Today, I am excited to have my friend and colleague, Dr. Aaron Hartman, joining me! Dr. Hartman is a triple board-certified physician in functional and integrative medicine.  Our immune systems can go into overdrive in response to many different environmental factors, including some of the things we get exposed to in our food and personal care products. Today, for the first time on the podcast, we will be talking about mold and micro-toxins and their resultant systemic inflammatory side effects. I like to think of Dr. Hartman as a medical detective because he takes the time to closely examine how and why various factors are present in his patients. In this episode, he and I dive deep into Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and discuss how exposure to biotoxins can lead to a chronic inflammatory response. We talk about mold, contributors to mold exposure, and micro-toxins. We discuss the role of specific types of testing, provide clues for where to look for mold exposure, and explain how it can manifest. We touch on how CIRS can get triggered by seemingly benign things like too much exercise, post-traumatic brain injury, and breast implant illness. We discuss ways to treat those issues, focusing mainly on lifestyle, dietary recommendations, and adding things like specific types of filters to our environment. We also talk about how we can work with our local healthcare professionals to find people in our area to help us get to the root cause of many different chronic inflammatory symptoms.  I found this conversation very interesting because I believe that many people may be diving down rabbit holes when, in fact, their symptoms might be there as a result of an overwhelming chronic inflammatory response. Stay tuned to learn how to deal with the systemic inflammatory side effects that could result from chronic mold exposure.  IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN: Why is the medical community not talking enough about mold exposure and micro-toxins? We look at the symptoms associated with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS). It can take many exposures over many years for those genetically more susceptible to micro-toxin exposure to become symptomatic. There is a case study at the University of Texas on curing POTS Syndrome by treating SIBO with low-dose naltrexone and IVIg. Healthcare providers get trained to think about each symptom separately. Dr. Hartman’s curiosity led him to see how many different things are interconnected. There are many different ways that people get exposed to mold- even from seemingly benign foods like coffee and peanut butter. We need to ask whether or not our innate immune system is activated to respond to the mold we get exposed to or if there might be something else within the CIRS world that could be causing the problem. Dr. Hartman created a blog series on his website to walk people through their symptoms to learn if they might have CIRS. Dr. Hartman talks about the often-overlooked melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH). Where should you start, and what should you look for with home-testing? Some ways that CIRS can get triggered. Everyone has different thresholds for a concussion. Overexertion can hurt the body, so you need to listen to what your body tells you. Dr. Hartman shares his thoughts on breast implant illness and its inter-relationship with CIRS. Some of the ways that Dr. Hartman addresses CIRS symptoms.    Connect with Cynthia Thurlow Follow on Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn Check out Cynthia’s website  Connect with Dr. Aaron Hartman On his website CIRS eBook       Coffee link  https://squarefeetcoffee.com/discount/IF\