This is my first post. I live in France and have been exposed to mycotoxins over the past few years. Tests results have shown that I have Aflatoxins, Ochratoxins and Trichothecene in my system which have made me feel very ill over the past few months. I can't find knowledgeble doctors here and I need to find out which medications I need to have to help me in some way. I need to be able to inform, and work with, my doctors to be sure of getting the right treatment. I've been given a prescription for Flucanazole 100g to start off with but I'm sure this will not be enough. Any help will be truly appreciated. I wish there was such a group in France. Thanks.
Frank
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frankaspergilus
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Any fungal infection has to be treated from 3 direction:
1. Starve the fungus: sugars, yeasts, 1-2 days old cooked food, avoid corn and wheat while you kill the fungus, peanuts, dairy, check and clean home environment of molds and chemicals.
2. kill the fungus
Which drugs kill the fungus is not me to tell, a doctor has to.
I can tell only about the natural killers of fungus : some of them are foods, others are herbs: garlic, olive leaf extract, oregano oil, Pau D'arco, Horopito, grapefruit seed extract, Iodine, coconut, your own Hydrochloric acid when in sufficient quantity a little of it is absorbed into your blood and is deadly to any fungus and alkalies your body.
3. restore the balance of beneficial gut flora
Imbalance in the gut flora is a contributer to fungal problems and are caused by antibiotics (mycotoxins), drugs, alcohol, refined sugar, stress, minerals deficiency, etc.
To achive balance these foods containing healthy bacteria like sourdough bread, raw souerkraut, miso, tofu, tempeh and soy youghurt must be encouraged.
Suplements with acidophilus and bifidus is a must to speed up the gastrointestinal tract being populated with friendly healthy bacteria.
Friendly intestinal flora is part of the immune system and therefore they are a must in conquering fungal infections of any kind. They also contribute to absorption of food thus eliminating deficiencies.
There are presentations on YouTube on this subject that may go in more details. Also books have been written on the matter containing explanations and programs to battle fungal infection holistically. I just wanted to help you with an overview on fungal problems. Hope this help.
I could ask many questions at the moment but one immediate one is about cutting out sugar. I've begun to do that (and cut out all the other problem foods) but already find it hard to do.
I've never had a sweet tooth anyway but my body is certainly reacting against cutting out sugar. I can't help but crave something sweet to eat (because my body is used to having some level of sugar intake I suppose). Yesterday I started to feel faint, was trembling and sweating. I checked my blood/sugar levels and they were extremely low. I had to eat some fruit and a piece of candy quickly to raise my sugar levels. What do you do about cutting out sugar completely?
Also, probiotics? What sort of non-dairy probiotics should I use and where would I get them?
There are no refined sugars in my diet at all since a very long time, many years and I am doing very well. There is plenty of natural sugars for the body needs from a little not very sweet fruit (eg.berries, green apples) and lots of vegies. For instance I juice carrots and a bit of red beets, green apple and celery and the juice is sweet. I am not saying you should drink carrot juices at this point, you better eat it whole. It is just to illustrate that there is enough natural sugar in the foods for the needs of the body.
The sugars in vegies will not raise the blood sugar fast because they deliver it to blood slowly over time because of high fiber content.
Cutting sugar doesn't mean cut the vegetables and legumes and whole grains that have the carbohydrates, but it means the refined sugars containing products and refined carbohydrates like white breads, cakes, and concentrated sweets like honey.
Probiotics can be found at health-food shops or some pharmacies over the counter or from naturopaths practitioners. Some are made from dairy and I was told better have the other kind that is dairy free. The last bottle of probiotics supplement I got it from the naturopath.
But there are such probiotics in raw sauerkraut as in other foods I mentioned in the first text that if incorporated in the daily food intake would do the same but in longer time. Also they are on the raw eaten produce that haven't been chemical treated. The purpose of supplements are to speed up the process and are taken at night on empty stomach.
If you have a vaporizer you could add few drops of tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil as well as clove oil or there are many others that have an anti-fungal propriety so you could breath those vapors. The same principle could be applied to the air-conditioning systems where a few drops are placed where the system draws air from and will clean the system and the air of pathogens.
I am telling this because of my own experience, I got very sick in a building that had issues with the air-conditioning system as well as people were smoking in vicinity to where it drew air. So I know very well the environment is as important as the cutting of sugar in conquering the fungal problem.
Apart from that, Far Infrared Saunas or Steam Sauna will help very well to stimulate the immune system and detoxing the body from what may be food for fungus.
Some of the things you recommend I've already been doing or have just started doing them. Far Infrared Sauna, breathing in tea tree oil I've been doing for some time. I've started taking probiotics, cutting out, or at least weaning myself off sugar and carbs (I think doing it cold-turkey made me feel worse).
I felt really ill after 4 days of taking flucanazole so I stopped yesterday to see if I felt better (which I did). So I think I'll perhaps split the capsule and take half the dose and see if that does anything. Did you take any anti-fungals at all or have you relied more on self-treatment. I really hate the idea of taking any medicines and the more I learn about most of them the less keen I am to take them. I'd like to think I could get better without them.
Can I ask how you knew you had a fungal infection? Did you have tests done and if so, where and what type of tests? What type of fungal infection do you have? I sent urine samples to American Medical Labs (at quite a high cost) and they showed up the three fungal infections. But I'm never too sure about lab results and just how accurate they are or even how trustworthy some of these online labs are. Perhaps I'm too synical.
Hi Frank I am glad that you manage well and feel well.
Hi Frank,
Looks like you are well informed, doing FIR sauna and the oils for a time is great. At least we talking on the same platform.
I used to go merry go round to doctors to find what is the problem, but very hard to get answers. In that building where I worked, there was a problem with cleaning and the cleaning of the 2 way air conditioning and smoking - a cocktail that spelled trouble. Cutting short I came down with symptoms of asthma(tight chest), which I haven't had before. I was also coughing badly, so one day I felt the blood taste in my mouth and I decided that I have to remove myself from the situation because I was not getting any better being there. I wasn't the only one, there were others having all sorts of symptoms, but not as bad as me.
So I went to the doc thinking that I got asthma based on some allergy to dust, doc did not think so and wanted to exclude asthma by giving me some drugs that would have shown if it is asthma or not, depending how I reacted to it. No, I could not agree with the experiment and went to another doc that mentioned Aspargillus. As soon as he finished saying it, changed his mind about it, saying "if it would be Aspargillus you would be much worse". I don't know how much worse I should have been so the doc would have tested it. It took about 2 years till I did not feel the tight chest when I entered the train or an old building or some homes or someone smoking near by. I became a live detector of fungus and molds. I could tell where molds are while members of my family felt nothing.
These fungus and molds work together in synergy, really doesn't matter which one you carry in your system you will react to others around. Candida shows itself a winner as well, it gets help I suppose. Then I got cancer about 3 years after the building event so things went from bad to worse, that's why one needs to do something about.
After that I said that this is serious and I went to naturopaths, one of them looked in the blood and said that there is fungus and mycoplasma. Also the naturopath said that it looks the same as the patients that clean the airconditiong. I have no air conditioning at home. I did not believe it entirely, but I carry on with the antifungal program and taking minerals and they have effect I was getting better. However I did not like the idea of Mycoplasma so I went to a doc and ask to check for it. Yes the result from the lab came positive, there is Mycoplasma. (Perhaps most people with chronic diseases have it, but that is another story.) One thing was very interesting in the preparation for blood test, I was not suppose to have any herbal treatment for 3 months prior to the collection of blood sample...Bingo! that goes to show that herbal treatment have an effect on it.
So as far as MDs system of diagnosis there was mycoplasma, however the antibiotic treatment offered I could not accept. So, what is left but herbal treatments and a holistic approach to gaining health back?
Understanding the issue from a different point of view is what I needed. Surely I do not see it from the angle - you got the germ from outside and one is doomed because of it unless it kills it. Generalizing this would make one believe that the germ(I include the molds and fungus and viruses and bacteria you name it) is everything and has the absolute power over the body. This leads to the believe that once you got it is incurable or only manageable for bit longer.
Now I believe that the terrain(our body condition) is the problem, where the germs are actually finding a good environment for themselves to live and thrive. So the holistic approach will rather work on making the terrain clean and well nourished and the infections will not have a place to live. This gives a hopeful and achievable health believe or perspective.
That is why the saunas and mucusless diets, changes in the lifestyle, nutrition to get a better or the best terrain. Then the name of the infection doesn't matter so much. So here maybe I am answering you on the questions, maybe not as you expected.
Now I understand, that not everybody is prepared to work on their body (terrain) holistically to conquer health challenges and regain health. There is work to be done to become fit not just swallowing pills. I would say it is hard work not the easiest path, requires determination and strength and help from others.
For such people the management for a little longer is vital, the MDs are doing just that and I would not stay against that. It all depends what path/platform one is on or the understanding and believes about health one has at the time of diagnosis.
I am glad that you found the path of if I may call it "the terrain path" that is giving you results.
You've obviously travelled a very tough road and you deserve the success you've managed to create for yourself over your health issues. I'm in total agreement with you about the fact that no-one will do as much for you as you can do for yourself. Medical doctors are so difficult to deal with because it takes so long to get them to even take you seriously. By the time they realise you do actually have a serious problem, too much damage has been done and it's so much harder to recover. So, if we get sicker because our doctors don't listen, how can we trust them to treat us properly once they admit there was a problem all along? I've had other issues to deal with over the past 6 years (Parkinson's Disease) and have been telling my doctors that something was wrong, even at the very earliest stages when I knew my body was telling me that abnormal things were happening to me. I've seen no end of specialists who have laughed at me at times but, finally, they now admit that Parkinson's is an issue for me. So, even without this new mycotoxin problem, I have little confidence in the doctors I've seen so far, apart from a doctor I saw recently who is also a holistic and nutritional doctor too. She has much more insight into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. I have more hope with her but I know there's a long way to go even so. The only problem is that she's an hour and a half away from me which makes seeing her regularly quite hard. So, I suppose I have little choice other than, like you, to do what I can for myself. Hopefully, that will turn out to be the best option in the end.
I don't know if you've tried using "binders" to remove toxins from the body. Apart from mycotoxins, I'm fairly sure there will be other toxins in my body thanks to the polluted world we live in. So, I'm trying something called "Zeolite" as a binder to help in detoxing. It's a natural rock, that has been crushed into a fine powder which you take with food or a drink. It has properties that draw toxins into its structure which you then excrete out of your body. I don't know how well it works but it has a lot of followers who swear by it and, apparently, causes no side effects (apart from the possibilty of constipation at high doses).
Another new thing I'm trying is whey protein. I know, because of how ill I feel and because I have a very low white blood cell count, that my immune system is in bad shape. Whey protein is a natural product that can help you to boost your immune system (apparently). For the moment, until I get help from doctors that I'm confident with, this is something that I'm happy to try rather than any medication they want me to use. I am using flucanazole because I'm sure I need something strong to help in removing the mycotoxins at this stage. I'm just hoping it's a decent beginning as a form of treatment. Time will tell with all these things I suppose.
Anything you can recommend will be appreciated, although you've passed on some good advice already.
Yes, I feel the same, one has to take responsibility for its own health. The doctors are there to teach, educate and guide you, but how many of them actually do this. Sometimes is hard to find out from them info about your own case. Good that you found one doctor that is helping even if you can't see too often. I am sure that out there are doctors like that. Doctor in Latin is 'docere' meaning 'to teach'. It may be used today for PHDs, but in old Latin times were no PHDs, it was used for health healers. Just an interesting fact.
Thinking of your low white blood cell count I remember Dr. GAtherton said once that patients with fungal infections he finds them to have chronically low immunity.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Proverbs 17:22 (KJV)
The marrow is in the bones and the marrow is drying out and the marrow is the one that generate our blood cells.
I do not want to stir up the can of worms, but if there is anything that broke your spirit could you find it in yourself to forgive and forget. Forgiving is about loving yourself. To forgive is to value yourself above your surroundings and the petty behaviors of others around you.
Even if it is an event, not a known person to forgive, still there is the need to forgive whom you think is responsible. In a long life things may have accumulated.
On the other hand laughter is a a very good treatment makes the heart merry. Maybe you do like to watch comedies. Have 2 hours of laughter everyday, loose yourself into comedies regularly. I did this for a while, kind of exhausted the available comedies.
There are other ways to deal with the emotional issues, but the main idea is that the emotional part has to be sorted out so it does not frustrate the physical treatments.
You were saying that one needs detoxing, not only of the mycotoxins but of other toxic elements due to the toxic environment we live these days. I can not agree more. You went for the Zeolites. I was very excited when I read about Zeolites some years ago. There were reports of being used on stock animals with great success. I still have about half a kilo of it at home. In spite of all the good reports I read, I could never get it down my throat. Some made it in a liquid medicine, which I think is a fraud.
Today I have a clearer picture about it. It is a ROCK as you also said. It is an inorganic element that will require bodies resources (already stretched) to be eliminated and if not it will store somewhere in the body becoming part of the toxic load. Can not be used as permanent solution for detoxing, especially when it creates constipation. Constipation is the main enemy in becoming toxic. Many things we can swallow and obtain a temporary success, but that is not the aim.
The aim is a permanent working solution. What are we doing as life style that will insure we do keep up with the detoxification needed in these times we live. That involves choices in all area of life. To come back to specifics for example in order to detox our body creates glutathione out of 3 amino acids. These acids are necessary to be part of the building blocks, this means nutrition. They are not coming in and are not being successfully digested, absorbed and used there will be no detoxing. The glutathione is a binder especially to heavy metals. It is a soldier that dies in the process and another has to be made. (read important info here: drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/19... ; what depletes GTH here: immunehealthscience.com/wha...
So why I am talking here about this is to illustrate that there can be no true permanent detoxification without very good nutrition. No one should attempt detoxification without good nutrition as a general rule.
You have chosen the whey protein that indeed provides the building blocks for glutathione, but there are some warnings about it as to what kind of milk should be produced from. (see the first link of Dr. Hyman). Besides, dairy is causing the body to produce catarrh - a thick gluey mucus - throughout the body that is feeding ground for fungi and other "bugs" and needs be eliminated (see: herballegacy.com/Mucusless_... regular sauna and some foods like raw garlic, onions and others help break up the catarrh and eliminate it. Also dairy makes one acidic. In the fight against fungal infection one aims to alkalize. There are other sources for those amino acids like garlic, onions and the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower, watercress, mustard) and wheatgrass juice or powder, chia seeds, pollen etc.
I do this things on daily basis and what we do on daily basis is what it counts: So in order to improve digestion first need to drink water so there is sufficient for the hydrochloric acid to be made otherwise it will be made at the expense of the cells being dehydrated, a win-loose situation. The water drank today is the tomorrow hydrochloric acid. Distilled water is a binder to inorganic minerals deposited in the body, will not deplete you of the organic minerals. The body can take inorganic minerals and convert them in organic mineral to be used, but I would leave this function for the Celtic salt, it takes some work and resources.
Celtic salt must be part of the diet so hydrochloric acid can be produce and is strong to break up proteins. Foods that stimulate digestion such as papaya seeds, cayenne pepper, ginger, black paper, gentian herb tea should precede the meals and with meals. Meals should be 80% raw food for intake of enzymes and be fresh if possible from good gardens. Aloe Vera, beetroot, papaya and sprouted foods are an excellent source of enzymes.
Garlic and coriander are used in heavy metal detoxing. The gut should be helped with slippery elm powder and probiotics for good lining and absorption.
Daily intake of lemon juice over foods and a teaspoon of apple cider unpasteurized to help alkalize the gut.
Fats to use are cold press olive oil, avocado, coconut oil when need to heat it, wheatgerm oil very rich in natural vit E. Sea buckthorn oil is a good source of omega 3, it comes in capsules. This is to avoid fish oil.
Organic molasses unsulphured from health food shop is rich in minerals, essential in fighting fungal infection as well as well grown greens and coconut water. Other minerals come from orms that are made from sea water where the sodium had been eliminated.
There are some no-nos to alcohol and sugar that feeds Candida, coffee, black teas, chocolate, vinegar, margarine, animal fats and table salt.
There are out there books that go more in detail about the foods you may want to read: Self-heal by design by Barbara O'Neil as well as Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Barbara has presentations on youtube , perhaps faster to access.
There are herbal detoxing programs that I used, they have the same principle of cleansing and feeding from the Dr. Christopher school that will complement the diets and speed up the process. herballegacy.com/Herbal_Cle...
They always cleanse the eliminating organs in this order: Bowel, Liver, Kidney and then the blood. Perhaps there are some herbalist trained at this school in France, i wouldn't know.
After all this good feeding there are herbs that I am using that stimulates the immune system like echinacea , calendula, astragalus that I rotated, each for 6 days a week one day free.
Feels like this is getting to long, so I leave you with these info which I experienced. They are food for thought.
GAthertonAdministratorFungal Infection Trust• in reply tonaomi88
I should point out that 'detoxing' has little proof to support it as a boost to health and can be harmful theconversation.com/mondays...
I would fully support replacing some of your overeating of carbohydrate dense foods and lethargic lifestyle with vitamin & fibre rich fruits, vegetables and daily exercise with destressing activities - and that is what much of many 'detox' diets seems to be based on but to relate your improved health to the ridding of 'toxins' is probably false and often a marketing tool to sell suplements - take at look at the 'worth it' line here to find out what supplements are actually proven to work for a given condition before spending money aspergillus.org.uk/content/...
I am not promoting a multitude of dangerous supplements, I even called one supplement a fraud, but good nutrition that will enable and support the natural body processes of detoxification and provides the nourishing food for the organs needed to function at their optimal levels thus bringing recovery. This is what I experienced and found it it works.
I appreciate your advice none of which I have been in Previous Requests None Here.
I am about to start on New Drug for my Epilepsy. I have been poorly Of and on some conditions mentioned above especially with my Internal System would be appreciated. Also any knowledge about for Epilepsy EPILIM CHRONO 300 TABLETS SLOW RELEASE. The Consultant did advice would cause Sleepiness as Also take a sleeping tablet 10 m.g Thank you.
You don't say if you have a fungal infection but if so you need to seek medical advice as to what treatment is appropriate.
Exposure to mycotoxins mainly occurs through food so most of us are exposed during our lives depending on our diet - these levels are kept very low by the authorities regulating much of the food that goes into the human food chain - testing for mycotoxin is carried out on many foods and levels permitted are thought to be harmless.
A fair bit of research has been carried out on the amount of mycotoxins we might inhale in our homes, specifically damp homes or places of work but levels of mycotoxin found are too low to cause a toxic effect, barely above that we may be exposed to in our food in most cases. Chronic exposure at these low levels is being looked into but as yet we do not know if there are potential health problems - though there are anecdotal stories of various symptoms other than the far more common respiratory/sinus problems.
There are currently no drugs available to treat such exposure, indeed it is thought that the best current treatment is removal from the source of exposure to allow your body to remove the mycotoxin using your bodies natural detoxifying systems. Our bodies are capable of removing most toxin within a few weeks at most.
I'm a little confused by your comments (or perhaps I'm interpreting them incorrectly. I apologise if that's the case).
You say that if one has a fungal infection then it's necessary to seek medical advice to obtain appropraite teatment. But then you say there are currently no drugs available to treat such exposure (I presume you mean to mycotoxins). So, I'm not sure what you're saying. You don't seem too convinced about the effects of exposure.
There are drugs available to treat exposure to mycotoxins. As much as I hate the idea of starting drug treatment, do I have a choice? Do you think it really is possible to detoxify only by removing oneself from source of exposure? I'd like to think it was. My mycotoxin urine test result show that I have Alfatoxins, Ochratoxins (both at levels not too far above the norm) and Tricothecenes at a level way above the norm. So, what would you suggest I do at this moment in time? Should I listen to my doctors and take anti-fungal drugs or should I self-treat, which includes removing myself from the source of exposure? You are obviously well-acquainted with the subject so any thoughts would be appreciated.
The most likely source of mycotoxins in your urine is contaminated food or a fungal infection. I am suggesting you follow your doctors advice and are checked out & treated for a fungal infection as you may have an underlying fungal infection, possibly of the sinuses NB if fluconazole provides no benefit there are others to try - see aspergillus.org.uk/content/....
There are few drugs I know of (though this is not an area I know a lot about) available to treat mycotoxin exposure, as you say it is usual to remove the patient from the exposure whereupon the toxins will be naturally removed from their bodies as our bodies are highly developed to remove these toxins.
One group in the US treated what they considered was mycotoxin exposure with a drug that we cannot use for that purpose - and the doctor involved stopped practicing after significant criticism from his colleagues.
I would suggest concentrating on removing the source of the toxins, then allowing your body to recover naturally.
I've see from the aspergillus uk website that you are part of the team who help those affected by aspergillus from the centre in Manchester. Unfortunately, although I've asked so many people here in France where I could find similar sort of expertise and advice, I have failed miserably. Would you know what the likelyhood is of the centre taking on patients from other countries, i.e. France, where I live? Or, do you, or anyone you know at the centre, have contacts in France who could help us? I think my biggest problem is getting a definitive diagnosis through proper diagnosis of just how serious (or not) I've been affected by aspergillus and other mycotoxins. I know I feel seriously sick most of the time, almost at death's door on occasion, yet I could stay like this forever as no-one here seems to know where to direct me for expert help, which is so crucial for me at the moment.
If you think there's a possibilty of getting some help from Manchester please let me know.
We certainly do accept the occasional patient from overseas but of course the NHS would not cover their costs so you must arrange for payment from your own health authority or funder. As it will be expensive they will want good evidence that you need to make the trip so for best results work closely with your current medical team.
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