What are Gliotoxins?

A gliotoxin is a mycotoxin produced by several species of fungi, including pathogens of humans such as Aspergillus, and also candida.

A study* published in 2010 revealed that candida could produce a substance called a gliotoxin (GT), an immunosuppressive toxin. It is now believed that GT’s immune-suppressing activity contributes to the survival of candida albicans in the blood stream during infections. In addition to GT’s immunosuppressive properties, this mycotoxin may also suppress and cause apoptosis (cell death) in certain types of cells of the immune system, including neutrophils, eosinophils, granulocytes, and macrophages.

This explains why this parasite can be so hard to eradicate by so many people’s immune systems. GT has also been discovered to have antithrombotic properties, which means that it prevents the formation of clots and thins blood, allowing it to travel more freely through the bloodstream and giving it the ability to be able to access areas of the body where it couldn’t normally go. GTs also explain brain fog and the severe and debilitating feelings many people feel when they are on the candida program.
*Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 2010 Aug;104(2):270-8. doi: 10.1160/TH09-11-0769. Epub 2010 Apr 29. Bertling A, Niemann S, Uekötter A, Fegeler W, Lass-Flörl C, von Eiff C, Kehrel BE. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Experimental and Clinical Haemostasis, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.

In addition, yeasts continually die as well as multiply causing yet even more chemicals to be produced and circulated throughout your system, and some of these chemicals other than aldehyde have also been identified as being toxic to the brain, capable of causing various behavioral disturbances. Is it any wonder that a yeast infection can leave you feeling so lousy?

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A chronic yeast sufferer may consume large amounts of foods or drinks which are continually causing a large amount of these toxic metabolites to be formed in their body, and these foods may include alcohol, soda or cola drinks, breads, fries, confectionery, dried and fresh fruits, chocolate, refined carbohydrates, and sugar. It is surprising how many people drink diet drinks, in the belief that they are entirely harmless.

A hidden problem surfaces when there is a large amount of toxic metabolites like gliotoxin and mannan present in the body, with more being continually produced along with the large amount of yeast and bad bacteria already present. The big problem arises however when these formed toxic metabolites begin to challenge the immune system, along with the candida itself.

If your diet is high in the foods that candida love, the foods and drinks I have clearly outlined in various articles on this site, then you may well be producing far too many yeasts themselves in addition to their metabolites, thereby challenging your immune system on a continual basis, twenty four hours a day.

Sometimes the sheer volume of these toxic metabolites in combination with very poor levels of beneficial bacteria may be even too large for your immune system to cope with, because your body may already be having to deal with numerous hidden food allergies, bad bacteria and parasites, leaky gut syndrome and low-grade inflammation present elsewhere in your body. Now you can understand how a chronic yeast infection can affect you at any time of the day, and in any one of a hundred or more ways!