Candida Albicans: It May Not Be What You Think it Is!

Candida Albicans is a common yeast EVERYWHERE. It shows up in the environment, on our bodies and in our bodies. It competes for space with 'good' bacteria on the skin and anywhere that it is warm and moist in the body- such as the mouth, constantly wet skin and the genitals to name a few places that it colonizes. When your immune system is good, Candida Albicans is usually not even noticeable, but if your immunity is compromised from stress, disease and other problems, then it may dominate the space that it's in- wherever that is- and cause a candida infection.

No one denies the existence of common Candida infection like 'thrush' in the mouth and yeast infections of the vagina, but the debate occurs where the intestines begin.

Some people believe that Candida Albicans overgrows in the intestinal tract of some people under certain circumstances and causes problems associated with common health problems such as tiredness, brain fog, aches and pains frequent infections and many other seemingly 'vague' and unrelated problems. Most doctors don't believe this- even when they can't explain these problems, leaving people with as few answers as when they first began going to the doctor in the first place.

Some facts about Candida Albicans

Candida Albicans certainly can grow almost anywhere inside or outside of the body- causing infection. One study' Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Candidiasis', states"Candida species are the most common cause of invasive fungal infections in humans, producing infections that range from non life?threatening mucocutaneous disorders to invasive disease that can involve any organ." So, according to this study, physicians think that Candida must be able to cause infection anywhere, just not in the digestive tract where is is found on a regular basis!

But when researchers who study these people found that they gave them a sugary meal, there was an actual increase in their blood alcohol concentration! Furthermore beer and wine makers have known for centuries that yeasts have a remarkable ability to create alcohol from sugar, while beer and wine drinkers have known for centuries that alcohol ingestion can cause sensations of fatigue and fuzzy thinking that most of us have experienced after a night of drinking. Some other research showed that the ability to create alcohol after eating simple carbohydrates dissappeared-and people felt better after treatment with anti fungal medications and a diet that excluded simple sugars. Dr. William Crook, who studied this phenomenon in the 1980's, treated his patients successfully using antifungals and diet. He become a very vocal proponent of the theory that Candida Albicans created these illnesses that people experiencd. Other doctors have not been so eager to call it 'Intestinal Candida', but because they realize that there IS a real phenomenon, it was called 'Gut Fermentation Syndrome' or 'Auto Brewery Syndrome'.

There is, however, further support of the 'Candida Infection' hypothesis in the book 'Alcohol in Health and Disease; where they cite cases of thirty-nine women in Japan with digestive symptoms and Candida infections whose blood alcohol levels increased after they ate a high carbohydrate meal. Also, some clinics will test patients with common 'Intestinal Yeast Infection' symptoms for antibodies to Candida Yeast. These patients often DO have high antibody levels, meaning that they either have a Candida infection or have had one somewhere in their body at one time, and they generally improve with antifungal treatment and the low sugar and low simple carbohydrate dietary plan that Dr. Crook uses so successfully in his practice.

While you may not be able to call this problem 'Intestinal Candida' with 100% accuracy, there is a lot of research pointing to the conclusion that this condition COULD be a Candida infection in the digestive tract. No matter what you want to say it is: 'Intestinal Candida Infection', 'Auto Brewery Syndrome' or 'Gut Fermentation Syndrome'- it's evident that many are suffering from real and frequently disabling symptoms that could be caused by Candida Albicans. And no matter what the problem, if people feel better when they remove sugars and simple carbohydrates from the diet, then something is going on and we have an effective solution that is underutilized in a population group that could greatly benefit from this simple and cost effective approach to an expensive and debilitating condition.

In addition to a no sugar, low simple carbohydrate diet, I recommend to all of my clients with suspected Candida Infection to go on a Gluten Free diet as well. Gluten is the protein portion that is found in many grains, and it is an 'Inflammatory Food' whether or not you have an 'allergy' to it. But I find that people with Intestinal Candida or Gut Fermentation Syndrome nearly always feel better when they get off gluten.