Aflatoxin is more dangerous than Nicotine?

Nicotine is not a carcinogen, but … it can contribute to the development of cancer. A team of researchers at Wake Forest University has just announced that they have successfully demonstrated how nicotine can stimulate brain metastasis in patients with lung cancer. According to the team, these patients should stop taking nicotine in any form, and therefore refrain from using it in any form when trying to quit smoking.

Nicotine is not on the list of carcinogens. It has a strong addictive effect, so saying goodbye to cigarettes or other products containing nicotine is very difficult for a heavy tobacco user.

It means struggling with a withdrawal syndrome at first, the symptoms of which include anxiety, stress, irritability, sleep disturbances, depressed mood. Fortunately, their intense form does not last very long – usually no longer than a month, but even after a few years a smoker may be tempted to smoke a cigarette and only self-control and the awareness that relapse is extremely simple can stop him from fulfilling this need.

Lung cancer with metastases

Roughly 90 percent. of lung cancer patients are former or active smokers. This type of cancer is said to be “tobacco-dependent”. Scientists have no doubts that the main factors behind the development of lung cancer are harmful substances resulting from the combustion of tobacco. Many of these substances are also found in polluted air. Of course, lung cancer is not the only type of cancer that develops as a result of e.g. the effects of carcinogenic substances contained in tobacco smoke.

More or less 40 percent. Lung cancer patients develop metastases to the brain – this type of disease (disseminated lung cancer) is considered advanced and less likely to recover than earlier stages. This is e.g. because it is difficult to find an effective combination therapy (in oncology most often the best results are achieved by a combination – “combination” – of surgical therapies, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) aimed at cancer cells in the brain – many drugs are not able to overcome the blood-brain barrier, and methods surgical treatment of disseminated lesions is either out of the question or is not effective.

Aflatoxin: the natural carcinogens

Aflatoxins are the best-known natural carcinogens. They are classified as mycotoxins, i.e. toxic substances produced by mold fungi. Until then, several types of aflatoxins produced directly by fungi have been identified. The forms B1, B2, G1, G2 have the strongest biological activity, of which aflatoxin B1 is considered the most carcinogenic. They are not found in cancer fighting diet. The form M1 is also dangerous to human health, most often present in milk and milk products. It is a metabolite of aflatoxin B1, formed in the body of animals fed with fodder contaminated with mold fungi.

Eating foods that contain aflatoxins can lead to acute or chronic symptoms. Acute poisoning is associated with nausea, vomiting, pulmonary edema, internal haemorrhage, convulsions, jaundice and coma, often fatal. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins may lead to mental disorders, skin and respiratory allergies, malformations in the fetus and is carcinogenic. Aflatoxins as a carcinogen contribute to the induction of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). For this reason, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified aflatoxins as group 1 carcinogens for humans, i.e. the category where substances are placed,

How Aflatoxins Enter The Human Body

The main source of exposure to aflatoxins is food contaminated with mold fungi. Aflatoxins, which are a product of secondary metabolism of two species of mold fungi: Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, have a particularly negative impact on human health. Both of these species occur in the wild all over the world, most often in places with high humidity and high temperature. The optimal conditions for their development are in tropical and subtropical regions (the optimal temperature for the growth of aflatoxic mushrooms is 27 degrees Celsius). The spores of these fungi can travel with air and insects to crops in fields and in warehouses, where, in the event of improper storage conditions (high humidity and high temperature), mold may rapidly develop. Products such as grains, nuts, dried fruit, spices can become contaminated with aflatoxin. It is also possible to contaminate the meat and milk of animals that have been fed with feed contaminated with these toxic substances.

What Foods Can Cause Aflatoxins?

Aflatoxins are undetectable and cannot be detected except with the help of specialized tests. The maximum permissible concentration of aflatoxins in individual food products. If you want to know natural cancer cures that work then you need to stay away from these foods as much as possible.

Contaminated products can be:

• spices, e.g. pepper, chili, nutmeg, ginger, turmeric,
• dried fruit, e.g. raisins, figs,
• peanuts and their products (e.g. peanut butter),
• Brazil nuts,
• wheat seeds,
• cereals,
• flour,
• cookies,
• corn and its products,
• rice,
• meat and dairy products obtained from animals that consumed contaminated feed.

The complete elimination of aflatoxins in food products is impossible, because they are not degraded in processing, so they can be present, for example, in cookies made from contaminated grain.