Reasons to Love Monolaurin--Part 4

Antifungal and Immunomodulatory Effects

This is the last installment of this multi-part series about one of the most fascinating supplements I’ve yet to encounter. If you’ve read the previous parts of this series, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that I seriously love monolaurin—And I have lots of good reasons.

This inexpensive derivative of lauric acid, a primary component of coconut

oil, is available without a prescription. But as it is for the best things in life, price and accessibility are not metrics for worth. And for some patients, myself included, monolaurin has been an absolute game changer, catapulting us along on the journey back to good health.

In Part 1, I cover monolaurin’s uncanny activity against only disease-causing bacteria, while sparing the beneficial ones of our microbiome. In Part 2, I review its shockingly broad antiviral activity. In Part 3, I review its promising activity against a global scourge—Parasites. And here in Part 4, I’m reviewing its antifungal and immunomodulatory actions.

These parts build upon themselves sequentially, so please start with Part 1 for the context needed to understand my affection for monolaurin. Otherwise you might be thinking, “Why is this guy oohing and aahing over this stuff? It’s nothing special.”

I don’t fawn over every supplement that comes along—Quite the opposite. When I was at my sickest, unable to even sit up in bed on my own, out of desperation I spent thousands on over-the-counter remedies that didn’t work. So truth be told, I’m a bit jaded. But monolaurin is the real deal. It doesn’t work for everyone—Nothing does—But from what I’ve seen, it’s by far one of the most the most impressive non-prescription options out there.

Fungus Among Us

From nutritious food to dandruff to deadly threat, there are lots of different fungi out there. Of the 4 million or so fungal species, only about 2000 are edible. Even less, about 300, cause human disease. Some fungal infections cause only minor medical conditions—Like athlete’s foot or dandruff—But some others are killers. And we have only a few precious weapons against them:

“The four main classes of antifungal drugs are the polyenes, azoles, allylamines and echinocandins.”

And drug resistance is developing broadly against this tiny antifungal arsenal.

“The number of antifungal classes is small, and resistance is becoming a much more frequent problem”

Azoles are some of the most commonly used antifungals due to their favorable pharmacokinetic and safety profiles. But their frequent use has resulted in antifungal resistance that keeps me up at night—95% of some virulent fungal samples tested in Vietnam were resistant to azoles. This should be a wake-up call as to what awaits us soon in the rest of our very small world. High-level antifungal resistance across multiple disease-causing fungi will likely come sooner than most expect, as it’s already a grave problem here in the US with candida and aspergillus. Candida auris burst onto the world stage in 2009—Resistant to multiple antifungals, its mortality rate in the United States is a staggering 30-60%.

These fungal grenades are exploding in slow motion, unseen but everywhere, under our collective, oblivious noses.

“…there are possibly 300 million people infected with fungal diseases worldwide and 1.6 million deaths every year—more than malaria, as many as tuberculosis. Just in the U.S., the CDC estimates that more than 75,000 people are hospitalized annually for a fungal infection, and another 8.9 million people seek an outpatient visit, costing about $7.2 billion a year.”

And now for the inconvenient truth that pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to hear: Although some of these fungal infections can infect and kill