CIRS, Mold, and Autoimmunity: Getting Off the Inflammation Roller Coaster

This is an encouraging and educational interview for anyone navigating Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) Dr. Melissa Mondala sits down with Jenny Johnson, a CIRS guide and community-builder, to unpack how biotoxin exposure from water-damaged buildings, mold, bacteria, and Lyme can drive chronic inflammation that mimics or even triggers autoimmune disease. They cover what to look for, how to differentiate CIRS from conditions like lupus, MS, and RA, and why environmental cleanup, sleep, nervous system support, and community are foundational. Jenny also shares moving recovery stories and practical ways families can pace healing without burning out.

CIRS is a chronic inflammatory response to biotoxins the body cannot easily clear. Symptoms can mirror lupus, MS, and RA, and CIRS may coexist with or trigger autoimmune flares. Taking a careful timeline, targeted labs, and sometimes imaging helps sort out what to treat first.

Key takeaways

• Learn what CIRS is and how it overlaps with autoimmunity.
• Discover why “remove the exposure” is step #1.
• Cleaning up or leaving a water-damaged environment reduces daily biotoxin load.
• Explore "pairing" detox strategies so the immune system can calm and autoimmune symptoms become more manageable.
• Learn the “brain on fire and brain on ice” model.
• Discover the early anchors of recovery.
• Learn why community speeds healing.
• Discover hope through real-world stories.

CIRS can cause anxiety, depression, panic, rage, and cognitive issues like brain fog and executive dysfunction. Having a coach or community to be your “borrowed brain” reduces overwhelm while you recover.

Prioritize sleep and simple nervous system supports. Add nutrition shifts toward anti-inflammatory eating, then layer movement as capacity returns. Passive vagus-nerve supports can help when you are too depleted to do more.

Jenny’s CIRS Healing Collective (https://cirshealingcollective.mn.co/landing) meets weekly to share practical tips, host guest experts, and reduce loneliness. Safe, validating connection supports the parasympathetic nervous system and helps people stay on the “healing track.”

Jenny shares recoveries in her family from Lyme and mold injury, and a child’s neurodivergent symptoms easing after addressing environmental causes. Parents are encouraged to keep pressing for answers.

Conclusion

CIRS is fixable, and addressing it can dramatically change the trajectory of autoimmune symptoms. Start with a solid history, test what matters, remove exposures, and anchor sleep and nervous system care. Do less, but do it on the right track. Most of all, do not do this alone. Community and a clear plan make the path lighter and faster.

Connect with Jenny Johnson

• Simplified Wellness Designs: https://simplifiedwellnessdesigns.com
• The CIRS Healing Collective https://cirshealingcollective.mn.co/landing

Jenny Johnson is a leading expert in Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and complex environmental illness. She is a Shoemaker Certified Coach, and drawing on years of clinical research and personal experience, she helps patients navigate the often-overlooked world of mold toxicity, biotoxin exposure, and neuroimmune dysfunction. Jenny is known for her deeply compassionate, whole-person approach and her ability to distill complex protocols into practical, healing strategies that work in the real world.

Host Bio:

Dr. Melissa Mondala is a triple specialist in family medicine, lifestyle medicine, and integrative/primary care psychiatry. She is double board certified in family medicine and lifestyle medicine, completed her family medicine residency and Lifestyle Medicine Fellowship at Loma Linda University Health, and earned her MD from Chicago Medical School along with master’s degrees in Health Administration and Biomedical Science. Dr. Mondala is co-founder of Dr. Lifestyle in Newport Beach, where she provides direct primary care, integrative mental health, and lifestyle-based prevention for patients locally and via telehealth.

She has served as core faculty in Preventive/Lifestyle Medicine at Loma Linda University and has contributed to national education in lifestyle medicine. She also co-hosts the Autoimmune Alchemy podcast with Dr. Micah Yu and leads the Integrative Mental Health Summit, bringing root-cause strategies for anxiety, mood, and brain health to a wider audience. Her approach blends diagnostics and conventional care with nutrition, sleep, movement, stress tools, and community to help patients reduce inflammation and build long-term resilience.

Dr. Micah Yu is a board-certified integrative rheumatologist who blends conventional care with lifestyle and nutrition to help people reverse inflammation and live well with autoimmune disease. He is board certified in rheumatology, internal medicine, and lifestyle medicine, completed his residency and rheumatology fellowship at Loma Linda University, and earned his MD from Chicago Medical School along with master’s degrees in biomedical sciences and health care administration.

He also completed fellowship training in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Yu co-founded Dr. Lifestyle in Newport Beach, California, where he sees patients locally and via telemedicine. He also co-hosts the Autoimmune Alchemy podcast with Dr. Melissa Mondala, bringing evidence, empathy, and practical tools to a global audience. His clinical perspective is informed by his own journey with autoimmune disease and by the results he has seen when patients pair targeted therapies with nutrition, sleep, movement, and stress resilience.

Website: https://myautoimmunemd.com/