Aflatoxins

Written by Daniel Mark Norris Newton Davis

Last Updated: 11-30-07

We consume mold fungi in our foods and alcohol beverages. Anything that involves an aging or fermentation process has mold in it. Mold fungi produce aflatoxins and other mycotoxins to destroy their microbial competitors. The National Institute of Health listed aflatoxins as "known to be human carcinogens" in it's 11th Report on Carcinogens.

Aflatoxins from mold fungi can even kill you, just as they killed hundreds of people in Kenya 2004. Mold fungi, with their aflatoxins, can enter the food chain at any of the many steps from growing, to storage, to processing, to storage, to the consumer. The moisture in the silos and other storage facilities, even here in the United States, often cause mold growth in our foods like wheat and corn. This is why wheat is listed as an allergen on breads. This consumption of mold tainted wheat and other foods has evolved many people to be allergic to products containing wheat and those other mold tainted foods. Vegetables and fruits are rushed to market due to the rapid growth of mold in the product.

The processing of many foods involve aging and/ or fermentation. This equates to the growth of mold in those foods. Most antibiotics are mold based. Penicillin is made from the mold of penecillium, etc.. Since the human body has difficulty cleaning the molds and their mycotoxins of aflatoxins from it's operating systems, this barrage of molds and their mycotoxins accumulate to higher and higher levels in the human body. The liver is charged with attempting to clean all these molds and their mycotoxins from our operating systems. This barage of molds and their mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins, are overtaxing the liver. Overtaxing of the liver is damaging the liver and leading to degeneration of the liver. This overtaxing of the liver by molds and their mycotoxins contributes significantly to degeneration of the liver and the end result of liver cancer.

These accumulations of mold fungi and their mycotoxins in our digestive system from food and alcohol, and the resulting degeneration of the liver, is an underlying causation of many health problems, including degenerative diseases and the degenerative processes throughout the human body. These include allergies, problems in the gastrointestinal, digestive, pulmonary, cardiovascular, and central nervous system, irritable bowel syndrome, liver and colon cancer. I constantly suffered from nuasea, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome. I suffered multi-systemic health problems as all of the above listed systems were affected by the high accumulated levels of toxic mold, their mycotoxins and aflatoxins combining to cause a rapid degeneration of my body.

According to Issue No. 2 of the World Health Organization AFRO Food Safety Newsletter; "Exposure to mycotoxins can produce both acute and chronic toxicities ranging from death to deleterious effects on the central nervous, cardiovascular, pulmonary and digestive systems. Mycotoxins may also be carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and immunosuppresive. It also has a synergistic effect with the hepatitis B virus in the etiology of liver cancer and could interact with HIV/AIDS.

The chronic incidence of aflatoxin in diets is evident from the presence of Aflatoxin M1 in human breast milk in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Sudan as well as in umbilical cord blood samples in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Epidemiological studies have shown a strong correlation between exposure to aflatoxins and primary liver cancer.

Aflatoxin exposure in children is also associated with child stunting and child neurological impairment."

The research by Dr. Bailey and his team on the effective use of chlorophyllin to counter the effects of aflatoxins can be reviewed in the section entitled 'Chlorophyllin'.

Cornell University: Aflatoxins-Occurence and Health Risks

WHO: Mycotoxins in African: Implications to Food Safety and Health

NIEHS-NIH: Aflatoxin & Liver Cancer

Oregon State University: Supplement Reduces Risk of Aflatoxin-Related Liver Cancer

Oregon State University: Chlorophylls and Cancer Prevention

Linus Pauling Institute: Chlorophyll and Chlorophyllin

Dr. Mercola: The Top-10 MYCO-Toxic Foods

Dr. Mercola: How to Avoid the Top 10 Most Common Toxins

Dr. David Holland: Multiple Sclerosis: A Chronic Mycotoxicosis?

ScienCentralNews: Wasp Hound