Iatrogenic Cerebral Mycosis: An Ecological Theory of Neuroinflammatory and Neurodegenerative Divergence

Abstract

The escalating prevalence of chronic neurological illness in the United States, currently estimated to affect over 180 million individuals, represents one of the most consequential paradoxes in contemporary medicine.^[1] Despite substantial advances in genomic and proteomic mapping, a definitive etiology for the majority of "idiopathic" and/or refractory neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative syndromes remains elusive. This paper proposes a novel pathological framework, that of Iatrogenic Cerebral Mycosis (ICM), mechanistically demonstrating that the advent of antibiotics and corticosteroids has generated an ecological vacuum within the human microbiome that, when compounded by poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and exogenous chemical exposure, facilitates the morphogenetic transition and systemic translocation of commensal fungal species to the central nervous system (CNS). The Holley Mechanistic Model, previously elaborated in the context of iatrogenic gut dysbiosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis,^[11] provides the mechanistic backbone for the present framework, which extends that model's pathological cascade to its neurological terminus. Holley expounds on the concept of Iatrogenic Morphing of commensal gut microbes into pathogens that possess the inherent capability of abrogating rational thought and human agency, thereby depriving one of Free Will.