When I fell into my most unwell state, some of my biggest issues were GI in nature.
Your GI system houses most of your immune system, so it is in shambles, of course the other would be as well.
It's super important to take care of your "guts" when facing any illness, your immune system depends on the health and functionality of them. Your "guts" house your microbiome- a very important thing to understand.
The microbiome is a collection of microorganisms (fungi, bacteria and viruses) that live in an environment. In the human body, we look at the gut microbiome and see between 10 and 100 trillion symbiotic cells. They have their own harmony, their own system of checks and balances, their own hierarchy. They all work together to support and maintain our health. But... inflammation, diet and other factors can disturb the microbiome. It can weaken and affect our immune system.
Here is how mold specifically can damage the microbiome:
1) Mold mycotoxins enter the body and end up in the gastro-intestinal area. They begin to reduce the number of friendly or helpful bacteria and thusly allows the harmful bacteria to flourish. This throws our body's homeostasis off, and puts us into a gut dysbiosis.
2) Mycotoxins damage the lining of the gut and cause gaps to form in it. Damage to the gut lining allows for things to exit the gut and enter the bloodstream. ( This is also sometimes called Leaky gut).The toxins that are in the gut have the ability now to enter the bloodstream and transport through and affect the rest of the body.
3) In addition to causing those leaky openings to form, mycotoxins can also hurt the villi that line the gut. these villi are meant to absorb nutrients normally, but cannot absorb nearly as much or as well when they've become compromised. Downstream of that, the person becomes malnourished or suffers malnutrition.
4) Since the gut has been compromised, the immune system will not work as well as it should. This leaves us vulnerable to all manner of other infections, viruses, bacteria, etc.
Most people that have mold illness will be able to be labeled as immunocompromised, or immuno-deficient.
There are more ways that mold and mycotoxins can affect the gut, but this is the most simplistic breakdown for a beginner.
A HUGE part of your journey is going to be about understanding the gut and the immune system. You will spend a lot of time and energy working on recovering your gut health.
It will feel hard, but MAKE THE CHANGES you need to. There is absolutely no doubt that helping your microbiome will help you heal.
For more learning:

(Image created by me on Canva.)
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