How Exposure to Mold Grew Into A Business and Web Design, FreedomFromMold.com
Sven Hosford and I met years ago. It was an instant and good connection. We shared many common interests and acquaintances, both being active in the Western Pennsylvania wellness community. Our initial connection was through his publication “Light of Life” and my real estate in business is at The Center Of Harmony. Some years later, I had the opportunity to engage with Sven and his work at Dispense Magazine and with the Pennsylvania medical cannabis initiatives. I didn’t realize the full extent of the health impacts and suffering he was enduring from mold exposure.
In the current podcast, Sven shares his story of suffering a heart attack caused by mold, and the challenges he faced seeking out treatment. Last year, he decided to create that provides education, resources, and individual coaching for anyone affected by mold exposure. We collaborated on the web design process and recently launched FreedomFromMold.com
Building a Website That Educates and Informs
The site was a blank slate, and that is enjoyable to build from the ground up. There was not existing content or branding to limit the development. The first item was to refine and finalize the Branding. We directed Sven to an offshore brand designer that we work with. It was extraordinarily affordable and a quick turnaround. With a Brand Guideline in hand, we set out to structure the site.
The design needed to be lightweight, share dynamic content and be easily navigable, especially if the client base may have some “brain fog” from mold. The focus was on the blog for education, highlighting the Podcast, and also offering services and product recommendations. The site was built on WordPress with Elementor and GoDaddy Hosting. This was a collaborative effort, Sven did a lot of the content and some design. We supported by creating the framework, structure and general layout. This helped to keep costs down, and we advised throughout the process.
The result is a growing site, flush with engaging content and offers.
What’s Next for Freedom From Mold?
From detection to mitigation, Sven helps others avoid the pitfalls of the current medical system and remediation processes. The study of mold and its effects on health is constantly advancing. There are some really good resources and some not-so-great ones too. Learn how to navigate to better health. So if you want to discover more, head over to the page and visit The Freedom From Mold YouTube Channel or FreedomFromMold.com
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Transcript of The Podcast
Josh Meeder 0:00
Welcome to the great things LLC podcast. The show celebrating inspiring people who are making an impact in the world, creating conscious businesses that are in alignment with their own personal values. Each episode shares the wisdom, experience and intention of those that are following their dream. Visionaries that have chosen a different path found their purpose and create joy and abundance while helping others. Whether you’re already a trailblazer, or still searching for your own path, these stories will inspire you towards being the best version of yourself.
Welcome to the third episode of the second season of the great things LLC podcast. I am truly excited to have my friend and today’s guests Ben Hosford. On and span it took me five years to meet for the previous five years before meetings then his name came up at least two to four times a month we ran in the same circles in the Pittsburgh wellness in western Pennsylvania area. Spin was the founder and consultant for peace Berg, managing editor editor for the Journal of lifestyle medicine. He was also the medical director for the cannabis society, Pennsylvania cannabis society and the founder and publisher of dispense magazine. And that’s actually how Sven and I did meet was through some of his work in the cannabis industry. And Sven, it is great to have you on the show here. I know this is new for you. Because in all the things you do, you’re also an incredible podcast interviewer. So you’re on the other side of the microphone, this thanks. Yeah, it’s a little uncomfortable. I’m not sure how I’m sitting with this.
Sven Hosford 1:30
And you forgot point of light, too. I was actually that’s how I got started with all this was point of light magazine started 94. And so that’s almost 30 years ago.
And that’s, that’s really where I became more of the household name. And then I get into all this other stuff. So the thing is, is you’ve been in the health and wellness industry and all around it for a long, long, impressive career. And what we’re talking about today is actually a four letter word, it is mold. And mold doesn’t come up in the wellness industry probably as often as it should. So wanted to kind of open up the discussion. So you can share your story, how you went from all these things. And that critical event that led you to where you’re at now, with freedom for mold in the work you’re doing with mold exposure and counseling.
First, let me say if you want to kill conversation at a party, the topic to bring up is mold. So I will just say, you know, bear with it, it might be it might be good for you to learn about this stuff. But yeah, actually, I was living in about 100 year old building, with a flat roof that always leaked, and a landlord that didn’t want to fix anything. And after five and a half years, I was so toxic with mold, that I actually wound up having a heart attack, and and went to the emergency room and the doctor says mold doesn’t cause heart attacks.
I continued to argue she gave me the hand and said, Look, I’ve been to medical school.
Well, you know, this was the moment I’ve been kind of dreading and fearing. And also realizing might actually happen was that moment when a medical professional wants to do things you know, are going to cause more harm. And you don’t want to do them. And they won’t even listen to you. They don’t even listen. So I walked out was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I went off to a naturopathic clinic in Toledo where I’d been a couple of weeks before. And she hooked me up to all of her electronic gizmos and said, Yeah, you’ve got mold in your body and your lymph system is, you know, like about the consistency of jello. And so I spent a month there doing all these crazy
processes and techniques and things that I never would have ever suspected I would want to do. And that’s really the reason I’m alive today. They wanted to treat me for in the hospital. They wanted to treat me for a clogged artery, you know, guy shows up Monday morning. 56 years old chest pains. Oh, he’s got clogged arteries. Well, I didn’t I had a clogged lymph system. And that’s what was putting pressure on my heart. So after I got a reasonably more healthy, I felt so stupid that I continued to live in a moldy environment, even after I knew there was mold in there, not even realizing how dangerous mold is.
And then about three months after my episode, a guy named Dr. Mark Hyman, who’s the functional medicine director at the club
Eveland clinic, he got taken down by mold numerous times. And he wound up doing the same kind of treatments that I did. Now I’m talking about
rectal insufflation of ozone. I’m talking about coffee colonics, which are?
Yeah, definitely not a lot of fun.
Infrared Saunas, hot and cold tubs.
And these are the things that squeeze the toxins out of your lymph system and put it into your bloodstream and get it out of your system. You know, or I’m sorry, get it from the blood to the lymph, and then out of your system, largely through the coffee colonics.
So, you know, right at first, I was like, oh, yeah, I want to tell everybody about this. And then I realized I didn’t want to be the mold guy, you know.
So
I was kind of, you know, flailing around for a bit. And then I stumbled across these guys and said, Hey, we’re gonna get medical cannabis made legal in Pennsylvania. I said, Sure. Right. And darned if they didn’t do it, you know. So we all did it. And then so became an expert in cannabis.
Which is a lot of fun, a lot more exciting, a lot better conversations at parties. I will say if you say you’re a cannabis expert, a lot more money in that. Yeah. No one asks, what strain of mold you have?
For sure. But let’s let me just jump in here a little bit. Yes, I want to go back to the living situation. Because we’ll get into all the things you’ve learned. But I think for many mold, either you have the picture of it’s like this big, furry black spot on the foundation, but it can be hidden. What were some of your like, did you have any awareness up to the time of that cardiac event that mold was causing poison? Or what were some of the things you noticed or didn’t notice in that environment?
Well, that’s the tricky part is that I was having lots of health challenges. And I didn’t put it together that they were caused by mold, because the mold gets into your system, it goes in through your nasal cavity, and then to your hypothalamus. And then it rests around in your hypothalamus until it finds out the weakest part of your body. And then it goes there and start some damage. So during the time I was living in this apartment, I had an aneurysm in my aorta. Not a lot of fun there. I had three
detached, retinas, surgeries, not again, not a lot of fun.
And numerous other kinds of health challenges, none of which you would think were caused by mold what, but basically, are, you know,
high blood pressure criminality or, or direct, it’s really not that is the problem is there’s no, if you got a sinus infection, like I did have a friend of mine came over for a visit. And for two weeks after that he had sinus infection. So I said, you know, maybe we should look into this mold thing. Maybe it’s not, as you know, maybe it’s really as dangerous as people say.
And
so yeah,
the thing is, if you can smell mold, if you can see mold, you are in danger, danger with a capital D.
Josh Meeder 8:33
I’d like to get into this a little bit further. But we’ll get we’ll pick up where you left off how he moved from dispense and moving forward. Yeah, but one of the things is, is mold, one doesn’t present with common or uniforms. So
Sven Hosford 8:47
you can’t you get so many other effects, it’s really hard to diagnose. So that’s one of the things that make it so difficult. Also, as you with your experience in the medical profession, a lot of doctors may not be trained specifically in mold. This is this is a huge, huge, huge, huge problem is that doctors are actually taught that mold, and the mycotoxins which accompany mold are not dangerous. And then anybody who’s showing symptoms, it’s all in their head. It’s psychosomatic. And, you know, I’m, I’m reading the Facebook groups and everything and people are just,
they’re at, you know, they’re totally mystified as to what to do when their doctor tells him, it’s all in your head. There’s no physical symptoms, we can’t find anything wrong. Well, they don’t know where to look. They don’t even believe that mold is a problem. So this is a huge, huge problem.
In general, but especially in the mold community, in any kind of toxic community. You know, they want to jump in and treat symptoms without getting to the underlying cause of things. You know, which could be
Any number of toxins that are in your environment. And the problem is one.
Josh Meeder 10:06
Go ahead. I’m sorry, and just want to jump in there that it’s also prevalent. There’s very few areas in the country that don’t have heavy mold, unless unless you’re in a very dry, arid climate, you have mold exposures, and especially in construction before a certain year where they were developing the newer materials that are more mold resistant. You know, old lumber, old animal fiber in the walls, all these things are fuel for mold. aldehyde. Yeah. in new construction, you’ve got formaldehyde off gassing for about three to four years.
Sven Hosford 10:43
So you got it. You know, we live in western Pennsylvania here. Well, I do. You don’t anymore, but
it’s anywhere east of the Mississippi, you’ve got mold in your house. If your house is more than 10 years old. There’s mold somewhere, somewhere, a window leaked, roof tile came up.
You know, something somewhere in your basement, if you can smell mold in your basement, you’re in danger.
It’s really, it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere. Even even in the dry climates. You if you shut up a house for three months, you’re gonna get mold inside of it. Moving back to where we kind of jumped off here. So now you’ve you’ve been doing all this work. You’ve gotten gotten at least a direction and some relief from from your work. And then you’ve started the work with the cannabis. Cannabis society. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was fun. That was actually a lot of fun.
I was immediate media director and for this nonprofit, and we had a big part in getting medical cannabis made legal in Pennsylvania. And you know, one of the, it’s like when I learned the science of the endocannabinoid system, which we all have, and when I learned that mother’s breast milk contains a cannabinoid called Amanda Mead,
our bodies are built to to consume cannabis, we we are period, it’s one of the healthiest things you can do. And learning that it just relieves me of, you know, decades of guilt and shame around having a cannabis habit. And, you know, it was actually my body telling me, this is good for you. You know, you’re still alive because of this. Not despite this.
Josh Meeder 12:42
But yeah, the alternatives. The alternative wellness piece coming in where there are natural plants, there are ways to heal and cure your body and to get back into stasis. So I think you were going with that on where were the cannabis took you opened you up not only to to the experience and the science behind it, but how did that lead you then forward to moving from that industry to where you are today with launching freedom from mold?
Sven Hosford 13:14
Yeah, that’s another I’ll try to keep it short story.
The cannabis industry in Pennsylvania, it’s a clown circus.
You know, they wrote the laws and all of the owners would be local, or at least half owned by local people. And and then the slicky lawyers came in and figured out all these ways around it. So now we have exactly the industry we didn’t want. When the bill was written, that is, a bunch of the bigger multi state operators are now buying up all the dispensaries and the grow operations. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s not so good. You know, there’s a lot of consolidation. There’s a lot of sharks and snakes backstabbers in the industry.
There’s a lot of really good people to doing very good work. I should say that. But I just reached the point where, you know, when the pandemic hit, I just I couldn’t do it was doing the magazine called dispense. And did a lot of great podcasts, learned a lot. Learn the science. It dispense. magazine.com is still up. There’s still lots of podcasts up there.
But I just kind of reached a point where I didn’t want to do cannabis anymore. I didn’t want to be the cannabis guy either. Because
there’s a lot of cannabis women. And
my personality is I’m always trying to do something that nobody else is doing or not very many people are doing. And so I looked around and there’s a bunch of good, there’s a bunch of very good mold.
Doctors website
At Facebook groups of other things, but a lot of them focus on how to tell a few been talks by mold. You know, that sort of thing I wanted to focus on, what are the products, the services, the people that actually keep me alive, that actually helped me stay healthy or get healthy. And so we chose with the freedom for mold to really focus on solutions. And that’s where I saw the biggest need. So that’s how we always stumbled, and eventually, I resigned to the fact that I’m going to be the mold guy, you know, or a mold guy.
But I really wanted to make it positive and uplifting and, you know, really provide solid, practical, down to earth solutions for some of the problems that come up when you once you’ve been taxed. So someone who may not be in the best health and haven’t found a clear diagnosis, what would what should they consider looking for or just being aware of possibly could be mold exposure? Well, I think the most practical in first thing you might want to do is to get a mycotoxin test from a company called Great Plains. It’s a testing company. And you should be able to get that through any good medical provider.
Our friend, Mandy Babkes, you know, she’s a holistic health person, she can get it done. There’s a couple of doctors and nutrition people that I know that can get it done, any doctor can, can, you know, write the script for that for that. It’s about $350. But it gives you the list of all the mycotoxins that are in your system. So it’s actually
and I will say this, the science is still way out on this. There’s just not enough research. There’s not enough, you know, science being done. But
it’s thought that the mycotoxins are the things that actually caused the problems in your system, and not the mold itself. But the problem is, when you kill mold, it leaves mycotoxins in your system, in your house, or whatever. So the first thing is to get the Great Plains mycotoxin test.
At that point, hopefully, you’re working with a health provider, who can read it and understand it and have some solutions for you.
There’s a bunch of very good ones out there. There’s more every day, there’s more serious scientists and doctors talking about mold. But that’s probably the first step if you can, if you can swing them. And with any health care relationship, it’s probably good to ask your doctor if they’ve had experience with mold, or if they can recommend or is there any anything specific you should check in with your doctor or something you can phrase to him that’ll kind of key if he’s the right or he or she is the right provider? Yeah, just ask him what they know about mold. How do they treat mold? You know, I had a PCP that says, I don’t have anything, you know, I have nothing to treat you with. Like, if you have an active mold infection, they can do something. But if you just have the lingering, simmering effects of ongoing contact,
there’s nothing they can do. So the first part is just what do they know? What are their treatments? And if their answer is,
then find another doctor. Keep looking. Keep looking.
So you’ve gotten a baseline, you’ve gotten your health care provider?
And it’s our are there tests for the environment too? Can you Oh, yeah. assuming there’s a lot of tests for your environment as well. Yep. Yeah, a lot of tests, any good, any good mold. remediator would be able to do air tests.
And they can run to $300 as well.
Then they’ll test the air, usually in a couple of different locations, and then they’ll do a test of the air outside, just to see how much mold is actually in your environment around your house as well. And again, that’s really can be very high.
I was reading on a weather website, that when the mold index, and I think that’s what they call it, the mold index is very high, which means 6000 mold spores in every cubic yard of air.
They recommend, do not do take off your shoes when you’ve been outside before.
You into your house. Otherwise, you’re going to drag mold spores right into your house.
Josh Meeder 20:06
So it sounds like some of these basic testing to get the baseline are really not that that expensive. I mean, hearing your story, I bet you’d be happy to spend a couple 100 bucks a year or two prior instead of all the doctor’s visits and headaches just to get in or out. Right. But now the problem is the very first test I did in the basement where I’m living now,
Sven Hosford 20:33
they told me that the danger line was at 500. And that it was at 250 in the basement. So according to them, oh, you’re not in danger? Well, once you’ve been talks, once you’ve hit your maximum toxic load, you are super susceptible to everything. Everything, I couldn’t walk down the laundry aisle at the grocery store after I had the heart attack. So 250 may be safe for most people, and most people’s system can handle it. But it might not be for me. And unfortunately, there’s no real easy, simple way to determine that.
Other than just give a little plug for the last podcast, I did this, this three people run a company they call exposing mold. And they practice what they call avoidance. And that basically means take your body and some well wash clothes and go out and live in a tent in the desert for a couple of weeks, or any non toxic environment that you’re sure is non toxic.
Come back to your house and see how you feel. See how your body reacts. And to learn to use your body as the testing meter to say, this is safe, this is not safe.
It’s really an interesting way to look at it. And all three of these people in exposing mold have had their own horror stories about
you know, just trying to figure out what they have, why are they sick? You know, that sort of thing.
Josh Meeder 22:08
So there’s a ton of consequences of mold, obvious and not obvious.
Some of the ones that you mentioned were brain fog. I think anyone who has unfortunately probably contracted COVID can understand what a brain fog would look like that virus seems to indicate it. What other were what were some of the really obvious, you say, you know, when you come back in from a clean environment to a toxic loaded environment, what are some of the obvious signs, you see? And then what are some of the after effects are not so obvious signs? Sure.
Sven Hosford 22:44
You know, the list is very long, actually.
Fatigue is a big one. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is now thought by some people to be exclusively related to mold.
I personally get light sensitivity.
And my visual acuity goes down. So when I can’t see things clearly, and I walk outside, and I have to squint because sun’s out, that’s a pretty good sign that I’ve been tossed
just had my garage worked on and they pounded a new roof on it. And the first time I opened the door, I realized that all the dust that was up in the roof is now on the floor and all over all of my possessions in the garage. And, you know, for a couple of days, I was upset. Mental health issues are a really big thing. Like, I have never in my life had panic attacks. And I started to have them when I was living in that 100 year old building, depression, anxiety, but really mental health issues that are outside your norm. You know, like
I’ve worked on myself for a long time being involved with Holistic Health. I’ve tried every technique. You know, I’ve tried every healing process, supplement, you name it, I’ve done it. And so I’ve worked on myself a lot. So I know what my baseline basically is as far as mental health. But when I start feeling depression or anxiety, I don’t have anxiety. I don’t get anxiety. You know, when I feel that, or I feel real weepy. You know, a real sappy show comes on TV and you know, I find myself crying. It’s like what is going on? You know, so, mental health issues are a really big one.
But again, on the physical side of thing that could be really anything, anything that hurts anything that’s inflamed,
The Comeback I should have had was, well, I’ve been in this body for 56 years, and I know it better than you do, which is the right answer.
You know, you’re almost every case, every case, you know your body better than anybody else. But a lot of people will be swayed into believing something, because the doctor says, well, just because the doctor said it doesn’t make it true.
They may, I heard I’ve heard the it was great advice I was giving. And they said doctors and lawyers and accountants can only be as strong as their clients. And there is some truth in that where you have to trust and respect the education and the training they have. But you also have to trust in put your own thoughts in an importance and values forward and you can move on if you don’t find a practitioner that’s supporting supporting your belief system or concern, right. That’s really, really important and it’s true. Would you say that they can only be as strong as their client. You know, but it’s also true that if you’re going to a doctor and he won’t listen or she won’t listen to you. It’s time to find another doctor. It’s really prevalent throughout the medical profession that they ask the questions they want to ask. They’re looking for specific answers anything
else they just toss away you know, so when I went to a cardiologist because you know they that is the process you got to check to see that your tickers okay. And they couldn’t find any clogged arteries.
The cardiologist had no curiosity about the month I spent in the, the naturopathic clinic he didn’t want to know anything about it didn’t want to know any the treatments, how dramatic and exceptional and things I learned about didn’t want to know any of that. And this was cardiologists who was a little older than me, but it was pasty white, you know, body like the Pillsbury Doughboy, hunched over glasses, you know, totally out of shape, totally unhealthy. And he’s gonna tell me about my cardio cardiological situation, and he doesn’t even listen to me, you know? So it goes both ways. You got to find a doctor that will listen and actually pay attention.
Josh Meeder 41:02
Right? Well, there’s a lot of things that are coming up for you. So I’m going to share the link to freedom from mold. If you are curious, you can reach out to spend their
Sven Hosford 41:15
lot of good Facebook services. We have a Facebook group and Facebook page. And so you can always reach me on that.
Josh Meeder 41:25
So if you have concerns or if you know someone who may have been or struggling with mold exposure, I definitely suggest getting in touch with span. All his contact information will be here in the description, you can find them at Freedom for mold.com span, I just want to thank you again for being a guest and a good friend for so many years. Is there anything in closing you want to share with the audience? You know, words of wisdom? No, as far as the bulk goes, just if you think you have a problem, you probably have a problem. Good. So listen to your intuition, listen to your body and look around the environment. Span. Thank you so much. Thank you Judge we will, we’ll be listening to your podcast. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Thank you for watching. If you liked what you saw, be sure to hit that like and subscribe button right now. Stay tuned and check out the channel for other interesting and informative videos.
Sven Hosford 24:55
you know, lymph system that’s not moving. And there’s a lot of different symptoms for that. Really, there’s more than I can even remember, on what are the signals, you know, but I think for me, the visual acuity, the fatigue, you know, feeling chronic fatigue kind of symptoms, and the mental health issues are the biggest indicators. From from, from my point of view. So that’s
Josh Meeder 25:23
a good overview of what someone you know, may want to look out for. Now, with your freedom for mold, business and consulting, you’re really focusing on people who have one have already figured out and identified that they’ve had a mold exposure and are actually in the active process of detoxification in recovery. So I would imagine there’s, you know, a lot of protocols, some products some people do, and great things, some services out there, there are to give a little bit of a, an overview of like, what what can someone do, if they found out that they’ve been exposed to mold?
Sven Hosford 26:03
Yeah, yeah, really, the the first most important thing is to get out of the moldy environment. Either you get it remediated professionally by somebody who really knows what they’re doing. And we have a great podcast on that these guys called the mold men, the mold medics, I’m sorry, here in Pittsburgh, they give a great overview on the podcasts about what to watch out for, you know how to do it right and so forth. Definitely, if somebody shows up with a bottle of bleach, you know, just throw them out. So the other things you can do, like I say, the very first most important thing is to remediate or move where you’re living. And then, and this is really hard is to come to an understanding that everything you own is not covered with mold spores. And the amount of mold toxins that it takes to make you sick, is very, very, very small. So for example, when I had the heart attack, we actually moved out of the moldy Apartment A week before that, but I brought with me on my, my futon in bed sheets and hadn’t washed them. And a week after I moved out is when I had the heart attack, because I was sleeping and breathing moldy bedsheets, you know. So, you know, get get into a clean environment, learn that you’re the amount that it takes now to to make you sick in any way or to create symptoms can be very, very small. We were talking about, somebody walks into a one of your friends goes to a moldy apartment, and eight hours later comes to your house, and the mold is still in their hair sets you off. It can be a very, very small amount. So by having awareness of those kinds of things, and you have to then become aware of everything in your environment, and pay very close attention to what’s happening in your body. How do you feel right now? What’s your mental state? You know, where is there any pain anywhere, all that sort of thing. The the other things that I think are really important are that you get inside of an infrared sauna as often as you can. Because that’s one of the quickest and healthiest ways to get the most out of your system. Learn to do coffee enemas on your own, or find someplace that does coffee colonics. Getting your GI system cleaned out is very important. Gi problems can be a symptom of mold exposure. Like many
Josh Meeder 29:01
things that starts in the gut to get the system balance, Zack, because mold is is is it creating inflammation, what’s the in the body’s got to be going haywire, trying to trans to wipe it out. And if your gut balance isn’t out, I could imagine it’d be near impossible to do evacuated if it’s exactly gut balance.
Sven Hosford 29:27
Exactly. So, saunas. You know, the coffee colonics. I bought myself one of these little rebounders little mini trampolines. They call it the brand. I have his cellar sizer. And what is designed to do is you just do a little bounce, you know, for five or 10 minutes. And what that does is it gets the lymph system moving. And you really need to have your lymph system moving if you want to stay healthy. So it’s like awareness of all those kinds of things. And for example, keeping your sinuses clear, you know, when I wake up in the morning and it’s all clogged and I can’t breathe, well, I have different things like us to clean the sinuses out and make sure I’m breathing healthy, because that’s the first place they go. So there’s a product called X Lear. It’s a little spray that you put up your your snoot. Another really good tool to have is a neti pot. The little clay pot you get in any health food store, or yoga studio, basically, you pull little saltwater and that’s good for mold. But I mean seasonal seasonal allergies. Oh, yeah. All and all that stuff. Yeah, clears it up.
Josh Meeder 30:47
I used to think that thing was really weird invention. And I didn’t do it right the first couple times. But once you get the hang of it, it’s it’s delightful feel like a home. And and it’s a simple, natural, easy cleaning and keeping any of those infections from setting in.
Sven Hosford 31:06
The Yoga people that I bought mine from they say it’s just like brushing your teeth, you get up in the morning, you brush teeth, you, you clean your nasal cavity and get on with your day. There’s another product I haven’t tried yet, but I’ve had high recommendations for cold novasure it’s basically a neti pot on steroids, it just puts it in one nostril and pulls it out the other nostril and then you spend a 20 minutes or so you know clearing your sinuses out. But the doctor I’m going to right now just swears by it, you said it’s absolutely essential. So good nasal sinus hygiene is super important. Like I say, just to have an awareness. And it’s difficult because, you know, so many people that I’ve dealt with, or I’ve seen on the Facebook groups, they’re so depressed, they’re so beaten down. And then you know, their doctor tells them it’s all in their head. And then eventually, their friends and family don’t want to hear about mold anymore. And be can become very abusive, even. And you may find that the toxins in your life are the people that are surrounding you. And you have to basically ghost, some people to get them out of your life, you know, when possible, if somebody’s causing you more distress and you feel more anxious and more depressed after you talk to them. Don’t talk to them anymore. And this can be really difficult because that could be family could be your loved one, you know.
Josh Meeder 32:44
And I think that’s where I’ve seen you go with the freedom from old because yeah, it is an isolating experience. One it’s not recognized. It’s a long term, usually in its diagnosis. So where I’ve seen you bring your brilliance forward is actually in providing some of the solutions. You know, you work with people one on one to help coach them through and walk them through and I do experience what are some of the other things you’re doing with freedom from mold at this point?
Sven Hosford 33:15
Well, I’m working to get some more products and services into the mix. I’ve done six podcasts so far. I’d like to do a bunch more. One of the problems is these people who deal with mold are so busy, you know, because there’s so many people that are waking up to the fact that they’re they’re not healthy. I think that most important thing I can do is the one on one coaching. Because we really get into it and I just to have somebody that will listen to you. And believe you is a huge thing for a lot of people suffering from mold. You know, and then if I give them practical advice, practical, you know, ways to like a neti pot is like $15, you know. And that’s essential to do every day. But just like getting people to that level of awareness is really the biggest thing. And there’s so many
Josh Meeder 34:17
because that took you years, it took you two years to develop that level of awareness. And it’s still learning good. Yeah, yeah. And a good coach will bring you forward and shorten that cycle to recovery because you don’t have to make the same mistakes. Exactly, exactly. So you’re helping you’re helping people bring forward and you’re starting to offer, offer some products and growing your network. Do a lot more more of these mold mitigation mold services coming available is this growing industry is relatively unknown.
Sven Hosford 34:52
It’s a it’s a huge industry. But I have to say from what I’ve seen probably 90% of the people in the room Mediation business are not doing it correctly. And I don’t want to say they’re all shysters. A lot of them may think they’re doing it correctly. I met a guy the other day, he wanted to come on the podcast. And he has, he does a split the mold medic guys call it spray and pray, you know, you spray this stuff, and then you kills all the mold in the air, but it doesn’t kill the source of the mold. It doesn’t kill the mycotoxins, it doesn’t remove the mycotoxins doesn’t get behind the walls, or allow these molds or you’re coming from. So if you, you know, if somebody says, hey, we’ll just spray this stuff, and then everything will be fine. Now, in Oman, my mom had dementia, the last few years of her life. And when they went into her home, the mold levels were off the chart. And they did the spray and pray and I went in a few weeks later to get some my stuff out. And I had a headache within 30 seconds. And I couldn’t stay more than 10 minutes. You know, that’s, that’s the biggest thing. Really, you want to make sure your remediator knows what they’re doing. In the thing is, you can go to two different doctors to different remediators. And they’ll tell you two different things, or five different things if you go to five of them. How do you know what’s true? How do you know what’s right, and a lot of times, the science is just not in, you know, or the science shows something that nobody wants to pay attention to that like this connection between chronic fatigue and mold. doctors, scientists don’t want to know about it, they don’t want to touch it.
Josh Meeder 36:45
And you’ve created freedom from mold and have been helping a lot of people. So freedom from mold really starts with someone mainly who has found out that they have had mold exposure. What are you doing for someone in that situation?
Sven Hosford 37:00
Well, the first thing is I want to help them understand. I want them to believe and understand the things that I believe and understand. And that’s a lot a lot of things. You know, also knowing, just teaching people, what kind of products to use, what kind of products not to use? What kinds of questions should you be asking? You know, I’ve been a journalist my entire life, I started out as a Navy journalist at the age of 19. And I’ve been interviewing people that long been asking questions that long. So I appreciate your saying how, you know, I’m such a good podcaster I think I am too. But I want people to I want people to be confident in understanding the signals that their body is teaching them. I want people to learn how to read those signals. I have this thing I say, your body is much smarter than you are. And if you learn to listen to your body, if you learn to pay attention to your body, it can teach you more than any number of podcasts, frankly. But it’s really about being confident in the ability to make decisions about your health. You know, when I was in that emergency room, and the 30 year old doctor said, Look, I’ve been to medical school.
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