From the September 1999 Idaho Observer:

Mad cows and madder men:

Prion diseases may be spreading through fungal infected grains

SANDPOINT, ID -- Though “mad cow” disease may have spread to English cattle that ate sheep brains, the infectious crystalline agent associated with the disorder, called a prion, did not likely originate there. A new theory on such transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) provides a sobering likelihood that the sheep likely became initially contaminated by eating fungal infected grains.

Indeed, a growing body of scientific evidence shows that yeast, or fungi, may carry the resilient, infectious prion responsible for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, scrapie in sheep, “mad cow disease” in cows, and several other transmissible brain disorders affecting other species of wild animals.

This new prion theory, according to Harvard graduate and internationally known public health authority Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and his colleague, principle investigator Dr. Joseph E. Barber, forecasts that these deadly TSEs foreshadow a “biological apocalypse” that will make "AIDS seem like an appetizer at a cataclysmic picnic."

According to their new 511-page text, Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse (Tetrahedron Press. 1999), Dr. Barber, a naturopathic physician, was intuitively guided to research prions while treating patients suffering from fungal infections.

Accessing the scientific literature, he happened upon a report in Cell by researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Chicago. They reported that a prion-like protein found in yeast, a fungus, was able to transmit “apoptosis,” (programmed cell death) through crystal growth, without depending on DNA or RNA.

This, they reported, occurred “much like” what was observed in the brains of “mad cow” diseased cattle and humans with CJD. Though the article reassured consumers not to worry about prions in bread and beer, Dr. Susan Lindquist, one of the institute's team leaders, said that these particles relayed genetic inheritance through a mechanism associated with several devastating neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's.

Upon further research by Dr. Horowitz, the authors concluded that consumers of yeast, or fungal infected grains, may not be free of prion risks. Prions, the authors wrote, “are able to pass toxicity and inheritable messages from one generation of fungus to the next.” And since these crystalline structures effectively resist chemical control, and even extreme heat, they can be passed through even processed foods as was the case in the British outbreak of CJD in beefeaters. These diseases, “mad cow,” scrapie, and CJD are equally then, if not more likely, transmitted by the prion crystal pathogens identified in contaminated fungi and their primary host -- grains.

Lending support for this theory, a widely publicized case of CJD in Britain occurred in a young woman, Claire Tomkins, who was a long time steadfast vegetarian.

Compounding their evidence is a complaint filed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the Consumers Union (CU). The 1997 petition alerted officials regarding the likelihood that prion diseases were being transmitted by unregulated swine wastes and pork products. The CU reported that at least two epidemiologic studies in the scientific literature had addressed the issue of dietary risk factors for CJD.

Both found links to pork. Other species at risk for prion infections, according to the CU, included chickens and mink as well as other animals that may eat swine waste contaminants that commonly spill into rivers and streams or spread through fertilizers to open fields thus infecting grains and grazing animals.

According to U.S. Government health officials, CJD is virtually nonexistent in North America though wild animals are increasingly developing TSEs. According to University of Pittsburgh researchers, however, 5.5 percent of Alzheimer's patients may have been misdiagnosed. A similar CJD study at Yale found more than twice that amount. Even at that small percentage rate, the authors concluded, with more than 2,000,000 Alzheimer's cases in the United States today, there is likely a “hidden CJD epidemic” of approximately 200,000 cases.

“Unless health officials from around the world heed this warning, scrutinize these facts, and take preventive precautions,” Dr. Horowitz concluded, “populations may fall victim to a biological apocalypse unprecedented in earth's history.”

Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse can be special ordered direct from the publisher by calling: 1- 888-508-4787. Dr. Horowitz is also the author of the definitive work on the origin of AIDS and other “designer” diseases, Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola -- Nature Accident or Intentional? which can also be ordered direct from the publisher by calling the number provided above.