How Suzanne Somers went from ‘Toxic to Not Sick’

Actress Suzanne Somers talks about how she detoxed her entire life after black mold put her family’s health in danger

Ever since her role as Chrissy Snow on “Three’s Company,” Suzanne Somers has delighted fans with her wit and humor. The laughing stopped, however, when her Malibu home tragically burned to the ground in 2007, precipitating years of health scares for her and her family. She shares her story in her new book, "Tox-Sick: From Toxic to Not Sick."

The first sign of trouble appeared four years after moving into her new home when her husband, Alan Hamel, developed sinus infections and more seriously, a facial tic that doctors assumed was an early sign of Parkinson’s disease.

Somers also developed strange symptoms. She told Fox News that she would wake up in the morning with a flat stomach and by the end of the day she looked like was "giving birth to a basketball." Anaphylactic shock sent her to the hospital and a CAT scan prompted doctors to inform the beloved actress that they had "never seen this much cancer in a human body."

Refusing to undergo the trauma of chemotherapy, Somers started to make peace with the fact that she was going to die, until a biopsy changed everything— she didn't have cancer. In fact, she was infected with a fungus that laid dormant in her body and was released by an unlikely suspect: mold.

According to Somers, an unfinished room in their new home was to blame. The room had standing water, which Somers believes bred a dangerous form of black mold called stachybotrys that spread throughout the house and entered their blood streams, causing their illnesses.

The mission to eliminate the black mold led Somers on a journey to detox her entire life to rid herself of the fungus and her husband of his health issues.

"It's about the food you eat and it's about what you put on your skin and what you're cleaning your house with," Somers said.

Somers made her lifestyle "green," changing everything from her mattress to her diet. She eliminated sugar and grains and increased her intake of fatty foods. While adding fats sounds unusual, Somers believes nature wants us to ingest fat.

"When you breast feed your child, that breast milk that nature starts us out on has almost the same percentage of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated fat as butter. So nature clearly wanted us to have a high fat diet," Somers said. She added that this fat is "how you seal up the leaks in the GI tract," therefore protecting you from toxins.

Since this detox and change of lifestyle, the ailments that plagued Somers’s and her husband’s lives are a thing of the past, she said.

"Tox-Sick" was published by Harmony on April 14.