Category: Binders

When Supplements (or Meds) Cause or Worsen Brain Symptoms

3/21/2025

5 Possible Reasons & How These Are Addressed in Treatment

In previous newsletters, I’ve explored many of the common contributors to brain symptoms, including elevated pyrroles, copper-zinc imbalances, methylation disruptions, candida overgrowth, mast cell activation, mold toxicity, and genetic variants such as COMT and MAOA.

Addressing these issues often requires supplementation, and in some cases, medication—particularly for mold treatment and mast cell activation.

But what if a person struggles to tolerate a supplement or medication, experiencing worsened or entirely new brain symptoms? Why might someone react negatively to B6, SAMe, or Methionine? What could cause intolerance to folate, niacinamide, glutathione, specific herbal treatments, SSRIs, probiotics, antifungal medications, or detox binders like bentonite clay, activated charcoal, chlorella, or cholestyramine?

In this newsletter, I’ll cover:

Five key reasons why a supplement or medication may exacerbate symptoms.
Specific supplements and medications more likely to trigger these reactions.
How these responses can provide insight into underlying imbalances.
Treatment strategies to enhance tolerance.

Adverse reactions can present with a broad spectrum of brain-related symptoms, including fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, agitation, and even more severe manifestations such as psychosis or mania. To encompass this range, I’ll use the term “reactivity.” While physical side effects can also occur, this discussion will focus specifically on brain-related symptoms.

Read the full article on Substack

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Mold Toxicity - Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, Brain Fog & Inattention

5/16/2019

45 Comments

"Light Showers on Tidy Town" paper, acrylic on 24 x 48" canvas "Inspired by the coastal towns of Ireland."

By Courtney Snyder

One of the challenges of writing blog posts that explore root causes of brain related symptoms is that what we are learning is constantly evolving. There's so much we still and will never know. Another challenge - everything is interconnected. The best I can do is to write about these root causes separately. While some contributing factors can occur in parallel, one condition is often leading to other downstream conditions that themselves contribute to things like depressed mood, anxiety, mood swings, brain fog/inattention and so forth.

Mold toxicity is a perfect example. It can contribute to Pyrrole Disorder due the stress it puts on the body. It can lead to elevated copper by overwhelming one of the antioxidants in the body that regulates copper. Because it interferes with the immune system, it can lead to a susceptibility to candida/yeast, Lyme and its co-infections. It also frequently worsens mast cell activation (see last post). I consider it a root of the roots. In my daily work, I find mold toxicity to be very common. Here’s why -

45 Comments

When Supplements (or Meds) Cause or Worsen Brain Symptoms

Mold Toxicity - Depression, Anxiety, Fatigue, Brain Fog & Inattention

Courtney Snyder, MD

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