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Mould illness is a chronic, systemic inflammatory attack on wellbeing. Yet, there is no accepted medical consensus for the diagnosis and treatment of mould illness, which forces many sufferers to take their wellbeing into their own hands.
In this episode, we speak to Camilla Thompson, a prominent Australian biohacking and wellness advocate. Camilla shares her personal journey through the challenges of postnatal depression, mould illness, and chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), explaining how these experiences transformed her approach to health and led her to launch multiple businesses aimed at helping others optimise their wellness.
Gain insights into Camilla’s unique perspectives on biohacking fundamentals, her personal strategies for overcoming severe health issues, and her commitment to empowering individuals to take control of their health. Bec and Camilla dive into her holistic approach to addressing chronic illness, focusing on practices such as gut health optimisation, innovative techniques like cryotherapy and NAD supplementation as well as the critical role of adopting a hope mindset. As she reflects on her journey, Camilla provides practical advice on lifestyle changes that contribute to long-term wellness.
Key Takeaways
- Camilla’s journey from personal health struggles to becoming a wellness expert showcases the power of biohacking techniques and natural healing.
- Understanding and addressing mould exposure can play a critical role in overcoming chronic inflammatory and immune health issues.
- The importance of a holistic, foundational approach to health, including diet, sleep, nature exposure, and stress management, is emphasised.
- Mindset, particularly a hope mindset, plays a crucial role in facilitating health recovery and transformation.
- Growing interest in the biohacking space represents opportunities for growth and education within the health community.
Podcast Timestamps
00:00 | Camilla’s Personal Journey To Becoming A Biohacking Expert
02:56 | A Journey Through Chronic Illnesses
07:37 | The Hidden Dangers and Impact of Mould Exposure
12:23 | Overcoming Mould Illness Through Biohacking and Lifestyle Changes
16:42 | The Importance of Supplements and Quality Nutrition
21:17 | The Impact of Nature and Understanding the Vagus Nerve
27:11 | Exploring Biohacking Conferences and Community Engagement
29:10 | Mindset, Healing, and Joy: A Holistic Approach to Wellbeing
37:19 | Embracing Biohacking and Wellness in Modern Lifestyles
Podcast Transcript
0:00:00 - (Bec): My guest today is Camilla Thompson. Camilla is an integrative nutritionist and health coach with expertise in nutrition, psychology, neuroplasticity, mental health, first aid and epigenetics. She is the founder of the Wellness Coach and BiohackMe Coaching where she supports her clients in their wellbeing and biohacking journeys. She is also the founder of Mould Safe, a mould testing and remediation organisation based on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
In addition, Camilla is also a co-founder of Select Wellness, a company that focuses on delivering bespoke mental health and wellbeing programs. I invited Camilla in for a chat to share her personal story of how her experience with postnatal depression, mould illness, and chronic inflammatory response syndrome has led to her becoming one of Australia's best-known biohacking and longevity experts.
I'm really excited to have her share her story. So without further ado, I warmly welcome Camilla.
Camilla, thank you so much for joining me for this chat. I think our audience is going to love hearing about your journey. You have a really interesting way of coming to appreciate and love biohacking, and so I thought what would be a better way to start than to ask you to share with us what's been your health journey and how you've come to be a multi-business owner who works in the health space and also, you know, support your own wellbeing in the process.
(Camilla): Thanks Bec. It's awesome to join you. And yeah, multi-business owner. I've not been called that before so that's, that's a new one. But very true, very true.
(Bec): It is very true.
(Camilla): So yeah, look my, my biohacking journey started quite a while ago. I grew up with a mum who I call the OG biohacker who was very progressive. Our house was low tox, pretty much chemical-free fluoride through fluoride-free toothpaste. All of our products were low chemical, all of our food came from local farms and yeah, the quality of our meat and things like that. So I, I really grew up. That was kind of instilled into me from a young age with my mum. She was always coming up with crazy stuff that now has obviously come true. Yeah, yeah.
(Bec): An early adopter.
(Camilla): She was totally an early adopter. So yeah, she's, she's my OG biohacker so I learned a lot off her. But of course I rebelled massively as a kid. I wasn't allowed sugar. I was allowed half a packet of fruit pastels on a Sunday with my sister which was split into. And so Yeah, I was obviously chasing sugar and chasing things that I. That I was deprived or wasn't allowed and then went into a bit of a junk food thing in my teens and then sort of came out of that. And then over the last sort of 15 years since having children and, you know, just having… Getting older, you start going, God, I've got to start looking after my health. So. Just reverted back to a lot of foundations that my mum taught me. With my oldest son Now, Ollie, who's 21, I suffered really bad postnatal depression and it went undiagnosed for a long time. And it was only when he was about a year old, we moved to Australia and I just was not coping and I didn't know anyone and we'd moved here for work and, yeah, I finally got diagnosed with postnatal depression. I got put on SSRIs.
They made me feel even worse. Caveat. They do help people, but they just. I wasn't on the right ones and I put on loads of weight. I couldn't get out of bed and my mental health declined even more than it already was. So I thought. And I was also sort of studying psychology. I was finishing my degree and I knew something was wrong, but I was like, I. I can fix myself here. So I came off the SSRIs, cold turkey, which I do not recommend. It's not a good. It's not a good. No strategy at all.
Had a complete and utter breakdown. Ended up walking around. At the time, I was living in Rose Bay in Sydney. Walking around Rose Bay in tears, pushing a buggy. And I saw a Chinese acupuncture guy and a little shot. And I went in and this beautiful man just sat down with me and held my hands and I was sobbing and sobbing and, yeah, he's just so beautiful. I say, he saved my life. Such a kind man. And held my hands and said, it'll be okay. Started jabbing needles into me, gave me some Chinese herbs and said, come back and see me in a week. I kept going back and seeing him every week. And slowly I started getting stronger, healthier, more mentally fit. I could get out of bed in the mornings. I started losing weight. I started eating properly. I was walking, I was swimming in the ocean. I suddenly had my kind of joy of life back and realised that I needed to, you know, get my shit together because I had a little baby.
Well, he was sort of 18 months to 2 years old by them, and I needed to start looking after myself and him. So that was my first kind of journey into okay, you know, these drugs aren't going to work for me. I need to find alternative ways to heal myself. So I used, obviously, Chinese herbs and acupuncture and nature and ocean and diet and all those wonderful things. I then went into eight years of being chronically ill. And, yeah, I was. I was really sick for quite a long time and no one knew what was wrong with me.
(Bec): So what kind of like, what. What was that for you? What kind of symptoms and things were you experiencing?
(Camilla): Yeah, so it was a lot of immune system-related stuff. So I'd get constant infections. I had an eye that used to weep and be very itchy and get swollen. I had sinus issues. I had constant dehydration where I felt like I was permanently hungover. But I wasn't drinking. So there was… Yeah, there was no alcohol, but I still felt that, that horrible feeling. And slowly it got worse and worse. My symptoms, my anxiety was through the roof and my mental health was just not in a good place. And I felt like an old woman. My brain fog was really bad. My body was aching. Not too dissimilar to perimenopause symptoms.
(Bec): Yep, yep.
(Camilla): But I was too young for perimenopause at the time. But, yeah, every doctor just said they didn't know what was wrong with me. I did every blood test, loads of scans. Yeah. And just had no answers from modern medicine.
(Bec): So there was nothing detected on your blood to suggest what was actually going on?
(Camilla): No, nothing. They just kept telling me it was fine. Eventually, a doctor said, I'm afraid this is in your head. You're choosing to be sick. We can't help you. And, yeah, I ended up going on a bone broth detox for a week because I was like, I've got to try something here. Like, I feel like crap.
(Bec): And did that make it worse?
0:06:47 - (Camilla): So it made me better for a bit, but then worse. So it made me better for a while because, interestingly, I was taking quite a lot of things, like clay with this bone broth. It was a whole sort of detox program. And so I felt amazing at the end of it. But then I went downhill massively after about three weeks. And I think some of the histamine in the bone broth as well probably triggered what my symptoms were.
So I ended up bedridden. I was like an old woman. Every time I walked, my bones would creak and I was. I was not in a good way. And a good friend of mine came over to my house and we'd had some water damage. In various parts of our apartment and particularly in a cupboard in our bedroom. And at this time, I was bedridden and she found mould everywhere. So it was in my bedroom, was in my bed, my blinds..
(Bec): That’s hours and hours every day.
(Camilla): Yeah. It was in my home office. I was working in my office, was in my kids bedrooms. It was. Every room in our house was affected. Yeah. With mould.
0:07:45 - (Bec): Right. And then so that began your journey into; is this my problem?
(Camilla): Suddenly I was like, okay. Now the thing is with mould is only 25% of us have a specific gene which is part of the coeliac family, which is the HLA DR or DQ gene. And that means we are susceptible to mould illness. It means we can't actually detox and bind the spores and basically excrete them. We're not able. Our body won't let us do that. It gets confused. So four people living in a house to. I was sick. My youngest son got sick. My oldest son and my husband were fine.
(Bec): Yep.
(Camilla): So we didn't think it was our home picture.
(Bec): Was it the same as your son that became sick? It was quite different as well.
(Camilla): So yeah. Yeah. My son's symptoms were sores. He used to get sores on his lip, low energy, a few rashes on his body, but nothing really significant that pointed to mould. Now that I know what I know, it was like, okay, that's obvious signs of mould. But really I had no understanding about how damaging mould was. Yeah. Within 24 hours, we'd left our home. We couldn't go back. Our entire home was written off. So we lost all our belongings.
(Bec): Wow.
(Camilla): We had nowhere to live for three months. I mean, we were staying in, in a service like a Meriton apartment, but we had no home. And yeah, it was a pretty traumatic time, to be honest. And waiting for results, waiting for insurance, trying to find doctors that can actually test for mould is really tough. But eventually, I got a diagnosis and so I've got something called CIRS, which is chronic inflammation response syndrome, which basically is a biotoxin mould illness. And you have it for the rest of your life, but you can manage it.
(Bec): Yep. It's like an exacerbation to an inflammatory response when you are constantly triggered, your immune system's constantly triggered, sending up flares all over your body going, you know, warning, warning, something's not right here.
So I mean, this is something I think there's not enough awareness about. And I have spoken a little bit with another expert, Lisa McDonald, about mould illness. But A) what a lot of people don't realise is that it can almost look like an early onset dementia for some people. Like not always, but it is now one of the first things I think of if people, as people tend to do, when they find out you're a naturopath, they'll start asking you questions. What could this be? Or I've got this or I've got that. And as soon as I start seeing inflammation, unexplained pain, allergy or intolerances or just reactivity, skin issues, brain fog, fatigue, mood aberrations as well, that it's, it's one of the first things I ask. And I was saying this to you last time we spoke. Like sometimes people can be really offended. Like if you say is there any chance that you've got an exposure to mould? Like as if it's, it's that it's not about being clean or something. But I mean for some people, mould isn't even visible in the home and the spores aren't visible. It's not about, it's not about that. It's just understanding that, you know, you could have these in your home and, and not even realise it.
(Camilla): 100% and that's… We didn't know. We couldn't see it. It was hidden mould.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): And we'd had, you know, water damage over the years, all the storms, it had been patched up by, you know, some dodgy handyman. Like nothing had ever been done properly. So you don't know what you don't know.
But there is a lot of shame associated with it with people. They, they've. There's something wrong with them. It's like, oh, my house has got mould. And it's like one in two homes have mould. Like we are, you know, not all mould is bad. We need it. It's part of our ecosystem. But definitely, yeah, some of the, the water-damage spores are the most damaging. So that's what causes a lot of the illness. The biotoxin illness.
(Bec): Yeah, yeah. It. And so then I'd imagine, I mean that that's another thing people don't realise is, is that it'll then those spores are airborne and that's why all your belongings that has to go, you know, probably the, you know, this is a little while ago. There's starting to be a bit more awareness now around mould, mouldy building syndromes. But you know, I'd imagine like, and then on top of that you've got all the stress associated with not having somewhere to live and not having all your belongings. And that would have made everything worse as well.
(Camilla): It's, it's. I call it. I've called it PTMD. Post Traumatic Mould Disorder.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): And it's… Anyone who’’s been through it will say, oh, my God. Yeah, it is, it is a form of PTSD. But PTMD, because it's so, so traumatic. It's like you're. You're going through a natural disaster because you lose your home and all your belongings, but you're also sick.
(Bec): Yeah.
0:12:23 - (Camilla): You've got that added layer of, you know, I spent 18 months in treatment trying to get the mould out of my body. And it was so. I mean, I feel grateful that a. I had the finances to do it because I spent tens of thousands of dollars getting well on appointments and tests and supplements. And it's. It's expensive. A lot of people can't afford to, to get well. You know, they have to live with it. It's. And I also had an amazing support. I had an incredible naturopath who also has a mould illness. And that was her background. And she, I just did everything she told me to do. She said I'm her only client that's ever done everything that she's.. went in mould because most of them don't. And if you miss steps and you're not committed to it, you just, you don't heal as well as I have. So it's a commitment.
(Bec): So in terms of the steps to recovery, like, what does that look like? How do people go about that?
(Camilla): Well, you know what's really interesting? I bought a sauna years and years and years ago when I was in the midst of my illness and I didn't know what was wrong with me. All I knew is every time I got in a sauna, I felt so much better. So that was my first sort of step, was like the sauna just sweating out every time. For a few days after, I'd feel much better. But then obviously I was still living in mould.
So that was one thing that I was trying. And then I sort of. charcoal was great, but again, I took that for too long and that really started impacting my gut lining. And then I was on Cholestyramine as well, which is quite a heavy-duty pharmaceutical drug. And a lot of people choose not to take that when they've got mould illness because we're so highly sensitive to so many things. But for me, I gradually just started taking it and it worked.
(Bec): Yeah.
Camilla): So, yeah, I'm, I'm happy that I was able to take that, but I had so many food allergies and swollen stomach and allergic... I get ulcers on my tongue. I'd eat certain things and I'd have like welts on my tongue. And yeah, it was, I was so sensitive. Even now any smells like chemical. I'm chemically sensitive as well.
(Bec): Yeah. So obviously the saunas, you, you supplementation and you've started to gain your, your health back and, and get on top of things and then… And then what happened?
(Camilla): Yeah. So I. So I spent 18 months in treatment and then to be honest, another thing that really helps, I moved out of Sydney to the central coast and moved into by the ocean and in nature. And that's been an incredible, incredible. That's always been a big healing place for me.
But yeah, I just got into more biohacking techniques. So just trying things like cryotherapy and hyperbarics and different supplements that have really helped. Like things like NAD, NMN. That for me was life-changing. Last year, as I was heading into perimenopause in my brain, very similar symptoms…
(Bec:):Left the building...
(Camilla): Yeah. So I was like, oh my God, I feel like I've got mould poisoning again. But actually, you know, it was just. It's just a, you know, that drop in progesterone and oestrogen. But yeah. So different things. I've just. I experiment with all different things and see what works. Cryotherapy is great because of chronic inflammation.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): And obviously I just gotta be careful. I can't. I don't eat any refined sugars because they obviously create a lot of inflammation in the body. I had to really watch alcohol intakes. I don't really drink that much anymore. Yeah. So it's just managing it, it's ongoing and I know if I go into a mouldy environment that I just need to take.. Zeolite actually has been an amazing thing. I've started taking in the last 12 months and that's really helped. I do that every other day.
(Bec): Yep.
(Camilla): And then. And then chlorella as well. So just those binders helping my body to bind and do all those things it should be doing.
(Bec): Yep. And I would imagine too that, you know, given that you had a lot of things to do with mouth ulcers and like you said, the bloating and digestive function that you've had to do a lot of gut work over the years.
(Camilla): Well, yeah, 100%. I had leaky gut from mould. Like I had so many gut issues and it's. I'm still not 100% there. I'm actually looking forward to Trying Gut Repair. I want to focus on that for a month and really…
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): Yeah. Just absolutely see how that… What that does. So I do a lot of. I do probiotics. Probiotics. What else do I do for gut but a slippery elm. Few other things. I can't even think what else is. I've got a cupboard full of supplements.
0:16:42 - (Bec): Oh yeah. You and me both. If. Yeah. Are you even in the health industry if your pantry isn't full?
(Camilla): I know I was actually looking the other day thinking I need more space, I need to set up even more space. But I've reduced down actually so much I'm now really laser focused on what I'm taking and I try to take as much as I can in liquid form or powder and water rather than too many tablets.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): And because I was taking so many, like I was. Wasn't quite at Dave Asprey's 170 where wherever he's at a day. Which is insanity.
(Bec): Yeah. You've got to have a really robust digestive system as well to cope with that amount of supplement intake like, so if your gut's not there, or you know, then sometimes it's like, you know, throwing a football down a hallway. Like you can't really achieve much until you've got that gut really optimally functioning.
(Camilla): 100% And also like, you know, if you're eating a really good quality diet, do we need all those supplements? Like I kind of. It's just, it's. Yeah. It's a bit of a contention with me at the moment. Like I. There are some real key supplements that are so important and I would not be where I am now health wise without supplements. There's just no way in a million years. So I'm in a massive advocate but I think just really honing in on the important ones and totally agree. The gut piece is so important.
(Bec): Number one, I have a lovely colleague that used to always say, you know, supplements are supplements, not main-ements. And so, you know that they. I like to think of them as as often that life raft that we need to get from point A to point B. Like you said you wouldn't be here without them. But fundamentally the goal is to kind of achieve it with diet and lifestyle wherever possible. Now where that becomes challenging nowadays is around, you know, the quality of our food supply and what have you. Like that is.
(Camilla): That's a problem.
(Bec): Yeah. That is the unfortunate reality, isn't it? That the animals are raised poorly which leads to poor quality meats and poor quality fatty acids and the farming techniques are, you know, stripping out soils which is making us all really quite deplete in minerals. There's lots of aspects to that. Like yes, we ideally want everything from diet.
(Camilla): It's just hard.
(Bec): Not always achievable.
(Camilla): A lot of people will say that, they'll say oh no, I don't, I don't need anything or oh, I eat salmon twice a week and I'm like, well yeah, that's like if it's not wild salmon, it's full of absolute crap. It's one of the most toxic foods you can eat and that's, you're not getting the proper fats that you need from that. But yeah, it's hard and a lot of people, they just don't know what they don't know. It's an education piece.
But yeah, our soil is not great. Like I, all my veg comes from farmers markets. Like I'm really, it's just a decision I make and I get up early on a Sunday and I'm committed to it because I know it's good for me and my health and my family. But it does, you know, A), we need access to it and we're lucky that we have access. A lot of people don't but, but it's absolutely so important.
So I think those basics, the bi. I call them the biohacking basics, I've got a talk on that and I'm actually writing a book which should be out next year I hope. Fingers crossed. But it is about those foundations.
It's the basics. You know, sleep is just a non-negotiable for me. It's absolutely, you know, I'm a 9:30, 10:00's a late night for me, you know and I like to get up early and have that sunlight set my circadian rhythms in the morning. So that natural light, you know, nutrition is just an absolute non-negotiable. Saunas every other day, cold showers every day. My, my supplement protocol, you know, these are kind of the, the baseline for me and being in nature and sun, you know, I. 20 minutes in the sunshine if I can every day at least. Yeah.
(Bec): Yeah. And you know that list might be sounding overwhelming to some people but if we think back to just a few generations ago, you know, a hot shower wasn't the norm and artificial light in the morning, wasn't the norm. And your phone, the light from your phone, wasn't the first light that you saw from the day and you would have been always in contact with the ground, the earth, you know, nature, whether you were finding foods to eat, foraging for foods, you know, working in the land and doing all that stuff. So we've, we've, as a society we've often lost touch with that. And worse for the city dwellers, like, it probably makes sense why you felt better moving from kind of like the city more to, you know, the central coast, which, I mean, I'm not going to call it the country, but it's, it's not as city-like there's not much concrete as there is in Sydney.
0:21:17 - (Camilla): Yeah, it's definitely more rural and particularly where I am, I just look out at trees and water and I'm very lucky. But yeah, I felt a massive shift in my nervous system just moving. The anxiety, I mean, we moved just before COVID Well, just at Covid, whilst Covid was starting. But the anxiety, the collective anxiety, particularly where I was in the eastern suburbs and the rushing and the busyness, and you just, you're constantly wired and running on cortisol and it's just, you don't realise until you step away and you're like, oh my Gosh, like I can't believe I was operating like that. It's. Yeah, we definitely. That rest piece has become really important in slowing down for me and taking time to recharge.
(Bec): So there is good evidence for time in nature improving the nervous system and also like, you know, the connection of, with others and how that can kind of rub off on us. You know, there's some fascinating scientific explorations of that to validate what you feel, what you felt like from stepping away from it as well, that I think not a lot of people realise. Like we make these castaway comments of like I'm going to remove myself from toxic environments or toxic people and, and oh, suddenly I feel better. But actually, it's very real.
(Camilla): It is.
(Bec): It's very tangible and, and it does, it makes a profound difference in your outlook and the way you think about things and, and you know, the way you approach things is if somebody is close to you and, and they've got a problem with this, then suddenly you've got a problem with this. This is, this is society and I think this is why we see such a massive shift in like the amount of people that are suffering with stress and anxious symptoms.
(Camilla): Yeah, 100%. I just read a book called there it is; /the Vagus Nerve Reset. And it's such a, it's such a great book. I read it in about a week, because it was so interesting. But it was, it talks about how our nervous system mirrors other people's nervous systems as well and how we pick up on those energies. And I'm a really sensitive energy person. I can feel if something's off, even if I speak to someone on the phone, I can hear it in their voice, which is the nature of the work that I do, I guess in the coaching space as well, that I pick up on those things. But yeah, our nervous system is so complex and so sensitive and we don't realise how much we're taking on and absorbing and carrying around with us. And that leads to ill health. Right? And disease in the body is when, when our nervous system and our gut is dysregulated.
(Bec): Absolutely. And if the gut and nervous system, which are probably more the outward physical signs, then there's a very good possibility that your vagus nerve is disturbed also.
Yeah, it's a fascinating topic. We had a, an interview with Emrys Goldsworthy on that, who I've known for a lot of years. Who was the first person to bring things like the vagus nerve and photobiomodulation and low level laser therapy to my attention, which in and of themselves now would be considered biohacks. But, but you know that he's also written a book on that. And it's, it's an absolutely fascinating nerve like that has a touch point throughout the entire body, like from top to bottom, every organ system. And, and although it's most widely known as that kind of gut-brain connection, you know, that actually does a lot more like respiratory function and heart rate variability. And these are the reasons why we can use these kinds of tools to measure our wellbeing. Is like, it's got a lot to do with the vagus nerve and the way it senses our environment.
(Camilla): And its linked to our voice box, which I didn't realise. I learned that as well. And so that's why humming and singing and all those things are so soothing.
(Bec): Yes.
(Camilla): For the body, because we're actually soothing and activating the vagus nerve. So, yeah, it is. I think more people are talking about it now, but I remember sort of mentioning it years ago in some of my talks and people were just like, well, I've never heard of it.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): I think now it's becoming more mainstream and people are understanding so much more about the body. It's, you know, I'm 47 and this year I have learned more about my body through hormones. At 47, I'm like, why did I not know this 18 or 16? Why wasn't I taught this in school? You know, like understanding oestrogen and progesterone and testosterone and understanding the female body and what happens to us and what happens to women as we age and that, how important oestrogen is. I always thought it was the enemy because of what you read in the media. You know, I remember my mum even recently said to me, you know, oh, oestrogen gives you breast cancer. And you know, like, it's just, we've been so lied to and let down by. Yeah. By GPs and doctors who just don't seem to really understand the female body. They don't even learn about it properly. They don't learn about menopause or perimenopause in their training.
(Bec): Yeah. Or it's, it's a very small section of a very like, expansive course. So, you know, it might only be. And I see this happen a lot on videos, on, on social media. Like you'll say.. doctors will be like, I probably spent barely a week discussing and I probably spent barely a week discussing nutrition. And yet they're so fundamental to our wellbeing and, and like we can possess these, these vessels and have like actually no idea how they function. And when you start to understand it, you can, you get this whole new appreciation for the way you treat it, what you put in your mouth, how you think about the world, how you engage with others, how you respond or how you approach different situations. Like once you start to have that knowledge, I think it completely changes your perspective on life.
(Camilla): Yep, it totally does. It really does. It was interesting. I went to the biohacking conference in Dallas this year, Dave.
0:27:11 - (Bec): How was that? I didn't even know that was on until you mentioned it.
(Camilla): I know. Well, there was, you know, there's six conferences this year, so there was one in Dallas, one in Austin, all done by different people. One in London, one in Singapore, one in Japan and one in Helsinki. And that they were within three months of each other. Pretty much.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): You know, and in Australia, like, it's like crickets. There's no, nothing. I'm, I'm trying to hopefully do something next year and do a bit of a biohacker summit with Azra.
(Bec): Yeah. That would be cool.
(Camilla): Yeah. From BiohackHer on the Gold Coast. So we're kind of trying to talk to Dave Asprey and there's a few other people as well to see if we can do something a bit smaller scale here next year, but in a way that we can do it as a place where people can come and try different technologies. We can educate them about supplements, we can have amazing speakers.Definitely have to have you guys involved.
(Bec): Love that.
(Camilla): But yeah, but it's. It's like people want to know. Like, I held that biohacking meetup last night and people were just so curious and inquisitive and so many questions and people…
(Bec): What are the kinds of questions people are asking? Like, where is the interest in. In it. Is it. Is it mostly around brain? Brain fog, like this kind of epidemic we feel of brain fog? Or is it other things?
(Camilla): Yeah. A lot of it's got. So we talked a lot about gut-brain. You know, people just are taking their health into their own hands now. There's a massive lack of trust now with big pharma and GPs. And so people are going, actually, I need to look after myself. What does that look like? So I think a lot of people, their first port of call is kind of Dave Asprey, because he's quite well known. And then they start going into different Huberman and Sinclair and all the different people that they kind of start learning.
(Bec): But yeah, those guys are really far down the rabbit hole. You know, they're nearly up to a decade into being a biohacker. So, you know, they're in a very different sphere to I guess, where some others may be in that kind of beginning phase. Like somebody needs to nurture that category of people as well.
(Camilla): Totally. And that's kind of what my mission is, is just kind of take some of the complex science and ideas and really make them accessible and simplified so that people can understand and they don't feel too overwhelmed. Right?
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): That's the thing. People are overwhelmed by, wellbeing. Like it's another thing on their to-do list. It's like, oh, I've got to do this and this. But it's a lot of it's about mindset. Like, I think for me, my biggest thing was I lived in fear for many years that I was going to get sick again and I was going to come into contact with mould and I wouldn't go to my friend's houses and if I knew they had mould, I wouldn't go to shopping centres, cinemas if they'd had water damage because I was so paranoid. And I. Yeah. But I eventually moved through that fear because that's the biggest problem. It's holding you back and it's creating so much stress in the body. So I really switched my mindset and I think, you know, that's when it comes to health, mindset is everything. You've got to really believe. You've got to be hopeful, you've got to be curious. You, you know, you've got to be up for self-experimentation and understand and trust your body, that your body can heal, that can heal. With the right kind of support and guidance, you can heal.
0:30:17 - (Bec): 100% And so when it comes to like, mindset, do you have specific things that you do, like journaling or like, how do you approach that?
(Camilla): A lot of it, most of the time I talk to myself.
(Bec): Affirmations and self talk.
(Camilla): Yeah.
(Bec): But yeah, its not to be underestimated.
(Camilla): It's apparently the first sign of madness, but I think it's the first line of brilliance. So I get a lot of my clients to, to talk to themselves and just call themselves out. So a lot of this stuff's challenging, right? So it's challenging those thought patterns, those beliefs and some of that meaning that we've made over things over the years and actually challenging what's true and what's not and trying to shift so using that neuroplasticity to create those new neural pathways.
So I did a bit of study in neuroplasticity and epigenetics and I've kind of implemented a lot of that into my own life. And then I use that for my coaching clients. So, yeah, I don't do too much journaling. What I'll do is if I, if stories keep repeating themselves, I'll write them down and then I'll sort of start challenging and understanding what's, what's coming up for me. But I came up with something called the hope mindset, which is not about just blind faith and that everything's going to work out, but it's actually about, okay, if I'm hopeful in my outlook and my mindset, what does that look like? What's my plan? What am I going to do to get to where I need to get to? So then. And then using that, that, that hope mindset to get through.
(Bec): Yep. One might also call that manifesting, which is, you know, also a bit of a buzzword. But the premise is the same, like thinking about yourself positively in the place or the, the goal that you're attempting to reach. And sometimes just by having that in front of mind, you know, it. Therefore, you take the steps you need to get there because you are more consciously aware of it.
(Camilla): Yeah, totally. Like, I'll say things to myself like, Camilla, trust yourself, trust your body. You've got this. You can heal. You know, don't go down that rabbit hole. I find that so useful, talking to myself like that because I'm actually becoming an observer of my thoughts and my emotions and I'm taking a step back and I'm able to be a bit more objective around what's going on. So that really works for me. I find naming, labeling challenging and just coming back to that mindset and being hopeful.
(Bec): Yeah, I like that. And I, and it's obviously paying off because you know, you, you definitely even just in the short time I've come to know you, I've been watching you succeed and achieve goals and do various things with, you know, your outreach on social media and you know, kind of extending this message of, you know, we can take this personal, this personal hold on our wellbeing.
(Camilla): Yeah, absolutely. And I set up a mould business last year, testing and remediation and removal on the central coast. Because there was no one doing it properly. And I just had people coming to me all the time saying hell got mold issues. So my, one of my good friends that found the mould in my house in Rose Bay, she's moved up the coast and we've set a business up here and it's, it's doing great. I mean I can't get too involved. I'm more in the back end because obviously I can't get into people's mouldy houses.
But yeah, I've always been a service, I think particularly the last eight years I've worked in mental health and well being in the corporate space. I just love helping people. I love the transformation and I just love watching people switch mindsets and change and become empowered to look after their health. So that's kind of my, my mission and my purpose is really to help people to supercharge their lives and really get the best out of what they can and yeah, have a really good health span. and well, mould illness is.
(Bec): Well, mould illness is certainly not going anywhere, nor is CIRS. I think that as more awareness grows about those conditions like there's only going to be more people that realise they have them who then realise they need support. So it's such a great space to be in especially when you're always going to be such a great advocate and a great subject matter expert when you've kind of been through the ringer with it yourself as well. Like some of the best kind of healing practitioners are the ones who've, you know, kind of gone through that personal journey and understand what the people that they're helping are going through like that. That level of empathy is second to none. And I guess as a bit of a final wrap up question Is, you know, obviously you've got, you mentioned them at the beginning, some of those daily kind of practices you go through. But you know, what are those, what are your non-negotiables? What are the things that you like? And that made such a profound difference to me. I'm going to do that forever.
(Camilla): Yeah. Well, I think one of them was NMN definitely last year was like I just went from sort of functioning at one level to on like steroids. Like it was just incredible. My brain suddenly just lit up in so many different places.
(Bec): Right.
(Camilla): My energy went through the roof, my metabolism started working better. Like I just, it was an absolute game changer for me.
(Bec): Yep.
(Camilla): So that NAD supplementation is something I'll continue to do. I take breaks and then I slump again and then I go take it off, then I take it again. So that's just a non-negotiable. Saunas are non-negotiable cold showers. You know, at least seven or eight hours sleep. You know, I don't eat any refined sugars, just really nutrient dense foods. But also just having a bit of fun and play. And like at the conference I went to one of the key themes there was about oxytocin and, and how that's one of the key drivers for longevity and how we need to have more love and play and sex and all these things in our life to, to live a long healthy life.
(Bec): So finding a way to bring that kind of joy into every day. And make it non-negotiable.
(Camilla): I have a joy list and I get my clients to create a joy list and you just have to tap in and do one thing a day that brings you joy. And it could be something so simple like just hanging out with your pet or watching the sunrise or just sitting in the sun for 10 minutes. So just doing something that brings you joy. Read a book.
(Bec): It's a very individual thing. For some people its cleaning. It's not my thing but you know, that brings them great joy.
(Camilla): It's dopamine. All right.
(Bec): So it's something that gives you that hit.
0:36:36 - (Camilla): It's the dopamine thing. Just one last thing actually I was going to mention is the conference. I didn't really answer your question properly. I jumped into having a conference in Australia.
It was so interesting, the conference because it was, it was in a hotel, it wasn't in nature. And we spent, we started at like 7, 8am in the morning and finished at 6, 7 o'clock at night. And we were inside all day in not natural light. There was no sunlight, no fresh air at a Sheraton hotel. And there was amazing technologies but everyone was not feeling great because you weren't actually outside at all. You were like three days you were in, you know, artificial light, the rest of it and indoors. So it was a really interesting experience. And you know, some of the stuff that they're doing in America and that they talked about that, you know, some of the treatments you can only get done in Mexico and Dubai and Thailand and some of the really out there gene therapy and stem cell stuff, that was so interesting.
(Bec): I bet.
(Camilla): But Australia is so conservative. I mean, I can't, I think we're years and years behind even the U.S. and yeah, we are a long way away from some of the other countries and some of the technologies.
But you know, Brian Johnson came on and he looked like a robot and you kind of go like, it's, it's, this is so extreme, some of this biohacking. And I really don't, I really want to keep it real and yeah, make sure people are doing the foundations because otherwise people get overwhelmed. And it's a lifestyle. It's not just about trying one thing. It's, biohacking is an ongoing lifestyle, so.
(Bec): Well, you make a very good point. So we're going to expect that the biohacking summit of Australia will be held out in nature, sunshine and fresh air and connection. Yeah, that was, that's been identified as.
(Camilla): Something that it has to be. It's so important.
(Bec): Yeah, I agree. It's like kind of when you go to. A lot of companies have changed this practice now but you know, in my earlier years as a naturopath, you would go to like conferences or, or seminars and learning and then they just have these terrible food that they would do and it's like so at odds with the group of people that you there. I think people are starting to cotton onto that. Like the event creators are starting to realise like you've got to deliver an event that, you know, from, from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave and everything in between, it kind of needs to be on brand for whatever the topic of the event is. And if it's nutrition or if it's biohacking, well, then it makes sense. Sunshine, sunlight, good food, good this, good that, good company. I think it would, that would, that would be the best outcome that you come away from it feeling energised and uplifted and not like, oh my God, now I need a three day break to get over it.
(Camilla): Yeah, exactly. It should be more of a retreat experience, you know, where you're nurtured and nourished and you come away feeling like, wow, I'm really recharged.
(Bec): Yeah, and can I sign up and get my ticket next year?
(Camilla): Yeah, exactly. So I know now pressure's on to try and find a venue. No, we're very lucky in Australia we've got such beautiful venues..
(Bec): Absolutely. Well, in addition to building your big plans with biohacking, what else have you got on the horizon? A book you mentioned.
(Camilla): Yes, so I'm writing a book. I'm just in discussions with a couple of publishers on that. So that's Biohacking Basics. So that's really just educating people on the foundations, giving them lots of practice, a practical guide. So just want people to be able to really embrace the biohacking lifestyle without it seeming too unrealistic or not accessible. Because I think, you know, as you said, like in a lot of people, 10 years they've been doing this in the US biohacking and elite athletes been biohacking for so long, but it's now becoming more mainstream. And I think, you know, particularly from a healing perspective, people are looking for alternatives. You know, they want to speed up injuries that they might have and using hyperbaric or whatever, cryo, whatever it might be. So I just think we're living in such an exciting time of technology, but at the same time we need to keep embracing nature. And I always get a bit concerned with people who constantly got Bluetooth attached to them and, you know, oura rings and Apple watches and airpods in their ears. And so it's like constant bluetooth and wi fi and that's not good for our health either. So it's a bit of a balance, isn't it, between, yes, let's embrace technology, but also we need to really understand that it's actually impacting our body as well. It constant.
(Bec): Well, yeah, we're at the. We're like potentially the canaries in the coal mine. Like, we're the first lot of people to kind of live in this, this level of technology. Like, that's all around us. So we're kind of a bit guinea pig, whether we like it or not. And we just, we don't know what we don't know. We, we are currently unconsciously incompetent in the knowledge that, you know, we might have five years from now as to, okay, that was a good or a bad idea, or maybe we shouldn't have done this, or we just don't know yet.
(Camilla): We are being experimented upon. I totally agree and I Think we can't live in fear or anxiety around that. I think we've just got to minimise what we can. Right. As we've got to look what's within our control and that sphere of control and what can we influence and change. And if we can't, we need to just let. Let it go. Because there's no point freaking out about 5G towers if there's nothing we can do about it. But what can we do in our own home to minimise our exposure?
(Bec): Yep, agreed. If you've got eight hours inside your house and you're exposed, you know, how many hours do you need to dedicate to walking on the beach or..
(Camilla): Yeah. To counterbat. Counteract. Exactly. Yeah.
(Bec): To balance the scales and tip them in the right direction. We kind of need a. We almost need like a paint by number sheet.
(Camilla): Okay.
(Bec): This many hours we've spent doing this and now to offset it, we need to do that.
(Camilla): Yeah, it's so true. I mean, I say to most my clients, you need half an hour of walking to counteract all the sitting. There is some research behind that.
(Bec): Yeah.
(Camilla): But I agree. It'll be like, okay, you need to ground for 10 minutes because you've been exposed to WI Fi all da,y go get your feet on the grass or the sand. Yeah, I love that.
(Bec): Yeah, that's what we need. Maybe you can pop that section for that into your book.
(Camilla): Oh, I just keep adding things. I was just saying to Azra as well, who's the other female biohacker in Australia, but we need to do some kind of a course as well for people, some kind of like, you know, a masterclass on biohacking. But I think there's a real opportunity. I think people are eager, they want to learn in Australia. They're keen to, to understand what's going on.
(Bec): So, yeah, I think there's definitely an audience for it here. And so on that note, let people know where to find you so they can find you. I will put links and things in our show notes, but for the people that are just listening, how do they find you and follow along with you so that when your book and your courses and all the things are available, they'll know about it.
(Camilla): And my multi-business. My businesses. Gosh, there you go. Well, Mould Safe is one of my mould businesses, if anyone's got mould issues. But we're predominantly Central Coast in New South Wales. BiohackMe is my brand. So www.biohackme.com and everything's on there. You can download my free Biohacking guide as well, which is about a 30-page guide. So, yeah, jump on and do that. And I've also got a brand called The Wellness Coach. So that's my other one. I think I was one of the OG Wellness coaches about 12, 13 years ago when I got the name. Because that's my actual name. Yeah. But yeah, so that's me. And obviously I'll give you some links and stuff to put in the show notes.
(Bec): Perfect. I will add those in. So thank you so much for this chat and sharing, you know, this metamorphosis of health journey that you've been on and how you've arrived at looking and feeling as great as you so very clearly too.
(Camilla): Oh, thank you. It was lovely to chat and yeah, I'm so grateful to be healed and I understand a lot of people are struggling with chronic illness and there is so much that is within our control and so much we can do. So please reach out with any questions. If anyone's got any mould questions, I'm always happy to answer them.
(Bec): Yeah, perfect. Thank you so much.
(Camilla): Thanks so much. Lovely to connect. Bye.