specialized telehealth care for patients throughout Colorado
Colorado Mold Illness Doctor
Whole-person care for toxic mold illness, complex chronic symptoms and nervous system dysregulation.
If you’ve been struggling with chronic fatigue, brain fog, histamine reactions, digestive problems, pain, anxiety, sensitivities or symptoms that no one has been able to fully explain, toxic mold exposure may be part of the picture.
I’m Dr. Karen Cureton, a licensed naturopathic physician with more than a decade of experience treating complex chronic illness. I provide mold-literate naturopathic medical care by telehealth to patients throughout Colorado.
My approach goes beyond managing individual symptoms. Together, we investigate what may be driving your illness, including toxic environmental exposure. Once we find the root causes, we address them with functional medicine while supporting the nervous system patterns that can make recovery more difficult.
A brief, no-pressure conversation to determine whether my approach may be a good fit.
Naturopathic medical care is available by telehealth to adults located throughout Colorado, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Durango, Aurora, Lakewood, Littleton, Golden and anywhere else you might be in Colorado.
You may know that mold is involved
or you may still be searching for answers
Some people find me after discovering mold in their home or workplace. Others have already received a diagnosis such as mold toxicity, CIRS or mast cell activation, but are not improving as expected.
Many are still unsure what’s wrong.
They know that their health changed, their body became more reactive, and treatments that should have helped either did very little or made them feel worse.
They have often seen multiple practitioners, received several diagnoses and tried countless diets, supplements, medications or nervous-system programs without finding a complete explanation or solution.
You do not need to have everything figured out before we speak.
My role is to look at the full pattern of your health and help determine whether toxic mold exposure, nervous-system dysregulation or another overlooked driver may be keeping you stuck.
Common Symptoms I Treat:
Physical symptoms
Chronic fatigue or low stamina
Brain fog, memory or concentration problems
Headaches, migraines or sinus symptoms
Digestive problems or food reactions
Histamine intolerance or mast cell symptoms
Hormone, thyroid or metabolic changes
Muscle pain, joint pain or dysautonomia
Increased sensitivity to medications, supplements or treatments
Nervous-system symptoms
Anxiety, panic or feeling constantly on alert
Insomnia or disrupted sleep
Sensitivity to smells, chemicals, light, sound or environments
Fear of mold exposure or re-exposure
Difficulty feeling safe in your body or home
Constant symptom monitoring or bracing for the next reaction
Feeling emotionally or physically overwhelmed by treatment
Mold illness can affect nearly every system in the body, and it’s often overlooked or misdiagnosed. That’s why I always look for it when history or symptom patterns suggest is may be involved. It can also create a profound state of physiological threat that persists even after exposure has been reduced.
But we also need to look deeply for ALL the potential drivers when we’re dealing with complex chronic symptoms.
That is how I work with patients: by taking a broad view of the physiological, environmental, and nervous-system factors that may be contributing to illness, and then creating a whole-person path to recovery.
Mold illness is not just physical. Your nervous system also needs the right conditions for healing.
Many approaches to toxic mold recovery focus almost entirely on exposure, detoxification, infections, gut health and inflammation - using diet, supplements, and medications alone.
Those pieces are important.
But when illness has pushed the body into a prolonged state of survival, the nervous system can become increasingly reactive. Foods, supplements, medications, environments and even ordinary bodily sensations may begin to trigger threat responses.
This can make it difficult to tolerate treatment, sleep deeply, detoxify effectively, eradicate fungal colonization, recover resilience and feel safe even after leaving the original exposure.
Other approaches focus almost entirely on brain retraining or calming techniques, sometimes overlooking the ongoing physical drivers that are still placing stress on the body.
I do not believe you should have to choose between addressing the body and addressing the nervous system.
My work brings both together.
We investigate what is driving the illness physically while also addressing the patterns of threat, reactivity and protection that may be preventing your system from fully recovering
A personalized approach to toxic mold recovery
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Comprehensive review of your health history and symptom patterns
Evaluation of possible mold and environmental exposure
Review of previous laboratory results and treatments
Specialized laboratory testing when appropriate
Consideration of gut, immune, hormonal, metabolic and infectious contributors
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5 Pillar Toxic Mold Recovery Process - Avoidance, Foundations, Protect, Fight, Repair
Personalized strategies for reducing toxic burden
Nutritional, herbal or medication support when indicated
Support for digestion, microbiome health and elimination
Strategies for inflammation, histamine reactivity and treatment tolerance
Care adapted to your current level of sensitivity and resilience
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Identify the traumas and patterns keeping your system on high alert
Personalized memory reconsolidation and brain-rewiring work
Reducing fear, hypervigilance and reactivity around symptoms or exposure
Building greater nervous-system flexibility and resilience
Supporting your ability to tolerate medical treatment and daily life
Care based on where you are in the mold-recovery process
You don’t have to wait until every you’re in a mold safe environment before seeking support.
In fact, I recommend that you don’t wait! There’s a lot you can do to support and protect your body while you’re still being exposed so that the rest of your healing progresses much easier once you’ve gotten to a healing environment.
How I support you will depend on whether you are still being exposed, have moved into a safer environment or are not yet sure whether mold is involved.
If You're Still Living In Mold/Biotoxins
The immediate goal is to protect your body from damage, improve resilience, and reduce other things that might be straining your health.
It’s also to support you in making thoughtful decisions with the right support regarding home testing, remediation, and/or relocation decisions without pushing your body beyond what it can tolerate.
Care is focused on:
Understanding the likely impact of the environment
Reducing ongoing exposure where possible
Protecting cells and reducing inflammation
Building resilience and treatment tolerance
Supporting careful detoxification and elimination
Preparing for deeper repair in a safer environment
Improving symptoms so you can function better as you work on changing your environment.
If You're Now In a Mold-Safe Environment
Once exposure has been reduced, the body may need more comprehensive support to clear accumulated toxic burden, colonization, and repair the systems affected by prolonged illness.
Care may focus on:
Detoxifying accumulated mycotoxin body burden
Protecting cells until those toxins are out of the body
Treating fungal colonization
Supporting repair and rebalancing of gut, immune, hormonal and mitochondrial function
Investigating and addressing persistent infections or dysbiosis
Rebuilding nutritional status and resilience
Reducing conditioned reactivity and fear of re-exposure
Healing the trauma of mold illness.
Helping the body and nervous system recognize that recovery is now possible
If You're Not Sure Whether Mold Is the Cause
You do not need to arrive with a diagnosis.
We can begin with a comprehensive evaluation of your symptoms, history, environment, previous testing and treatment responses.
From there, we will determine what additional investigation and testing makes sense and whether mold appears to be a central driver, one part of a larger picture or unlikely to explain your symptoms.
Whatever drivers we find in our investigation, we will address them or I will send you to someone who is best suited to help with your particular issue.
A different kind of mold illness care
Many of the patients I work with have already tried a lot.
They may have worked with conventional doctors, functional medicine providers, naturopathic physicians, mold specialists, nutritionists, therapists or nervous-system programs. They have often spent years, and significant amounts of money trying to solve one piece of the problem at a time….
and often those pieces aren’t the ones that are driving the illness.
The problem is not necessarily that every previous treatment was wrong.
The problem is often that no one has stepped back far enough to see how the environment, immune system, gut, hormones, infections, trauma, sensitivities and nervous system are interacting….and which issues are really at the core of the problem.
My approach is different because:
I look for the deeper drivers. We do not stop at symptom labels or symptom management when there may be a more complete explanation and route to real healing.
I have broad mold and chronic illness training utilizing many different approaches to healing. For mold illness specifically, I have learned from Dr. Jill Crista, Dr. Neil Nathan, Dr. Andrew Campbell, Dr. Joseph Brewer, Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, and others. This allows me to adapt my mold illness recovery plan to the patient and the exposure for the best possible outcome.
I address the body and nervous system together. Mold treatment and nervous-system healing are integrated rather than separated.
Care is individualized. I do not use a rigid, one-size-fits-all mold protocol. It’s tailored to your specific exposure, your body’s tolerance, and stage of healing. We follow what’s working for you, and leave what’s not by the wayside because there are many routes to the same end result.
Treatment is paced to your tolerance. Highly sensitive patients often need a more thoughtful and gradual approach.
You receive meaningful support. You are not expected to troubleshoot a complicated recovery plan on your own. I take on fewer patients at a time, so you can get deeper support on your healing journey.
I understand this personally as well as professionally. My approach has been shaped by my own experience with complex chronic illness driven largely by toxic mold exposure and nervous-system dysregulation.
I understand how exhausting it is to keep looking for the missing answer.
For more than 15 years, I struggled to understand why my own health kept falling apart.
I collected diagnoses, tried treatment after treatment and worked hard to do everything “right”, but I continued to get worse because the deeper drivers of my illness had not been recognized.
Toxic mold exposure and nervous-system dysregulation were two of the most important pieces I had been missing.
My own recovery changed the way I practice medicine.
Today, I help people investigate the causes beneath their symptoms and create a recovery plan that addresses the body, environment and nervous system together.
You deserve more than another disconnected treatment plan. You deserve to understand what is happening, why you have not recovered yet and what your most important next steps may be.
How The Process Works
This work goes deeper than symptom management, supplement protocols, or nervous system tools alone. Together, we look at what is keeping your body and nervous system stuck, then build a clear, personalized path that empowers you to clear the obstacles to your healing.
Discovery Call:
We start with a brief 15 minute chat to see if we might be a good fit to work together, and which path might fit best.
Evaluation:
We do a deep dive evaluation from either a functional medicine or nervous system patterning lens or both to create a healing plan.
Personalized Path:
Recommendations may include further testing, functional-medicine treatment, nervous-system work or an integrated approach.
Ongoing Support:
We monitor your response, adjust your plan and reassess what you need as your health improves.
Need more information first?
Explore my evaluations and ongoing care options.
Ready to talk about your situation?
Book a complimentary 15-minute discovery call.
Recovery Stories
“I went through some pretty profound changes. It is incredible the results you get when you really dig into the true roots of where things are coming from.
It's been the dual approach that's given me the most benefit. I don't think one or the other would've been enough on its own, but if I had to pick one or the other, it seems like the trauma response rewiring and the emotional healing probably is more significant. I think you can do the physical stuff all you want, but if you don't work on this underlying brain retraining, you're only gonna get limited results and they're gonna keep coming back.”
-Rumeysa
Your Questions, Answered
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Yes. I provide naturopathic medical care by secure telehealth to patients located throughout Colorado, including the Denver metropolitan area, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, Lakewood, Golden, Littleton, Durango, Telluride and other Colorado communities.
Because care is provided remotely, you can attend appointments from home rather than traveling to a clinic.
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Yes. I am a registerd naturopathic physician in Colorado (this is the equivalent of a license in Colordo for NDs). My practice focuses on mold-related illness, complex chronic illness and nervous-system dysregulation.
I provide specialty consultative care rather than serving as a replacement for your primary care physician. Patients should maintain a primary care provider for routine examinations, preventive care, emergency needs and general medical management.
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Yes, it’s a natural fit to provide mold illness evaluation and ongoing care by telehealth. We can review your health and exposure history, previous records and testing; order appropriate laboratory work; develop treatment strategies; get you the necessary treatments; monitor your response; and provide nervous-system healing sessions remotely. All of this puts less stress on you.
If you need a physical examination, urgent care, or have an emergency, you will need to visit your local primary care physician, urgent care clinic, or emergency room.
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No. Many patients contact me because they suspect mold but are not certain.
An initial comprehensive evaluation can help us determine whether your symptom pattern, environmental history and previous treatment responses make mold a likely contributor and then if appropriate, we can pursue testing to confirm or deny that suspicion.
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I work with patients who have been diagnosed with CIRS as well as people with other patterns of illness associated with mold and water-damaged buildings.
I do not apply one rigid protocol to every patient. Recommendations are based on the person’s exposures, symptoms, laboratory findings, sensitivities, nervous-system state and treatment tolerance.
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I do not follow the Shoemaker Protocol.
I may use certain tools or medications that are also used within that model when they are appropriate, but my overall approach is broader and individualized.
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Yes. Many of the people I work with are reactive to supplements, medications, foods or environmental triggers.
Rather than simply pushing harder, we look for the reasons treatment is not being tolerated. This can include dosage and timing, elimination capacity, inflammation, histamine or mast cell reactivity, nervous-system threat responses, gut dysfunction and other unresolved stressors.
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Yes, and I highly encourage people. to seek treatment at this stage to protect the body from toxin damage as much as possible and support your body’s resilience so that the remaining journey to get well once you’re in a mold safe environment is easier and shorter.
It’s also important to be realistic that complete recovery is not generally possible while meaningful exposure continues.
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My practice is private-pay and does not bill insurance directly. However, you can likely get coverage from your HSA or FSA funds. Payment plans are also available where appropriate, and 0% interest medical credit is available to those who qualify to spread the cost out over an even longer period of time.
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No. I provide specialized care for mold-related and complex chronic illness. You will need to maintain a local primary care provider for routine physical examinations, screenings, vaccinations, urgent concerns and general medical care.
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I have a partnership with a prescriber to get my Colorado patients pharmaceuticals when needed.
You don’t have to keep trying to solve this alone.
If you are searching for a mold illness doctor in Colorado because your health has become increasingly complicated, reactive or difficult to figure out, there may be more connecting your symptoms than anyone has recognized.
Together, we can look beneath the individual diagnoses, identify the drivers that may be keeping your body stuck and determine what type of support will give you the clearest path forward.
Not ready to chat yet?