Candida Albicans Is a Yeast That Inhabits the Bodies of All Adult Humans and Most Children

CANDIDA

Candida albicans is a yeast that inhabits the bodies of all adult humans and most children by the time they are six months old. Many babies are actually born with a well-developed candida colony in place; we call it oral thrush when it is in the mouth. Even if it is not present at birth, candida is everywhere and the baby will certainly acquire it very quickly.

Because candida is found in all humans, its presence must be compatible with living a normal, health life, and indeed it is part of the normal bowel flora. This means that the yeast organisms coexist with other bacteria in the gut, especially those in the lower digestive tract. As long as the immune system is functioning normally and other factors, such as ingestion of antibiotics, have not upset the balance, candida is entirely harmless and under control – fortunately.

If you could feed a yeast colony adequately, it would grow from one teaspoonful until it filled an average size room from floor to ceiling, in six hours! You only need to look at how yeast bubbles in a fermenting vat to get some idea of the power that is at work. The miracle is that it doesn’t take over our bodies.

The trouble comes when the immune system, which normally ensures that candida stays in its correct place, in the gut, malfunctions for some reason. Candida is extremely opportunistic and it never misses a chance to spread if the immune system, which is its only real control, becomes too weak to perform this task and drops its guard.

There are a number of predisposing factors which play a role in triggering the ‘overgrowth’, as it is known when yeast runs amok. We will consider them one by one shortly. The effect is that it spreads through the digestive tract, forming new colonies, as well as causing infection in the throat, mouth and nasal passages, on the skin and in the prostate, even in the lungs as well as the very vulnerable vaginal area. After upper respiratory infections, vaginal thrush is the second most common infection in general practice.

A BEWILDERING DISEASE

It is difficult to describe the mechanism by which candida infections, which collectively are known as candidiasis, cause the bewildering array of symptoms for which they are responsible. Because Candid albicans is present in everybody and the yeast can be found everywhere in the body, even in a healthy person, there are no diagnostic tests that can identify candidiasis separately. The yeast organism looks the same under a microscope and behaves the same, whether it is in its proper place in the gut, or causing havoc somewhere else in the body.

One means by which candida produces symptoms is certainly sheer overgrowth, which leads, for example, to vaginal discharge or oral thrush, as well as symptoms in the gut such as constipation or diarrhea and anal itching. All these are local effects of the overgrowth.

When the symptoms spread beyond the gut, it is presumably because of toxins or toxic products from the yeast itself. One author has described seventy-nine different toxic products in candida that infect humans! They are absorbed into the system and in their own right place a load on the immune system. As the efficiency of the immune system is further reduced, other problems emerge so that the picture gets progressively worse.

It is also probably the case that candida can directly affect – or attach – the immune system, the very thing that is supposed to keep it in order. The likely mechanism here is more complex. Candida causes suppressor-cell disease, which results in there being insufficient of these cells, whose role is to slow down the production of antibodies by the B-cells. The immune system then goes overboard, as it were, without proper controls, producing excessive antibodies to everything, however trivial and at the slightest provocation.

As a result, there is a greatly increased likelihood of patients developing an intolerance response to numerous substances, including foods and chemicals, that would normally cause no problems. This in turn leads to yet more symptoms in any part of the body.

Finally, there is a concept that the bowel wall itself, which is normally a protective membrane keeping the products of digestion safely enclosed in the bowel, is disturbed by the presence of candida. The notion is that the yeast colonies dig into the wall and grow there, damaging the wall itself – the ‘leaky bowel’ syndrome put forward by Dr David Buscher. The incomplete products of digestion escape from the bowel into the blood, where they can cause often serious symptoms in whichever organ or tissue the blood happens to carry them to.

This is an extremely difficult thing to prove one way or the other in the laboratory, but microscopically, colonies have been shown to grow in the gut wall, The theory has now been extended to include the notion that the damage caused by the leaky bowel allows peptides and polypeptides to be absorbed. This, coupled with the damage that can be caused to the immune system itself, because of suppressor-cell disease, produces antibodies, so that when food is next ingested an intolerance reaction occurs.

THE SYMPTOMS OF CANDIDIASIS

All of this because of yeast, that seems to perform no useful function at all, brows in excess, then escapes from its proper place. It is really no wonder that this is yet another disease that many members of the medical profession refuse to take seriously, because it fits into none of their preconceived ideas if cause and effect dictated by the law of parsimony.

Candidiasis can affect both men and women, and men can become extremely ill, especially with neurological problems. But it is women who suffer far more frequently, presumably because their bodies have more appealing places in which a colony of yeast can flourish

Any attempt to compile a definitive list of the symptoms of yeast-provoked infection, which is as long, or longer, than those of food and chemical intolerance, must be inadequate. There are some symptoms, however, that are particularly important in helping to identify candidiasis and they include the following:

Fatigue or lethargy

A feeling of being ‘drained’

Poor memory

A ‘spacey’ or unreal sensation

Depression

Numbness

Burning or tingling

Muscle aches and weakness, or ‘paralysis’

Pain or swelling in the joints

Tenderness and abdominal pain

Constipation, diarrhea and bloating

Vaginal discharge and persistent vaginal burning or itching

Prostatitis

Impotence and loss of sex drive

Cramps and other menstrual irregularities

Premenstrual tension

Spots in front of the eyes and erratic vision

Genital itch and redness in males (jock itch)

Otitis externa (inflammation of the external ear)

It is possible to list the major symptoms by age groups as well, because symptoms change as a child grown into adolescence, and then adulthood.

In infants and toddlers rash and wind problems are likely to predominate, while older children are more likely to have abdominal pain, headache, bed-wetting, dermatitis and behavior problems that range from restlessness to hyperactivity; argumentativeness, poor concentration, short attention span and tantrums. Any of these symptoms can be caused by other factors, but if the doctor already suspects that candida might be implicated, they are a valuable pointer.

In adults, fatigue, headaches, depression, irritability, dandruff, indigestion, flatulence and flatus, and thrush are major symptoms.

In institutions where large numbers of women live in close proximity, such as a women’s prison or an army mess hut, vaginal thrush or monilia is often rampant.

SEVEN SITUATIONS TO AVOID

Denied any useful tests for establishing the presence of candidiasis, the doctor must rely heavily on the patient’s history.

Exposure to one or more of seven situations in particular has been repeatedly shown to predispose people to candidiasis. All can lead to an upset in the balance between the yeast and the host.

1.  Antibiotics – Antibiotics are probably the chief culprit in upsetting the balance. They do not in themselves cause candidiasis, as many writers claim, and indeed they have little, if any, effect on the yeast at all. What they do is kill off the normal bacteria in the lower gastrointestinal tract that keep the candida in check. It is this that allows the candida to multiply excessively. Once this has happened, if it is not reversed, the yeast can persist in excess, not only in the gastrointestinal tract, but it can grow in other areas often far distant from the gut where normally it does not occur in significant amounts, such as the vagina, oesophagus, throat, ear and even a baby’s bottom – not so far removed from the gut. It invades the deep tissues only when the immune system is extremely weak. Treatment as we shall see shortly is a course of the drug nystatin, which eliminates candida in the bowel and is even more remarkable in a most unusual way; it is a drug that is extremely safe

Multiple antibiotic use is something that the doctor must ask about, especially in young children. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as the tetracyclines, for all that they may be needed, are the worst troublemakers so far as yeast is concerned. The more likely they are to be causing problems. Anti-acne treatments, for example, often require two tablets or tetracyclines to be taken daily for months at a time.

2.  The Birth Control Pill and Pregnancy. This may seem like a contradiction, but birth control and pregnancy have much in common, and both predispose women to have candidiasis. The pill contains progesterone, the female sex hormone, and candida thrives on it. Women’s natural level of progesterone hormone rises steadily in the premenstrual phase and remains constantly elevated during pregnancy. Many female problems with candida begin with repeated pregnancies, and especially involve vaginal thrush, with its itching and white discharge.

Yeast problems are most likely to occur in the latter half of the normal menstrual cycle. The length of time on the pill and the number of pregnancies are both important. After a birth, when the progesterone level falls, the yeast symptoms may temporarily disappear, but later they will almost certainly return, and next time they will require far less stimulus to trigger them.

3.  Other Drugs Although antibiotics are the worst offenders, they are not the only drugs to be associated with heavy yeast activity and infection. Steroids in particular, such as cortisone and prednisone, and the immuno-suppressant drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer, for example, also predispose people to acquiring candidiasis.

4.  Other Yeast- and Fungus-associated Infections. The danger here is that there will be cross-reactivity between one yeast-related infection and another. Vaginitis in women, prostatitis in men, are both common and may well leave them vulnerable and exposed to other yeast- or fungus-provoked symptoms that might be as unrelated to the first symptoms as athlete’s foot, ringworm or any fungal infection of the skin or nails.

5.  Diet High in Refined Carbohydrate. The whole problem with yeast is believed to have started 10,000 years ago when humans first began to make radical changes to their diet. Diets that include excessive amounts of sugar and white flour act as fuel to the yeast, in addition to all the other problems that are likely to be caused over a period of years by their excessive consumption. The human body is completely maladapted to cope with this kind of diet.

Carbohydrate (starchy and sugary foods, especially refined sugar) is the main food of candida, which does not appear to be able to digest protein and fat. The last place in the body where you want fungus colonies to be appearing is the brain, which must take about 50 per cent of all blood glucose. Too much alcohol, and particularly beer with its high yeast content, fuels the candidiasis.

The dietary recommendations given for food intolerance, particularly the rotation diet, are suitable here.

6.  Diets High in Moulds and Yeast’s These foods, more than most others, promote undesirable new growth of candida. As far as possible, yeast’s and moulds must be eliminated from the diet because of the risk of cross-reactivity

Yeast is found mainly in bakery products, alcoholic beverages; products that contain vinegar, such as mayonnaise and many sauces; products containing yeast-derived vitamins of the B complex series, including some packaged vitamin-enriched cereals; and black tea, the leaves of which are yeast-fermented. Torula, which is listed in some processed and smoked-food ingredients, is a fungus.

Yeast is found in the following foods, all of which may need to be eliminated, at least in the short term, once candidiasis has been diagnosed or strongly suspected:

Bread

Biscuits (about the only biscuits that are yeast-free are some crackers, such as Cheese Jatz, Sesame Thin, Plaza, Wheat Crispbread, Uneeda and Thin Captain)

Pastries

Hamburger buns

Cakes and cake mixes

Pretzels

Flours enriched with vitamins from yeast

Mushrooms

Cheese

Buttermilk

Vinegar

Mayonnaise (the vinegar in mayonnaise causes the problem, so substitute freshly squeezed lemon in home-made mayonnaise)

Olives

Pickles

Tomato sauce

All fermented drinks (including wine, brandy, whisky, rum, vodka, gin and beer)

Malted products (including cereals, sweets, malted milk drinks, canned citrus and fruit juices)

Vitamin and multivitamin capsules made from yeast (particularly vitamin B)

Any foods that actually have mould on them should be avoided. Some moulds and fungi appear when the food ;has been left out for too long, or even during the normal process of ripening.