Candida

Candida has become quite a well-known word. It is a form of yeast that lives in everyone's gut and normally does no harm at all. However, given certain conditions, it can over-grow or change into a different form and cause real problems, either simple (although horrid) thrush to a full-blown systemic mould problem in the bloodstream that affects the whole body.

Sounds nasty! What conditions would create this?

Basically, if you eat a diet high in sugar or refined (white) carbohydrates, have a lot of antibiotics at any time (either repeated dosage over a number of years or a month of a high dose antibiotic, say, for acne in your teens), have a poor immune system and you combine this with a stressful fast-paced lifestyle, you have the makings of a candida problem in susceptible people.

What symptoms might I get?

Most often, you can get an overgrowth of yeasts, including candida, and this causes recurrent thrush or digestive problems. However, systemic candida patients often describe themselves as ‘feeling sick all over' or as if they've been poisoned as the body fights to control yeast that has got through into the bloodstream.

A candida patient might suffer from fatigue, recurrent headaches, skin problems, allergies, digestive problems like IBS, recurrent kidney infection or cystitis, chemical sensitivity, recurrent back or neck pain with no physical cause.

Often candida patients will hold water and look puffy, they may feel woolly-headed, have chronic aches and pains, dark rings under the eyes and crave sugar or carbohydrates terribly.

How do I know if I've got it?

Many people think they have candida, but don't. I have lost count of the number of people who think they have it but don't. Sometimes, it may be a different parasite that may be causing a problem, or it may be a food intolerance.

The best way to diagnose candida is by taking a full case history and then following up with tests to confirm the suspicion. First, we use a German lab which specialises in candida diagnosis to confirm whether your problem is candida or something else. We may also advise that we check for other parasites or the presence of a ‘leaky gut', for example so we have full information to help you.

Beware of some tests, though, Over the years I have found gut/stool tests to be much more effective than blood tests. The simple candida stool test looks for all candidas, yeasts and moulds plus pH of the gut and a mouth swab. It will also do virulence lab tests to see what might kill what's found and then we work out a protocl with that information.

The comprehensive candida test does all that for a discounted price but also looks for a leaky gut and gut SIgA levels. These are important. A leaky gut shows if the candida has damaged the gut lining and is therefore allowing spores or food proteins through causing you to feel poorly and set up allergies/intolerances. A low SIgA level shows that your immune system is probably unable to fight any baddies off and we would have to get that level up first.

You can have the leaky gut and SIgA levels tested separately or add any number of other tests to any gut screen.

How do you treat it?

Candidiasis itself is merely a symptom of an upset digestive and immune system, so this is what needs to be treated. 

Eradicating a yeast overgrowth is relatively simple using probiotics and antifungals, but it can take a while. Initially we use an 8 week anti-candida naturopathic therapy programme to help you using the test info we have to target it specifically for you.

Diet is crucial to stop feeding the yeast, although an anti-candida diet is never going to lower glucose enough in the body to starve it - despite what many books might tell you.

Probiotics are an absolute must to repopulate the gut and we'll test to make sure you're producing enough stomach acid - candidiasis only happens if the digestive system balance is upset. Work also needs to be done on the liver, immune system, stress levels and anything found in tests such as a leaky gut.

We usually start with an 8-12 week programme and then retest the factors that came up on the first test unless you feel so well you don't feel you need to. 

You may need to repeat this programme or follow-up with another type of therapy or maintenance to ensure it does not regrow.  

What do I do now?

The first thing I will ask when you contact me is whether you have had it tested. This is because I have come across so many cases where it turns out to be something else like a mould or IBS etc.

So, to start with, have a read through the tests and decide which way you prefer to progress, or give me a call/email to chat. Then together, we can get it licked, thankfully, much easier than it used to be!

Important

Remember - always check out with your health practitioner or GP before starting anything new especially if you are taking any other medicines, are pregnant or trying to conceive or have high blood pressure. See here for more advice on interactions with meds and general cautions.