As the conventional medical world still turns up its nose at the concept of myotoxicity and using binder therapy to remove such toxins from humans, the veterinary world is hard at work to mitigate the effects of various toxins on their business productivity. In this paper, the authors compared a variety of inorganic and organic binders of mycotoxins to see if they truly work and which works best. In the end, they preferred a combination of bentonite clay, humic acid, and beta-glucans (from a yeast called Saccharomyces). They did not report their review of charcoal, an option with other research supporting it.
The authors wanted to know which binders would work best in simulated GI conditions for a variety of mycotoxins. They looked at the ability of the binders to absorb “aflatoxins, ochratoxin, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol under simulated gastric and intestinal conditions”. If livestock are eating feeds with mold toxins, these toxins can be absorbed into the animals, eventually leading to adverse health effects. Lower animal weights, higher disease susceptibility, and lower reproductive rates all lead to lower profits. Finding simple and safe therapies to keep the toxins from getting into the animal bloodstream could lead to bigger profits.
For human concerns, we do get some mold toxins in our diet, and such binders could help in cases where high intake of poor-quality grains are contributing to toxin accumulation. However, in our clinic, we are more concerned with helping patients’ bodies to excrete toxins they have breathed in from water damaged buildings. Human studies indicate that we experience many if not all of the same adverse health effects as animals. Our patients can also give much more detailed accounts of the symptoms they suffer than livestock.
In the case of humans with mold toxicity, we are dependent on the GI tract and the kidneys for detox with some extra help from sweating. While some people can degrade mold toxins internally and chemically, the liver and kidneys are the primary detox exits if this internal degradation fails.
These GI based binders focus on the enterohepatic circulation part of this detox system. Our livers excrete toxins into bile so they can exit through the stool, but without binders, they can reenter (enterohepatic) through the intestinal bloodstream. By taking binders like these, we let our livers excrete some of the toxins into our bile where binders can bind to these toxins at a microscopic level for long enough for the toxins to get pulled out with the stool instead of into the bloodstream.
How do they bind so well? Electron microscopy pictures of these binders are included with the original paper source, making it intuitive how mycotoxins can get trapped in the cracks and crevices of the binder molecules. The extensive surface area offered by these asteroid-like surfaces means that mold toxins cannot escape before they’re thrown out the exit hatch, ready to be flushed down the toilet. Without such binders to grab the toxins, the toxins are all too often reabsorbed into the intestinal blood system, letting them return to the liver for another roller coaster ride.
The study noted an over 90% absorption rate for each tested mycotoxin under simulated (high acid) gastric and intestinal conditions, except for zearalenone (at 73%). Over time, this process allows a patient’s liver to drip out the toxins from the entire body, and unless the patient is re-exposed, we can watch the levels in the unite tests go down. However, for patients to recover through this binder detox, carefully limiting more exposure to mold is critical.
So, as we help mold toxic people restore healthier, more abundant lives, we are acting on science like this as well as the clinical experience of seeing hundreds of lives changed for the better once they learn their problems root cause and address it correctly. Hopefully, mainstream medicine will one day come around and take this data seriously, but until then we keep setting the captives free.
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Original Article:
Feizy, J., Rahimi, A., Tabari, D. G., Zarghami, M. R., Jahani, M., & Moradi, E. (2025). Optimization of modified bentonite mycotoxin binders for enhanced adsorption efficiency under simulated gastric and intestinal conditions. Scientific reports, 15(1), 27513. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-13249-z
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
