“One of the hallmarks of integrative medicine is to focus on determining the underlying causes of chronic illnesses for patients, not just to treat symptoms. This has led many practitioners of integrative medicine to use testing that helps provide more personalized care protocols to their patients. It is the duty of diagnostic laboratories to deliver the most accurate test results possible and provide interpretations of the results to help practitioners understand the correlations between results and their patients’ conditions. At The Great Plains Laboratory, we have been working on finding new ways to detect underlying causes of many illnesses and studying correlations between the results and conditions. Using results from both our MycoTOX Profile as well as our Organic Acids Test (OAT) (both urine tests), we have discovered correlations between them and uncovered new routes of treatment for patients with mold exposure.
For several decades, new research has gone into the detection and treatment of mold mycotoxins. These are the toxic metabolites produced by certain types of fungi. These small molecules are often carried on dust particles or food or are present in water-damaged buildings and homes. The most common routes of exposure are inhalation, skin contact, or ingestion through contaminated food.1Exposure can lead to different types of chronic health conditions depending on the age, sex, genetics, and health status of the patient. Common symptoms of mycotoxin exposure are fatigue, headaches, rashes, food sensitivities, joint pain, and cough.2-4 Mycotoxins can induce disease through different routes such as cytotoxicity, immunosuppression, and DNA damage.
Mycotoxins can cause cytotoxicity by inhibiting multiple pathways within the cell. Mycotoxins inhibit the production of proteins by interfering with the function of the ribosome. Multiple mycotoxins bind to different subunits that are involved in protein biosynthesis, such as the 60S subunit of the ribosome.5,6 In addition to inhibition translation, mycotoxins can also activate Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK), mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), and p38.7,8 Activation of these stress response elements in the cell can lead to cellular damage.”
Continue reading this article below.
