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Fungal Infection or Cancer?

Leukaemia  and fungi


(source: canceractive.com)

There are many American scientific experts who believe that the disease of Leukaemia and an overgrowth of fungi are inexorably linked. Some oncologists will tell you that yeasts and fungi are an effect of the drugs used to treat the leukaemia and there are many learned scientific research papers to show that after treatment some leukaemia patients have extremely bad fungal infections life threatening ones. However there is a growing band of experts who believe that these yeasts and fungi are the CAUSE, rather than the effect of leukaemia.

Even if yeasts/fungi are not the actual cause of your cancer, given that the effect of leukaemia treatment can promote severe fungal/yeast infections surely it makes good sense for all leukaemia patients to think about using an anti-yeast, anti-fungal diet, whether they believe such yeasts to be cause or effect.

A typical anti-yeast diet would involve.

CELL SUPPRESSION THEORY

A new theory of cancer proposed by Mark Lintern

The following is taken from Mark’s theory synopsis:

Challenging the mainstream narrative that cancer is a result of our cells ‘going wrong’, I have amassed a formidable body of evidence that indicates cancer is one disease that is triggered and mediated by a number of external factors that subvert and override normal cellular control mechanisms – namely opportunistic intracellular pathogens.

While the factors that can trigger cancer are multi-factorial, there is a common factor driving it at its core. This pathogen-derived factor explains the consistency found to occur in all cancers regardless of the random damage inflicted. Taking advantage of chronic inflammation, an opportunistic pathogen is able to sustain itself intracellularly, leading to the symptoms that we refer to as ‘cancer’. The cell damage attributed as the origin of the disease, is simply a symptom of this interaction.

Is the failure of standard of care treatment a reflection of treating symptoms? Significantly, those treatments (off-label drugs, complimentary treatments, dietary and lifestyle changes) that result in a positive outcome, do so because they appear to inadvertently target and eliminate the pathogens that I propose are driving the disease – that is, all possess anti-microbial properties in addition to the original purpose of the drug.

When the evidence is collated and presented, as it is within my book, all roads to cancer clearly lead back to the influence of a specific type of pathogen.

Article by David Holland, M.D. Co-author, The Fungus Link

I recently spoke with a nurse who was diagnosed, as an adult, with leukemia. She endured the chemotherapy regimen her doctors prescribed, only to suffer from a secondary fungal infection during that time. The intensity and duration of the antifungal treatment rivaled that of the chemotherapy. At any rate, she recovered from both afflictions and went back to work.

Later, as a result of another workup — which included a liver biopsy — for some returning symptoms she had, bad news was again brought up. “Your leukemia has returned,” her oncologist told her, and he proceeded to lay out the next line of chemotherapy drugs she would have to take.

Given that her chances of dying were much higher now that her cancer had returned, she opted to get a second opinion on her biopsy before proceeding with her next round of chemotherapy. She took her tissue sample to another hospital, and what she was told there was absolutely stunning: “You don’t have leukemia,” remarked the pathologist, “what you have is a fungal infection!”

The scenario that her doctors figured was that her previous fungal infection had returned — a total possibility. But for this nurse, more questions were raised. She thought, for example, “If they diagnosed my fungal infection as leukemia this time, is it possible that they were wrong the FIRST time? Was my leukemia really a fungal infection to begin with, and was my so-called ‘secondary’ fungal infection I had earlier really a full-blown manifestation of what originally might have looked like leukemia?”

Of course, she would never get answers to these questions, for to fully investigate thoughts like these might imply that a diagnostic error was made on the part of either her initial oncologist or pathologist.

Nevertheless, an intense six months later — some of it spent in the hospital — of high-dose, powerful antifungals finally achieved a cure for her fungal infection. Today, she is again back at work, exuding more than ever with compassion for her patients. It really struck me when she told me where she works, because in her case, her occupation may very well relate to what she had suffered over the past two years. It turns out that she works at a bone-marrow transplant center, and is in daily contact with children with leukemia.

Now, the thought of her “acquiring” something as grave as leukemia would almost be preposterous to some. But the temptation to scratch our heads and wonder about this is unbearable. What if she really did have a fungal infection — and NOT leukemia — her first time around? And if so, did she “catch” this from her precious little patients?

Fungal infections not only can be extremely contagious, but they also go hand in hand with leukemia — every oncologist knows this. And these infections are devastating: once a child who has become a bone marrow transplant recipient gets a “secondary” fungal infection, his chances of living, despite all the antifungals in the world, are only 20%, at best.

And then the unthinkable thought arises: what if all of these children didn’t even have leukemia, but rather a fungal infection, just as this nurse did? If doctors, in the 21st century, could mistake a fungal infection for leukemia in this nurse, could the same fate have fallen upon these children?

Doctors in general are not very good at diagnosing fungal infections because their medical school training is based so heavily on the role of bacteria and viruses in the area of infectious diseases. Fungi have been a forgotten foe ever since the advent of antibiotics. Once we had a drug that could kill bacteria, the interest in and the study of fungi fell to the wayside.

Laboratories display the same difficulty in diagnosing fungal infections: current tests for detecting the presence of fungi are both terribly scant and sorely antiquated.

Despite these training and technical inadequacies, there have been at least a few good reports that implicate the role of fungi in causing leukemia.

For example, in 1999 Meinolf Karthaus, MD, watched three different children with leukemia suddenly go into remission upon receiving a triple antifungal drug cocktail for their “secondary” fungal infections.(1)

Pre-dating that, Mark Bielski stated back in 1997 that leukemia, whether acute or chronic, is intimately associated with the yeast, Candida albicans. (2)

Finally, almost 50 years ago, Dr. J. Walter Wilson, in his textbook of clinical mycology, said that “it has been established that histoplasmosis and such reticuloendothelioses as leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, lymphosarcoma, and sarcoidosis are found to be coexistent much more frequently than is statistically justifiable on the basis of coincidence.” (3)

Histoplasmosis is what we call an “endemic” fungal infection. It is most commonly acquired in regions surrounding the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys in the United States. One becomes ill by merely inhaling the tiny fungal spores of this fungus. (For more information on histoplasmosis and other endemic fungi, you can visit: http://www.doctorfungus.org/). Three similar reports like this over the span of 40 years should convince us to at least study the role of fungi in cancers like leukemia a little more thoroughly.

The late Milton White, MD., did exactly this. He fully believed that cancer is a “chronic, intracellular, infectious, biologically induced spore (fungus) transformation disease.” (4) Using the proper isolation techniques (involving saline instead of formaldehyde as a tissue transportation medium between the operating room and the pathology lab), he was able to find fungal spores in every sample of cancer tissue he studied. His lifetime work has been routinely dismissed as nothing more than an unproven postulate.

Regardless, wouldn’t you expect all of this information to make front-page headlines in every newspaper across the country, if not the world? Instead, every one of these findings was merely a brief mention — only curious thoughts that one might entertain but never take seriously.

The fact is, if leukemia and fungal infections “co-exist” so frequently, and if an antifungal drug cocktail effectively cured at least these three children of their leukemia, then I say we put the brakes on right there. Is there a need to go any farther, except to more deeply investigate the need for antifungals in treating leukemia and not just the secondary infections that arise in the course of chemotherapy?

In his book, The Germ that Causes Cancer (http://knowthecause.com), author and television host Doug Kaufmann asserts that not only fungi, but also foods play a role in the etiology of cancer. He has seen children become free of their documented leukemia once the child’s parents simply changed the child’s diet. Kaufmann’s diet is base on the widely-published problem of mycotoxin contamination of our grain foods.

Grains such as corn, wheat, barley, sorghum, and other foods such as peanuts, are commonly contaminated with cancer-causing fungal poisons, or “mycotoxins.” (5,6) One of them, called aflatoxin, just happens to be the most carcinogenic substance on earth. If this is indeed a problem, Kaufmann asserts, then cereal for breakfast and soda pop for dinner may not be conducive to a cancer-free lifestyle.

A case in point: in a grain-based diet, we consume, on average, from 0.15mg to 0.5mg of aflatoxin per day. (7) Further, he states, it is not the sugar alone that is the problem in our western diet, but the fungal toxins that are found in the sugary grains. More than once has Kaufmann interviewed a caller (on his health talk show) who absolutely craved peanut butter and popcorn just prior to their diagnosis of cancer.

Fungi are such a nuisance in carbohydrate foods in particular because fungi need carbohydrates to thrive. Therefore, it is rarer to see fungal contamination problems in foods like vegetables and high-protein foods.

Kaufmann goes on further to explain how even antibiotics may play a role in the disease process. Antibiotics destroy the normal, protective gut bacteria, allowing intestinal yeast and fungi to grow unchecked. These internal, gut yeast make toxins, too. This can lead to immune suppression, symptoms of any autoimmune disease, or even cancer. “If the onset of any symptom or disease- cancer included- was preceded by a course of antibiotics,” he maintains, “then look for a fungus to be at the root of your problem.”

Fungal infections

Fungus – any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, which includes yeastsrustssmutsmildewsmolds, and mushrooms.

Systemic fungal infections usually originate in the lungs (aspergillosis and other mould infections as a result of inhalation) or from endogenous flora (candidaemia as a result of infected lines or leakage from the gastrointestinal tract), and can spread to many other organs (source)

five diseases account for the majority of invasive infections Study


1 aspergillosis –  infections caused by moulds belonging to the genus Aspergillus found in soil, air, plants and decomposing organic matter, in dust and on food.


2 candidosis (candidiasis)-
Yeasts belonging to the genus Candida can cause acute or chronic deep-seated infection. The predominant species are C. albicansC. glabrataC. parapsilosisC. tropicalis and C. kruseiCandida auris


3 cryptococcosis
– capsulated yeasts of the genus Cryptococcus. Infection predominantly affects non-compromised individuals; environmental exposure is the primary risk factor.


4 mucormycosis –fungal infection caused by moulds Rhizopus arrhizus (oryzae), Lichtheimia corymbiferaRhizopus microsporus group and Saksenaea spp. Affects sinuses or lungs. Can occur on skin after injury.


5 pneumocystosis – usually presents as a pneumonitis [ swelling and irritation, also called inflammation, of lung tissue. ] after inhalation from the environment. The lung is the primary site of infection. 

Did you know? Gastrointestinal infections may mimic malignancy (Source)

Natural Treatments for fungal infection

Silymarin (Milk Thistle Extract) – View study study study
Echinacea – View study study study
Tea Tree Oil
– View study study study
Astragalas – View study
Peppermint
– View study study
Ginger
– View study study
Oregano OilView study     
Turmeric – View study study
Cinnamon – View study
Pau D’Arco – View study study study
Caprylic Acid – View study study
Undecylenic Acid – View study
Grapefruit Seed Extract – View study
Berberine – View study study study
N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) – View study
Dill Oil – View study
Calendula – View study study
Black walnut – View study
Ayurveda – View Case Report
Traditional Chinese Medicine
This 2023 study says:In the theory of TCM, the philosophy of treating fungal diseases does not just focus on antifungal, but on both antifungal and immune regulation…Some ingredients kill the fungus, and others balance the host’s immune response…This overall regulation of the fungus and the host is very helpful in the treatment of fungal infections.
More: study study study study study study article


See also: Proof for the Cancer-Fungus Connection by James B, Yoseph & Hannah Yoseph, MD



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