Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - How To Test Your Home For Mold, Air Quality & Toxins | Ryan Blaser @TestMyHome

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

What if your home is making you sick—and you don’t even know it? 🧫🏠Fatigue, brain fog, weird health stuff? It might not be you—it might be your home. 😵‍💫 In this episode, I brought in Ryan Blaser, founder of Test My Home, to scan my one-bedroom apartment for mold, EMFs, dirty air, toxic water—you name it. And yeah… the results were shocking (VLOG COMING SOON)!Ryan’s the go-to expert for Lauryn Bosstick, Paul Saladino, and now, me. After healing from his own environmental health crisis, he’s helping people uncover what’s really hiding in their homes 🏡Thank you to our sponsors! 😊Taylor Dukes Wellness | Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 10% OFF Zebra⁠ | Use code "ALEX for 10% OFF Primally Pure | Use code “ALEXCLARK” to get 15% OFF Paleovalley | Use code "ALEX" for 15% off your first orderTooth Pillow | Use code ‘ALEXCLARK’ for FREE video assessmentHarvest Right Freeze Drying Our Guest:⭐️ Ryan BlaserWebsite Instagram Home Remote Testing Kit Schedule a Consultation with Ryan📚 Favorite Book Top Tip | Reduce toxins, improve indoor air and water quality, practice mindfulness, foster genuine connections, and reconnect with nature regularly.🎀Follow Alex🎀Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠New 'Culture Apothecary' Merch OUT NOW! Glass tumblers, weekly wellness planners, hats, crewnecks and more. Use code "Alex Clark" for 10% OFF at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ tpusamerch.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the Cuteservatives Facebook group to connect with likeminded friends who love America and all things health and wellness!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the CUTEservative Facebook Group!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.This show is made possible with generous donations from listeners who believe in our mission to heal a sick culture.You can support our show by leaving a tax deductible donation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or by subscribing to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube for FREE!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#AlexClark #CultureApothecary #MoldExposure #EMFProtection #HealthyHomeTips #EnvironmentalToxins #HomeHealthCheck #IndoorAirQuality ##TestMyHome #BiohackingHealth #WellnessVlog

You are the founder of one of the most thorough and most sought after home toxin testing companies in the country. What are all of the things that you're looking at when it comes to a healthy home environment? Air quality, the mold that we're talking about, the personal care product, cleaning supplies, water, what we're drinking, the EMF, the lighting. So you came to my apartment, you tested everything about how I'm living. How did I do? Because my audience, I'm sure, is very anxious to find out if I'm practicing what I'm preaching. Yeah, you actually did really well. All of your stuff was non-toxic, fragrance-free, natural.

Approximately how many families are suffering from severe mold exposure and they don't even know it. 70% of homes have mold that's higher than average. At least half of those, people are really sick in their home because of mold. Did you know that one in four homes in the United States are contaminated with mold, contributing to a range of health problems, from chronic fatigue to respiratory issues and even neurological damage? These hidden toxins could be silently harming your family's health, and the worst part is, you might not even know it. Ryan Blazer is the visionary founder and CEO of Test My Home, the go-to company revolutionizing

environmental health and building biology. Ryan has tested multiple friends' homes of mine from Lauren Bostic to Paul Saladino, and with over 25 years of cutting-edge experience in environmental toxicology and a background in electrical engineering, Ryan has become one of the foremost authorities on indoor environmental toxins. His own life-changing battle with health challenges caused by environmental exposures fuels his relentless mission to help families live in healthier, safer homes. Ryan's innovative approach and expert knowledge have earned him the trust of thousands, making him a pioneering thought leader in the field of environmental wellness and longevity.

Be sure to watch my vlog with Ryan of him coming over to my little one-bedroom apartment and testing everything from mold to EMF exposure, air quality, and water quality, and you can see what he found and see if I am really walking the walk or if I just talk the talk. You can see that on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel. Test My Home is not a sponsor of the show. I just want to say that, but I do love what Ryan's doing. And whether you hire him specifically or not to test your home, I think that his expertise and free advice in a long form interview could really save lives

and be very valuable, so that's why I wanted to have him on. If you've never listened before or you're an OG, leave a five-star review for us and tell others why CA needs to be in their regular podcast lineup. Please join me in welcoming Ryan Blazer, the healthy home expert and founder of Test My Home to Culture Apothecary. You are the founder of one of the most thorough and most sought-after home toxin testing companies in the country. So how did testing for mold and EMFs become your life's work?

Yeah, you know, I've always been kind of fascinated with how the environment around us affects our bodies, either for good or for bad. And when I was in my 20s, I had a company, we were doing the nightclubs and the high-end restaurants and recording studios and doing all the environmental control systems, everything to stimulate the body, you know, with the right colors and the lighting and the sound. But then I got sick from mold, living in a moldy house, and it actually took a while to figure out what the problem was. Once I realized it was mold, recovered from that, and I kind of realized, okay, there's a dark side of the environment. the environment can actually do a lot of harm to our body. And so I went back to school, did some training and an education as a building biologist, and learned about how the environment around this really affects the body. So that's kind of why we started this company, because I feel like there's a big gap right now

where no one's really looking out for people in their homes. I mean, we have the EPA and they're doing what they're doing, but no one's really looking out for the environment of our house. And really, we're spending up to 90% of our lives indoors, either in our car, or our work or school or home. And these are the places that typically is the last place we look when it comes to our health and wellness. Were you somebody that was also living in black mold?

Yes, I was. And so I started getting sick. I went to several different doctors, Western medicine doctors. They just wanted to start cutting me out, take my gallbladder out. I thought I had stomach cancer. I'm like, no, we've got to figure out what's going on here. I went to a functional medicine doctor. He tested me and found out I had high levels of mycotoxins in my body,

which is the poison that the mold puts off. And so it did some look around the house. Sure enough, it was chuck full of black mold. So moved out of that house right away. It took about a year to fully recover and get back to normal from that. How do you recover from black mold exposure? So just heavy detox.

And really, it's all about supporting the body. No chemicals, no unhealthy food. You got to exercise. You got to sweat. Doing the sauna. There are supplements that you can use to support the body. There's a whole detox routine that you can go through to get.

get that stuff out of your system. Do you remember what some of the supplements were that you used? I went through what's called the Pompa program. Dr. Pompa? Yeah, Dr. Pompa. Yeah. They have a great detox protocol that works really well. And actually, I still do that to this day.

I do general, like every couple months, I'll go through a detox cycle. I think everybody needs to. We live in a toxic environment. The things around us, what we put on our body, we're always building up stuff in our body. So we want to detox that pretty regularly. Well, also, I think you're going around the country and you're helping, like, fine mold and stuff in people's home. So you are still being kind of exposed to it?

So are there special, you know, protocols that you have to do because you're still around it? Yeah, I am. And, you know, when I'm going to do inspections, if the occupants of the home are not feeling well, if they're sick, that's really a big clue for me that I should probably wear protection when I go into the house with a mask and gloves and things. But, yeah, I am exposed more often than not. And so I do need to do regular detox cycles. approximately how many families are suffering from severe mold exposure and they don't even know it? It's estimated about 70% of homes have mold that's higher than average.

Whoa. That's a lot. And I would say at least half of those people are really sick in their home because of mold. Who is the most at risk for mold? Is it the older home owner or is it a new homeowner? So typically it's going to be the older home because it's what's called mold load. So when you have a brand new house, the mold load is pretty much. zero because it's equal with what's going on outside. Now, as time goes on and we have a little bit

of a leak or a toilet overflows or they leave a sandwich out in the bottom of the garbage can, this mold starts to grow. It releases mycotoxins and mold spores into the air. And this can accumulate in the dust of your home. And so the mold load slowly starts to go up. So if you have a 50-year-old home, you could have had 20, 30 different mold events over that time. Every time the mold load increases and you get more and more toxic in the home. And they call that sick building syndrome. So is there certain things when you are shopping for an older home before moving in? Are there certain things that you should be doing to that environment in the home before moving in?

Yeah, definitely. If you can get a good history of the home about all the water events, because mold needs water to grow. It's an organism just like us. It needs food and water. So if we have water in the environment for more than about 24 or 48 hours, mold is going to start to grow. And so if there's been a lot of water damage, a lot of flooding, or if it's a high humidity area, then you need to give a little bit more attention. But the newer homes tend to be a lot less moldy

just because there's less chance of water events in the past. Are there certain areas of the country that should prioritize mold testing more than others? Yes. So if your overall humidity is above 60% for a good amount of the time, then that's when molds can start to spontaneously grow. So we're here in the desert, where I live in Idaho, the humidity 30, 20%, depend on the time of year.

but if you're in Florida where it's 90, 100% humidity, mold can spontaneously start to grow pretty rapidly. And I think when you're living in a state like Florida or Louisiana or something like that, what those homeowners are told a lot of the time is just, well, everyone has a little bit of mold. It's just, that's just how it is. That's life in Florida. I mean, is that good advice, fair advice, or dangerous advice?

Well, I mean, you're just normalizing the problems that we have in this country. You know, there's a lot of things we normalize, like fast food and some of the ideology. And so, yeah, you can normalize being sick if you want, but there's a better way to do it. When somebody hires you to test their home, you're not only testing for mold. What are all of the things that you're looking at when it comes to a healthy home environment? Yeah, so there's really six main pillars that we focus on. One is air quality, the air that we're breathing in. Two is obviously the mold that we're talking about.

Three is going to be the chemicals that we're bringing into our house and that we're putting on our body, the personal care product, cleaning supplies. Fourth is going to be water, what we're drinking, showering, and bathing in. Fifth is going to be the EMF, and that's the technology that we're using, the artificial energy that surround us from our technology. And then six is going to be the lighting that sets our circadian rhythm up. How do light bulbs affect our health? We've evolved on this planet with the sun giving us cues on when to sleep and when to be awake. It's not a coincidence that we sleep when the sun goes down and that we're awake when the sun is up. and they've done studies that show that it's the actual blue light in the sun that tells us to suppress melatonin.

But once the sun starts to go down, ancestrally we had candles and fires and lanterns, and it was more of the red and the orange and yellow light. And there wasn't any blue light in it, and that's what would trigger the body to start producing melatonin and get our bodies prepped for sleeping. Now, what happens with modern life is when the sun starts to go down, we turn on the lights, we just turn on the TV, we jump in front of our phone or our laptop. and there's a ton of blue light in that. And that starts suppressing the melatonin again.

And it starts messing up our circadian rhythm. And then people don't get a good night's sleep. There's a lot of memes on social media of people being like, I hate the big light and stuff like that. But what you're saying is there might be something to that. Absolutely. Yeah. Like, you know, people are like, I only want candles or lamps on,

but I don't want the big overhead light on. It's actually probably better for you not to have that on at night. Right. Absolutely. And there's even some studies that show the direction of where the light is coming from also. helps trigger that. So if it's from overhead shooting down, like middle of the day, that's also suppressing the melatonin versus at eye light, eyeline. Why is EMF exposure or Wi-Fi a big deal when it comes to our overall toxin burden? We are chemical electrical beings by nature. So our heart, our brain,

our nervous system, even on a cellular level, we're using little electrical signals in our body to tell us how to function, how to think, to sense things. When we have these artificial frequencies from the outside that overlay and interfere with the body, then that causes a lot of problems. It causes interference. It causes inflammation. And there's a lot of studies that are starting to come out now. Even for the past 40 years, there have been a lot of studies. And really, there's really no debate on whether EMF is harmful for people.

The debate has always been about how much at what level is it harmful and for how long can we be exposed and for what type of person. For my 90-year-old grandma that has cancer versus 14-year-old. boy that's healthy, there might be some different exposure levels there. And so that's where all the argument and that's where all the debate comes in. I don't think anybody's going to argue with you if you say put your head in the microwave and that's safe for you. That's EMF. Yeah. It cooks our food. And so at a high enough level, it will kill you rather quickly. So my boyfriend thinks that it is the biggest crock of crap when I say, you know, at night we need to be turning our Wi-Fi off.

Who is right? It just depends on how much exposure you want for yourself. It's, I look at it kind of to like cigarettes. People, you know, my grandpa smoked cigarettes tell he was 80 before he developed his lung cancer and finally died, you know, but some people can smoke for a couple years and get sick from it. Some people, it's just a health thing. So how healthy do you want to be? You know, the studies are there. The proof is there. There's no argument that EMFs are bad. The argument, again, is at what level? And so how can somebody, like, do a hard turn off at night and, you know, Does that make it hard to like turn your devices back on in the morning? Does it lose stuff you were working on?

Like what is the deal with it for people that have never heard of turning your Wi-Fi off at night? Yeah, so I like to talk about practical avoidance. And so if we can avoid it, let's do that. And so one good example is at night. We're sleeping. We don't need the EMF. We don't need to be on the internet. Or if we're having dinner with the family, if you're at the gym or you're in a meeting doing stuff,

you don't necessarily have to have your phone on you all the time. And so these are good examples where you can put your phone. phone on airplane mode or you can turn your Wi-Fi router off at night. And then in the morning, it kicks back on, takes 30 seconds. It reboots and you're good to go. But you're reducing your exposure exponentially when you take advantages of these little windows. How do you feel about household appliances like refrigerators or washers and dryers who have Bluetooth capabilities? Yeah, so I have a crazy story. I had this family call me a very healthy family. They just moved into this house about a year ago. The daughter was having all kinds of brain issues. She was

waking up in the middle of night with night tears, wet in the bed. She was 12 years old, and this had never happened before. We went in and we did some tests, and we found that right on the other side of the wall from where her head was laying was their refrigerator. They had this big high-power fridge. Every time it was kicking on at night, the motor, the compressor, it was shooting this magnetic field wave through the wall into her bedroom where her head was laying and wake her up. So we simply moved her to the other side of the room, and her symptoms went away that night. Holy smokes. So it's really important the proximity of this.

You know. Yeah. And, you know, one thing with me is when you came to test my apartment is you were saying that there are different exposures in an apartment versus a home that you kind of just have to deal with. Can you talk about that? Yeah, because in a home, we have more control over our environment. When you're in an apartment setting, you have people below you, above you, on three sides of you, potentially. All those people have Wi-Fi routers. They have smart TVs. They have their cell phone. They have all these toys and things that they're using that have a lot of EMF. And you really can't control that.

And those can go right through the walls. Our drywall and the wall that we have is not stopping any of that EMF. So what is the best way to combat that when you're an apartment person? Yeah, so when you're an apartment, it's a little bit tougher. So I recommend people that are really sensitive or truly don't want to get exposed to too much. Look at maybe getting a house that they can control it more. But if you have to or you're in an apartment, they have canopies, bed canopies that you can't sleep in. So at least one third of your life when you're sleeping, you can go inside.

And it's basically like a Faraday cage that's blocking you from all these outside EMFs. Okay. And those really do work. They do work. Okay. Okay. Yeah. You know the Spongeball Water episode where he's dehydrated in Sandy's Dome?

Bloody. That's me every time I've. fly now. If you're a frequent traveler like me, you know how tough it is to stay hydrated when you're in the air all the time. My skin gets so dry, I feel totally drained without the right hydration. And you know what? I'm sorry to say, but just drinking water actually isn't enough. So that is why I always pack my Taylor-Duke Wellness Electrolites wherever I go. The Strawberry Lemonade Electrolites have become my must-have travel companion. Not only do they taste amazing like a refreshing fruit punch, but they hydrate me like nothing

else. Unlike other electrolyte drinks that are way too salty or loaded with artificial flavors, Taylor Duke's Wellness keeps it clean with real ingredients like organic coconut water powder and organic fruit juice. Great for kids, period cramps, fighting sickness, or creating stamina at the gym. Since I started using these, I've noticed my skin is more hydrated, I have more energy, and I'm craving sugar less. Plus, I can easily slip a pack in my purse or my carry-on and keep them with me everywhere. Ready to take your hydration game to the next level, visit Taylordukes Wellness.com, use code Alex Clark for 10% off. Taylordux Wellness.com, code Alex Clark for 10% off. What we've been told is normal for our kids, like mouth breathing, poor sleep, and even snoring, simply isn't.

These signs aren't just annoyances. They're a big red flag for your child's health. Their faces are shrinking. Their jaws are narrowing. And it's all leading to a silent epidemic that's affecting their health and development. Here's the thing. Mouth breathing isn't harmless. It's linked to sleep issues.

Bedwetting. ADHD-like symptoms. Teeth grinding, behavior issues. Chronic congestion, crooked teeth, so much more. If your child has even just one of those symptoms, you need to listen. That is why I recommend tooth pillow. It was created by airway dentists like Dr. Ben Miragula, Dr. Callie Hale, Dr. Kevin Gulles. Tooth pillow isn't just about masking symptoms.

It's about addressing the root cause of these issues with a revolutionary virtual dental program. So they're going to focus on your child's growth, sleep, and overall health. The first step is simple. You can get a virtual assessment for free with the tooth pillow airway dentist. And guess what? You can use Alex Clark as a code. You'll get a free video assessment. Just go to toothpillow.com.

Click Is My Child a candidate. Take the first step with code Alex Clark to get your child better sleep and better health. That's toothpillow.com. Click Is My Child a Candidate and take the first step to better sleep and health for your little one with code Alex Clark. Why is having a healthy home more important than having a green home? So people usually look at that together and they're really quite separate things. And a lot of times they don't equal each other. So when we think about green, we think about let's save a very.

the energy, let's save the planet, let's be conservative, which are all great things, but a lot of times it comes at the price of our health. So back in the 80s, when we were trying to conserve energy, they wanted to make all the homes super airtight and not breathe. Well, that created sick building syndrome. So when the homes don't breathe and they don't get any airflow, that's when the mold can build up, the mycotoxins and the VOCs can all build up in the house. And now we get sick from that. So yeah, we want to be green, but not at the expense of our health. So when we open up the home and ventilate it and let it breathe, it does take a little bit more energy. So healthy home and green home are actually two different things. So you came to my apartment. You tested everything

about how I'm living. You tested, is there any mold exposure? How's my air quality? My EMF exposure. You looked at my water. How did I do? Because my audience, I'm sure, is very anxious to find out if I'm practicing what I'm preaching. Yeah, you actually did really well. Yes. You did very good. Okay. Yeah. Talk about some of the things that I do that might help my toxin exposure to be lower. Yeah. So one of the first things that I liked was you had your big sliding door open.

So you were getting lots of ample fresh air coming into the house. And it was a very good day for air quality yesterday. I mean, you could look out across the valley. You can see the mountains. It was blue sky. And so on days like that, you definitely want to open up your house, air it out, get that fresh air in. And you were saying that having your windows open, no matter the weather, at least how many minutes a day is crucial for health?

I'd say 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening just to flush that out. More if you have a bigger family, you know, if you've got four kids running around, some dogs, and maybe even more, because we breathe out CO2, breathe in oxygen, and that can build up over time. Now, the only time I wouldn't recommend doing that is if you live in a really humid area because we don't want to let humidity in, or if it's polluted outside. Maybe it's fire season and it's really smoky or you live downtown. somewhere. It's a high pollution day. So you kind of want to monitor the air of what's going on

outside. Okay. So I did good with having my windows open. What else? The chemicals in your house. All of your stuff was non-toxic, fragrance-free, natural. And that's a really big one because we can create a big toxic soup in our house unknowingly. They say the average female uses 15 to 18 different products on their body. And all of the stuff that you were using was non-toxic and natural. That's right, baby. Some areas of improvement. that you gave me some tips and tricks. Really with you, it was more of the EMF stuff, the technology. So being a little bit more diligent about putting the Wi-Fi off when you're not using it,

truly put it on airplane mode. So we showed you a little trick. Sometimes when you put it on airplane mode, it doesn't truly go to airplane mode because it will just white it out, which means it's not connected to Bluetooth, but you have to actually go into the settings to turn it off. Yeah. So when you do your drop-down menu on your phone and you click airplane mode, and then the Bluetooth button turns white there on your drop-down menu. That means the Bluetooth isn't totally off.

To make sure your Bluetooth is totally off, you have to go into your Settings app, Bluetooth tab, switch Bluetooth off, and then you'll see when you click Airplane Mode, that Bluetooth button is like clear with a little lime through it, and that means your Bluetooth is totally, truly off on your phone, which I didn't know. So that was super helpful for me to learn. Yeah, and using your laptop, using your iPad, getting you hardwired. So we actually have a physical wire that goes over to your phone,

router, then you can put your device on airplane mode and you're not getting that exposure right in your lap. And there's one other thing that I want to do for you. So I'm going to get you to Jasper air filters for your house because you don't have any air filtration. I don't have any air filtration. And that's something I've known that I wanted to do. I just have been struggling because there's so many brands out there that a lot of people I trust like. And so, you know, it's just one of those things that's like, I don't know which one. You really like the Jasper brand. You know the owner. So I'm super excited because they were one of my top. It was really between Jasper and another brand that I was looking at, so I'd love to try them. But why is having an

individual air purifier so key? And how many do you need for a home? Yeah. So when it comes to good air quality, there's two aspects. There's one, it's getting the fresh air in and the stale air out. But the second part is filtration of the air that you do have in your home, especially when you have pets or if you're, if you have allergies, having an air filter. And I like to have one in every room, especially rooms where you spend a lot of time. So definitely one by the bed. definitely one out in your main room, your kitchen. So for you, we'll get you two, and you'll have one out in your main room and one in your bedroom. I've heard some people say things about air filters having a risk for mold when they're like taking the air in and stuff.

Do you know anything about that? If you have high humidity, when the air filter is working good, it's collecting all those spores on the surface. But now if we have high humidity and we introduce moisture onto that, it's almost like a little petri dish. But here in Arizona, we don't have to worry about that. So if you have a drier climate, it's not really an issue. So for somebody building a home or really wanting to totally redo their water filter system or their air system, I don't know, HVAC or whatever, I mean, what are the best non-toxic things to do when it comes to water and air in a household besides the little air purifier units? Yeah, so we'll talk about water first because you mentioned that. There's really no water that's coming out of the faucets now here in America that I would trust drinking.

There's microplastics showing up in like 95% of the water. We have pharmaceuticals that are getting through the supply. There's uranium. There's arsenic. There's lead. None of this stuff we want to have in our body. I think that's why we see some of this weird stuff going on in some of these inner cities is because they're using reclaimed water. You're literally drinking your neighbor's Prozac or their hormone pills when they flush it down the toilet.

that doesn't get filtered out. And so you need to go to the extra mile to filter that stuff out before you drink in it. And also showering and bathing. We don't really think about that as an exposure route. But you can get just as much from taking a 30-minute shower as you can from drinking throughout the day because we absorb it through our skin. So I have an e-skin showerhead filter. They're not a sponsor. And then I have, gosh, I always forget what it's called, Kindred, Kinderr Bath Filter, something like that.

Batshors of the K. I have that on my bathtub. What showerheads do you like for filtering? Britta makes a good one. Jolie, there's a couple good ones that you can do. Any of those really are going to work great. So if you're renting or you have an apartment where you really can't install a full system, those would be the next option. But if you can install like a whole home water filtration system, you know, radiant life, Echo, there's a couple good brands out there. And then for your drinking water, install a reverse osmosis system. You know, and even if you're renting, that's something that you can install and then take it with you when you leave. It's not like a permanent install. You just pay a plumber to install it. But that way, what you're drinking and

cooking with is at least healthy natural water. Prepare your body, your mind and your bunghole for Paleo Valley's maple bacon, organic pasture raised pork sticks. Mommy what? I'm telling you, these things are a whole vibe. If you're ready to prepare, your mind, body, and soul, For the greatest protein steak on the planet, both in flavor and nutrients, then you've got to keep listening. These Paleo Valley maple bacon pork sticks are crafted from 100% pasture-raised pork, raised on American pastures, using regenerative farming practices. That means the pork is not only better for you, but also better for the planet. And you know how we feel about regenerative farms.

It's like the top of the top of the top of the list. Every steak is packed with five grams of protein and flavored with organic spices and a touch of organic maple syrup. They're naturally fermented. So no preservatives, no artificial demer. junk, just clean gut-friendly goodness. What makes these maple bacon pork sticks stand out from Paleo Valley? Well, the flavor is next level. It's a savory, slightly sweet maple bacon combo that's going to have your taste buds doing a little cartwheel, maybe no hands. But they're not just tasty. Pass your raised pork has higher omega-3s, more vitamins like E&D, even selenium,

which my autoimmune girlies need more of, which supports your immune system. Plus, unlike conventionally raised pork, yuck, paleo-vallies pork is free of harmful additives like ractopamine and antibiotics. You're getting the best of both worlds here, a protein-pack snack that's good for your body and the environment. Ready to get your hands on the greatest protein stick ever. Head to paleo-valley.com slash Alex. Use code Alex to get 15% off. That's paleo valley.com slash Alex, code Alex for 15% off. There's 100 million products on their website as well. Paleo Valley, it's every clean, crunchy mama's dream come true. I'm about to tell you something and it's probably going to be controversial. Get in line. But hear me out.

Every single mom I know that use is primarily pure skin care is hot. Like stupid hot. I met the founder of Primally Pure Bethany. And for a split second, I had no idea who she was. Okay, I'm just like, oh, this would meet my Fred Bethany or whatever. I'm standing there like, what is going on with this woman? Is she 25? 19? What is her secret?

Does she have the best esthetician in the world? Come to find out, she's a mom of several kids and also the founder of the largest luxury skincare brand in America. That's also non-toxic. Oh, and guess what? All of her best friends who use. Primely Pure skincare, also hot. Look exactly the same, radiant, youthful, glowing. I had to get to the bottom of it, so I said, okay, tell me what's going on.

Primally Pure is at the core of it all. Their products are made with clean ingredients sourced from ethical, regenerative farms, and the results? Well, obviously, unbelievable. We're talking hydrated, clear skin that defies the effects of age and time. I've tried a lot of clean brands, but Primely Pure is the one that actually works. Their products are packed with ingredients that you can read and pronounce nothing fake, nothing toxic, just simple, high-quality, real plant-based skin care and animal-based skin care

that's backed by real results. If you want to get that same glow up, head over to primallypure.com and check out the thousands of five-star reviews. Once you're ready to make some simple swaps, use code Alex Clark, you'll get 15% off your primally pure. That's primallypeer.com. Code Alex Clark for 15% off. What are the biggest signs that somebody has a mold problem in their home? For me, the biggest sign is, how do you feel in the house? That's one of the first things I ask when I go in and doing assessments, what is the health of you and your family? Do you guys feel well in the home? When you go on vacation, do you feel better? We were just talking to someone here that they said every

time they go into their house, they feel drained and tired and lethargic. I mean, that's a big sign right there that there's something going on. But then the second thing is we talk about water events. Have you had toilets that overflow? Do you have a four-year-old that plays in the bathtub every night and splashes water everywhere? Is there been roof leaks? You know, all of these things are signs that we have a mold problem because mold has to have water to grow, so we're chasing the water. Basement flooding, all that kind of stuff. Basement flooding, yeah. My best friend was renting a home and basement totally flooded during a storm, and her sons

were getting so severely ill all the time. They had their place tested for mold. All of the mold infestation was in their room. And so, you know, it was like constant ear infections and things like that. So do you see that a lot like frequent ear infections? Asthma, is asthma a sign of mold? Yes. because the body has to fight this off as a toxin.

And so if it's constantly dealing with mold spores and mycotoxins or bacteria or allergens, then when other viruses or things come in, the troops are already fighting. There's not much more room for the immune system to fight these other things off. So you see people constantly getting sick or my kids always have a cold or a stuffy nose or they're always getting sick. It's because the bodies are fighting off. Our bodies are good at fighting off disease and illness, but we have to support it. Somebody else I know, a couple sorority girls living in a sorority house, one by one, all of these girls started getting extremely irritable, moody, just huge mood swings, personality changes.

Come to find out, all of them started showing those signs. But then the one that was having the biggest personality changes, her room was the source of a major black mold infestation. Now, I have never heard of personality or mood changes with mold, but is that one of the signs? Absolutely. Yeah, and I'm seeing that. And that's something that opened my eyes up. I had a couple that called me up to do an inspection. And I did a video console with them first.

And they were sitting at opposites and on the couch. I could tell they weren't getting along, super grouchy, irritable. We found a ton of mold in their house, very toxic. They moved out, fixed the mold, moved back in. Six months later, they scheduled an appointment with me. And everything was completely. They were sitting next to each other. They were holding hands.

And the only reason they set up the appointment was to tell me, thank you for saving their marriage. They said they were about to get divorced. They couldn't stand each other. And when they fixed the mold and move back in, the irritability went away. The love came back. And the crazy thing is they had bought that home out of a divorce. The previous people that lived there did get divorced.

And after they moved out, they got back together again. No way. Wait, the other couple that got divorced got back together after moving out of the mold house. Yes. That is one of the craziest mold stories I've ever heard. And I have other stuff like that, too. That's not that uncommon. What are the top places in a home mold could be hiding?

Any place that we're going to have water. So we want to think about our dishwasher, our washing machine, underneath all of the sinks, around the toilets, looking in the toilet tank. That's a big hack that you can do right now in your home is just go look in the toilet tank and see if you have mold growing around the showers and in the HVAC system. I have a friend who is having some like speckles keep developing more and more on just the toilet seat. Is that weird? That is kind of weird. Okay. She's wondering if that's mold, but like it keeps getting worse and worse.

I told her to check the toilet tank. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So if she wipes it up and then it comes back, then it's either going to be mold or some bacteria. Is all mold dangerous or is some mold okay to live with? Yeah, so there's thousands of different species of mold and some are very dangerous, very toxic. Like black mold, they actually use that for weapons of mass destruction, like for chemical warfare.

They derive some of the compounds from that. But then we have more lower end mold like the slaying term for mildew, which is not really harmful. I mean, there's, and then they have penicillum, you know, there's blue cheese that has mold in it that's not harmful. So there's a whole spectrum to mold. When is it time to move out versus just have somebody clean the mold? That really depends on how bad the mold is, what type of mold it is, and how sick the occupants are. So if I go into home, all the occupants are really sick, not doing well, and we're finding black mold on the wall, yeah, you guys need to move out, get your health in order, and we'll readdress the situation. But if occupants are fine, but there is some.

black mold that's kind of on the border. Like, you're going to get sick eventually if you stay here long enough. So a lot of it also comes down to what's the financial means. Because I don't want to stress people out if they can't afford to go rent an Airbnb for two months while their home gets renovated. So you've got to kind of take all those into account. If somebody doesn't use Test My Home, which is your company, they want to use like some local person. What are the types of questions that they should be asking a mold inspector or somebody that's supposed to be cleaning out the mold to make sure that they're legit? You want to find somebody that's not tied in with a remediation company. really the first thing that all they do is independent testing. Otherwise, you're basically

getting a salesman for the remediation company and their results are going to be skewed. You know, they're looking for work. And so they might offer a free or really cheap mold inspection to come out. And of course, they're going to try to find mold because they're a salespeople for the remediation company. So that's really the first one. Second one is make sure that the owner is going to be involved somehow. It's not like a national chain where they just hired some high school kids to come out and take some air samples. You want the owner there. He cares about it. his reputation, at least five years of experience. You know, I've been doing this a long time and I'm still learning.

So the more experience they have, the better. And then talk to them, you know, just how do you feel about this person? Do a little interview with them and what kind of vibes you get off of them. And then, of course, reviews, you know, good reviews. But if you can do all those things, then you'll probably find something good. Is there a way to test for mold behind walls without completely destroying your house? Yes. And so a lot of times that's where the mold is, right?

It's behind the walls. It's behind the cabinetry. It's behind the shower. We do what's called a cavity sample where we drill a little hole in the wall and we stick a tube into the wall. And then we hook it up to a suction pump, pull air out, and run that through our little sampling cassette. And so we can collect whatever's going on in the wall.

And sometimes we'll disturb the wall. We'll do a disturbed sample. We'll hit on the wall. If there's any mold spores, we're going to agitate those. And then we can suck that air out and see. And that gives us a good idea of what's going on behind the walls. If mold is visible on the outside of a wall, does that mean it's probably 10 times worse on the inside or not necessarily? It depends. So in a bathroom, we get condensation. So if you've got teenage kids and they're not using the fan and they're taking a lot of showers, then we can see the surface mold start to grow.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's behind the wall. But if we have like a roof leak or it's around a window where the water came from the inside of the wall and we're seeing it on the outside, then that's usually the tip of the iceberg. It's usually much worse behind the wall. Are there certain types of material when it comes to building a shower that are worse or better to use than others? Like I'm thinking like stone or, you know, tile or shower curtains versus glass doors, things like that. Yeah, I mean, think about the gym or these public bathrooms. They're all tile. They're all concrete. You don't see any wood in there. Those are all not good materials because mold needs an organic material to eat, which is wood or paper or drywall.

It doesn't eat tile. It can't eat concrete. So I just did a bathroom where they did tile, but they put it right over the drywall. They didn't use the cement board and they didn't use a waterproofer. And after like two years, it got extremely moldy back behind there. So we want to make sure that we're using the waterproofing and tile and try to stay away from wood. How do you feel about shower curtains? They're fine as long as they're holding the water in.

But if it's around the edge, you know, like with my kids, they're always making a mess in there and there's always water everywhere. And so in that case, making sure you have good tile all the way around the shower. If you're severely on a budget, what is the best way to deal with mold infestation? The main thing, honestly, is just trying to keep your home dry and clean. If you can keep it dry and clean, that's 90% of the battle with mold. And so if you know you have it, but you're like, we do not have the money to fix this. Like, what should people do? That's a tough one.

If you can move, that's really the best thing if you can. I know that's hard. But if you're in a lease and you have mold, you should be able to get out of your lease with mold. And if a landlord is telling somebody, oh, well, like, we can't do anything about this. I mean, what's the recourse there? Well, they have to. They have to provide a safe living environment for you. So if you do have mold, it tests positive for mold, they have to let you out because that's a requirement.

Best way to determine if there's mold in the washing machine. Honestly, the biggest one is smell. Just stick your head in there and smell. Does it smell musty or moldy? But if you have a front loader, you can pull back that front little rubber piece and look inside of there. If you see anything nasty in there, you can clean that up. But typically, the smell is going to get you pretty quick. Like if you're using it regularly, it's going to feed that mold, you're going to smell it.

Is it possible for there to be a mold infestation in a home and only one family member is severely ill? Yes. Yeah. And a lot of times it can be the female in the home simply because we were talking earlier, the females use much more product on them than males do. And so they're getting more exposure that way. And we have a toxic bucket. Our body is like a toxic bucket.

And when we're born, it starts pretty low. And over time, we eat toxic food. or we put toxic chemicals on us, or we breathe in air pollution, and that bucket starts to fill up. Now, we detox that through sweating and exercising. Some people can detox faster than others, but if we don't detox faster than we're filling the bucket up, it starts to overflow. And that's when we start to see symptoms. So there's always going to be one person first. Everybody else is kind of right behind that person.

Eventually, the other people are going to overflow too. But some people just detox faster than others. Well, and that's what I think some people wonder like, okay, well, you know, just my sister is super sick. just my son is super sick or my husband or wife. And so they don't really take it seriously because everyone in the house isn't super ill, but you think still worth testing for mold if you have somebody who is like so sick all the time and you cannot figure out why. Yeah.

And if you dig into a little bit more, sometimes you'll find that, oh, my dorm room when I was going to college had a ton of mold. Or when I was growing up, I lived in the basement and it was super musty. And those things can carry through your body throughout your whole life. How could certain materials and countertops be making you sick? A certain stone, depending on where it was mined out of the ground, can have radiation on it. And so we want to test the countertops for radiation if you have like marble or granite or natural stone. Do you know like certain types of marble and things like that?

Like you should avoid? Really, if you are going to build a house, you just need to test the material before it goes into your house. Okay. And that's something you can buy a meter on Amazon, a radiation meter, a couple hundred dollars and test. What's the deal with rugs and carpets? So rugs and carpets are like little sponges. They're holding all of the toxins that we're bringing into our house. Bacteria.

Anybody that's ever done any remodeling or pulled up carpet knows how nasty it is underneath the carpets. Because we can't truly clean a carpet like you can on a hard surface. So all the mold spores, all the dead skin cells, the insect parts, insect feces, microplastics, I can go on and on about all the nasty things that are in the carpet. And then you walk across it or if you have pets or you run it, that stuff gets kicked up. Now we can breathe it in. and it just makes for a really bad environment. I don't recommend carpets in the house.

Now, when you have rugs, those are a little bit easier because you can send those off to get cleaned. You can lift them up and you can clean underneath them. And so I always recommend hard surface with some good rugs. Is there a certain type of material in rugs that you should go for, like wool or something? Yeah, anytime we can go with the natural material and stay away from the microplastics, like the traditional rugs, they're petroleum-based. but you can get like the wool and the like the ham. Those are all good, good materials, yes.

Mark your calendars, ladies. You're going to town. Dallas Town, the Young Women's Leadership Summit is the largest conservative event for women in the country and it's happening in Dallas this June 13th through 15th. It's your opportunity to hear from incredible speakers like Lee Allen Baker, Riley Gaines, Ali Best Ducky, Ginny Urich from 1,000 Hours Outside, myself, Riley Gaines,

and Moore, who are unapologetically standing for faith, family, and freedom. Way more names are about to be announced. This is a place where your values are celebrated. You're going to walk away feeling empowered and connected. Get your tickets at YWLS-205.com. Code Alex will get you 25% off general admission. Okay, you guys, here's a funny story.

So I'm about to go visit my favorite holistic dentist in Portland this month. Yes, that's a thing. And yes, I'm that person who only goes to a holistic dentist. Don't judge me. You know him anyway. Dr. Blodgett. I interviewed him whenever my show is still called The Spillover. But anyway, I know he's going to love that I've switched to

zebra floss. Why? Because it's literally the perfect floss. I've used so many flosses in my life. And you know what? Most of them are full of synthetic chemicals, wax, and all kinds of nasty microplastics. Pupu. Pupu caca. But zebra, they've got it figured out. No artificial colors, no petrochemicals, no fluoride, just pure, clean floss that won't ruin your mouth with pupu caca. I'm honestly shocked that more people aren't talking about how toxic most flosses are. But zebra, it's a breath of fresh air for your mouth. Plus, their new lip gloss, oh, if you're like me and you hate the feeling of dry, cracked lips, you're going to love this. Perfect combination, a non-toxic mouth and smooth lips.

It's a vibe, my friends. Seriously, if you care about what's going on in your body, start with your teeth. And trust me, zebra's floss is the way to go. Go to yayzebra.com and use code Alex for 10% off. That's yay, zebra.com with code Alex for 10% off. Here's a wild one. You pull a homemade lasagna off your pantry shelf over a year after you made it. And guess what?

It looks, smells, and taste just like it did on day one. That's because you freeze dried it with your Harvest Right home freeze dryer. If you've ever tried store-bought freeze-dried food, you know it's just okay. But the stuff that you make yourself with Harvest Right, it is so good. The flavor, the color, even the texture is better. You can freeze-dry just about anything. I didn't even know this. Fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, full meals like mac and cheese, beef stew, casseroles, even desserts, and ice cream.

And here's what makes it unbeatable. Freeze-dried food from a Harvest Right last up to 25. years. No refrigeration, no freezer burn, no rotating stock like canned goods. Leftovers, don't toss them. Freeze, dry them. Save money, reduce waste, and build a food supply your family and future self will thank you for. Plus, it's automatic. With patented smart freeze technology, all you do is load it, press start, and let it handle the rest. Affordable, easy, delicious, long-lasting. Experience the Harvestrite difference and protect your pantry. Visit Harvestrite.com. That's Harvestrite.com.

people need to know when it comes to furniture shopping and toxins? So furniture, if you can get as natural as possible, stay away from the foams and stay away from the plastics, the varnishes on it, they can off gas. So if we can go with the natural wood. And I don't know it kind of sucks because this stuff is more expensive. But honestly, like IKEA has some really good products that, really good furniture that are very affordable, that are natural. And what is off gassing if nobody's ever heard that before? Yeah, so when we have a chemical and it's on a product like, let's say a paint, for example.

Well, actually, a good one that everyone can relate with is the fingernail polish. Fingernail polish remover when you're using that, and then now you smell that throughout your house. So that's a VOC or a volatile organic compound that evaporates in the air and then we can breathe that in. So paint is a VOC, our cleaning supplies is a VOC. A lot of the personal care products we have, fragrances. All those are VOCs that get into the air and then we breathe them in. Is anti-mold paint a thing? It is. So there is paint that has antimicrobial properties.

But really when it comes to keeping mold out of a house, always revert back to keeping the home dry. Because if we have enough moisture, it doesn't really matter what's going on because the paint itself might be antimicrobial. But they have what's called the biofilm on the paint. And that's going to be the dust and the dead skin cells. So the mold can eat that. And so keeping the home clean and dry really is the best way to deal with mold. If you are living in a new environment but still super sick and you think maybe in the past, like years ago you might have lived in a mold infested environment, is it possible to test now to see if you have had mold exposure or does it go away after a certain amount of time? So if you have a really good detox system in your body and your exercise and you're doing hot yoga and sweating, you're working that stuff out of your system.

But if you're not and you have more of a sedentary lifestyle, that stuff can build up, especially in our fat. So if you have a hard time losing weight, a lot of the reason could be because the body stored those toxins in your fat. And it doesn't want to release those. It doesn't want to let them into your body. So people that are weight loss resistant typically have a lot of toxin build up in their body. Is a UV light for an air conditioning unit a scam? No. So UV light is really good at killing off viruses and mold and bacteria. But where we want to see it on the HVAC system is on the coils because that's typically where we're going to see the mold. buildup. So when it's in the actual air stream and the ducting, a lot of times the air is going by

too fast for it to really kill it because it needs a couple seconds of dwell time on the virus or the mold to really kill it. So it works really good in the coils. I recommend that. How dangerous is mold in shower grout? And what is the best way to clean that? In shower grout, we really want to just scrub it, clean it down really good, and then make sure we put a good sealer over it. That's typically where we're going to see the mold is when the sealers kind of wore off and then the mold gets into the ground and the water and then it starts to grow. Do you trust humidifiers? I'm not a big fan of humidifiers just because I've seen a lot of bad situations with humidity where someone turns the humidifier on and they leave or whatever,

that room can then become moldy because it's basically food for molds. We're putting that water out into the air. Also, if it's just sitting in one area of the room and it's shooting out and there's carpet. Carpet area I've seen get really, really moldy. Yeah, that's a tough one because, you know, if you're sick and having respiratory issues, higher humidity can help, but it also feeds that mold. So I'd kind of monitor it. You can buy a little meter for like 20 bucks. Just make sure that humidity doesn't get above 60%. Does every home have an ambient level of asbestos? No. So only homes before 1980 have a risk for asbestos. So they used it in the insulation and the flooring, and all kinds of stuff, actually, in the paint. But after 1980, they made it

illegal to use, so we're not really seeing it. The only houses that I love are the ones that happen to be built in like 2009 or something or 1920, like those are the styles of really old homes that I love. So I am the one that needs to like look out for this kind of stuff because either that's the type of home I want to find and buy or I want to, my boyfriend calls them troll houses. So when we get married, it's like, he's like, we're going to have to build a little troll house because there's only a few of those where I live in Arizona, like that style of architecture. It's really hard to find. So we're thinking that we're just going to have to build from scratch that style.

And then I wouldn't have to deal with that risk of asbestos. Yeah. And it's not just asbestos, but it's the lead and the paint also. But also they were using some pretty harsh chemicals for pest control, like DDT and some really nasty stuff. So there's a lot of things that could be building up in these old. homes. But it doesn't mean you can't make that home healthy. We just tear it down to the studs. We do thorough cleaning. We can do encapsulation. We can do chlorine dioxide gas treatments that basically sterilize the house. So there's a lot of stuff we can do, but we do got to go to great lengths. You

just can't just move in and be healthy. Okay. And so your company, not only do you go in and you test everything, but then you're also the person like cleaning it out or what? We're your consultant. So we're like your health coach for your house. Okay. So we're in your back pocket guiding you on what exactly you need to do, who to hire, make sure it gets done properly, and then do final testing and make sure that it was done right. What is one of the worst mold infestations that you found and the owners had no clue? The worst one I found, it actually comes back to humidity. It was a home up in Sun Valley and they were from Hawaii and they loved high humidity. And it was a home that they were going back and forth. They had set the humidity, I think, like 65 or 70, something crazy.

And they forgot to turn it down when they left for vacation. They went to Hawaii for a couple weeks. By the time they came back, there was mold on almost every surface of the house. You could scrape it off with a butter knife. Oh my gosh. Sick. It was so nasty. So was the house like condemned? I think it was pretty much yeah. It had to go down to the studs and completely redone at that point. And we're talking like a multi-million dollar home. This was a pretty big home. It was pretty bad. That's why the humidity thing kind of worries me. Well, I just can't even imagine that. And that was only a couple weeks in their whole house ruined. Yeah. And I mean, that was their mistake, so I'm guessing, like, home insurance. I mean, what can they do? Yeah, I don't know if it got

covered or not. That's a good question. Because it... That hurts me. Yeah, it was in the middle of winter, and so they had all these cold surfaces. So it was just like if we had a cold drink out in the middle of summertime, it gets condensation to it. And so the humidity was so high, condensated to the walls and the windows and just sat there and grew old. How much does it cost to have you out and do the full-blown home testing with you? Depending on where you are in the country and what size your home is, typically 10 to 15,000. thousand plus travel to have our team come out and do the full shabang top to bottom. That's not just testing too.

That also we come up with the remediation protocol, the plan for you, and we itemize it from most important to least important. And then that comes with up to six months of a year of consultation work to get these things implemented. So we don't just test and walk away. We test with the idea of we're going to create a healthy environment for you. So when we're done with the process, you have a truly healing sanctuary that is not only not hurting you, but actually helping you, making you feel better. I love that. And some of them,

you can do virtually as well. Explain how that would work. Yeah. So for the people that's not in their price budget, we have a remote testing package where we send you out the equipment. And there's some training videos, some instructional videos, and some forms that you go through and do your own testing. And then it includes some virtual consultation with me or one of my coaches where we get online and do a little walkthrough after you have all the results and then help you create the protocol. And that's about how much? That's about 3,000. Okay, cool.

And, you know, I heard about you. So the reason I'm having you on my show is I have not only heard you on the Skinning Competential and I'm friends with Lauren and Michael, but also multiple friends of mine. And people I know have had you out to test their home and everything, which is so cool. So we have a lot of mutual friends. But I just thought, like, your expertise, your knowledge, everything that you do, I think it could really, really help people in my audience. Even if you can't hire Ryan personally, I just think the advice that you, you know, you just think the advice that you. you share is so helpful to even just give them the confidence and encouragement to seek out somebody locally to kind of come and test their home for mold because it is so important. So I just wanted

to throw that out there. If you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture and that could be physically, emotionally or spiritually, what would it be? Definitely show more gratitude. Be more thankful. I think that's a huge one that people miss. And we look at all these different aspects of a recipe for overall health, you know, our diet, our fitness, our environment, our supplements. I think we tend to forget about the mental and the spirituality part of it. And I think when we're in a state of gratitude, our bodies, you can't help but feel better. And I think that's one of the most important things we can all do. Yeah, that's a beautiful one.

How can people hire you to test their home? Go to our website, test myhome.com. You can fill out a form on there, a client intake form. one of us will get back to you. And you'll go anywhere in the country or out of the country. Yeah. Yeah, we'll go anywhere, really. You went to Paul Saladino's house. Can I say that? Yeah. Okay, because he's talked about that, right? Yeah. So you went to Paul's house and, you know, Paul's a really good friend of the show and everything. So, yeah, he's been everywhere. He'll go anywhere. He'll go anywhere. Which I really love. And you've been Instagram. So that's at Test My Home.

Okay, cool. Yeah. And we have a lot of free content on there. So people are like, I can't afford to where do I get started. Just go there and start going through some of the content. We always are posting tips you can do and easy things that you can do right away that don't cost any money. There you go. And Ryan came, tested my apartment. You'll have to go watch our vlog at Real Alex Clark on YouTube to see if we found mold or not. And what all we discovered. It's a really fun video. And we do some more Q&A with Ryan in that video also. So thank you for coming on Culture Apothecary. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Go see what Ryan saw in my apartment. Real Alex Clark on YouTube, subscribe. We post a lot of

additional content on there, not just podcast interviews, but also vlogs occasionally. and other fun stuff. So if you want to see more like behind the scenes of my life, subscribe to Real Alex Clark on YouTube and then also follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark. The show has an Instagram as well at Culture Apothecary. Now, if you liked this episode, I would encourage you to go back to February 2024. I interviewed this couple who builds non-toxic homes from the ground up after she also was severely injured from mold exposure in her early 20s and then kind of her lifelong health battle. And now they build healthy homes.

I mean, everything from like the cabinets to the carpets to like every material a home is built out of non-toxic organic. And it's just fascinating. It may not be necessarily your budget, which is okay. I like listening to stuff like that to get ideas because there was still really, really helpful tips from everything, from like mattresses that you could buy to paint that you use on your walls. So that is a great episode to go back and listen to. That was when the show was called The Spillover, Not Culture, Pot, the Khy. I please leave a five-star review and tell others why they should listen to culture apothecary.

We're on a mission to healistic culture twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, 6 p.m. Pacific or 9 p.m. Eastern. I'm Alex Clark, and this is culture apothecary.