and say, we should hit record because this conversation is, is too good. Um, so I'm, I'm so, I was already so excited to have you on the podcast. Um, and now I'm even more jazzed for the audience and listeners to, to just kind of, Um, you know, get a little peek into the real world of people that are trying to change the conversation and, and contribute to wellness.
Julie Michelson: Um, so, but let's rewind a little bit and I'd love for you to share. You have an amazing backstory. Um, which could take the whole podcast, so we won't, but a condensed version. I, I think your, your life has been fascinating. Um, and so, you know, how did you get from the [00:03:00] kid you were As we just discussed growing up in Jersey to the man who is helping people, you know, again, improve wellness and, and specifically learn about mold and mycotoxins and, and, you know, the importance of the air quality in their home.
Jason Earle: Well, first of all, um, thanks again for having me and, uh, thanks for the, for the, for the, the warm introduction. Um, and it's always fun to, uh, to connect with a fellow, uh,
Julie Michelson: Um,
Jason Earle: so, uh, and we were just one town away, which is pretty, pretty remarkable, right? Um, So, you know, I mean, I think my story could be summed up as, you know, no adversity should be wasted.
Julie Michelson: Um,
Jason Earle: you know, and, uh, and if I were to say that there's been any one particular pattern in my life that's made me useful, it's that the, uh, I've recognized that the best gifts in life don't come wrapped in pretty paper.
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Jason Earle: You know, so, um, and so I kind of look for those things. I mine my life [00:04:00] for, uh, that those kinds of opportunities because, um, you know, it's paying it forward, those experiences.
Jason Earle: So, um, my, you know, to just go back to sort of the beginning, which is usually the best place to start, uh, when I was four years old, I was suddenly ill, uh, so severely that my parents took me to children's hospital of Philadelphia. Uh, I lost a lot of weight and I was having difficulty breathing and so the initial diagnosis was cystic fibrosis, which was devastating to my folks as it would be any, any, any parents, but in particular, my, my dad had lost four of his cousins to CF
Julie Michelson: before the age of
Jason Earle: 14.
Jason Earle: So this was their worst case worse. This is their worst nightmare coming true. You know, um, And so, uh, thankfully six weeks later, they got another, uh, second opinion and I didn't have CF. I don't have CF. Um, uh, I had asthma compounded by pneumonia and, uh, a battery of allergy tests revealed that I was allergic to every single thing that they tested me for.
Jason Earle: So it was like the entire litany. And I grew up on a little non working farm surrounded by every allergen possible, uh, in high concentration. And so I lived on [00:05:00] inhalers until I was about 12, at which point my folks split up and I moved out of that musty farmhouse. That's on all my symptoms. Went away. Um, and nobody thought anything about it, uh, anything of it.
Jason Earle: In fact, I remember them saying, well, you know, pop up grew out of his asthma, um, two. And so, uh, it was just dismissed as what they call spontaneous adolescent remission, which is a fancy term for, we have no idea what we don't know.
Jason Earle: So, uh, so fast forward, actually, there's two, two, two events that were pretty profound. Um, the fall within that no adversity should be wasted category. Um, I was diagnosed. Uh, my mom died suddenly when I was 14, uh, to suicide, which is actually relevant to the conversation. And then, uh, and then Lyme disease, uh, I was diagnosed a year later with that.
Jason Earle: I still don't know if I actually had it, but I do know that I got all the, all the antibiotics, which sent me for, you know, quite a, quite a, quite a journey through, you know, dysbiosis and learning about, you know, a low carb diet, the benefits of, of, uh, eliminating refined carbohydrates. And so basically I've been on keto for, you [00:06:00] know, 25 years, um, just because of digestive issues.
Jason Earle: It turns out that was actually a good. Um, and then I ended up because I miss a lot of school, I ended up, uh, dropping out of high school to get my, I was going to get my GED in psychology or early. And I ended up through this insane circumstance, uh, meeting a guy at the gas station who, uh, recruited me to come work for him on wall street.
Jason Earle: Um, so I was 16 at the time and, uh, within a year I had become the youngest licensed stockbroker in history with against world record, which is a total, uh, podcast for another, another podcast. Another. Exactly. Um, did that for nine years, uh, and then grew more and more disenchanted with the fact that, that I was, you know, uh, the only people that benefited
Julie Michelson: from my success.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Just, you know,
Jason Earle: the only people that benefited from my success were the people who owned the stores where I shopped. And it was just, you know, money for money. And, um, my mom had raised me to, uh, to, to contribute to the greater good. She was a nurse. Uh, she gave, uh, of herself to all. Uh, fault, uh, but she was a, she was a, a beacon of, [00:07:00] uh, contribution, you know, she really was.
Jason Earle: And so, uh, so I ended up deciding to, to, to, to walk away from Wall Street and, and, uh, went backpacking. And while I was away, I, I, I was in Hawaii and I was reading a story about a guy who'd gotten sick from the hotel where he was an employee. Uh, and it, it turns out it was a historic mold problem. Uh, it was a $55 million mold remediation project in Oahu.
Jason Earle: Uh, still to this day, the the largest, uh, in, in history. And, uh, there were a lot of stories about people that had gotten sick from the building that it blamed the mold. But this is way early in, in the game before no mold was even taken. Seriously, you know, um, and, but this one guy's story really jumped out at me.
Jason Earle: He was 40 something, uh, developed adult onset asthma, which I had never even heard of and allergies to all these things he'd never had before. And, uh, and it was like my life in reverse. I just, it was just red flash. It was just boom, you know, Hey, Jason, pay attention, wake up, you know, here's your, here's your path.
Jason Earle: Um, and so. It was in what captured my attention was not so much the mold [00:08:00] as fascinating as it is. And the more I learned about it, the more fascinating it really is. Um, what fascinated me and what captured my attention still to this day is, uh, our relationship with our buildings. The fact that a building can make you sick.
Jason Earle: Right. And, and, and now what I'm fascinated with is the idea that buildings, uh, can actually allow you to heal, right? So it used to be this dark thing where I was, you know, fascinated by the, the disease states that it could cause. Now that's just so, so obvious. Um, what I'm more interested in is how we can do this differently and, and, and how we can start better.
Jason Earle: If we can start better. In the first place, the right way, that's ideal. But you know, what's, what's really amazing is when you get these things straight, um, then all sorts of other healings can happen that have nothing to do with the building. Um, and you know, even relationships heal, you know, families heal.
Jason Earle: Like there's a sanctuary. The idea of a sanctuary, um, is so multifaceted, uh, that it's beyond breath, it's beyond, you know, Uh, [00:09:00] asthma, allergies, autoimmune disease, even it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a holistic in the W H O L E, uh, sense of the word. And so, um, and so this is, you know, this has been 23 years, I guess I've been in this space, um, which is a blink of an eye and, you know, and it just, it's amazing to me, but, um, and I learned something new every day because there's so much emerging science around this.
Jason Earle: And, uh, so yeah, it's been quite a journey. So what happened was I came back from, from, uh, Hawaii armed with a lot of curiosity and ended up getting into the remediation business for a hot minute and saw that it was a hot mess. Um, and, uh, decided to, to do inspections. I was learning a lot at night, reading a lot and taking, you know, courses.
Jason Earle: Um, building science courses at universities and stuff like that, wherever I could. And uh, decided I wanted to do something to help protect consumers from the contractors. Um, because the contractors were just taking people for, for, for a ride using chemicals instead of cleaning and often charging outrageous prices, leaving buildings worse than they found them.
Jason Earle: Uh, and [00:10:00] so, uh, so that, that, I, that the purpose behind me getting into this space, uh, really bristled, uh, against, uh, That whole thing. And so, so I got involved in, uh, the inspection side of things doing it. Usually we're free at night, uh, while I learned. And then I, I got a beat on a mold sniffing dog, believe it or not.
Jason Earle: I, I saw it in the news about a dog trained to sniff out mold in buildings. And I thought, Oh man, that's just about crazy enough to be brought.
Julie Michelson: Um,
Jason Earle: and, uh, so, so I, I dove into the deep end and Oreo, who is my four legged partner and I, um, Um, got a lot of national press, uh, and we found a lot of hidden mold and solved a lot of problems.
Jason Earle: Never did it. Never had to advertise it at all. And that company became 1 800 GOT MOLD. Um, it started as lab results cause we use Labrador retrievers, uh, and laboratory testing. Um, but we, but we became 1 800 GOT MOLD. And then, um, in recent years, uh, it was frustrating to me that the people who needed us most are the ones who couldn't afford it for us.
Jason Earle: So, uh, so that, that led to the, to the genesis of, uh, the Got Mold Test Kit, which is the [00:11:00] Uh, most affordable high quality at home test kit available in the market, which is, you know, which is what brings us here too.
Julie Michelson: I love it. I love it. Um, accessibility. Yeah, and that evolution, right, is like first the awareness and then how can I help?
Julie Michelson: What can I do? What's broken with this system? And then how do we, how do we get the right stuff in people's hands? Um, because it is, I, I had a, I built the home that I'm in right now, seven years ago. Um, and I have, you know, all hard surfaces, all it, it was, you know, You know, I was way more educated than I was the last time I built a home.
Julie Michelson: Um, and I am fortunate. I, for some reason, I enjoy building my, my sanctuary. Um, and shortly after, I don't even think I was here a year when I was suspicious about a mold issue and doing what I do. I know enough to know new home doesn't equal no mold. [00:12:00] And so I know how expensive It was, you know, I know how to get the good inspector, right?
Julie Michelson: And so I know what I paid. And, and we talked about this and we're going to circle back to, you know, this vigilance. Um, and so I am vigilant. I have in the past been hypervigilant. Um, so I spent money that You know, I wouldn't expect anybody to spend without a health issue without a, because I had some visible mold.
Julie Michelson: I wanted to make sure there wasn't other mold. Um, and even just that testing process and knowing what the remediation estimate was, I ended up not needing remediation, um, because, you know, You know, we're exposed to all kinds, not all mold is bad. And maybe we can talk about that too, or, you know, a concern for health.
Julie Michelson: Um, I did make some changes, but so I, I know firsthand, [00:13:00] and then having clients that have had to remediate, um, and just the whole, I mean, that's an additional, there's the finances and the trauma of that whole process for somebody who. usually at least one person in the family is already really sick, right?
Julie Michelson: So it's a, it's a big thing. And, and I love, I remember actually, and we didn't talk about this before we hit record, but I remember the first time I met you, um, we just, I happened to be speaking at a conference and you were, I saw you just tripped across your booth and, and, um, I was really, really excited because until then, at least in my knowledge, there wasn't really a good way for people to reliably, I mean, people were still, you know, doing army tests and sending them in, but
Jason Earle: they still do.
Jason Earle: Um,
Julie Michelson: you know, but there wasn't a reliable way for somebody to test their own home. Um, and so I [00:14:00] love that you just
Julie Michelson: It's like, okay, now we know. And, and, um, for those of you that haven't heard of the mold sniffing dogs, they're real, they're amazing. Um, I know we have some people here in Colorado doing it. It makes perfect sense. If they can detect cancers, why can't they detect molds?
Jason Earle: Like molds, not even a moving target, right?
Jason Earle: So, you know, it's just sitting there just spewing it's, it's gases. And so, no, it's the, one of the easiest targets ever really for dogs.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. So I have 5, 000 directions. I want to go with the conversation. Um, so I will say right here with listeners and as my witness, I want to have you come back. Um, because I know what I thought I wanted to talk about today, but I, I know we need to talk about what's going on in your life right now.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Um, because it, it relates to this whole conversation, maybe before we jump in there, because I do get carried away. I'm a damn not chatty [00:15:00] Jersey girl. Um, it just happens here. So exactly. Um, before we do, we jumped to that, let's, let's talk, just educate listeners about gut mold and, and why this is different.
Julie Michelson: So, you know, what is the difference between. Someone doing their own army test and somebody using got mold. Um, you know, because I think it's important for people to understand just the, the difference.
Jason Earle: Yeah. A little contrast. Um, well, and let me first start off by saying that there's no silver bullets when it comes to testing.
Jason Earle: Um, and, and people want to have a test that will eliminate the need for a professional, uh, and that there's, that does not exist. This is why Ermie is so problematic is because people do use it as a beyond all. Uh, it is promoted as that. It's actually the most wildly flawed test that's available, uh, because it is always high.
Jason Earle: And so what it does, it's like a broken clock that's right twice a day. [00:16:00] Um, it, it, it, it, it supports commercial confirmation bias. Uh, I can, I mean, it is, it is a cognitive bias, uh, Rats Nest. Um, and it is used by professionals that are both well intending, well intended and, and, uh, with mal intent, uh, in equal doses.
Jason Earle: Gotcha. 'cause it drives a ton of revenue. It drives a ton of revenue for, for protocols. It drives a ton of revenue for inspections and remediation. It's a lead generator for an entire industry. And so it's a real problem and it confirms people's concerns. So even if you don't have a mold problem, but you've got this, if you've got, if you've got symptoms and you do an irmi, you're gonna say, see, I knew it.
Jason Earle: Right. And, and you're, there's, I'm, I'm, the Ermey found the mold. No, the Ermey didn't find the mold. The Ermey found spores. And spores are abundant in our world. So abundant are they, that kingdom fungi produces 50 megatons. Kingdom fungi including mushroom, mushrooms and microfungi. So that's yeast and molds.
Jason Earle: Produce 50 megatons of spores every year, which is [00:17:00] the equivalent of 500, 000 spores. There are more than, you know, a thousand blue whales, okay? This is 20 times as much tea as the entire world consumes every year. Most of them land in the prairies and the mountaintops and the ocean and so. But the point is, is that we are abundant, spores are abundant in our world.
Jason Earle: Uh, they are the most prolific biological particulate, uh, that we, that we encounter. So the fact that spores happen to be hiding in the corner with dust bunnies is not a sign of a mole problem. It's a sign of a normal environment. And in fact, we need mold spores in our environment to a limited degree because they are what's known as hormetic stressors.
Jason Earle: Um, they, they provide us with a little bit of a little, it's like the dose makes the poison, right? Paracelsus, right? It's one of the fundamentals of toxic, toxicology. And so we need these little stressors in our life to teach us what's normal in the environment. And, and so if we absent those, we end up being actually hypersensitive.
Jason Earle: We end up with real problems, right? Oh, like
Julie Michelson: going into a [00:18:00] lockdown during a, like a viral.
Jason Earle: Yeah. We've, nobody knows what that's like, you know, and you know, and then a lot of people went overboard with that stuff too. And, and, you know, and, you know, fear, fear, fear drives a lot of,
Julie Michelson: you know, Understanding our body and our immune system is like without exposures, we have no protection.
Julie Michelson: So, you know, it's. Yeah, I love that, that you highlight that because just like not every form of everything, you know, and, and I, I may have, you know, mycotoxins in my house. I'm sure I do every, you know, I may have something going on in my house. Um, it's not always, and I want to hear kind of your approach for people, but sometimes what's going on in the house is not what's showing up in the body.
Julie Michelson: And so it's not actually the problem.
Jason Earle: Yeah, well, we'll talk about mycotoxin testing, but boy, you know, if you think I've got opinions about ermine, wait till you hear what I have to say about these urine panels.
Julie Michelson: Um,
Jason Earle: so, so what we, what we have [00:19:00] here is, you know, basically a test that's 20 years old that's based on an EPA study and, and it's, and it's been hijacked and used as a, as a, as a tool, uh, that, by the way, sexy.
Jason Earle: DNA bases, PCR, right? So like, it's got all this appeal to people that are in the sciences and the health space. But, but the fact is that it is always high. And I know this because I've been doing inspections for 23 years and I've been in, I followed up on high Hermes with mold sniffing dogs for 18 of those years, or 12 really with the dogs.
Jason Earle: Um, and. And, uh, and so I, I, I, I know that we could only confirm the actual conditions of a building supporting the Ermey score in less than 10 percent of those cases, which means that there's, there's no correlation. Zero. And every professional I know that's, that's reputable and thorough would, would concur with that.
Jason Earle: And it's so severe that, you know, the people that I talked to who write the industry standards that are on the, on the website. Industry standard committees for both the inspection and the remediation side of the business are calling for the EPA to, to actually, um, pull, pull it, pull it [00:20:00] from the, ban it from the labs, but the labs continue to sell it because it's so lucrative.
Jason Earle: Um, and you know, there's no longer even patent patents, not protected anymore. So they don't have to pay royalties even. So it's even more lucrative. So, um, so it's a real problem. Um, and it is not a useful tool, no matter what anybody says. Um, it is, it is a tool of. It's an inflammatory tool, no pun intended, uh, or maybe it's pun intended.
Jason Earle: Um,
Julie Michelson: and
Jason Earle: so, so anyway, so that, that, so that's one of the reasons why, why we created the Gottmall test kit was because I saw so many people being harmed by, by this, this misinformation. Um, so now the other tool that is, that's kind of, is the inspector that comes in and just does quick samples and then doesn't do an inspection.
Jason Earle: So what I wanted to do was just knock that guy out of the box. You know, if you're going to come in and just do a quick, a few samples and then just send someone a report, I can do that, but they don't have to spend a thousand bucks, uh, or 2000 bucks to have, have the pleasure and privilege of, of, of doing that.
Jason Earle: Right. So what we did was we, we created an air sampling pump, [00:21:00] um, that duplicates a professional piece of equipment. That's a thousand bucks and, and requires calibration. We make ours for a whole lot less. Um, Um, people call it the egg, um, and it pulls air through a spore trap, which is the most common form of air sampling, uh, on the market.
Jason Earle: Now, some people will say, well, it doesn't find hidden mold. Well, neither does an Ermey. Um, it's confirmation bias that finds, Ermey finds spores. So you'll always have a high reading and you may not always have a high reading with an air sample, but that doesn't mean that the Ermey found mold that you would, that, that, that's meaningful and meaningful data is meaningful.
Jason Earle: Data is not meaningful. Meaningful debate is meaningful. Um, and so, so what we decided to do was just take that sliver of the market and, and, and, and democratize it so that anyone can test their air, uh, without having to schedule appointments, uh, without having to, um, you know, deal with conflicts of interest and all that kind of stuff now, but here's the catch.
Jason Earle: Because there's no silver bullet, you can actually test your air. You've got two kinds of mold. Let me back up. You've got two kinds of mold, mold on a wall and mold in a wall. Mold on a [00:22:00] wall will generate spores that can become airborne. Mold in a wall, generally speaking, doesn't. Um, and so, so if you've got a musty smell on normal spore accounts, which can happen and happens all the time, we know that you have a hidden mold problem.
Jason Earle: Well, guess what? That means you have to hire a professional. In most cases, you may have to. Anyway, someone who's got specialized skills and I hope you hope you don't,
Julie Michelson: I don't, I, sorry to interrupt you, but this is such a pet peeve of mine because I, I know really educated people that are like, I'm going to, we're going to remediate it ourselves.
Julie Michelson: Oh, my husband's an engineer. And I'm like, no. Stop it. Don't you open that wall? Don't the learning curve is
Jason Earle: steep and the cost of failure is high. And so this is like, you don't do open heart surgery on yourself. You don't, you, this is surgery on your house. Make no mistake. If you know, when you, when you look at the way.
Jason Earle: We interact with our buildings. They are, in many ways, they're an extension of our immune system. You could, you could paint this picture [00:23:00] of the building as an organism, uh, with lungs like the HVAC, and the plumbing is circulatory, and the nervous system is electrical, and, you know, you start looking at the building, wow, and the building gets sick.
Jason Earle: Usually it's from, you know, a failure to, to shed when in water, water gets in the walls, it gets sick, it develops inflammation. Inflammation is, shows up as mold. Mold sends a pain signal, it's the musty smell. You go all the way down here and you, what you realize is when the building gets sick, we get sick.
Jason Earle: And then when the, when, and then when the building heals, so too can we. So we've got this symbiotic relationship with our buildings, right? This is not just boxes that we live in. And, and so when you start thinking about your, an inspection. Or even testing. Think about mold testing, like our test, as a, like a pregnancy test kit.
Jason Earle: It's a, it's a first step. It's a cost effective step. Right? It's not the, and it's the beginning. And this is the beginning of gathering clues. And if you go to the doctor with, you know, with a high cholesterol reading or something like that, uh, they're not going to immediately schedule a stent, you know, or an open [00:24:00] heart surgery, you know.
Jason Earle: They're going to say, hey, let's do a physical. Yeah. How are you feeling? You know, what's your diet like? You know, and that's what an inspection should be, where you're actually gathering data about the state of the building. It's a physical of the building. And then if necessary, then you, then you, then you go with a team approach to surgery.
Jason Earle: Um, and that requires the oversight. Usually you'll engage your, you'll engage. you know, multiple professionals for that. And so you should have an inspector involved that will spec that out and that will, you know, sort of shuttle you through. Um, and then you do the requisite testing at the end to make sure it's been done.
Jason Earle: So, so I, I highly encourage people to think about this in phases and steps. And to think about this as a, as a, as a, as a learning experience, not just a problem to solve, because if you figure this out and you learn how buildings operate and you learn where the water gets in and you learn how these materials handle water, actually mishandle water, um, then, then you, then you will become armed to, to, to handle these things better [00:25:00] when it happens, because it will.
Jason Earle: You know, uh, we, we, our, our homes are built to fail. They are disposable. Paper mache chemical boxes that get moldy quickly when they get wet
Julie Michelson: close to airtight.
Jason Earle: And they're too airtight. So we rebreathe the same toxic air. And when I say toxic, I'm not being, I'm not being, uh, you know, uh, uh, hyperbolic. Um, you know, we, we, we used, uh, Of carcinogenic building materials.
Jason Earle: It's insane that, that, that, that we regulate everything, but we allow building materials to be, uh, made of the things that they're made of and that they get moldy. Um, and then off gas, both ma manmade VOCs and then also microbial VOCs. Um, and, and, and so we, and then we rere them 20,000 times a day, you know, 13 to 15 times a minute.
Jason Earle: It's 20,000 times a day. That is, that's 20,000 doses. Okay, so, if you take 20, 000 doses of anything, you're going to, that's going to be cumulative, and, and so if that is not pristine, um, then you, that [00:26:00] is, that is, that is going to work against you. So it is, your indoor environment is, um, is this really cool place.
Jason Earle: Where you have a disproportionate amount of potential for control, uh, unlike any other area of your life.
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Jason Earle: Right. I always say
Julie Michelson: create, make your home, your Haven, and then you'll have, you'll form that resilience to handle the outside world hits and all the stuff that we can't control.
Jason Earle: You need to rest.
Jason Earle: You need to rest. So, so we, so this is the backdrop for all of the, the reason that we created this test is not to solve the problems of testing because it is a way for you to actually get involved, get into our knowledge funnel. You know, we don't, we make the tools, we offer the knowledge and we hopefully raise the awareness and those three things.
Jason Earle: So, uh, so, you know, if you just bought a box and, and, and take the samples and then get the kit, get the results, and then you just. Take the reading and that's it. And you think that that's the, that, that, that you've done everything you need to do, then, then you have misunderstood the entire purpose of what we've built.
Jason Earle:[00:27:00] Um, the purpose is to arm you with the, with the tools, knowledge, and awareness that you can start to really become, it's like the teach a man to fish versus fish more, right? And so we want to teach people how to fish and we want people to, to understand how to operate the, this, this thing, which is a unique extension of your immune system.
Jason Earle: Um, and, and to, to, to, to learn how, how the rhythms of the building actually impact the rhythms of your, of your world. Um, and they're inextricably connected. So, um, and so we're, by the way, in, in the, in, in the same breath, uh, we've got this test that we've developed, um, which is a spore trap based test.
Jason Earle: We've partnered with the number one lab in the world, Eurofins. So we've got the best results you can possibly imagine when it comes to spore traps. Um, and our report is super easy to understand. It's green, yellow, orange, red. Um, um, and, uh, and we're also working on a dust test to, to solve the problems with army.
Jason Earle: Um, and, um, we're also working on some human diagnostics, see, this is a secret, um, but, uh, uh, and so, so we're working on a really neat, a really [00:28:00] cool, uh, blood test for mold exposure that is actually a test for mold exposure as opposed to a test for food based mycotoxins,
Julie Michelson: which is what, which is
Jason Earle: what those, which is what those urine panels are.
Jason Earle: Um, the urine panels are. are another tool, uh, that's unfortunately been used, uh, and then abused to, uh, extract, um, extract, uh, resources from, from people knowingly or unknowingly. Um, airborne mycotoxins are really not a big deal, believe it or not. I know that sounds crazy, but unless you're in a high sport count environment where the mold's been recently disturbed, and also, uh, that's very significant amounts, mycotoxins do not become airborne easily.
Jason Earle: Uh, the data on this is very strong. Uh, the data that supports airborne mycotoxins is not only weak, it's zero. Um, there's not been one person, not one, there's not one study. This is not, I mean, it's, the study is this high on food as a source of mycotoxins. Sure. And [00:29:00] there is not one study that shows the supports inhalation as a primary exposure route.
Jason Earle: Not one, not one. And I get, and I challenge. So I'm
Julie Michelson: going to ask you, when you're talking. studies. You're not saying airborne mycotoxins can't make us sick.
Jason Earle: I'm saying that you, this is, this is, this may seem crazy, um, airborne mycotoxins, uh, may trigger in small amounts a disproportionate, uh, response in certain individuals.
Jason Earle: However, they do not accumulate in the body to show up in urine panels. They're, it's, it's, the numbers don't line up. And so, so what, what you have here is, uh, is a lot of. Uh, leaps, scientific leaps that are made, get there are gaps that are just, uh, there's conflation. Uh, there's all these ideas that just get, well, so it's a real problem.
Jason Earle: Um, what was really making people sick in buildings with mold is, um, is the [00:30:00] microbial VOCs. The gases, the musty smell, these are neurotoxic, and these do become airborne easily. They do show up in the bloodstream in the urine. They are, uh, you know, one particular compound, 1 which is the mushroom alcohol that kind of typifies the musty smell, is 40 times more toxic than toluene.
Jason Earle: 40 times. Okay. Wow. Uh, and so, but no one tests for this because it's hard because there are parts per billion here. It's very small concentrations. Um, and so, uh, so, but the mycotoxins are really easy to test for, but they're not coming from your air, um, unless, unless you have very high spore counts because the mycotoxin cannot become airborne by themselves.
Jason Earle: So this is an important point. They have to be on a carrier particle. Uh, spores usually, but also, uh, household dust, building materials, things like that. That means it has to be disturbed. Which is why
Julie Michelson: I get so upset when people are like, Oh, I'm going to tear that wall open and see. Yeah. Don't do that. Now.
Jason Earle: Yeah. You just gave it a
Julie Michelson: vehicle. Don't do [00:31:00] that.
Jason Earle: Yeah. And, and so, so listen, in the next, in the next phase, so most people who are getting sick from mold are not getting sick from the mycotoxins. They really truly are not. They are getting sick from the. Uh, because again, the quantities are not sufficient to generate the kind of widespread illness.
Jason Earle: And also, let me also say this, only about a hundred species produce them. So if we're, if we're going to blame a hundred species on all the mold related illness, when we're talking about a hundred thousand species in existence and about a thousand commonly found in buildings, um, we're going to say that we shouldn't worry about the other ones.
Jason Earle: Uh, and I, and, and, and while some molds are more benign than others, all mold growth produces the musty smell. Uh, and so, and, and we know that these are toxic compounds, both in terms of just pure toxicity, cellular toxicity, but also neurotoxicity. So that's why you get a lot of the cognitive impairment and the, you know, you see, see a lot of the really heavy stuff.
Jason Earle: The digestive issues that molds produce are, by the way, probably more induced by the mycotoxins in food. And so there, [00:32:00] we have a Venn diagram, that's why I always say that you want to get better, it's air, food, and attitude. Air, you got to get your VOCs, you got to get the chemicals out of your house, and you got to get the mold and dampness fixed.
Jason Earle: Food, you got to eat clean, you got to get rid of the processed stuff, and you've got to get rid of the conventional meat and dairy, because they're getting a lot of carryover.
Julie Michelson: And then attitude is the
Jason Earle: big one.
Julie Michelson: That's the, the part, and I would say start with attitude, even though I just cut you off when you were saying attitude, but the, the part about the mycotoxin panel that I, that I do love, and I just learned so much, and, and I'm gonna shift approach, is that You know, the, because there is the data in the food system, the things that, that they're telling you to avoid if you have high mycotoxin exposure are the things that are inflammatory anyway.
Julie Michelson: And it becomes, that's a whole nother conversation with, you know, is it the gluten? Is it the glyphosate? I don't know. Is it the mycotoxin or is it the, you know, it [00:33:00] doesn't matter. Don't eat it.
Jason Earle: That's right. Don't
Julie Michelson: eat it.
Jason Earle: You can do a lot by, and by the way, I agree with you on the attitude part because a lot of people land on the attitude and attitude can sound dismissive, um, and it's not, that's not what I mean by that.
Jason Earle: And I use that only cause it rhymes. Uh, it's really more mindset and it's also a phys, a psychophysiology. So there's a problem we get into is where our nervous system gets whacked out. Um, and so, you know, I see real healing happen with neural retraining, I mean, really profound, deep healing, and so much so that oftentimes people who I know that have had the worst, I mean, death's door, that have 180 degree turnaround, they often will say that they think it was the neural retraining that really cured it, and, uh, and so now they're resilient, now they can, you know, you know, be in moldy buildings even, or go into a hotel or an Uber with the air fresheners and not have that, you know, this unbelievable fight or flight.
Jason Earle: And so, uh, I often, I agree with you. I think if you really are, if you're really sick with this stuff, you should start neural rich training immediately. Uh, primal [00:34:00] trust, DNRS, you know, uh, but also just it's more acceptance around these things. You know, it's a part of our normal world.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. And I do think it, again, back to the, the psychophysiology and I'll really dumb it down.
Julie Michelson: Everybody, you know, has, has heard of placebo effect and we all think it has to do with prescriptions, but it's not. It's a process in the body. Um, I mean, it can be. But it really does help healing exponentially quicker, I think. Um, and it took me a while in my practice to realize, Oh, we shouldn't just get to that later.
Julie Michelson: Like let's, let's front load that and make everything else work better. Um, and so I love, especially if we're talking about mycotoxins, I mean, often even over zoom, if I have a consult with somebody over zoom, you know, using my intuition is always part of directing, right. Or, you know, what are, what am I [00:35:00] prioritizing?
Julie Michelson: What am I thinking or feeling? There is like a vibrational energy that certain people with mycotoxin illness have. That I immediately, like, I know within the first two minutes of talking to them, or I expect that that is a major thing driving their inflammation and, and it almost always is like, I can feel it.
Julie Michelson: I can't describe it to you how it would be different than somebody else with a different kind of anxiety. Um, but there is something about. What those little, what's going on in there. Um, and it's real, I'm not saying that means it's in your head, right? We're not saying you can retrain your brain and that means you were never sick.
Julie Michelson: That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, you know, it's really powerful.
Jason Earle: It is. And let me, let me clarify this because I'm someone who went through the mold related illness. I was fortunate enough to get out of it early enough. that I didn't have, and I was pubescent, so, and I also stopped eating [00:36:00] lousy food, which was, by the way, you know, I, so I, I was automatically detox, I, I don't, I haven't eaten, I haven't participated in that form of, of diet in a long time, uh, and so, so as a result, inadvertently detoxed.
Jason Earle: Um, and so, uh, but what, what, what happens here oftentimes is, and it is ironic and we can talk about my house all the time. Um, but it, what you end up with is usually it's a chemical exposure that creates a mold sensitivity or a mold exposure that creates a chemical sensitivity and it's a Venn diagram.
Jason Earle: All right. And so you've got this huge overlap and because the mold again produces VOCs, the musty smell are our VOCs and those VOCs are, can, are, are. I would, I would assert that they are on an evolutionary basis. We are, we recognize them as decay. This is a very important thing, right? We know we have a visceral response to feces, vomit, dead animals, the smell.
Jason Earle: The smell of a rotting mouse.
Julie Michelson: And [00:37:00] mold
Jason Earle: is in the same category, I think on an evolutionary basis. And so our sense of smell is, is wrapped up around the trigeminal nerve in the face, the olfactory sense and the trigeminal, which is a, which is a, uh, which is a, a primal Uh, nerve set, cranial nerve set in the face that has this, these amazing chemosensory capabilities.
Jason Earle: They're like a spidey sense and they can pick up compounds way below the odor threshold, uh, including pungent VOCs, which, and by the way, which the musty smell is comprised of. And so, so what happens is the body, Uh, becomes attenuated or it becomes, you know, hyper, uh, it becomes exposed and then goes, wait, no, I got that again.
Jason Earle: Okay. Yeah. And then boom, shut down. So your sinus closed down, sinus sinusitis, your lungs closed down asthma. You know, you get headaches, you get inflammation, you know, by the way, the trigeminal nerve will kick off a cytokine storm. And so, uh, you know, this is, so this is what looks like. inflammation is inflammation, but it's actually sensory nerve irritation.[00:38:00]
Jason Earle: And this can happen at really super tiny, I mean, incredibly small exposure levels, um, once you become sensitized. And so I'm not saying that the, that the illness is not real. On the contrary. Um, what I'm saying is that it, a lot of it has to do with the illusion that your nervous system has created. So it is essentially fake.
Jason Earle: fear at the, at the, at the systemic level. And so learning to A, accept the fact that, like I said, we've got 50 megatons of spores in our, right. We live on planet fungi, right? Yeah. Uh, being afraid of mold is like being afraid of gravity. You know, you, you, you, that this is a very unproductive way to live. Um, we have to accept the fact that we live on planet fungi and that our buildings are made of mold food and you're not going to move from building to building to building and actually get away from it.
Jason Earle: Yeah. It's not going to happen. Uh, you, what you have to do is, is, um, do the work. And by the way, the work is the neural retraining. Um, and, and, and be vigilant about, uh, moisture control, chemical, [00:39:00] uh, reduction and avoidance whenever possible, uh, and then a clean diet. And if you do those three things, I've never seen anybody not get better.
Jason Earle: Um, but if you leave any one of them out. You probably won't. And so it really is. And it takes work. And so sorry, you know, there's no pill, potion or powder that's going to fix this. Um, but if you do the work, um, I see those people get better. And by the way, you also have to believe you can.
Julie Michelson: Or tell yourself you can, until you believe it.
Jason Earle: Yeah, I mean, you gotta step into those shoes. However, however
Julie Michelson: you get there. Yeah, you
Jason Earle: have to affirm, and you gotta, you know, you gotta, you gotta believe it. You gotta at least, you gotta, you gotta, you have to have that vision of, of, of healing. You have to, you have to affirm that this is, uh, that this is not the way your life has to be.
Julie Michelson: I have to say, I'm, I'm really so surprised. I already said in the beginning, I was excited for our conversation, but I've [00:40:00] spoken to a lot of people who end up and for some reason, especially in the mold realm, people who become mold experts. and a pigeon holed in this little narrow box and everything is mold, everything is mold, everything is mold, everything is mold.
Julie Michelson: And you are the most well rounded mold expert I've ever spoken to. And I like genuinely appreciate that because we are whole humans and, and You really just gave us such a great, just the way you explain, like, what is going on in the body and, and kind of what's real and what's fear tactic and why, you know, well, if we're getting that fear triggered anyway, even if we're not aware of it, and now the industry and, and I'm not even just saying mold expert and even, you know, I've been guilty of it, the functional medicine, integrative [00:41:00] medicine, um, And then this whole inspectors and all the, you know, there's a lot of fear piled on and, and just remediating your home, if that's what it needs and not changing everything else.
Julie Michelson: Or not everything else, but at least, you know, the chemical reduction and the clean diet. I mean, it always is tipping point. Like you said, we're all exposed all the time, right? So why it's the same. I had that thought when you, when you mentioned have, you know, being diagnosed with Lyme when you were younger.
Julie Michelson: Um, It used to really, really annoy me when my fiance, who I've been working with for eight years, used to say, you know, okay, so she has Lyme, like, but why is it making her sick? So many of us have Lyme, you know, would test positive for Lyme. It's the what, what's going on in her body that it's not kicking it.
Julie Michelson: And I used to get frustrated because I wasn't fully, [00:42:00] fully well yet. Like, you know, Oh, I know you're a doctor, but maybe you just don't understand. And I'm like, Oh, he's always right. You know, because we should be able to handle these things. If we take into, you know, if we are. Working to reduce our toxic exposure, making sure we're not living in a, you know, musty, moldy home, you know, doing the things, not eating the gross food.
Julie Michelson: I mean, I think of if I, if I had something sitting on the counter and I was still living back in Florida where it was like a million percent humidity, right? And it was just sitting in a, some kind of container and it was, Just completely moldy. Would I eat it? Why, why is that? Okay. That grains are handled that way in our food system.
Julie Michelson: And then we eat meat that ate those grains. I mean, not all of us do, but why is that? Okay. For that [00:43:00] every restaurant you go into
Jason Earle: is, is, is, is, is why we cook at
Julie Michelson: home.
Jason Earle: Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's so abundant that. You know, it is the norm, not the exception, right? And so you have to be vigilant. But going back to the beginning with a hyper vigilance is fear driven.
Jason Earle: Vigilance is discerning. And so like, it's, I always say it's like approaching a traffic light. You know, traffic, traffic intersections are dangerous. You can, I mean, people die in intersections every day, all every, I mean, just, you know, every 10 minutes probably there's a traffic accident with someone dying in an intersection.
Jason Earle: You drive up to one of them and you, you potentially could be very fearful about approaching an intersection. But the reality is all you have to do is watch the signals and, and, and, and be discerning, make a left when appropriate, make a right, just making, making informed decisions. So you can either approach it with fear or you can approach it with discernment.
Jason Earle: And that's the decision making process that [00:44:00] is the difference between vigilance and hypervigilance. You know, you have your hands on
Julie Michelson: the steering wheel. Vigilance is, I, I had mentioned this earlier. I believe an often, you know, typical part of the healing process.
Jason Earle: Absolutely.
Julie Michelson: Um, it's not a healthy place to stay.
Julie Michelson: And what I want to do, um, is invite you back to have that second conversation about just that, um, and about how we stay vigilant and what happens to even people like you and myself when we're not, I think it's another really, really important conversation. And I want, I want listeners to be able to digest this, um, and under understand a little bit.
Julie Michelson: I do have one kind of. Mold testing, remediating question for you. Total opinion question, but obviously on the record since we're reporting.
Jason Earle: And you can tell I, I don't have any opinions.
Julie Michelson: No, [00:45:00] me either.
Julie Michelson: What is, but on this one, yours is definitely more educated and I do something instinctually. And sometimes I say, you know, I'm cynical because I am a Jersey girl, which. Just means I, I question, um, if somebody is at where the, you know, they're going through the mold inspector process, maybe they started with got mold test and they got mold, you know, um, and they're going to the next level and they're, and they're looking for an inspector and or.
Julie Michelson: Or they've had an inspection and they need a remediator. Do you have feelings about companies that do both under one umbrella?
Jason Earle: Yes, I do. I have strong opinions about this. And I also would like to talk really quickly before we, before we break, um, before we end this about, uh, the things to be aware of in addition to any sort of at home testing.
Jason Earle: So this is, there's a rubric, if you will, that, that, so, uh, so first of all, companies that do [00:46:00] testing and inspections are a no, no. It's unfortunate that a lot of places are rural and do not have the diversity of offerings. So as a result, many of them do butter their bread on both sides. I do know some that I would say probably are ethical.
Jason Earle: However, the room for abuse is too great. And the profitability is also too, too tempting. And so, uh,
Julie Michelson: orthopedic surgeon, you know, you're going to get surgery.
Jason Earle: Yeah. I mean, don't go, don't ever ask a barber if you need a haircut. Right. Um, and it's just, you get a little mechanic and ask for safety, you know, and say, Hey, is there something wrong with my car?
Jason Earle: And you're going to get a big girl, right? It's just, it is, it is the nature of the beast. And, um, and also, uh, I also deal with a lot of remediators who are not qualified to do an assessment. They don't know anything about mold. They know a little bit about buildings maybe. Um, but they truly don't know anything about it.
Jason Earle: They all want to use chemicals, by the way. Uh, and I have to really, I mean, I. I have to educate these guys every single time about the importance of not using antimicrobials and chemicals, um, and fogging and [00:47:00] all this kind of stuff. There's an industry standard that specifically Ed specifically, uh, uh, advises against these things.
Jason Earle: And all these guys claim to be certified, but no one follows the standard. Um, so, so I, I think it's important to have, uh, an inspector who does follow the industry standard, the I-I-C-R-C-S five 20. Who will oversee it? Who will, who will keep you, who will keep your contractor? Accountable, uh, and that will, uh, be your advocate.
Jason Earle: An inspector is really your advocate, um, is not just a guy that's gonna find mold. Somebody who should guide you through the process, uh, who gives you a written work plan, uh, you know, who, who will, uh, hold the, the, the remediators accountable, uh, and, uh, Um, if they fail and then and make them come back and do more work without without additional compensation until the property has been restored to a normal condition, which is what the, which is what the standard defines as a successful remediation.
Jason Earle: Normal condition, not mold free, not sterile. Uh, it is a normal condition, which means that there's gonna be some spores, but there's no active moisture problem. There's no [00:48:00] excessive fungal growth. There's no excessive fungal matter rather. Um, and, uh, and there's no musty smell and there's no people having symptoms, um, that are transient.
Jason Earle: In other words, when you leave the building, you get better. Um. Right. So, um, and that's a good segue into the final piece here, which is, I think, using a test kit, as I said, is not a silver bullet, uh, there is no silver bullet, um, and, uh, so what you want to do is, here, here's, here's how you know if you've got a mold problem.
Jason Earle: Doesn't matter if you've got high spore counts or not. Spore counts are important, because mold, mold, obviously high spore counts is a mold problem, um, but if you have a musty smell, you probably have a mold problem. If you have a history of water damage, and I'm not talking about a leak one time, I'm talking about a history of water damage, dampness, uh, excessive dampness.
Jason Earle: Um, so we've, we're talking about condensation on windows in the wintertime, especially, um, where you've got, you know, uh, high humidity, 70 percent or more for three or four days is enough to create a mold problem, significant mold problem. So, or if you have symptoms that get better [00:49:00] when you leave the building.
Jason Earle: Um, if you have, Any of those things, you probably have a mold problem regardless, by the way, of sport counts. So ready for it. So, right. So we've got a, if you've got a high sport counts, musty smell, symptoms that seem to get better when you leave the building, a history of water damage. If you say yes to any of those.
Jason Earle: And no to any, any, any other ones. It doesn't, the no's don't negate the yes, right?
Julie Michelson: It's just like,
Jason Earle: it's just like, it's just like cancer, cancer. You can, you can, if you want to diagnose a building, if you want to diagnose a body, same kind of thing you do, if you're, if you're looking at for cancer, you don't just do a blood test, you'll miss a lot, right?
Jason Earle: You'll miss a lot of cancers. If you just do a blood test, if you just do imaging, you're going to miss all the blood cancers. Right? If you just do a physical, you're gonna, you're gonna miss all the internal stuff. So you have to do a physical, you have to do imaging, you have to do bloods, right? You look at the whole person.
Jason Earle: And buildings are the same way. So you have to look for, you have to take, you have to engage your senses. And that's why I always [00:50:00] say, if you see something, smell something, or feel something, do something. And do it quickly, because it only takes 24 to 48 hours for a moisture problem to turn into a mold problem.
Jason Earle: So, uh, so it is, it is one of those things where you don't want to wait. Uh, you don't want to wait a week until your, you know, husband or wife comes home from, from, from travel. Or until the insurance adjuster gets there.
Julie Michelson: Right. You
Jason Earle: know, you've got 24 to 48 hours when something gets wet and stays wet before mold.
Jason Earle: It starts to grow. So, um, and the longer you wait, the more expensive it is to, to remediate. And by the way, insurance only covers water damage in the first 72 hours, FYI. So if you do have a water damage issue and it is big enough to engage insurance, they will not cover it past 72 hours because they don't cover more.
Jason Earle: So you have to move quickly on these things. Uh, this is not something you want to sit around and wait, wait on.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. I mean, there's, I, I'm, I'm going to go back and listen to this again, again, and take more notes. I mean, packed with just a lot of gold, [00:51:00] really, really incredible, um, information, because I know if I'm learning things in, in this conversation, when this has been such a big part of my path.
Julie Michelson: Um, then I know listeners are getting a lot of value. So I highly recommend in addition, in addition, if I can grab, get you back on to talk about our topic on, on vigilance and, and what happens when you're not, even when you're educated and even when you do this kind of stuff for a living, um, because I think there's a lot of value in that too, but, but this one is definitely, definitely, um, um, No, no.
Julie Michelson: And what is, this is like totally just a minor detail, but, um, what is the test turnaround time now?
Jason Earle: So we have, uh, everything goes by prior. So when you, when you use a kit, you collect the samples and it goes back, the samples go back into a prepaid return mailer and that is priority mail. So it's one to three business days, uh, in the mail or post.
Jason Earle: So it was us postal service time. [00:52:00] Plus, uh, maximum three business days at the lab. So usually it's a two day turnaround. So we, we usually get results out to people in like five days or so. Um, and, uh, all with our, with our kits, uh, all, uh, lab fees, shipping, both ways are all included. So there's no, nothing else that we didn't include.
Jason Earle: No hidden.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Jason Earle: No hidden fees. That's the other thing. We just wanted to make it really easy and simple and transparent for everybody. Um, and by the way, for your listeners, um, uh, we created a, a, a welcome page. Um. Nice. And so, so anyone who's interested in learning more can go to gotmole. com slash. inspire.
Jason Earle: Um, you know, so, uh, and there you'll find a link to an ebook. We, uh, created, it's about 46 pages of inspection checklist and FAQs and, you know, really useful mold information for anyone who's early in their mold journey. But I even have, I've had mycologists that are Building scientists tell me, man, that book, you should sell it.
Jason Earle: You shouldn't give it away. I'm reading
Julie Michelson: it. Cause I mean, I already learned so much and I'm not a [00:53:00] newbie to this conversation.
Jason Earle: It's really, we built it, we created it to, to, to try to give people, uh, uh, a, an easy safe way to, to not have to deal with the misinformation that they're going to get from Facebook.
Jason Earle: Facebook groups, which is just all fear, um, and all misinformation. Just burn your house down and leave with the shirts on your back and everything's gotta be thrown away. Take the shirt
Julie Michelson: off your back is what they say. Yeah.
Jason Earle: I mean, it's, it's unbelievable. So, so this is, this is, this is, this, this is unfortunately, these are the most inflamed people that are not getting better.
Jason Earle: Don't take advice from people. If I haven't gotten better, um, take advice from people who have gotten better. Um, and so we also created a 10 percent coupon code for anyone who's interested, which is inspire 10. And then you can find that, that, uh, coupon code at, uh, on that page, got mold. com slash inspire.
Jason Earle: Um, and then anyone who wants to get in touch with us, you know, we're really easy to find, Instagram. I have an, ask me anything post there. That's like evergreen. I just have the pin.
Julie Michelson: So anyone who
Jason Earle: wants to ask, I answer every, every single question. [00:54:00] Um, Thanks. And, uh, and so that's, that's always there and, uh, yeah, so, uh, just, if anyone has any questions, we're here to help.
Julie Michelson: Amazing. Incredible. So before I let you leave. This is your opportunity. You can repeat, you can pull something new, but listeners know to be ready for what is Jason's one step listeners can take starting today to improve their health trick question. I know.
Jason Earle: Open your windows.
Julie Michelson: Thank you. Love it. Get
Jason Earle: outside. You know, you know, we, we've separated ourselves from nature. It's a, you know, the word human comes from humus, which is soil. Um, and, uh, and we have, we have essentially disconnected ourselves from our true heritage. And, uh, and I believe that that's the root of most, uh, autoimmune disease, honestly.
Jason Earle: Uh, the fact that we are no longer exposed to mold spores, uh, on a, on a, on a regular basis. Transient. But, but nature is, [00:55:00] is, you know, um, they say within the, the, within the wound lies the medicine. Um, and so, uh, and I, and I believe that that's true, uh, here as well. And so, you know, be vigilant about your house, you know, clean up water quickly, all that's good stuff.
Jason Earle: Have a vacuum, use your filters and all that stuff, but then open the windows and go outside and re engage and take your shoes off and, you know, take a walk in the woods, um, because this is where. We, we spent 99. 9 percent of our history as humans outside only the last very tiny rounding error part of it.
Jason Earle: Uh, you know, this infinitesimally small percentage of our existence as species indoors. And this is when we've had asthma, allergies, autoimmune disease, cancer, uh, autism, all these things skyrocketing in just two generations. What have we done wrong? Well, it's, it's these boxes we live in and it's the fact that we've separated ourselves from nature.
Jason Earle: So go open your windows, take a deep breath. You know, it's all going to be okay.
Julie Michelson: Jason, thank you so very, very much.
Jason Earle: My pleasure
Julie Michelson: for everyone [00:56:00] listening. Remember you can get those show notes and show notes and transcripts by visiting inspired living dot show. I hope you had a great time. Seriously. Listen to this like three or four times.
Julie Michelson: I'll see you next week.
(Outro Bumper) ​[00:57:00]
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My Guest For This Episode
Connect with Jason Earle
Jason Earle
Jason Earle is a man on a mission. An adoring father, incurable entrepreneur and indoor air quality crusader, he is founder & CEO of 1-800-GOT-MOLD?
and MycoLab USA, and the creator of the GOT MOLD?® Test Kit. Allergic to nearly everything in his environment as a child, Jason's asthma was so severe that he was initially diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Absenteeism due to a battle with Lyme disease, and his mother's suicide, ultimately led him to drop out at 16 and get a full-time job at the local gas station. This is where most stories end, but in an almost miraculous turn of events, from a chance meeting, in mere months, Jason found himself working on Wall Street. Within a year he had unwittingly become the youngest licensed stockbroker in history at age 17, resulting in a Guinness World Record, going on to enjoy a nine-year career. It's a story you will have to hear for yourself.
and MycoLab USA, and the creator of the GOT MOLD?® Test Kit. Allergic to nearly everything in his environment as a child, Jason's asthma was so severe that he was initially diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Absenteeism due to a battle with Lyme disease, and his mother's suicide, ultimately led him to drop out at 16 and get a full-time job at the local gas station. This is where most stories end, but in an almost miraculous turn of events, from a chance meeting, in mere months, Jason found himself working on Wall Street. Within a year he had unwittingly become the youngest licensed stockbroker in history at age 17, resulting in a Guinness World Record, going on to enjoy a nine-year career. It's a story you will have to hear for yourself.
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