Meet the Mold Expert Jennifer Nitrio | Combatting Mycotoxins and EMF for a Safer Home

By Jennifer Nitrio

"Why would you leave a job as a government recruiter to become a mold inspector?"

I get asked this question often. Everyone is simply mystified that one would make such a drastic and unusual career change at age 40. Sometimes life dictates your path, and that is exactly what happened for me. 

After becoming a mom in 2009, my health started shifting. At first it was subtle. Doctors would blame “hormones” because I was a new mom. At the time, it never occurred to me to dive deeper as I was pretty consumed with my daughter’s bizarre health issues. The fact that we both had odd stuff happening should have raised a red flag, but sleep deprivation and the stress of being a new mom didn’t exactly have me thinking clearly.

Fast forward to 2011. My system really started to misfire. I didn’t bother going to the doctor because I figured I would hear the word hormone again. I started looking for care from more holistic-minded practitioners, ones who would really listen to me and take a deep dive into what was going on. I remained a bit of a mystery. We were able to put bandaids on some of my issues, but I kept having more and more bizarre health things happening.

Hear Jennifer's story firsthand on the Wave Forward Podcast!

By the time 2013 hit, I had developed several autoimmune diseases out of nowhere. I was able to “control” them but we could not figure out why my system was going so haywire. And then, early 2014 arrived and with it, a complete health crisis.

Looking back on 2014, I have no clue how I existed. I was living in a state of horrible vertigo. It was like I was drunk 24/7 and yet I never touched alcohol. I started to lose my ability to comprehend what was being said to me. Conversations were very difficult. However, I was still cognitively normal when reading and writing. But there was a huge misfire happening with speaking and understanding what was being said to me. My recall for the “right” words was horrible. My sense of direction was nonexistent. I was going to the ER often with symptoms of a heart attack and yet, my heart was fine. And if this wasn’t awful enough, my body started rejecting food. By the time we figured out what was going on in late 2014, I could only eat a handful of foods.

Doctors told me I was essentially going to die because they could not figure out what was wrong. This is not something that a mother of a young child wants to hear. I had to figure out what was happening but how?

Enter Dumuzi. Our cat. 

My daughter had hernia surgery in November 2014. She was recovering on the couch when Dumuzi came out from behind the couch (a place he NEVER went) and curled up to cuddle. My daughter freaked out because he smelled horrible. I gave him a sniff and without even thinking, pulled the couch away from the wall. The smell that came up was alarming. And that’s when I knew…

Mold.

It was like the computer in my brain downloaded everything I ever knew about mold in that quick instant. I instantly knew why I was “dying.” I knew why my daughter had health issues, could not sleep more than 30 minutes at a time, had some strange neurological issues, etc… Little things started coming together, like why the carpet was cold in certain places and why the house smelled like burnt grease all the time. Quite literally I had an epiphany.

I was fortunate to have the late Dr. Jack Thrasher, one of the nation’s leading toxicologists, living practically directly behind me. He came over within an hour. He inspected the house, tested the house, inspected me. The house had no visible mold but the walls were literally at 100% saturation for moisture. He showed me water staining along all the baseboards which somehow we had not noticed. Basically he said this was going to be bad. And it was.

The tests for mold returned and it was worse than bad. But what was even worse was the mycotoxins. For those of you not familiar with mycotoxins, they are the truly evil by products of toxigenic molds, and typically they cause the bulk of non-allergenic health issues. You can learn more about mycotoxins here .

Dr. Thrasher told us to leave our house, and don’t take anything. It had one of the highest levels of mycotoxins he had ever seen. So my daughter and I left. And we never returned.

Dr. Thrasher studied our home and I was fortunate to be his pupil during that time, learning more than any course work could teach a person about water intrusion, mold, and most importantly, mycotoxins. It was scary, sad, incomprehensible at times, but fascinating.

Leaving the home miraculously resolved several of the issues my daughter and I had. For the first time in her entire life, she slept. And I mean slept. I couldn’t believe it. My heart attacks stopped. The weird drunkenness I had lived with for almost a year? Gone. Just like that. Totally gone. Mycotoxins are very very scary in what they can do to you neurologically.

Just leaving the house wasn’t enough. We did need very specific treatment to help our bodies detox and heal. That took time and patience and some trial and error. But just a year later, we were in a completely different place health-wise. 

This was when I knew I could not return to work as a government recruiter. I knew I had a greater purpose and that was to help people avoid what I went through but also support them if they did find themselves in such extreme circumstances.

I “overeducated” myself and became a certified mold inspector, a moisture intrusion specialist, and a remediator. My goal wasn’t to go into homes or offices and do inspections or testing per se, but there wasn’t exactly a degree for what I really wanted to do.

My true passion is mold prevention and mycotoxin removal. Along with this, I have a passion for helping people who are at the end of their rope and haven’t found the right person who can assess their home and create a plan of action to rid it of mold and mycotoxins. Yes, I will inspect a home both in person or virtually. I am always trying to find that “thing” other inspectors have missed. But I more often conduct remote consults helping individuals learn how to be their own inspector and advocate for themselves whether that be with another mold inspector or a remediation company. I also train people on how to do the post remediation remediation to address mycotoxins.

Most mold inspectors and remediators do not understand mycotoxins. That is simply not part of the standard training. Therefore, they are overlooked and never addressed properly. An environmental hygienist or a building biologist receives a much different type of training and likely will look for mycotoxins, but not always. However, these individuals can be out of reach for mold-sick individuals in terms of pricing.

Mold, and especially mycotoxins, continue to be misunderstood although there is more attention being given to the dangers of mold in recent years. But there are still a lot of outdated practices when it comes to testing and remediation.

I started Mold Help For You as a comprehensive resource for people going through mold or who thought they were going through mold. It was a spin-off of my natural living website Hybrid Rasta Mama . I wanted to separate my mold content because it was important that this information not get lost in the shuffle.

Besides adding new content to my websites, I work with clients around the world, am continually learning about new technologies and products, staying current on what exactly is being taught to new inspectors and remediators (because trust me – that matters), and testing products so I can ensure that I am always recommending what I determine to be the best of the best at price points accessible to everyone. I do this because I truly care about everyone who finds my website and finds me. I have formed friendships with a lot of my clients. I’m not your average mold inspector. I am a single mom who went to heck and back and never want to see this happen to anyone else.

If you or someone you know is going through a mold nightmare, do not hesitate to reach out. I keep my rates very reasonable as I know how expensive a mold nightmare can be.

You can find me at:

Mold Help For You

Hybrid Rasta Mama

Also, please visit: https://moldhelpforyou.com/wave-forward-podcast-links/ . I have listed links to some of the things discussed in The Wave Forward episode on Mold and the EMF connection.

If you would like more information on the mold/mycotoxins and EMF connection, please visit this article on my site.