Caprylic Acid, an antifungal that also eradicates biofilms and has a role in Morgellons Disease, Lyme Disease and most likely other fungal infections.
Welcome to this article review which is a complement to my book review! Neither the summary nor commentary are intended to replace sound medical advice. These are for educational purposes only so that you may have a more productive consultation with you physician.
I found the article below on caprylic acid on PubMed Central. If you remember from book review #8, Morgellons Disease, The Silent Pandemic the author, Armando Hernandez (a Navy veteran) used caprylic acid in combination with other antifungals and other remedies to essentially cure himself of Morgellons Disease. According to Armando, Morgellons is caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, which is a fungus. I have also posted a summary of an article that discusses this fungus as having historically been a harmless pathogen (with airborne spores) to a truly devastating cause of disease because of the massive prescribing of immunosuppressive drugs like steroids by physicians. The authors of that article concluded that this is precisely the reason why there are so many immunocompromised individuals in general, many of which succumb to Aspergillosis.
I have been looking up all the remedies that Armando had used and I will post everything relevant that I find. Please note that caprylic acid is also mentioned in Incurable Me, by Dr. Ken Stoller in the treatment of Lyme Disease, in which the Borrelia pathogen creates a significant amount of biofilm, which is like a fortress that the bacteria build to protect themselves from the immune system and antibiotics.
Here is a summary of the article below:
Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2015 Feb 11;59(3):1786–1788. doi: 10.1128/AAC.04561-14
Caprylic Acid and Glyceryl Trinitrate Combination for Eradication of Biofilm
Joel Rosenblatt, Ruth A Reitzel, Raad
It is estimated that 400,000 patients in the US require annually medical treatment for anal fissures or rectal tears. Wounds in the colon or rectum exist in a microbially contaminated environment and as a result they can be difficult to heal due to the presence of microbial biofilms. In addition, surgical site infections associated with implanted devices pose significant medical problems because microbial biofilms frequently form on the surfaces of the devices. Considering that there is an emergence of antibiotic-resistant biofilms creates adverse impacts on the outcomes of antibiotic wound therapies.
(An anal fissure is a small split or tear in the lining of the anus, the lower end of the digestive tract. It's often caused by passing hard stools or having prolonged constipation. Symptoms include sharp pain during bowel movements, bleeding, and a visible crack or tear in the anal area.)
Caprylic acid (CAP) is a medium-chain fatty acid naturally present in human breast milk and has been used intravenously in some total parenteral nutrition formulations. After oral administration it is readily absorbed and gives significant blood concentrations. This study focused on the eradication of biofilm by the use of medical glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) with caprylic acid (CAP). These were used in situations where antimicrobial concentrations of ethanol might cause irritation (rectum and colon) and in situations where the anticoagulant effects of citrate is undesirable.
The antimicrobial efficacy of GTN and CAP were determined in vitro in well-established biofilms of clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE), multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans, representative of key Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and infectious fungal pathogens. The eradication of biofilm was assessed after 2 hours of antimicrobial agent exposure. The two-hour exposure duration was selected because previous studies had shown biofilm eradication within two hours, which also had clinical effectiveness.
-At 0.05% concentration, the caprylic acid showed no visible sign of phase separation of immiscibility in any of the solutions tested. The 5% dextrose present in the GTN stock was tested as a control and had no antimicrobial effects against any of the organisms.
- The 0.05% caprylate ion (neutral pH) had no antimicrobial effects against any of the organisms.
-The 0.04% GTN alone showed no efficacy against MRSA and MRSE and 0.05% CAP alone (protonated) reduced but did not eradicate the biofilm.
-The combination of 0.04% GTN and 0.05% CAP showed statistically significant biofilm eradication when compared to GTN alone or CAP alone.
-GTN alone or CAP alone had minimal effects against C. albicans, and complete eradication was seen with the combination of the two.
- For P. aeruginosa, each agent alone eradicated the biofilm within 2 hours, and no antagonism was seen with their combination.
-Higher concentrations of protonated CAP and GTN have been reported to have antimicrobial activities but this study showed a synergy of low concentrations of both agents in fully eradicating MRSA and C. albicans biofilms within 2 hours.
-CAP and GTN each alone were highly effective against P. aeruginosa biofilm.
Caprylic Acid
It is a naturally occurring fatty acid. When it occurs in the deprotonated state (neutral pH) as the caprylate ion it has a well-established profile as a nutrient in mammals. Deprotonating caprylic acid can be accomplished by raising the pH above 4.8 and as a result in most physiological environments caprylic acid becomes rapidly deprotonated (removal of a hydrogen) to a benign nutrient. When formulating CAP into a pharmaceutical the caprylic acid can be maintained as protonated by maintaining a pH of less than 4.8, which is a pH that falls in the range of natural skin pH observed in humans. The vaginal canal and digestive tract are other physiologic environments that maintain an acidic pH. Caprylic acid has also been shown to improve wound healing.
Glyceryl Trinitrate
It has been reported that glyceryl trinitrate has antimicrobial activity against planktonic Candida at higher concentrations (0.15 to 0.3%) than the concentration used in this study (0.04%). Currently glyceryl trinitrate is approved to treat anal fissures in an ointment form at 0.4%. Doses of 0.2 to 0.4mg/hour are commonly used transdermally to treat angina (chest pains) and hypertension (high blood pressure). Side effects generally reported are headaches and hypotension (low blood pressure). The combination of glyceryl trinitrate and caprylic acid has the potential to reduce the glyceryl trinitrate dose and therefore reduce the adverse effects. Additionally, the mildly acidic pHs used in this study did not hinder the antimicrobial activity of glyceryl trinitrate.
Conclusion
The combination of GTN–CAP can eradicate gram-positive, gram-negative, and fungal biofilms within 2 hours of application. This synergistic, nonantibiotic, antimicrobial combination requires further testing for treating and eradicating pathogenic biofilms that colonize surgical wounds, device surfaces and insertion sites, fissures, and tears.
My Comments:
First let me point out the absurdity of a portion of the second sentence of this conclusion, which is “This synergistic, nonantibiotic, antimicrobial combination requires further testing for treating and eradicating pathogenic biofilms.” Why is further testing REQUIRED when such a benefit was shown? Oh, yes because the authors don’t want to upset any commercial interests with their spectacular findings. This is a phenomenon Dr. Stoller pointed out in his book, Incurable Me. In my opinion, the conclusion should actually state “this combination should be used as soon as possible to help alleviate the suffering of 400,000 patients a year!” I have yet to find a study that makes such a daring but obvious conclusion.
Now moving on to the combination of remedies that Armando used to cure his Morgellons Disease, which was shown in laboratory testing to contain Aspergillus fumigatus. What indicates the most that this is the most likely the biggest cause of his condition, is that when he started taking his antifungal cocktail of remedies, he began to have clinical improvement. Always remember that it’s never just one thing that causes a disease state, as Dr. Stoller always points out! It’s always a jungle of many microbes some of which contribute their share to the disease.
Armando’s Remedies:
-undecylenic acid- start with one pill daily and work your way up slowly to three to four pills daily.
-caprylic acid-start with one pill daily and work your way up slowly to three to four pills daily.
-grapefruit seed extract-three to four times daily is recommended.
-castor oil-rub it on your whole body; your skin will develop little grains of sand. This treatment will kill the fungus.
-baking soda bath-take a bath at least once per day for twenty minutes, then rub the sores.
-epsom salt bath-take a bath at least once per day for twenty minutes, then rub the sores.
-baking soda and epsom salt together bath- works better together; rub the sores.
-colloidal silver-apply to your eyes and ears.
-fluconazole – prescription antifungal.
I would also like to point out that the Kingdom of Fungi on planet earth are the recyclers of organic matter. If our bodies are:
-dehydrated from a lack of water and whole salt required to keep the water intracellular, resulting in tissue desiccation (book reviews #1 through 4)
-immunosuppressed from poor nutrition, dehydrated and on immunosuppressive drugs
If these conditions are met, we are essentially candidates for the fungal recycling of our bodies.
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