The Neurotoxic Loop: Why Trauma Is More Toxic Than Mold | Dr. Jaban Moore

WATCH THE FULL-LENGTH EPISODE HERE ON YOUTUBE! 

The first thing I told Dr. Jaban Moore when he came into our Pittsburgh clinic was how much I love his name. Jaban is an Old Testament name meaning "king," which hit home for me since my own son is named Solomon, another Old Testament king. It set the tone for a conversation between two people who see a lot of the same "mystery illness" patients and take it seriously.

The core of this episode is something Jaban calls the neurotoxic loop: trauma, by itself, can trigger the same inflammatory cytokine response as living in a moldy house. You can become biologically toxic from trauma the same way you can from mold, and if a clinic only treats one side of that - either "it's all mental health, just meditate" or "it's all mold, fix that and you're done" - that's a red flag, not a specialty. It might make for great social media, but it fails most real patients.

Jaban told me about a 32-year-old client who came in looking like a one-line intake form: a little eczema, a little digestive trouble, generally functioning. By the time he'd actually dug into her history, there were 20 more lines she hadn't thought to mention - a parent who died when she was three, five separate bouts of needing mental health medication - because to her, it was just who she was. That's the point we both kept coming back to: trauma isn't the event, it's the response to the event, and you can see it show up in labs - rising cortisol, a suppressed vagus nerve, climbing albumin from chronic dehydration and overwork - whether or not someone consciously identifies as traumatized.

We also got into something I think more people need to hear: when someone is in a cell danger response, the answer usually isn't more supplements, more protocols, more intensity. Jaban's line to overdoing clients stuck with me: "You have really expensive poop." His read on Type A personality was the other piece I wanted people to really sit with - it's often not a fixed trait but a trauma adaptation, a way of creating control and safety. He frames it as an energy bank account: Type A people are excellent at budgeting everything except their own nervous system, and eventually the account goes to zero.

The part I want people to hear most carefully is Jaban's backpack analogy. Mold, heavy metals in tap water, old trauma, EMFs, antibiotics and a damaged microbiome, poor sleep, VOCs off new building materials, radon in your basement - none of it alone might be too heavy to carry, but it stacks, and most people are walking around with hundreds of extra pounds they don't know they're carrying. That's also why he brings real nuance to mold: it's everywhere, it's not inherently a boogeyman, and the real question is always the amount, the type, and your individual genetics (HLA-DR, MTHFR) and history - not fear.

If you only take three things from this episode, take Jaban's: acknowledge your nervous system has a bandwidth and protect it, check your water (ewg.org/tapwater is free) and get a real filtration system, and stop trying to do everything - figure out what actually moves the needle for your body and let the rest go. Less is more.

A few of my favorite things we cover in this episode: 

• The neurotoxic loop: why trauma and mold trigger the same inflammatory response
• Why a "both/and" approach beats clinics that blame just one root cause
• How a high ACE score can hide in plain sight on an intake form
• The cell danger response: why "less is more" with supplements and protocols
• Type A personality as a trauma adaptation, not just a personality trait
• The "energy bank account" framework for managing nervous system load
• Favorite nervous system tools: Primal Trust, EMDR, stellate ganglion blocks, peptides
• The "backpack" analogy for cumulative toxic burden
• Mold testing nuance: ERMI levels, HLA-DR and MTHFR genetics
• Why energy-efficient homes can trap more toxins (VOCs, radon)
• Dr. Jaban's top 3 detox action steps
• His personal temazcal sweat lodge story
• His must-read book: Datis Kharrazian's thyroid book

Products Mentioned:

• Gut Feelings by Dr. Will Cole - https://shop.drwillcole.com/products/gut-feelings
• Primal Trust - https://www.primaltrust.org/ (nervous system/somatic/vagal nerve membership program by Dr. Cathleen King)
• Instant Hydration - https://instanthydration.com/ (electrolyte supplement)
• CellCore Advanced TUDCA - https://cellcore.com/products/advanced-tudca (liver/bile acid support)
• Longevity Rx Cellular Hydration - https://shop.drwillcole.com/products/longevity-rx-cellular-hydration-sticks
• "Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?" by Dr. Datis Kharrazian - https://www.amazon.com/Still-Thyroid-Symptoms-Tests-Normal/dp/0985690402
• EWG Tap Water Database - https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/
• Dr. Jaban Moore - https://drjabanmoore.com/ (Instagram: @drjabanmoore)

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Happy listening, and we hope you learned a little bit more on the art of being well!

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In Health,

Dr. Will Cole