Test Results Interpretation (Biotoxin Panel)

Just got back some test results from my LLMD, having run the Shoemaker panel for the first time in a year. I'm curious what y'all mold folks think this means.

All of my values were normal: TGFB, c4a, ADH, VEGF, MMP9, osmolality, MSH. (VIP pending but hasn't been abnormal in the past.) At this time last year, several of those were way off. My Great Plains mycotoxin urine panel reported high levels of ochratoxin A, so I know my body is processing that but suspect it's from past exposure.

I am the first to caution people about paying much attention to test results, but this feels like good news. I don't think my exposure has changed, but my body seems to be less challenged in these ways, which seems good. Could really high doses of curcumin and quercetin have made a difference on these particular tests? I also have been using a bioresonance device and the DNRS program, but I have not used binders or changed my environment significantly or detoxed differently. What could have made them go down? Any ideas?

I submitted a long reply to you, WBF, but it seems to have vanished. Let's try this again. Thanks for your thoughts.

According to the lab's ranges: all normal. (Last year all were normal except c4a.)
According to Shoemaker's ranges: all much improved.

Oddly, two values are (last year and this year) abnormal in the opposite direction from what mold would induce. My VEGF is high (indicating bartonella or tumors) and my ADH is low. (For mold, VEGF is low and ADH is high.)

My LLMD and Neil Nathan have said recently that Shoemaker's work - while important - is something people are building upon and moving past, in the sense that his reference ranges and even this biotoxin test panel are not as relevant as they once were. I can see how the mycotoxin urine tests are more helpful in some ways, but it seems to me that they're good for knowing about mold exposure and binding, and not so useful for diagnosing and monitoring CIRS. Thoughts?

My c4a was tested by National Jewish and the rest by LabCorp.

Great Plains test was 5 weeks ago, and the LabCorp tests were three weeks ago.

I lived and/or worked in water-damaged buildings in 2000-2003 and 2007-2010. I'm guessing about my source of exposure, though, because my current house (which I barely leave and which I've lived in for ten years) had a sky-high ERMI but did not contain any aspergillus or penicillium molds, the sources of ochratoxin A, the only mycotoxin for which I tested high. My LLMD and mold inspector don't seem especially invested in helping me figure out sources of exposure, which I find odd, since it seems prudent to stop exposure before treating, based on everything I have read....

I'm not that concerned with the specifics so much as why they would have gone down in the absence of binders and in the same environment. My detox and supplement and treatment strategies aren't especially different. Perhaps I'm just on the right track? I really really hope.

Test (significance) | LabCorp ref. | Shoemaker | 2018 | 2019
MSH (low = mold) | 0-40 | 35-81 | 28 | 29
TGFB (low = good) | 687-6662 | <2380 | 4791 | 3767
c4a (high = mold) | 0-650 | 0-2830 | 5149 | 430
VEGF (low = mold) | 0-115 | 31-86 | 85 | 100
ADH (high = mold) | 0-4.7 | 1.0-13.3 | <0.8 | <0.8
MMP-9 (high = mold) | <984) | 85-332 | 589 | 386

If I am reading this correctly, the following results are indicative of CIRS based on Shoemaker’s ranges:


Low MSH
Elevated TGFBeta-1 over 2380
Low ADH
Elevated MMP-9 over 332

The link I attached above has a lot of deep detail that I haven’t seen before and is laid out very well.

I think based on your labs, some of the markers (some of the most important ones) have improved.

As to why that happened, I don’t really know. I’m surprised you take no binders at all. Have you taken none at all during the year between the two tests? What about detoxing? Have you used sauna, taken epsom salt baths, glutathione?

Do you take a lot of anti inflammatories like curcumin, fish oil, quercetin or antioxidants like Vit C? Have you changed your diet or started or increased MCAS treatment over the past year?

Most of the CIRS lab markers are indicators of chronic inflammation that is linked to exposure to biotoxins. Inflammation can be reduced lots of ways: avoiding mold and other inflammagens in the environment; taking herbs, supplements, or medications that reduce inflammation; modulating the immune response with herbs or supplements; reducing stress; increasing nutrients and the body’s ability to utilize them, etc. I would think any measures to reduce inflammation has the potential to normalize or improve those lab markers.

The mycotoxin urine test is a measure of which and how much mycotoxins your kidneys are excreting. While some believe it can take years to remove mycotoxins from your body, I have not found this to be so based on the 3 tests I have had over the past 2.5 years. I have done ERMI or HERTSMI-2 tests around the same time as the mycotoxin urine tests and have found my mycotox results to be in line with the ERMI results.

This leads me to believe that elevated urine tests are most likely due to current exposure and probably not past exposure unless it’s the recent past or a person was so sick they couldn’t excrete anything and now they’re in a clean environment (verified by ERMI) and now they are excreting the toxins they could not remove while being exposed.

That’s my opinion based on my own lab results and my thoughts about things I have read.

I know Shoemaker and CIRS docs seem to believe a person retains the toxins for years even if it’s from past exposure until they take cholestyramine. That has not been my personal experience. I wouldn’t say anything is impossible, but it really doesn’t seem plausible in most cases.

I honestly think Shoemaker is missing something - probably the prevalence of undiagnosed and seronegative Lyme, bartonella, and or babesia (and probably other pathogens, possibly parasites or helminths) in these patients. We know these pathogens produce toxic byproducts of some kind and elicit inflammatory cytokines for which Buhner has well designed protocols.

I would expect these pathogens could affect many of the same lab biomarkers as the biotoxins that Shoemaker identifies with CIRS. It seems to me that there is still a lot to learn. I hope Shoemaker will keep an open mind and stay up with what is going on and keep learning. Things are changing, and I hope that more solid answers will be forthcoming.

Shoemaker is very data based and rigid in his scientific approach, which is good. That kind of rigid scientific work seems largely missing in the alternative medical world. On the flip side, reality doesn’t always fit neatly into scientific boxes and much can be missed as a result.

Post Edited (WalkingbyFaith) : 7/8/2019 6:56:13 PM (GMT-6)