The term FUNGALBIONICS was created in an attempt to describe one of the most dynamic microbial chemical factories ever encountered in the history of scientific exploration: the fungus
Fungi are masters at producing a wide array of biologically active substances which serve the producing fungus extremely well. These biological metabolites are anti-predatory, i.e. territory-protective, and exist to ensure that the fungus will survive as long as possible in this quite hostile world.
These metabolites are anti-viral, anti-bacterial. anti-protozoan, anti-insect, anti-animal and, of course, anti-human. These metabolites are referred to as mycotoxins. The term is derived from the Greek mykes, meaning fungus, and toxicum, meaning toxin or poison.
Mycotoxins Are Poisons.
One could test the validity of this most biologically potent fungal reality by eating a cupful of poison mushrooms, a species of fungus. However, it would be less fatal to simply read about the deadly effect which they have on humans and all other animals. For that mushroom, the name of the game is food, for in nature the animal which nibbles on them dies and is slowly consumed by the (root-like) mycelia under the ground which grow up into the hapless and dead creature. Many plants meet this same fate.
Thus, the term FUNGALBIONICS attempts to convey this remarkable degree of biological activity which these simple single-celled fungi demonstrate. All fungi are so empowered, some less against humans, some more so. While fungi are potentially our enemies, some of their mycotoxins, such as penicillin, have proven to be beneficial to humans who suffer from bacterial infections or other diseases.
The "bionic" nature of fungi is seen by the magnificent power to save human lives from bacterial infection which penicillin has demonstrated. That is indeed a bionic miracle. Other fungal-derived drugs are just as miraculous, as will be described later.
This series of FUNGALBIONICS books provide documentary evidence that fungi and their biological metabolites, the mycotoxins, are silent and relentless attackers of human health in that they cause the major "degenerative" and "cancerous" diseases which plague mankind.
FUNGALBIONICS appears to be a most appropriate term to describe the fungal/mycotoxin findings which will be presented in the following pages. lt is a term which the the physician author and his research associates have found to be acceptable. We hope that the reader will agree with us.
WHAT ARE FUNGI?
Fungi are single celled living forms of life which inhabit the land, air and waters of the earth. They are everywhere. They are more highly developed than the bacteria and viruses, and there are many more species among the fungi than are found among the other microbes. lt is estimated that there are over 500,000 different species.
Fungi have existed on earth hundreds of millions of years and, quite remarkably, have experienced little genetic change during that period of time. They are survivalists. Viable fungi can grow from spores which have been dormant for thousands of years, such as has been observed in spores which were found in Egyptian tombs.
Single fungal cells can only be seen under the microscope, but a colony of these cells makes a visible presence in the form of mushrooms, toad stools and molds on food or elsewhere. While plants, animals and humans are alive and well, the fungi around them are unable to overcome the natural defense mechanisms which higher forms of life possess. Once death of the living organism has occurred, however, the fungi become the principle undertakers and managers. They reduce all that has every lived into the molecules from which they were assembled. Biologists call this the carbon cycle, while Christians describe it as „dust to dust".
Unfortunately, though, there is one exception to this simple balanced equation of life and death and that is that the fungi can also attack the living while they are alive. At its most simplistic perspective, one has many fungi entering the intestinal tract, the nose and lungs, and organs exposed to the outside world. Though we generally do not develop an infection from such intrusions, some persons might contract a fungal infection such as "athlete's foot" or "ring worm" on the skin.
At the opposite extreme is the patient with AIDS who faces major life-threatening fungal infections because the immune system has lost its ability to protect the body from organisms which invade the body, such as fungi. In between these extremes are fungal infections associated with diseases such as diabetes, cancer as well as conditions which include cross infections amongst humans. Fortunately, though, the average person does not succumb to a serious fungal infection and the average life expectancy extends into the 70's.
All humans are colonized by Candida albicans and normal healthy persons do not die from this organism. This organism plays a very little role in causing human diseases.
(The concept that Candida causes many diseases is NOT a part of Fungalbionics nor is it supported by the extensive medical literature relative to Candida.
WHAT ARE MYCOTOXINS?
All physicians are familiar with fungal infections and the drugs used to treat them. With the exception of poisonous mushrooms, which are deadly to those foolish enough to eat them, few physicians are aware of the fact that fungi make toxins.
MYCOTOXINS-FRIENDS?... OR ENEMIES?... THEY ARE BOTH...
AS ENEMIES
As many as 1,000 compounds, classifiable as mycotoxins, were studied by the pharmacology industry as potential antibiotics in the 1930s and 1940s only to be discarded as being too toxic for higher life forms to be of value in treating bacterial diseases in humans. Little, if any of the discarded data was published. Yet what these toxicity studies actually documented was the existence of a large number of fungal-derived toxins which caused serious target organ injury in various animal models. Obviously, in retrospect, what was being seen was the pathology produced by the mycotoxins. In order to understand this toxicity, one only has to look at what some of these mycotoxins, used as medications, causes in humans:
The mycotoxin cyclosporin used for Transplantation causes cancer and atherosclerosis, complete with hyperlipidemia, in ALL humans who have received it. Many others develop gout and other diseases.
AS FRIENDS
However, to place the matter in proper perspective, the study of such fungal metabolites gave us penicillin at the beginning, quite later on cyclosporin, the most potent immunosuppressant Transplantation drug, lovastatin, and the other statins which have revolutionized the treatment of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. The latter group is quite interesting in that they were initially developed as antifungal agents which just happened to have an effect in lowering blood levels of low density lipoproteins (commonly referred to as "bad cholesterol").
The members of this group of drugs are joined by another antifungal antibiotic, griseofulvin, which is also a remarkably efficient anti-atherosclerosis drug. All of this goes a long way to confirm the fungal etiology of atherosclerosis. This appears to be a quite valid conclusion since all of the other effective anticholesterol and/or anti-atherosclerotic therapeutic modalities share nothing in common except that they possess antifungal and/or antimycotoxin activity.
DISEASES RESPONDING TO ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS
The Fungalbionic Series of Books present data documenting the fungal/mycotoxin cause of a number of diseases. Equally important, the series also documents that each and every dietary measure or drug found to be effective in treating these diseases share nothing in common except that they are all antifungal and/ or antimycotoxic.
The importance of this therapeutic responsiveness should not be underestimated. If a cause of a disease is a microbe, it must respond to an appropriately selected antimicrobial agent.
In addition, diseases of unknown etiology which respond to antifungal-effective drugs suggest the probability that they have a fungal origin, particularly when there is no other proven explanation as to how the drug is working. Table 1 provides a number of human diseases which so respond and suggest a fungal/mycotoxin origin.
| COLCHICINE-RESPONSIVE: | GRISEOFULVIN-RESPONSIVE: |
| Acute Gouty Arthritis Alcoholic Cirrhosis Familial Mediterranean Fever Mollaret's Meningitis Bechet's Syndrome Psoriasis Thrombocytopenic Purpura Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Amyloidosis North African Leukocytoclastic Vasculitis Sarcoid Arthritis Rheumatoid Arthritis (some) Calcium Pyrophosphatopathy Hyperlipidemia Inflammatory Bowel Disease | Atherosclerosis (Angina) Systemic Sclerosis Raynaud's Syndrome/Disease Shoulder-Hand Syndrome |
| ALLOPURINOL-RESPONSIVE: | |
| Sarcoidosis Oxalate Nephrolithopathy Idiopathic Respiratory Distress Syndrome/Newborns Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy | |
| KETOCONAZOLE-RESPONSIVE: | |
| COLCHICINE-RESPONSIVE IN EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS: | lnflammatory Bowel Diseases Disseminated Vascular Coagulation Idiopathic Female Infertility Precocious Puberty In BoysHyper-Low-Density Lipoproteinemia Hyperaldosteronism Prostatic Carcinoma |
| Atherosclerosis Casein-Induced Amyloidosis Cushing's Disease | |
| NYSTATIN-RESPONSIVE: | TAMOXIFEN-RESPONSIVE: |
| Psoriasis Inflammatory Bowel Disease Hyperactivity Syndrome Multiple Sclerosis | Breast Cancer |
| Note: The antifungal nature of colchicine, allopurinol, tamoxifen, and taxol is fully documented. | |
| TAXOL-RESPONSIVE: | |
| Breast Cancer Ovarian Cancer |
THE TROJAN HORSE: FUNGI AND MYCOTOXINS IN THE FOOD CHAIN
Most of us know that food itself cannot be considered poisonous. Very few of us know that toxicogenic fungi and their mycotoxins, which are characteristically present in stored and fermented food, are using our food chain as a Trojan Horse.
JUST HOW FUNGAL-COLONIZED IS OUR STORED FOOD?
The first question which must be answered in order to support a fungal/mycotoxin approach is just how much fungal-colonization of our food chain has been actually documented. Could our food really be the source of that much toxic fungi and mycotoxins?
If, in fact, food is contaminated with fungi, then the mycotoxin concept is fully operative and the disease-producing potential is more than obvious.
This important question of how much fungal colonization of food exists is answered by a recent reported mycological study of some representative foods: corn kernels, peanuts, cashew nuts and copra (dried coconut). Table 2 demonstrates the remarkable degree to which the interior of corn kernels and peanuts can be colonized by fungi. Humans who eat these foods are ingesting both the toxicogenic fungi and their mycotoxins. The fungi themselves are capable of surviving in the intestinal stream where they can continue to produce their toxins. (Table 2 not included in this excerpt)
Similarly, animals fed fungal-colonized/mycotoxic feed are not only at risk for developing mycotoxicoses, their meat, their milk and their fat constitute another pathway through which human exposure to mycotoxins can occur. Animal fat, coincidentally, is increasingly being documented to be a major risk factor for a number of human cancers and atherosclerosis.
Mycotoxins have been documented to cause a number of specific types of diseases and very specific organ lesions both in animals and in humans. Table 3 provides a summary of some of this documentation. (Table 3 not included in this except) The fungal fermentation processes, such as making bread, beer, wine, cheese, smoking/ chewing tobacco, aging/curing meats, etc., constitutes yet another part of the human food chain which places humans at potential risk. Bread has been recently epidemiologically incriminated as a cause of breast cancer in Japan and atherosclerosis in the United States.
Alcoholic beverages correlate not only with cirrhosis of the liver, but a wide range of other diseases which includes brain damage, cancers, fetal injury, etc. Alcohol is a fungal-produced toxic metabolite and the conditions that it produces are as much mycotoxicotic in nature as egotism or aflatoxicosis.
Cured mutton consumed by women at tile time of conception results in the birth of diabetic infants. This is a fact not yet taken into consideration in efforts to find the cause of the markedly increasing incidence of this disease in some parts of the world.
THERE ARE MYCOTOXINS FOUND IN HUMAN BLOOD AND BREAST MILK
In respect to the presence of mycotoxins in humans, it has already been documented by several of our collaborators that over half of German adults have ochratoxin in their blood, that leukemic children have aflatoxin in their blood, that patients with urinary tract cancers have ochratoxin in their blood, that patients with Crohn's Disease have aflatoxin in their blood, and finally, 18 to 90 % of nursing mothers have mycotoxins in their breast milk.
Obviously, the problem of mycotoxins in human health is quite real and requires full elucidation, particularly since we all know that food is in some way connected to the major disease of humans.
DIET CHOICES INCREASE OR DECREASE THE MYCOTOXIN CONNECTION
Public awareness is particularly important in that the major means of preventing the development of these diseases rests most significantly upon the informed/Intelligent selection of what the public eats and drinks.
A person's dietary choices play the critical role in the causation or in the prevention of all of the mycotoxin-caused diseases, not only for himself, but also for his offspring.
The selection of foods for children is going to determine the life expectancy and quality of health for these adults-to be.
The dietary choices required for controlling the degree of mycotoxicity are all based upon documented facts found in the scientific literature. The diet must reduce the intake of mycotoxin-containing foods, not feed the fungi living within us, and decrease the toxic of the mycotoxins which do enter our body.
DIETARY AVOIDANCE OF MYCOTOXIN-CONTAINING FOODS
Reduce the intake of fungal toxins which are present in stored grains, nuts, seeds, meats, grain-fed animal products (meat, animal fats, butter, whole milk) and fermented foods such as beer, bread, cheese and wine.
DIET CONTROL OF MYCOTOXIN-PRODUCING FUNGI IN THE HUMAN BODY
Fungal toxins are constantly being absorbed from toxin-producing fungi living in the host, particularly in the gut.
Increased fungal growth/toxin production is caused by diets high in sugar, fruit, oils, fats, and fermented foods such as beer, wine, bread and cheese.
A decreased fungal growth/toxin production is due to the antifungal action of fish/ fish oils, garlic, onion, herbs, spices, soya, yogurt and green vegetables.
DIETARY CONTROL OF DEGREE OF TOXICITY CAUSED BY MYCOTOXINS
Toxicity caused by mycotoxins is significantly reduced by increasing the amount of fiber in the diet. This is done by increasing the amount of vegetables in the diet. While fruit is also a source of fiber, the high sugar (fructose) content of fruit stimulates fungal growth (fructose increases blood cholesterol and uric acid levels which are associated with increased risk of hypertension and atherosclerosis).
MEDICATIONS
Unlike the other dietary approaches to the prevention and treatment of human diseases, the mycotoxin concept does not exploit the adverse effects of drugs in an attempt to support a diet-only attitude. lt should be noted that almost all medications are plant derived or chemical derivatives thereof. Aspirin derives from the bark of the willow tree. Colchicine derives from a plant. Both aspirin and colchicine possess significant antifungal activity as do most plant-derived drugs.(They protect living plants from the fungi.)
Similarly, all of the other anti-Inflammatory drugs possess significant antifungal activity. These drugs are cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors and fungal survival is dependent upon the competency of their cyclo-oxygenase-related metabolic pathways.
Interestingly, corticosterolds not only significantly reduces the toxicity of mycotoxins but are also antifungal against a number of fungi.
Actually, all of the medications proven to be effective in the treatment of the mycotoxin-Induced diseases possess antifungal and/or antimycotoxin activity. lt is a point overlooked by pharmacologists.
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