Throughout this story, various exposures to toxic mold occurred that made her problems worse, including one in 2022 that gave her a whole new list of problems that only moving away from the mold was able to solve. Mold toxins are mitochondrial toxins, so exposure to them would cause a third layer of mitochondrial dysfunction.
Jordan had been on SSRIs for over twelve years, but when he saw Mikhaila cure her depression with the early precursor to the Lion Diet, he followed her approach. Having gotten rid of his own depression, he too went off SSRIs around the same time as she did. This led to akathisia, a catastrophically debilitating movement disorder. I contend that this is SSRI withdrawal-induced new-onset mitochondrial dysfunction.
He then had a terrible reaction to apple cider that had sodium metabisulfite as a preservative. This led him to be unable to sleep for two or three weeks. He became green and hunched over, and couldn’t walk.
For this he was placed on clonazepam, a benzodiazepine.
Sulfite has to be converted to sulfate, which requires the mineral molybdenum and the transfer of electrons from the sulfite to the mitochondrial respiratory chain.
Mitochondrial dysfunction will prevent sulfite clearance.
Zero-carb diets will increase endogenous sulfur production and diets that lack liver and legumes are low in molybdenum.
The mitochondrial dysfunction induced by the SSRI withdrawal would inhibit sulfur clearance and the diet that helped Jordan and Mikhaila cure their depression would keep the sulfur-detoxification system maximally occupied.
If sulfite is not quickly metabolized to sulfate, it converts to S-sulfocysteine, which is a neurotransmitter that activates glutamate receptors.
Sulfite itself is mitochondrially toxic, so if it crosses a critical threshold it can elicit a storm of excess sulfur catabolism and impaired sulfur clearance that keeps S-sulfocysteine levels high. That vicious cycle could explain why the sleep loss lasted 2-3 weeks.
Clonazepam directly opposes S-sulfocysteine in that it binds to GABA receptors making GABA more powerfully activate them, which counteracts the S-sulfocyteine’s activation of glutamate receptors.
Peterson stayed on clonazepam for three years and then tried going off of it, but this caused an even worse case of akathisia than he experienced from SSRI withdrawal. It lasted three years, and it made him suicidal.
Clonazepam can alter calcium signaling in mitochondria in opposite ways depending on the preexisting state of the mitochondrial function. Possible effects of withdrawal include a catastrophic energetic supply/demand imbalance and precipitation of calcium causing damaging deposits that jam up the mitochondrial infrastructure. It is very possible that the clonazepam was causing progressive mitochondrial dysfunction the entire time he was on it and that it only became apparent once the GABA breaks on energy demand were removed by withdrawal.
He briefly restarted an SSRI during this time but it didn’t help and it made him so fatigued he needed four extra hours of sleep per day.
Ultimately, the final version of the all-meat Lion Diet helped Jordan recover from akathisia.
More recently, however, his parents died and he had been cleaning out their moldy basement preparing for a big move, and this led to an attack of pneumonia and sepsis and a return of his akathisia.
The mitochondrial toxins in the mold thus became his third acquired mitochondrial disorder, the first two from withdrawal from SSRIs and benzodiazepines.
Jordan and Mikhaila share a lot in their health history but her mom has none of these problems and has never been on SSRIs. Thus, it is very likely there are genetic predispositions to these problems that Jordan and Mikhaila share.
The Lion Diet is overall extremely helpful but could probably benefit from specific strategies around managing sulfur metabolism.
I will do what I can to help them, starting with looking at their mitochondrial function.
May 1, 2026 312 2
