Top Integrative Doctor Explains “Cortisol Addiction” | Jaban Moore Ep 233
In a Nutshell
Dr. Jabin Moore, an integrative doctor specializing in complex chronic illnesses like Lyme, mold toxicity, and MCAS, emphasizes identifying and removing hidden burdens (toxins, infections, trauma, radioactive elements like uranium) while rebuilding mitochondrial energy through targeted labs (OAT, HTMA, bloodwork) and microdosing supplements/peptides to avoid detox reactions. High achievers crash from "cortisol addiction" in a self-perpetuating neurotoxic loop where unsafe feelings (environmental or emotional) spike cortisol, inflame mast cells, and drain energy—break it by prioritizing rest, safety, and energy management over aggressive therapies. Authenticity trumps AI-driven health misinformation; focus on basics like clean water, mineral restoration, and immune modulation for adaptability, not bubble life.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Unsafe feeling response generates more cortisol, leading to toxicity and immune response, creating a self-perpetuating problem even after leaving mold exposure. That's the toxin loop.
Dr. Jabin Moore, welcome to my podcast. Thank you for having me on here. I run labs. I ask questions. And so I figure out how we can get results. I work with the people that can't find answers. Get to be the detective that we all were trying to be when we were kids. We're still not strong enough to survive alone. We still need help. If you're still living in a bubble, there's something missing.
Bubble life is great, but that can't be ideal. I'm not even convinced that the feeling worse part of healing is a good sign.
I had a six-pack. I weighed 200 lb at 5'10". Like, I was fit as could be looking, but I felt awful.
You can't run yourself ragged because it's not a better option for long-term success anyway cuz you're going to end up crashing.
Dr. Jabin Moore runs a clinic in Kansas City, Missouri, works virtually worldwide. Described as a healthcare detective: runs labs, asks questions, figures out results, confirms with follow-up labs. Works with complex chronic illness, Lyme disease, mold, radioactive element toxicities, leading to MCAS. Calls long COVID long Lyme or long Epstein-Barr—chronic infections.
Works with mystery patients who can't find answers, enjoys being the detective.
Protocols for long COVID vs Lyme have similarities but no two people have the same path. Identify burdens preventing wellness: childhood trauma, toxins like uranium in water, mold in walls, food poisoning leading to SIBO or H. pylori.
Dr. Moore had Lyme, not afraid of ticks now due to healthy body terrain. For complex chronic illnesses, ask: what made you vulnerable? Genetics, mindset. Energy diverts to stress instead of defense. Remove burdens to get well.
Host's family had mold issues in Toronto house and father's houses. How did Dr. Moore get into this? Integrative doctor.
At age 5, wanted to go to Harvard, become doctor, play NFL. Wanted orthopedic surgery for sports but shifted—didn't want to end careers (e.g., ACL, Achilles tears in 2004). Wanted to help people return to field.
Got Lyme in school: brain fog, joint pain, fatigue at age 25, fittest ever—six-pack, 200 lb at 5'10", looked fit but felt awful. In 2012, peak symptoms including erectile dysfunction. No Instagram experts then. At functional medicine conferences, someone suggested Lyme but no referrals.
Researched, found doctor in Wisconsin. Drove from Kansas City through blizzard to doctor's blueberry farm home. Diagnosed: Lyme, Bartonella, Babesia, mold toxicity. Gave path forward, referred patients to Moore since virtual practice wasn't common. First day in practice (2013), got complex chronic Lyme patients—no other patients, focused fully on getting them well.
Orders physiology tests first: organic acids test (OAT), hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA), blood tests (if not recent). Takes history simultaneously to avoid frustration.
History: what happened, past trauma, childhood symptoms like eczema, psoriasis. Looks for genetic SNPs, moldy houses. Anxious, Type A, people-pleasing, perfectionistic kids indicate genetics wiring draining energy.
Type A personality + mold crushing mitochondria = no energy, drives into ground. Example: real estate investor with 17 businesses, huge portfolio, crashed after moving into wrong apartment—took 2 years to break, didn't notice until broke. High achievers do extreme diets, therapies, supplements—what they need is rest, slow down.
High achievers (entrepreneurs, stay-at-home moms) crash from chronic illness. Burnout at mitochondrial level—not enough energy, need to stop and rest.
Driven by data: personality from conversation/paperwork, then labs.
Blood labs (CMP):
- Albumin >4.6: dehydration signs, minerals burnt out (not water intake issue)—sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium.
- ALT/AST low (single digits): liver not keeping up.
- Creatinine low: muscle, heart, kidneys not producing enough—not detoxing well.
- GFR for kidneys: at 35-40 years old, should be >90.
Organic acids test (OAT): mitochondrial stress—Krebs cycle (KB cycle) for carbs, beta oxidation for fats not producing energy. Tests organic acids peed out; low levels indicate stuck cycles (e.g., citric acid cycle). Needs magnesium, NAD to turn cycle.
Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA): sub-reference minerals = fatigue, POTS, dysautonomia, no motivation.
Basics skipped for fancy tests like C4a, MMP9, VIP. Depleted body needs minerals first. Continue depleting until root causes removed, but do less, not more—sweating, infrared sauna, detox protocols lose minerals. Detox takes energy; can't ask energy bankrupt body for more without removing burdens.
Patients can't tolerate magnesium, B vitamins—levels not low, but reactions. Genetic? Psych med damage?
Not allergy—body has these to function (MTHFR, MCAS, SERS, multiple chemical sensitivities). Step back: what's body doing with energy/nutrients?
Iodine displaces uranium, mercury. Psych drugs accumulated in interstitial space, fat cells, receptors—magnesium, iodine, B12 trigger intracellular detox, causing insomnia, agitation (many psych drugs cause sleep issues).
Detox reaction feels horrible. Solution: tiny doses + binders, build slowly. Remove other toxicities first to decrease histamine response, mast cell degranulation (not Herxheimer/septic).
Meat diet reduces histamine (no aged meat), oxalates, irritants—anti-inflammatory. Then add thiamine, thymus alpha, KPV.
BPC-157 is a favorite peptide that helps modulate immune response. In extreme cases, natural options like Christian, single, rosemary, bromelain, or DAO supplements may not suffice; stack them with medical team. Suppress likelihood of reactions to move faster. For natural approach, go slower: remove irritants, introduce magnesium gradually to cleave off mercury, uranium, or other toxins.
Example: Patient with uranium from radioactive tap water and radon in basement had it on thyroid, causing Hashimoto's, depression, anxiety, weight gain from inflammation, depressive swings, cycle disruption. Reduced immune reactions, bound toxins slowly over months; now tolerates iodine and B12 within reason.
Heavy metal issues like uranium common, alongside mold, metals, drugs (toxins), Lyme (infection). Mold can colonize as infection.
Blood work for heavy metals useless unless current, massive poisoning—not lingering issues. Body adapts excellently (e.g., lean to side after back injury, shift weight after ankle roll) but poor at returning to optimal without intervention (e.g., physical therapy).
Psych meds likely caused adaptation shift; diet and environment help maintain strength but not rehabilitate responses to magnesium, B12. Body reaches "normalish" but skips deep intracellular/fat cell cleanup.
Patient stories: Rich family of seven chronically ill from mold, still drinking radioactive water despite top doctors, EDTA, DMSA, carnivore/vegan diets. Fixed water (distill only removes radioactive elements; no filter does long-term). RO filter best (90% metals when new, degrades in weeks). Distilling evaporates water, leaves heavy metals (high melting point); filter post-distill for VOCs, phthalates. Three improved in first month after water fix; others needed Lyme, parasites, SIBO due to radioactive water enabling survival despite protocols.
Always detective: step back, find miss. Rerun labs if no progress after 4-5 months. Example: Client 90% better after 2 years, gut flared—moved to moldy apartment.
Host's history: Paleo-like (meat, vegetables, few fruit) stopped meds after 12 years, 2.5 years severe neurological food reactions (antidepressant withdrawal). Mold in Miami, H. pylori on GI-MAP (ignored by doctors as low-level, no reflux/GERD), fixed digestion with quad therapy (replaced metronidazole). Carnivore enabled businesses/kids; mold fix resolved fertility issues. Multifaceted: some tolerate mold/Lyme fine.
Questions foundational immune issue (e.g., vaccines)?
Labs misleading if already managing via lifestyle (e.g., diabetic on meds looks good). Host's strict diet masked H. pylori. Borderline markers get question marks on roadmap.
Bubble life unsustainable; deviations cause illness. Body can't handle moldy building or exposure forever.
Goal: adaptability to enjoy burger/beer/vacation without major repercussion.
Example: Chronic Lyme, thyroglobulin antibodies 7,000 (Hashimoto's), breast cancer markers, near-blind from floaters. After 3-4 months natural Lyme treatments, antibodies dropped to 2,000 (per functional MD). Eventually under 200, vision clear, back to work. On 20th anniversary, drank beer—no price paid, emotional breakthrough.
Host: Extensive testing (Google Drive folder), everything slightly off, improving post-parasites/gut but hard to start without supplement tolerance.
Path forward with consistency. Early case: 2-3 inch thick labs from Mayo/etc. Immunoglobulins bottomed out (false negatives on antibody tests), misdiagnosed B6 toxicity (genetic/mold issue). Many small problems; rotated 1 month each: parasites, bacteria, Lyme, mold. Weak immune in triage/CDR (cell danger response)—attacks everything indiscriminately.
Not eradicating pathogens (kills self); reduce to non-pathogenic, strengthen immune to finish. Psych drug dysregulation + nutrient deficits (magnesium/B12 for mitochondria) keep in CDR/fight-or-flight; progress stalls without constant detox.
Host: Hyperfunctional on diet/mold avoidance (3 years), less intolerant (hotel 3 days ok, then palpitations). Tried ketotifen, mast cell stabilizers—stop if feel worse.
Microdose everything; use meds; expect initial bad reactions.
Mast cells carry granules of protective molecules; in MCAS, degranulate from minimal triggers (temperature, light, sound, touch—dermographism, hives from scratching/smileys).
Good/bad indistinguishable—any change triggers. Herx-like: small ok (hormetic stress <20-30%, recoverable; >30% irreversible damage), stop if >20% symptom increase.
Low-dose naltrexone (LDN): normal 4.5mg, MCAS 0.25mg build-up. Host reacts with derealization. Chrome... inflammatory responses at threshold are psychological.
Inflammatory responses at maximum threshold manifest as psychological symptoms, the worst symptom. Reducing inflammation around the brain triggers detoxification and changes in inflammatory responses, altering synaptic activity immediately due to degranulating inflammatory responses in the brain, akin to encephalitis. Examples include PANS/PANDAS in kids. Approach with micro-dose levels from multiple perspectives: tiny amounts for histamine (e.g., cromolyn sodium or ketotifen), inflammation, and immune modulation. This prevents the body from feeling threatened and degranulating. Slowly build over months so by the time the body notices, it's already calmer with reduced threat response.
Think about PTSD. If you're a guy from the military, fireworks or slamming a door triggers dropping and covering, even in a safe home.
Body reacts similarly: magnesium is good but too much shuts it down.
Stress and trauma significantly impact the immune system, leading to inflammatory reactions. PTSD exemplifies this.
Mold is toxic and neurotoxic, generating liver, brain, nephrotoxic effects, prompting immune response and cortisol/adrenal hormone release for energy to protect. Long-term leads to cortisol toxicity or adrenal hormone toxicity, where hormones accumulate and become toxic, similar to estrogen dominance or toxic estrogen.
Toxins (mold or cortisol) signal unsafety, triggering fight-or-flight, mitochondrial stress, more immune response, more cortisol, creating a self-perpetuating loop—even after leaving moldy environment—generating internal immunotriggered PTSD (not mental health/emotional trauma).
Neurological loop: feeling unsafe (parent, spouse, war zone) releases cortisol; prolonged leads to toxicity, immune response, perpetuating cycle until feeling safe. Poor rehabilitation keeps cortisol elevated, leading to mast cell activation. Can originate from neurological or toxin side; often both, as unsafe/debilitated states from one lead to tolerating the other (e.g., mold-weakened enters bad relationship; trauma-weakened can't tolerate mold).
Key question: Are you safe environmentally (air, food, water, hygiene, dental implants) and mentally (consciously/subconsciously), even in safe places?
External stress (e.g., family illness, newborn sickness) overwhelms stability. Chronically ill face guilt, triggers, stuck situations with autoimmunity, psych issues, medications, family stress.
When fully functioning (healthy body/brain, low stress, good work ethic), critical thinking reduces stress pings to fight-or-flight. Fight-or-flight impairs short-term memory, critical thinking, creativity. Well people handle more; ill jump to worst-case, more cortisol, less thinking.
Clients want red light, sauna, peptides, meds, 40 supplements—all good but cost energy. Even sauna (heat, detox, mineral loss) and red light burden time/purchase/mental load. For unwell (SIBO, H. pylori, parasites), it's "expensive poop."
Recommend 5-7 targeted things, one therapy, eat well, stop internet/Facebook surfing. Cut decision-making/gut burden. Trust for one month: clients feel nervous system lift from less distress.
High achievers (celebrities with Lyme/long COVID) run at 120-200% for years via willpower, not optimal for body.
Imagine $100 energy bank account. $50 for basal metabolic rate (breathing, alive—not mom/wife/business). Mold/psych med damage: $20. Mom: $10. Wife/daughter: $15. Businesses: $30. Home management/hobby: $5. Pregnant: $20. Total exceeds $150 on $100 budget—explains fight-or-flight.
Business owners: running like this leads to bankruptcy. Offload tasks (staff, husband for cooking/cleaning). As health improves (remove mold/psych med damage), capacity increases like gym strength.
Driven people immediately fill capacity with more (addicted to cortisone/cortisol). Recognize addiction, stop (12-step process). Not sustainable; crashes long-term goals (business at 50, grandchildren).
Trust someone (husband?) to help change. Offloading business/home optimized, but family stress hard to remove; overachiever mom with 3 kids under 3 ("oops baby"), hormonal changes, depletion (magnesium/B12 to baby).
Post-breastfeeding: microdose nutrients. Hard not to do more when good at it/successful/fun, but can't take days off; hobbies become businesses (vibe coding app).
Switched scrolling to talking to Claude: built interactive quiz sorting info (not just personal opinion, includes others) to guide to top issues, educate, avoid controversy (e.g., one diet/supplement/mercury for all). Tired of Instagram growth via fights/comments.
Automate health history intake for scaling. Vibe coding (describe ideas, AI builds) fun, easier than developers. Changing world: produce 100x output solo, learn new "machinery" or fall behind (like skid steers replaced manual ditch-digging).
Health-Focused Dating App
Building dating app for health-focused people: Hexaco personality scale, diet/exercise preferences for compatibility score (opt-in/out). Effort now, but AI advances fast—fun currently. Landscape changing quickly, mindboggling, exciting.
AI is improving at everything, including medicine, where doctors use it for better diagnoses. However, when asking for health advice, it pulls from bot-generated and paid-for studies that are falsified to push narratives. Be careful with prompting and data sources; evaluate studies to ensure they make sense and weren't funded by pharmaceutical companies.
In healthcare, curation by someone willing to do research and read is essential. Asking Claude for a deep dive on cholesterol returns the bot and paid-for narrative. Authenticity in podcasts and relationship marketing will become increasingly important as AI enables companies to create 60 or 600 targeted ads with one person, including fake influencers.
A person became the fastest-made billionaire by creating fake doctors on Meta endorsing a peptide site selling tirzepatide and semaglutide, with fake before-and-afters. Valued at a billion dollars, he's likely going to prison as it's fraud, though laws focus on imitating real people, not making up new ones.
Creating fake doctors involves licensing issues. If it's a non-licensed gym influencer giving testimonials like "Hey, take this peptide. It worked for me" with before-and-afters from personal training clients, legal issues are unclear. It's a marketing lie since it's not a real person endorsing, but most marketing uses fake quotes.
Marketing companies often suggest fabricated quotes; the speakers avoid this with their products, refusing fake testimonials like "This was the best thing. This changed my life."
We're in a new frontier of deepfake AI. AI brands explode across social media with millions of fake followers, not tied to real people, so they say or do anything with no repercussion or long-term damage—they just create new ones.
Finding relatable, authentic, trustworthy people doing the research will become more valuable.
Dr. Jabin Moore on Instagram, YouTube, website. They put out information constantly to help people learn, get educated, understand health issues, and make informed decisions—motivated by his own illness when he couldn't find help.
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