Photo: Sebastian Kaulitzki. Agency: Alamy Images.

The most important concept in medicine, I think, is the Law of Parsimony. It dictates that when explaining the cause for an event or series of events, the simplest explanation is likely to be most valid.

We employ this concept in many areas of medicine. Any first-year resident encountering a patient with fatigue, polydipsia, polyuria and polyphagia would diagnose type 1 diabetes before any lab test was ever ordered. That’s the simplest and most likely explanation for this simultaneous cluster of symptoms.

Imagine, then, presenting that patient on rounds the next day and having an individual treatment plan for each symptom. Your judgment would be seriously questioned, because we know that by simply replacing insulin, all of those symptoms resolve. Polyuria is not a disease. It’s a reflection of an underlying metabolic derangement caused by a deficiency in insulin production.

Why, then, do we fail to apply the Law of Parsimony more widely?

We examine a patient, and list his or her problems: hypertension, hyperlipidemia, truncal obesity, diabetes and elevated CRP. We call it “metabolic syndrome.” But we treat these as separate diseases. That same 1st year resident would have no problem presenting each of these symptoms to her attending physician, along with a plan to address them individually; an ACE inhibitor for the hypertension, a statin for the lipids, Meridia and Actos for the diabetes.

This goes against the Law of Parsimony, which, like the Law of Gravity gives no dispensation for poor judgement. You can ignore it, but it remains a constant.

Discovering the Path of Yeast Resistance

Fifteen years ago, not long after I started treating my own high blood pressure with “alternative therapies,” I was told I had a yeast infection. The “diagnosis” (my practitioner was not a doctor) was made from a fungal infection in my right big toe. I took him more seriously when he rattled off a few more symptoms that accompanied Candida infection. I had those also. He referred me to a book called The Yeast Connection and the Woman, by William Crook MD.

At the time, I was 37, and I had truncal obesity, high blood sugar, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and hyperhomocysteinemia. Through strict adherence to a nutrition-based anti-candida protocol, these metabolic imbalances have all resolved. I’m into my 50’s, and my latest HDL is 63 (up, from 45) and my waistline has gone from 40 to 32.

After clearing my own symptoms, I started treating patients, mostly women, for this Candida syndrome. I was quite surprised to find that not only did the presenting complaints resolve, but a whole host of other longstanding symptoms got better also. The IBS went away. Food allergies, depression, asthma, rosacea, muscle aches, sinus allergies, fatigue, PMS, mental fog, hypertension disappeared or dramatically improved.

By their 30-day follow-up, many lost a significant amount of weight, to boot. My erroneous conclusion was that the weight loss was attributable to calorie reduction from getting off sugar and flour—a cornerstone of the Candida elimination protocol. But something else was going on.

Lab testing showed improvements in blood sugar, cholesterol, and C-Reactive Protein (CRP), which at that time, was just starting to be recognized as an indicator of incipient heart/vascular disease.

Hypothyroidism & Inflammation

Dr. Crook, with whom I later studied, had a symptom checklist to help make the diagnosis of chronic candidiasis, as there were no dependable lab tests for Candida at the time. One of the symptoms was “symptoms of hypothyroidism with normal blood test.” Dr Crook did not push thyroid replacement, but I started giving thyroid hormone to these women after reading a book he recommended by Broda Barnes, MD. This is a must-read if you’re practicing medicine. By treating for the yeast syndrome and replacing thyroid hormone, I was able to resolve 80% of patient complaints—if they followed the diet.

Around the same time, I began to notice that “inflammation” started showing up in journals across the specialty boards. Vascular disease, autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Alzheimer’s, both types of diabetes, most cancers, asthma, hypertension, depression, sinusitis, Grave’s and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, osteoporosis, allergies, eczema/psoriasis, irritable bowel diseases, all had this common denominator of inflammation.

Recent studies have added obesity and autism to the list. The reversal of inflammation-induced adipose hyperplasia is one reason why patients lose weight when treated for candida overgrowth.

The Law of Parsimony demands a simple explanation for this apparent confluence of chronic Candida, hypothyroidism, metabolic dysregulation, and the various inflammation-related “comorbidities” that often show up in these patients.

The Identity of the “Enemy”

Histologically, inflammation is characterized by lymphocytic infiltration. Macrophages and their progenator monocytes are conspicuous. Natural killer cells and other white cell players are also found. Biochemically, we see elevated levels of white cell elaborants. Cytokines encourage white cell aggregation; free radicals damage cell membranes and microbial DNA; chemokines amplify the immune cascade; growth factors stimulate repair of casualties of “friendly fire.”

It is all very reminiscent of a military engagement on the scale of the Normandy Invasion. The question is, what is the identity of the enemy?

The suspicion that microbial pathogens drive chronic inflammatory disease has precedence. There is a long history in rheumatology of disease remission following antimicrobial therapy. But success has been inconsistent.

Some cardiologists thought they’d found a proverbial “smoking gun” a few years ago when heart/vascular disease was found to be associated with the over-growth of a variety of bacteria. Unfortunately, there was a ballistic mismatch: when patients were treated with antibiotics there was no reduction of plaques or coronary events. The microbe that stimulates endothelial inflammation remained unidentified.

Enter statins. These have been economic blockbusters for the drug companies. They reduce serum lipids, endothelial inflammation, plaque formation, and the incidence of coronary events. They also damage skeletal, cardiac and liver tissue, but mainstream medicine has taken the position that if you’re going to make omelets, you gotta break a few eggs.

One curious finding I noticed was that after years of using statins, patients sometimes had unsuspected benefits for diseases not associated with high cholesterol: things like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, colon and breast cancer, and some autoimmune diseases. Even the cardiology literature showed that lipid reduction was not necessary for statins to be effective in reducing coronary events. What would be the common denominator effect of statins in positively modulating these seemingly disparate diseases?

Questions like this kept me awake at night, the disease puzzle pieces floating around in my head. “Why does treating the yeast syndrome and hypothyroidism fix so many problems?” “Why is the immune system activated in such a wide range of diseases?” “Why does long-term use of statins and aspirin give similar clinical outcomes?” “Why would McCain choose Palin as a running mate?”

The Law of Parsimony mandates we look for a conservative explanation, an hypothesis that ties all these loose ends together.

The most powerful disease intervention we have is diet. Regardless of the inflammatory disease state, we almost always see a positive impact by reducing intake of cow’s milk, red meat, grains and sugar, along with increasing the amount of cyanically-colored fruits and vegetables. Why?

Does this regimen inhibit some as-yet unidentified microbe responsible for inflammation? If so, what microbe is modulated by the presence or absence of carbohydrates? My past experience suggested yeast. Might healthy plant-based foods contain phytochemicals that kill yeast to protect themselves? My inquiring mind wanted to know.

Fruits & Vegetables: Natural Antifungals

If yeast was the underlying cause for inflammatory diseases, we should be able to strengthen the hypothesis with some simple observations. First we’d need to establish that yeast causes inflammation. That’s a no-brainer if you’ve ever seen diaper rash or done a vaginal exam on a woman with a yeast infection.

Second, if the interface of yeast and a reactive immune system is what causes disease, then we should see a reduction in disease among people in whom one or the other component (yeast or immune system activity) is compromised. This is reflected in the dramatic lack of atherosclerotic disease in two populations: heavy wine drinkers and AIDS patients. In addition to getting drunk, red wine drinkers load themselves with resveratrol, a potent antifungal found in grape skins. AIDS patients have severely compromised immune systems incapable of mounting immune responses.

So far, so good. Now, if yeast are the unidentified microbes driving inflammation then perhaps remedies that reduce inflammatory disease are doing so in part by inhibiting yeast. To investigate this, I tested a variety of things to see the effect they had on in vitro yeast growth. I tested 3 statins: Zocor, Lipitor, and Crestor. This is their respective order of potency in lowering cholesterol, Crestor being the most potent. I also tested aspirin and extracts from plants known to have health benefits. As controls, I tested water and Diflucan, a known antifungal drug.

The results were dramatic, repeatable, and easily replicated by other investigators. The zone of inhibition of the statins linearly correlated with their potency in lowering cholesterol: Zocor had the least effect, Crestor had the largest zone of inhibition of fungal growth. Interestingly, aspirin and the mixture of plant extracts had zones of inhibition comparable to Diflucan. All of these chemicals had a common characteristic: they were all antifungals.

I started testing other fruits and vegetable for their antifungal properties. I think the USDA may have been intercepting my communications about my findings, because right around the same time, they published a study by Nutrient Data Laboratory on the levels of phenols, which are potent plant antifungals, in various foods (“Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods,” November 2007). The plants with the highest phenolic content according to USDA are the ones that have the most impact on inflammatory disease. Among the most potent, the humble black bean.

The Theory of Oximation

What is “Oximation”? This is my confluence of the words “inflammation” and “oxidation.” The connection between oxidation and degenerative disease goes back to the 1950s, when Denham Harman observed oxidative cell damage following exposure to molecules having unpaired electrons—so-called “free radicals.” He proposed that aging was due to an accumulation of oxidative hits from free radicals. These free radicals, like sparks from a fire, damage cell membranes, mitochondria, and DNA.

Later research in immunology has shown that immune cells produce free radicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS). When activated, natural killer cells, macrophages and other immune cells fire ROS at microbes to kill them. As in any combat situation, however, there is “collateral damage” to healthy tissue.

The Theory of Oximation suggests that loss of cellular integrity at 4 key sites—cell membranes, cell DNA, mitochondrial membranes, and mitochondrial DNA—is the genesis of disease.

The pattern seems to be that as thyroid and other hormone levels decrease, local areas of hypoxia begin to form. This invites fungal overgrowth. The process is greatly facilitated by excess glucose, which fungi love.

The Theory of Oximation goes a long way in explaining why diet and aging are the two biggest risk factors for most diseases. It also explains why calorie restriction prolongs life. I now see the internal environment as a big saltwater fish tank that has to be maintained at the proper oxygen concentration, pH, temperature, and level of nutrient content.

Putting Parsimony into Practice

Employing this paradigm I have begun focusing on treating a patient’s internal environment rather than a specific disease. If there is hypertension for instance, I’m not treating it much differently than hyperlipidemia. I focus on reduction of yeast and other microbes that take advantage of immune compromise. I help the patient restore optimal hormone levels, especially thyroid hormone, as this modulates mitochondrial number and function, and consequently ATP production.

In addition, I search for evidence of nutrient depletion. Vitamin D2, for instance, is a component of the yeast cell wall. As yeast proliferates, it may cause deficiencies of the “vitamone” D3, for which D2 is a precursor. Yeast and other microbes likely require other vitamins and minerals such as selenium.

The theory of Oximation is strengthened by findings of other researchers. ENT specialists at Mayo Clinic noted they had a high rate of recidivism in treating sinusitis with antibiotics. Using a special culture technique, they discovered that 96% of the time, the baseline infection was fungal. By employing an amphotericin spray, they were able to effect lasting cures.

Similarly, the NIH did a study on prostatitis determining that this infection is “non-bacterial.” Though they didn’t say prostatitis has a fungal etiology, I now treat BPH and prostatitis using anti-fungals with great success.

When we look at the most effective nutraceuticals and alternative therapies, they are often anti-fungals. Hydrochloric acid, garlic, cyanic vegetable/fruit juice extracts such as resveratrol, echinacea, olive leaf, oregano and other spice extracts, ultra violet light, probiotics—they’re all anti-fungals.

There are other considerations in looking for fundamental causes of why a patient presents with dys-ease. Toxin overload with heavy metals and industrial chemicals is a concern. Some patients have genetic polymorphisms that predispose them to allergies. These seem to be exacerbated in the presence of fungal overgrowth.

In general, I’m able to successfully facilitate systemic healing in over 95% of my patients if they follow my protocols based on the Theory of Oximation. I welcome challenges to the theory. I have challenged it myself over the last 15 years and it seems to withstand scrutiny. In future issues I will present case studies showing systemic resolution of inflammation and oxidation by employing this paradigm.

Roby Mitchell, MD, aka Dr. Fitt, is a family physician practicing orthomolecular and nutritional medicine with Jonathan Wright, MD, at the Tahoma Clinic, Renton, WA. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University School of Medicine, as well as the US Marine Corps Officer Candidate School.