Dr. Andrew Weil, bestselling author of Natural Health, Natural Medecine has to say about candidia...
Candidiasis
Candida albicans is a kind of yeast that normally lives in the gastrointestinal tract and vagina without causing any problems. Under certain circumstances it can reproduce wildly, causing symptomatic infections of the mouth (thrush) and vagina as well as intestinal upsets. A common cause of yeast overgrowth is antibiotic therapy, which can kill off the "friendly" bacteria that compete with candida for food and keep it in check. If you have to take broad-spectrum antibiotics, it is a good idea to take supplemental acidophilus; to reduce the possibility of yeast infections. Candidiasis also tends to occur in people with suppressed immunity, such as patients with cancer and AIDS and those on long-term treatment with steroids and other immunosuppressive drugs.
In recent years Candida albicans has received much notoriety in certain circles as a major cause of illness. Some holistic practitioners diagnose everyone coming through the door as having systemic yeast infections, and health-food stores make a great deal of money on supplements that claim to fight yeast. I have read books and pamphlets that give the impression that everyone who has ever taken an antibiotic or steroid now is infected with candida, and that undiagnosed yeast infections are responsible for fatigue, depression, anxiety, mood swings, behavioral problems in children, allergic reactivity, skin eruptions, and most chronic digestive problems. I have had patients who believed yeast was growing in their blood, lungs, and other vital organs and begged me to prescribe strong drugs to kill it. They shunned beer, wine, bread, vinegar, and even mushrooms in the belief that any food associated with yeast or fungus would contribute to their disease.
Most of these ideas are unsound. Diagnoses of systemic candidiasis usually have no scientific basis, and most treatments people take for it are a waste of time and money. If you had yeast growing in your blood or vital organs, you would be in an intensive care unit, critically ill. Since candida is a normal inhabitant of the human body, no objective test can prove it to be the cause of general symptoms. Culturing it from the throat of a depressed patient does not mean that yeast infection is the cause of the depression.
Most of the treatments prescribed for this faddish disease are harmless except to the pocketbook. One that is not is the prescription drug ketoconazole (Nizoral). It can be toxic to the liver and should not be used except on the advice of an infectious disease specialist. The more commonly used drug nystatin (Mycostatin) is usually safe because it is not absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract.
Women who have recurrent vaginal yeast infections should see the entry on that subject. Others who worry about yeast in their system would do well to eat raw garlic every day; since it is a very effective antifungal agent. Take a course of nystatin if you wish (it must be prescribed by a doctor), and try to cut way down on sugar in the diet. Pau d'arco, an herbal remedy made from the bark of a South American jungle tree (species of Tabebuia, also known as palo de arco, lapacho, and taheebo) is often recommended for candidiasis, but I do not prescribe it. Much of the bark that comes into this country is contaminated with pesticides.
Candidiasis is a wonderful example of a fashionable disease. It appeals to our fears of being vulnerable to foreign invaders and satisfies a need to blame our vague and general symptoms on a specific causative agent. ten years from now it may be out of fashion. In the meantime, if you have used antibiotics and steroids for a long time and have clear symptoms and signs of yeast infection, by all means follow the recommendations above and see what happens. If after a reasonable trial, say four to six weeks, you have not experienced dramatic improvement, consider another diagnosis.
The recomended anti-candida diet is VERY similar to the specific carbohydrate diets that are recomended for both IBS and IBD by the alternative therapy community.
Real Candidiasis which is "Systemic Candidiasis are "systemic infections"
Systemic Candidiasis is rare and usally found in highly compromised immune systems such as AIDS and Cancer and can be life threatening.
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