Mycotoxicosis: A New Emerging CoFactor in Alzheimer?s, Environmental Illness, an

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Mycotoxicosis: A New Emerging CoFactor in Alzheimer?s, Environmental

Illness, and Treatment-resistant Syndromes

Yanick, Jr., Ph.D., N.D., C.N.C. Ó 2001

200 Court, Kingston, NY 12401 845-340-8605 Fax 845-340-

8606

Today, much attention has been directed to the dangers associated

with stealth infections with little attention being directed toward

the diverse mechanisms by which mycotoxins affect nerve action,

cause immunosuppression, and may contribute as a co-factor in

Alzheimer?s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Mycotoxins are secondary toxic metabolites produced by many species

of fungi that are increasing in processed foods at an enormous rate.

According to the World Health Organization, Alzheimer?s, multiple

sclerosis, atherosclerosis, and cancer can be caused by

mycotoxicosis.1

Mycotoxins are neurotoxins that can produce a wide spectrum of

behavioral and cognitive changes, ataxia and convulsions. According

to R. Gray, M.D. of the Arizona State Division of Emergency

Medical Services, mycotoxicosis " has been extensively described in

peer-reviewed literature in the early and mid twentieth century-

although this literature is not readily accessible on computerized

databases, such as Medline and Toxline search systems, because these

sources often do not include titles before the 1960?s. Nonetheless,

mycotoxicosis has clearly been demonstrated to have been the cause

of several major human epidemics, usually involving ingestions of

foods prepared with mold infested grains and cereals, or from the

consumption of livestock which had been fed mold infested feed. "

Many studies have documented that mycotoxicosis is a causative

factor in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome, respiratory and

neurological disorders and that mycotoxins are carcinogenic,

nephrotoxic, and hepatotoxic.2-6

Iris R. Bell, M.D. from the University of Arizona Health Sciences

Center and other researchers were able to trigger abnormal brain

wave activity when a patient was exposed to a immunologically-active

mycotoxin or other toxins. Abnormalities on EEGs and other objective

neurophysiologic modalities within fifteen seconds of an exposure,

even when administered in a double blind fashion.7-9 This research

documents that mycotoxins and xenobiotics have direct, biological

roles in initiating and/or perpetuating nervous system-related

illness.7-10

Today, despite many impressive research studies, mycotoxicosis has

been ignored in clinical entities of unknown etiology. A.V.

Constantini, M.D. from the University of California, School of

Medicine, San Francisco has linked mycotoxicosis to gout,

hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, scleroderma, diabetes mellitus,

rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

According to Constantini, " The dietary connection to environmental

health is increasingly being made clear in that the causation of the

major diseases related to diet are not due to the food but rather to

the fungi and mycotoxins present in the food chain. " 11

The health implications of mycotoxin exposure are far reaching

because evidence exists documenting that one class of mycotoxins,

alfatoxins are mitogenic to T4 lymphocytes and will cause symptoms

related to T4 lymphocyte deficiencies.12-13 Moreover, researchers

have documented that alfatoxins in foods constitute a risk factor to

mothers and babies during pregnancy,13-15 and to Kwashiorkor, a

disease of obscure etiology characterized by edema and low serum

proteins, variable skin and hair changes, apathy, and

immunosuppression.16

Neurogenic Inflammation in Alzheimer?s and Environmental Illness

Neurogenic inflammation has been defined as a pathway distinct from

antigen-driven, immune mediated inflammation. Stimulation of

chemical-irritant receptors by mycotoxins and xenobiotics can

explain how the overlapping effects of everyday exposures to a wide

range of toxins can cause the symptoms of Alzheimer?s and can

provide a model for understanding multiple chemical sensitivity

syndrome, sick building syndrome, and environmental illness.17-18

Mycotoxins are deleterious to cellular and organ physiology and

unequivocally increase a person?s risk for degenerative

disease.19,20 Mycotoxins and other toxins in food as a cause of

stress-induced illnesses remains obscure as the presence of a

contaminating mold in food or toxins is not considered evidence of

disease causation by the commercial food and agricultural industry.

The conditions or factors affecting mycotoxin occurrence include how

the food is stored and processed and a number of other biological

and environmental factors.19

Increasing Mycotoxicosis: A Result of New Food Irradiation Practices?

More clinical efforts are sorely needed in identifying and

eliminating mycotoxin stressors now hidden in the majority of foods.

Tapping into the life-governing functions of the body while

measuring the body?s sensed and perceived responses to mycotoxin

challenges, known as quantum meridian stress measurement (QMSM),

allows the practitioner to observe and learn how mycotoxins may

influence meridian-organ functions. Clearly, information on how

systems and organs of the body respond to stressors, especially at

the central nervous and autonomic nervous system (ANS) levels, may

provide relevant adjunctive information to understanding how

mycotoxins can disrupt delicate physiological systems and escalate

the threat of stealth infections such as hepatitis C.

Rather than rely on single readings of the body?s biologic state or

of the presence of a mycotoxin in the blood, the physician can

challenge the body with chemical, microbial, or mycotoxin stimuli or

stressors and observe or record the responses via galvanic skin

responses on many levels of biological functioning. These unfailing

body signals of ANS/Meridian activity can be supported with

laboratory evidence and other physiologic tests. Computerized matrix

scans based on meridian stress assessments with stimuli or stressors

recorded in a computer format do not yield data that is repeatable

or that can be replicated in test-retest situations. Instead, manual

testing with actual test samples seems to yield quite impressive

data on how stressors such as mycotoxins can affect the ANS and many

bodily functions. Our preliminary data shows that the most precise

localization of these stressors is found with test samples that use

multiple homeopathic potencies of the actual substance (in the case

of microbial stressors these multiple potencies must include both

the harmonic and disharmonic oscillations of the pathogens) because

limited information is found with current " single potency " tests

samples.

Since 9/11, the widespread practice of using irradiation (gamma

rays, electron beams) on foods, homeopathic products, and

nutritional supplements has raised some legitimate concerns by

members of the natural health care industry. Beams of electrons that

are a hundred million times stronger than what items are exposed to

under an average airport security X-ray machine are aimed at foods

at irradiation sites across the nation. Lethal doses for humans are

around 400-2000 rems (a unit measuring radiation) while viruses and

bacteria such as anthrax are killed at doses that range from 8,000

to 1 millions rems (the doses reported to being used on commercially-

prepared foods and produce). Electron beaming penetrates the cell

walls and stimulates oxidative stress and chemical reactions that

break down DNA, proteins and enzymes in foods and dietary

supplements. With serious damage to the molecular structure of

foods, nourishment invariably will decrease while harmful mycotoxins

increase at unprecedented rates as phytochemicals and enzymes that

prevent mold overgrowth are destroyed or rendered inert.

The emerging problem of increased levels of mycotoxins in our foods

is further complicated by other by-products of irradiation,

cyclobutanones, a class of toxic radiolytic chemicals documented to

cause genetic and cellular damage to human and rat cells.21-24

Growing evidence that cyclobutanones are harmful to humans is

further supported by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry studies

that report dangerously high levels of 2-DCB toxic chemicals in

irradiated foods.25-26 Yet, despite this evidence and other

scientific evidence and repeated warnings from The Center for Food

Safety (CFS), the FDA has legalized the irradiation of foods. With

agribusiness promoting food irradiation as a way to mask filthy food

processing practices and increase the shelf life of foods,

irradiation will inevitably lead to a myriad of health problems as

it spawns mutant forms of E. coli, Salmonella, and other harmful

bacteria, and leads to the formation of carcinogens such as benzene,

formaldehyde, octane, butane, and methyl propane in certain foods.27

In the case of Alzheimer?s, identifying and eliminating stressors is

a reasonable goal in clinical practice. Since irradiated foods,

genetically-modified foods, radiation, and chemical stressors may

trigger clusters of mutations that interfere with DNA stability and

reduce the function and regeneratory capacity of lymphocytes, QMSA

techniques may be helpful in quickly assessing the unique patterns

of stress between mycotoxins, toxins, parasites, parasitic toxins,

bacteria, mycoses, viruses and metabolism. It?s logical to assume

that when stress is reduced, one may expect the nervous system and

the entire body to function with greater efficiency. However, it

must be emphasized that more detailed explorations are badly needed

to document the increasing levels of food-borne mycotoxins and

carcinogens in both commercially-grown and organic produce and

supplements.

Clinical Research with Mycotoxicosis

Our preliminary observations with QMSA reflect alarming increases in

mycotoxicosis and chemical stressors as food processing and

preparation techniques are rapidly changing in the industry.

Mycotoxins accumulate to levels that can disable the liver?s tri-

phasic detoxification mechanisms while suppressing the immune system

so that a simple virus can easily overpower the immune system and

create prolonged viral illnesses. This past winter?s flu epidemic of

recurrent bronchial infections that responded poorly to both

pharmacological and alternative medical approaches testifies to what

may be the beginning of a serious mycotoxicosis problem in the

general population. Dozens of our patients had medically-diagnosed

bronchitis that failed to respond to any treatment. Many individuals

were sick for 4-6 weeks despite having adequate nutritional and

herbal support and being monitored by their physicians. In these

cases, QMSA testing revealed that the primary stressor was not

microbial, but an overload of mycotoxins in their liver. Once the

mycotoxins were decreased or eliminated and appropriate nutritional

measures were employed to decrease their mycotoxin loads, they were

symptom-free in a just a few days. There was another noteworthy

clinical finding: parasite infections, especially of Clonorchis and

Fasciola Hepatica, seemed to become amplified by mycotoxins and

increased their production of parasitic toxins that resulted in

escalated immunosuppression, allowing runaway mycoplasma, herpetic,

and viral stressors to spread throughout the body.

Clinical efforts to reduce the stress caused by mycotoxicosis should

include the use of Phase I, II and III cofactor/precursor nutrients,

and electromagnetically-charged trace minerals along with the

obvious elimination of irradiated foods and supplements. However,

with no irradiation labeling or terms such as " cold pasteurization "

used for irradiated foods and supplements, the public have no way to

be sure that the food they are eating has not been irradiated.

Clinically, we find that the patient with mycotoxicosis should soak

grains, nuts, legumes and seeds prior to cooking or consumption to

reduce harmful solvents and mycotoxins levels in processed foods.

Ideally, all packaged or bottled foods/drinks should be de-molded

with appropriate nutrient complexes. Clearly, when mycotoxicosis

ensues, appropriate dietary counseling is necessary so that patients

know which foods carry the highest mycotoxin risk (our research is

continuing to determine which irradiated foods carry the highest

levels of mycotoxins).

In summary, mycotoxicosis can cause one of the most dramatic

aberrations in the immune response. Over time, as the mycotoxin load

increases, patients will become less responsive to treatment. The

principle of time-dependent sensitization (TDS), documented in basic

neuroscience research literature can be applied with mycotoxicosis.7

Mycotoxins and other chemical or microbial stressors can cross-

sensitize and increase allergic and toxic sensitivity in a

progressive manner. This TDS model helps to explain the possible

stressors involved in Alzheimer?s and provides a working model

needed to explain how environmental illness, induced by mycotoxins,

may accelerate acquisition of sensitization for a wide spectrum of

environmental stressors.

Mycotoxins increase the risk of liver cancer promoting

carcinogenesis as the immune system is stressed by over 300

different mycotoxins. While the Food and Agriculture Association in

1985 estimated that 25 percent of the world?s food crops are

contaminated with mycotoxins (high levels of mycotoxins were

reported in peanuts, tree nuts, cereals (grains), beans, and

apples), the number is probably much higher today.28 Over a dozen

studies citing the high carcinogenicity of myotoxins in animals were

reported by the Institute for Cancer Research.29

There is virtually nothing in our educational process that teaches

us exactly how and what kind of excessive mycotoxin load pursues its

treacherous attacks on the health of vital systems of the body.

There are doubtless myriad therapeutic interactions and applications

to consider in dealing with the life-threatening effects of

mycotoxicosis. Current scientific research on mycotoxicosis caused

by food processing and storage practices reflects a rather

unfortunate scientific immaturity. There are mathematical tricks

galore to transform data into the desired result, leaving the

scientific reader unable to extract the actual results from a set of

unwarranted expressions. Hence, conclusions drawn from research on

human safety may be inaccurate and warrant further investigations.

Moreover, research conducted at public universities is increasingly

funded by the $460 billion food-processing industry and many of the

earlier 1960-1970 research on irradiation was proven fraudulent.27

As we explore these health risks, it?s important to remember that

the real purpose of scientific research on mycotoxicosis and

irradiation should be to uncover the subtleties of abnormal body

activities that might develop into serious, life-threatening illness

with repeated, long-term exposures.

The data presented in this article has documented the emerging

health dangers of food-borne mycotoxins and other carcinogens in

industry-processed foods and supplements. Public Citizen, a

Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group spokesman Mark Worth said " For

17 years the FDA has knowingly and systematically ignored its own

testing protocols that must be followed before irradiated food can

be legalized for human consumption. " The CFS reported " The FDA

relied on only 5 of more than 400 scientific studies to determine

that irradiated food is safe to eat. Of those 5, only three have

been published in peer-reviewed journals. In two of the studies,

researchers used doses of radiation at or far below those approved

by the FDA, rendering the studies virtually, if not completely

useless. The agency has rejected every study that has drawn into

question the safety of irradiation. " The CFS and Public Citizen

groups are working to stop the proliferation of irradiated food and

irradiation technology through coordinated campaigns, grassroots

organizing, citizen petitions, legal action and efforts to insure

companies are honest with consumers about the dangers of irradiated

foods. All practitioners concerned with the welfare of their

families and patients need to contact these organizations to support

their efforts.

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NOTE: The information presented on this web site is for educational

purposes for only.

It is not intended as a substitute for diagnosis and

treatment by a qualified, licensed professional.