Below are physicians and researchers who have demonstrated an interest in treating or studying environmentally-acquired illness. Their inclusion on the below list is not meant as an endorsement of them or all of their views. However, the information they provide is potentially helpful to those seeking a medical- or research- perspective on environmentally acquired illness including mould illness.
PHYSICIANS
The physicians here include those who have valued the reports from their patients about the impact of environment on their health. In some cases they have also had chronic health consequences from exposure themselves and have used their personal experience, and their power as health care providers, to change clinical practice. Some of these physicians offer non-treatment-based phone consultation. A more comprehensive list of clinicians (with links to their work), and has been compiled by Lisa Lisa Petrison, executive director of Paradigm Change. More recently, a group of physicians who assess, treat, and research mould illness has created the International Society for Environmentally-Acquired Illness (ISEAI.org): their website has links to video presentations and other reosources by ISEAI physicians.
Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker: Widely considered the first physician to explore the connection between exposure to biotoxins in water-damaged buildings and chronic inflammatory illnesses, and certainly the most well-known, Dr. Shoemaker is probably best known for his ‘Shoemaker ‘protocol’ for addressing what he calls Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) from water-damaged buildings. Author of Mold Warrior (2009) and Surviving Mold (2010), he provides resources and information on his website, Surviving Mold, and trains physicians in his protocol. He has a personal history of exposure to toxigenic mould through visiting patients’ homes, with subsequent illness.
Dr. Janette Hope is a Santa Barbara-based family physician and author of a well-known open access review article on the mechanism of injury and treatment after exposure to water-damaged buildings (The Scientific World Journal, February 2013), Dr. Hope is a frequent speaker at conferences regarding health and indoor environments including this Keynote Address at the 2015 Building Biology Conference. She has personal experience with mould-related illness and was featured in Dave Asprey’s documentary, Moldy.
Dr. Mary Ackerley is a Tuscon-based integrative psychiatrist whose interest in mould rose out of a particular experience with a long-term patient. Despite a lack of peer reviewed evidence on the psychiatric symptoms of exposure, many patients report anxiety, depression, and rage. Dr. Mary Ackerley reports these symptoms as being common among patients with exposure to toxigenic mould, as do many patients themselves. This may account for the popularity of her article on the topic, The Brain on Fire: The Role of toxic mold in triggering psychiatric symptoms.
Dr. Jill Carnahan is a functional medicine physician with a work-related history of exposure to stachybotrys and subsequent illness. She treats mould illness in Colorado and is an active contributor to online health blogs and conferences.
Dr. Scott McMahon is a paediatrician who began treating mould illness when children became ill at a local school in Roswell, New Mexico. He was the first physician to be certified in the Shoemaker protocol. He is interviewed in Dr. Sandeep Gupta’s ‘Mold Made Simple’ video from July 2017 on the prevalence, assessment, and treatment of mould illness in children. He was featured in Dave Asprey’s documentary, Moldy.
Dr. Daniel Kagua-Coo is a Boston-based holistic physician with personal experience with mould illness and the practice of extreme Mold Avoidance. He provides assessment and treatment for biotoxin illness and other related health issues and is an active contributor to online forums.
Dr. Hoffman is a Calgary-based physician, and is the first Canadian to become Shoemaker certified. As a certified Functional Medicine Physician, he treats a range of illnesses including mould illness.
For a list of physicians who treat environmental illnesses, and more specifically, illness from mould, see Lisa Petrison’s survey on physicians who are reported to have been helpful to those with chronic illness from mould exposure.
RESEARCHERS
Dr. Jack Thrasher Toxicology and Indoor Toxic Exposures.
Dr. Thrasher was a toxicologist and researcher whose research and consultations focused on the health impacts of toxigenic mould. After his death in 2017, Andrea Fabry summarized his role in researching the health implications of mould toxicity and in consulting to patients exposed to toxigenic mould in this tribute. He has several peer-reviewed articles, most of which are case studies of families impacted by toxigenic mould. His website, drthrasher.org, has a great deal of information, including an look at the research on the health impacts of particular mould species and mould toxins.
Dr. Bruce Lanphear Toxins and Child Development.
Dr. Lanphear is a Simon Fraser University researcher focusing on the impact of toxins on child development. At one time contemplating research on the impact of water damage on child development, most of Dr. Lanphear’s research and papers are focused on other indoor toxicants and disseminating information about the ability of toxins to cause harm even below reported ‘safe levels’.
Dr. Stephen Genuis Environmental Factors Causing Chronic Illness.
Dr. Genuis is a clinician and researcher in Environmental Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Edmonton, Alberta. He teaches both medical students and the general public (through his online courses) about the environmental causes of chronic illness across the lifespan.
Grace Under Water 