Fungus

                I happened to read an article about the passage of mycotoxins through the food chain.  It seems that there are fungi which grow on plants that get eaten by animals which get eaten by animals which get eaten by humans.  These fungi cause various diseases in the animals (read us.) that eat them.  This explains a lot.  The man who discovered the Human Immuno Virus (HIV) has been saying that HIV doesn't cause AIDS because there are laboratory animals with HIV which have not developed AIDS even after many years.  Furthermore, the people who get HIV take enormously varied amounts of time to develop the disease. 

                These are dramatic instances.  The application is for each of us, and pertains to many diseases.  When people think of infectious diseases, they usually think of bacterial and viral diseases.  Fungal diseases are considered limited to some skin rashes and athlete's foot.  However, these diseases aren't so simple.  Athlete's foot is actually a combination of bacterial and fungal infections.  Bacteria like to take advantage of damaged tissue to thrive.  Fungal infections are relatively easily dealt with by our immune systems.  However, fungi can live in the outer layers of skin, where the immune system doesn't reach.  The fungi then damage this layer of skin, and the bacteria take advantage of the damaged skin to grow and damage more skin.  The damage allows the fungus to invade more tissue, which allows the bacteria to invade also.  The bacteria is not so easily dealt with by the immune system.  Fungal infections rarely ever bleed because the blood vessels are damaged and clotted off before they can bleed.  When the blood vessels are gone, the delivery system used by the immune system is gone, and the fungi and bacteria grow. 

                This method of communal living of fungi and bacteria is repeated anywhere on (or in) the body.  Part of the problem of recognizing this is that microbiologists have difficulty studying fungi.  Another part of the problem is that everyone is convinced that bacteria is our real problem and the microbiologists should spend there time studying bacteria instead of fungi.  Studying fungi is difficult and poorly remunerated.  Another part of the problem is the availability and glorification of antibiotics.  The big problem is that very few fungal infections cause illnesses that make people sick enough to do something about them.

                Part of the solution is not to expose ourselves to infectious disease.  Part of the solution is to use less toxic chemical agents and physical techniques.  Application of dilute hypochlorite solution is effective at killing many bacteria and active fungi.  Oops, I forgot to mention the life cycle of a fungus. 

                Fungi have a dormant stage in their life cycle.  During this dormant stage, the fungi wrap themselves in little balls that are very resistant to heat and chemical attacks.  This is why fungi are difficult to actually defeat.  However, the active fungi are easy to defeat.  Active fungi are very fragile.  The use of a halogen such as hypochlorite solution will easily dispense with the active fungi on the skin. 

                The other technique of using a scrub brush on the skin is somewhat painful.  However, it helps remove damaged tissue, and increases the blood supply to the skin.  It also helps the applied hypochlorite to penetrate more deeply into pores, hair follicles, and microscopic breaks in the skin.  Furthermore, hypochlorite is not a stable chemical.  After a short time, any hypochlorite that was not rinsed off will have reacted to form other compounds, mainly salts such as sodium chloride. 

                Another factor is that the skin is sometimes acidic.  This acid helps to degrade the skin.  The damaged skin invites the fungal and bacterial invasion. 

Please note, there are people who wish to preserve books.  These people care about fungi.  They have made a careful study of how to fight fungal invasion of paper.  Two methods they use are acid-free paper and humidity between 45% and 75%.  These methods are also applicable to preservation of skin.  If the skin is too dry it breaks instead of stretching.  The broken skin invites infection.  If it is too wet, fungus grows.

                An interesting thing is that Kramer Laboratories is known for an anti-fungal agent by the name of fungi-nail.  They did some searching and found that a fatty acid normally found on the skin is quite effective at controlling the growth (active stage of the life cycle) of fungi.  This fatty acid is also economical, easy to make, derived from a seed (natural), and not toxic.