https://www.autoimmunedocpodcast.com/

Dr. Taylor Krick, Washington, IL (2026)

01/02/2026

The gut is the source of a lot of histamine issues, and I often show this picture when educating clients.
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TOP: when the gut microbiome is balanced, and there is no GI inflammation, the mast cells are behaving.
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BOTTOM: when the gut microbiome is imbalanced and the gut is inflamed, the mast cells release histamine and other inflammatory mediators, which inflames the vagus nerve (the red river on the bottom), which is in close proximity. In order to decrease histamine and mast cell activity, you have to balance the gut and decrease GI inflammation!

01/01/2026

Do you suffer from allergies, asthma, sinus issues, SIBO, SIFO, Candida, food sensitivities, or get recurrent urinary tract infections, yeast infections, or upper respiratory infections?
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These are all signs of Th2 immune dominance.
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Your adaptive immune system has these soldiers called T helper cells, and when they are young and 'naive' they can grow up to be whatever they want - they can become Th1, Th2, Th9, Th17, Th22, and our fav - Treg cells. If too many are becoming Th2, you get more of the above-mentioned symptoms.
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Th2 dominance can be caused by many things - including parasites, stress, inflammation, MOLD!, Lyme, head trauma, toxins, or even just the inflammation in hollow spaces (gut, sinuses, lungs bladder) can cause a vicious cycle that just keeps making it worse and worse, with IL-4 at the center.

12/28/2025

Mold is ubiquitous, so your body tries really hard immunologically to tolerate it, and sometimes it tolerates it for a looong time - until one day it stops tolerating it. Mycotoxins from mold can remain indefinitely in tissues, and many have an affinity for the brain, where they disrupt mitochondrial ATP production.Some molds and mycotoxins suppress the immune system, some activate the immune svstem, some suppress innate immune function and increase adaptive, some do the opposite. Some people have several mycotoxins present at once, doing several different things, along with other pathogens and toxins accumulating faster due to the effects of mold.
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You can see how mold exposure and toxicity can quickly become quite complex immunologically!
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Molds and mycotoxins can cause leaky gut, leaky sinus, leaky lung, leaky brain, they can deplete glutathione, impact the microbiome, increase pathogen burdens like EBV and CMV, disrupt Th1/Th2 balance, and turn on vicious cycles of inflammation (NFkB, iNOS, NO-ONOO, Th17) - - all of which are underlying mechanisms of autoimmunity.
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When you hear all these various mechanisms, you begin to understand why molds and mycotoxins can contribute to autoimmunity, cancer, chronic infection, and even death, not to mention the most common symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, ENT symptoms, pituitary/thryoid/adrenal/
reproductive imbalances, headaches, insomnia. There are a lot of mechanisms, and there are a lot of other variables, including genetics, history, exposure, and everything else in your bucket, but MOLD AND MYCOTOXINS are one of the scariest things on the planet!
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12/28/2025

Mold is ubiquitous, so your body tries really hard immunologically to tolerate it, and sometimes it tolerates it for a looong time - until one day it stops tolerating it. Mycotoxins from mold can remain indefinitely in tissues, and many have an affinity for the brain, where they disrupt mitochondrial ATP production.Some molds and mycotoxins suppress the immune system, some activate the immune svstem, some suppress innate immune function and increase adaptive, some do the opposite. Some people have several mycotoxins present at once, doing several different things, along with other pathogens and toxins accumulating faster due to the effects of mold.
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You can see how mold exposure and toxicity can quickly become quite complex immunologically!
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Molds and mycotoxins can cause leaky gut, leaky sinus, leaky lung, leaky brain, they can deplete glutathione, impact the microbiome, increase pathogen burdens like EBV and CMV, disrupt Th1/Th2 balance, and turn on vicious cycles of inflammation (NFkB, iNOS, NO-ONOO, Th17) - - all of which are underlying mechanisms of autoimmunity.
💡
When you hear all these various mechanisms, you begin to understand why molds and mycotoxins can contribute to autoimmunity, cancer, chronic infection, and even death, not to mention the most common symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, ENT symptoms, pituitary/thryoid/adrenal/
reproductive imbalances, headaches, insomnia. There are a lot of mechanisms, and there are a lot of other variables, including genetics, history, exposure, and everything else in your bucket, but MOLD AND MYCOTOXINS are one of the scariest things on the planet!
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More on this in my podcast - Episode #027 - Mold, Mycotoxins, & Autoimmunity! Link to podcast in bio.

12/26/2025

So many people in the functional medicine world, whether it be from their past adverse events, the pandemic, from Lyme disease, mold toxicity, from being gaslighted by doctors, or trying failed therapies, etc - - SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE SOME DEGREE OF PTSD, LIMBIC SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION, and now experience an IMBALANCED STRESS RESPONSE, DYSAUTONOMIA, and other debilitating symptoms.
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So, we all know about stress. There is the mental stress that we all know about, but also physical stress (too much water is a stressor, too little water is a stressor, leaky gut, injuries, etc) as well as toxic stress (mold, mercury, pesticides, etc) - - and your body responds to stress as potential DANGER - you prepare to "fight-or-flight".
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So, STRESS is your body's response to potential danger.....
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DANGER is either real or perceived - you can tell someone they should be scared and they will be, or tell them they should NOT be scared and they will NOT be......but abuse is a danger, toxins are a danger, viruses are a danger.....
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Your limbic system of your brain connects memories with experiences, and will "remember" these instances of danger and the stress response, and the limbic system includes regions like the amygdala (fear sensing), the hippocampus (memory), and the hypothalamus/pituitary (stress response).
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Repeated exposure to (or perception of) DANGER leads to limbic system dysfunction, PTSD, and an imbalanced stress response.....your body begins to treat EVERYTHING as a danger.

12/25/2025

Gallbladder problems are incredibly common, but are often hard to uncover. Gallbladder removal is one of the most commonly performed surgeries (1.2m/yr), but what if you don’t have an “attack”….does this mean your gallbladder is fine?
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The gallbladder connects the detoxification and biotransformation activities of the liver with the gut, microbiome, and digestion. The liver takes toxins and hormones, breaks them down and puts them into bile, bile is stored in the gallbladder and released with food to emulsify and breakdown fats, then the waste is excreted.
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Bile is also very expensive for the body to make, so toxic bile can be reabsorbed, called Enterohepatic Recirculation, hence the importance of binders.
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The concern is when bile gets thick and sludgy from excess estrogen, poor diet, toxin overload, and more. This impacts detoxification, disrupts the microbiome, and the microbiome impacts the gallbladder.
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Bile salts are one of the ways the gut and liver talk to each other. This is one of the reasons TUDCA has become so popular in recent years.
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Other things that can help the gallbladder and bile flow include taurine, phosphatidylcholine, bitters, castor oil packs, coffee enemas, liver flushes, and more.

12/23/2025

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To understand how mitochondria MALfunction, you have to understand some basics about how they are SUPPOSED TO FUNCTION PROPERLY.
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Here are 4 main aspects of mitochondrial function that you need to understand in order to understand your personal metabolism. If you have metabolic issues, it's really important to know what's wrong with YOUR mitochondria - you could have issues in #1, #2, #3, #4, or in ALL FOUR!!
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Many basic lab tests actually give you an idea of your mitochondrial function (iron, thyroid, blood sugar, inflammation.... almost all labs because mitochondria power all functions). These labs are obviously very important for any case or condition, but my favorite testing for mitochondrial function is Urinary Organic Acids testing that actually shows specific markers for Glycolysis, markers of Kreb's Cycle dysfunction, Beta-Oxidation dysfunction, and much more, and gives us more detailed answers on how the mitochondria are malfunctioning so that we can support them properly!
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Dig in with more details back in Episode 031, Mitochondria & Autoimmunity - Important mito functions and how to test them.

12/22/2025

The liver is very metabolically active and packed dense with mitochondria. I see liver “symptoms” like toxicity and methylation issues quite often, but they are very hard to spot using liver enzymes or hepatitis markers alone. Liver damage is a spectrum, and it has often progressed long before it is discovered. First, liver mitochondria are unable to burn fat, so fat accumulates. This create more oxidative damage, which oxidizes the fat deposits. As liver damage progresses more “fibrosis” occurs, which drives a lot more oxidative damage and liver inflammation, and more mitochondrial dysfunction. Many things can damage the liver, but think especially of things that need to be “cleared” from the body, such as:
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💥Alcohol
💥Pharmaceutical/Street Drugs
💥Viruses
💥Parasites
💥Molds
💥Metals
💥Chemicals
💥Excess Estrogen
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In order to do all of this properly and efficiently the liver requires many cofactors, including B vitamins, glutathione, magnesium, zinc, and amino acids such as glycine, carnitine, choline, and taurine.

12/19/2025

MOST PEOPLE in the wellness world know about probiotics and the importance of the microbiome. Most people also know about digestive enzymes, many times they are very helpful for people. Many people know about glutamine for leaky gut, and every reputable supplement company has a leaky gut powder with glutamine. These are all pretty common supplements that all can be very helpful in the right cases.
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Some of the gut-health solutions that I use that people DON’T KNOW AS MUCH ABOUT are things like bovine immunoglobulins, short chain fatty acids, and bile salts like TUDCA.
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Bovine immunoglobulins bind antigens in the gut including LPS, a component of dysbiosis and leaky gut. They have been shown to modulate the immune system, even decreasing things like upper respiratory infections in kids. I use SBI Protect from Ortho Molecular Products Inc. as my favorite.
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SCFA, like butyrate, help heal and seal leaky gut (or brain), promote immune tolerance, and support microbiome diversity and abundance. They are one of the most important supplements in autoimmunity. I like Tributyrin 350 from or SunButyrate from as my favorites.
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Bile salts come from the liver and are released into the gut, and they are how your gut microbiome and liver talk to each other. Bile salts help regulate the microbiome, they help digest food and absorb fat soluble vitamins, and they help detoxify. I like TUDCA from .
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All 3 of these could *potentially be* helpful for someone who has done all the basics and is still stuck with their gut healing!

12/18/2025

Molds and mycotoxins can contribute to autoimmunity, cancer, chronic infection, and even death, not to mention the most common symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, brain fog, ENT symptoms, pituitary/thryoid/adrenal/reproductive imbalances, headaches, insomnia.
💡
There are a lot of mechanisms, and there are a lot of other variables, including genetics, history, exposure, and everything else in your bucket, but MOLD AND MYCOTOXINS are one of the scariest things on the planet!

12/17/2025

In this video I do a study review on Inflammatory Signaling Mechanism in Bipolar Disorder

This review frames bipolar disorder not only as a psychiatric illness but also a multi‑system inflammatory condition. It advocates for integrative research and therapeutic strategies addressing immune‑mediated pathways as future directions in BD treatment.

You can find the full study review linked in my bio!

12/16/2025

MOOD DISORDERS:
Mood disorders have some known potential mechanisms that can be supported naturally, but it’s important that you (or more likely your practitioner) know which target(s) you are aiming at!
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Synapses can be altered, leading to imbalances in neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, GABA. Neurotransmitters are hard to measure on labs but may be suspected based on symptoms.

Pathways can be “activated”, like neuroinflammatory or neuroexcitatory pathways, mast cell stimulation, kynurenine activation, etc. Again this is hard to measure, but a skilled practitioner can help narrow down the possibilities.

All of these “imbalances” can make someone feel depressed, sad, anxious, frazzled, overwhelmed, low motivation, angry - - MOOD DISORDERS!

Obviously there is a time and place for medicine, and mental health is not something to mess around with so get the appropriate diagnosis/treatment when necessary, but there are also root causes, mechanisms, and reasons for these issues, and A LOT of things we can do to improve brain function!

Dr. Taylor Krick

01/02/2026

01/01/2026

12/28/2025

12/28/2025

12/26/2025

12/25/2025

12/23/2025

12/22/2025

12/19/2025

12/18/2025

12/17/2025

12/16/2025

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