C. Orian Truss

Claude Orian Truss (born December 1, 1922; died September 10, 2009 in Birmingham) was a physician. He developed a notable theory that yeast infections and allergic responses could be responsible for a host of otherwise inexplicable systemic symptoms, and a successful practice based on treatments involving anti-fungal medications and low-carbohydrate diets.

Claude was the son of Wiley Dewitt and Lillian Gardner Truss, and a descendent of Trussville namesake Warren Truss. He attended Bluff Park School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree at Birmingham-Southern College and an M.D. at Cornell University Medical College. He served as chief resident in internal medicine at the Cornell Division of Bellevue Hospital in New York City and was made Chief of Cardiology at the U.S. Air Force Hospital at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery. He later completed a fellowship in pharmacology, focusing on female endocrinology, at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

Beginning in 1953 Truss had been intrigued by a case of a drug-resistant infection, presumed to be bacteriological, which presented alongside a serious Candida albicans yeast infection, which was presumed to be incidental. He experimented with using Lugol's iodine to treat the fungal infection and the patient recovered.

After opening his own practice, Truss found that serious yeast infections were an apparent commonality in many of his patients who complained of a variety of physical, mental and emotional symptoms. He began experimenting with the anti-fungal nystatin with remarkable success, and moved his Truss Clinic to 2614 Highland Avenue by 1971

He first published his findings regarding Candida albicans in the Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry in 1978.

Although Truss' theories were not adopted as standard medical practice, Truss gained many new patients who had been unsuccessfully treated elsewhere. He suspected that allergic responses to the yeast infections were the true cause of many symptoms and added allergy desensitization to his prescriptions, including low-carbohydrate diets.

Truss died in 2009 and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery. He was survived by 5 children, 14 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

Publications

• Truss, C. Orian (1978) "Tissue injury induced by Candida albicans: Mental and neurologic manifestations." Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry. 7:1, 17:37

References

• "Claude Orian Truss" obituary (September 12, 2009) The Birmingham News
• "What Is Medicine?: Dr. C. Orian Truss Helped Patients the Mainstream Gave Up On" (2013) Birmingham Medical News