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Today’s Mold Talks guest is Melissa Bolona, model, actress, entrepreneur, and mold exposure survivor. Melissa's journey with mold began after a random flooding event in her apartment led to massive amounts of mold growth. It took seeing a long list of doctors and treatment plans before she finally determined that exposure was an issue, but she finally found the answer she needed to begin healing.
About Melissa:
Melissa spent years in front of the camera as a model and actress, gracing magazine covers and starring in more than 20 films. She’s worked with the world’s best makeup artists and sampled every top beauty product there is, yet still credits bone broth as her #1 beauty secret.
After finding herself in an unexpected wellness rut, actress and model Melissa Boloña turned to her sister for advice. The answer was simple: bone broth. Melissa noticed an immediate difference ranging from better gut health and fewer cravings to beautiful, glowing skin. The problem? She couldn’t find any local spots with tasty or convenient options.
She then spent over 6 months testing out recipes in her own kitchen to create the flavorful and shelf-stable products you now know, Beauty & the Broth’s gut-healthy, broth concentrates. Rich in naturally-occurring collagen and made with convenience in mind— just for you. Now she’s drinking two cups daily and doing all she can to spread the word about this whole-body, total-beauty elixir in a cup.
After falling in love with broth and wishing there were more local spots to grab a mug of it, Melissa knew this was the business she had always wanted to create.
In this episode:
1:00: Melissa describes how many doctors she saw and the difficulties that she faced in figuring out what was causing her chronic illness.
1:30: Melissa explains her experience working with Dr. Will Cole to help treat her hyperthyroidism and what led her to realize mold was the underlying cause.
4:45: Melissa shares where she had mold exposure. “I remember getting an email from the building maintenance saying that there was an emergency water shutoff because of a leak in the basement. I thought nothing of it at the time. I said, ‘The apartment’s got it.’” Two months later, she was about to return home but her maid found the place covered in mold.
7:15: Melissa describes her experience with several doctors after being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, her fear of being on medication, and a slow decline in health for the rest of her life. It wasn’t until she found Dr. Will Cole that she saw the light at the end of the path. “I think they saved my life.”
12:15: Melissa goes into how this experience changed her perception of what’s in her environment and how it affects the body. “In my opinion, don’t go crazy over it or you'll never cure yourself of mold. But knowing how damaging our environment can be, you might as well control what you can.”
15:30: Melissa describes how she thinks her exposure came from contaminated belongings as she shipped all of her things to California. While the remediation company HEPA vacuumed them, she now realizes that this was not enough.
20:45: Melissa explains the next steps she’s taking to help improve her indoor environment so that it’s a safe space to heal.
22:45: Michael explains how to properly clean belongings in a home so that cross-contamination is not an issue.
27:00: Melissa shares her healing process and the steps she’s taking to improve her health. She also mentions her struggles with chronic fatigue and other symptoms.
34:00: Melissa details how she’s trying to increase awareness among those around her. “I’ve had four people test for mold and two of them have it.”
36:00: Melissa describes the healing protocols that she’s been working on and the effectiveness of changing her lifestyle.
47:00: Melissa explains her company, Beauty & the Broth, and what led her to start this health-based company.
