What Causes Candidiasis, Fungal Overgrowth & Candida Infection?
Poor Diet & Excess Sugar
Any food that is high in sugar level can feed a Candida overgrowth. There is some confusion in that only added sugars matter, and that the natural sugars found in fruits are okay to eat on a candida diet. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Candida does not discriminate when it comes to sugar – one source is just as good as the other. The candida yeast cells are just as likely to feast on the sugar from a banana as they are on the sugar from a chocolate bar or a glass of wine.
Although sugar is the most important food to avoid, there are several other groups that can promote a Candida overgrowth or cause reactions in Candidiasis sufferers. These include caffeinated drinks, glutinous drinks, alcoholic beverages, starchy vegetables, some varieties of nuts, dairy products, and most farmed fish.
Can Antibiotics Cause Candida Overgrowth?
Behind a high-sugar diet, antibiotics are the second most common cause of Candidiasis. If you have taken antibiotics within the last six months, you are likely to be suffering with Candida overgrowth. This applies primarily to broad-spectrum antibiotics, which are those that kill a wide range of bacteria. These bacteria will not only kill the pathogenic bacteria that are causing your medical condition, they will also destroy the entire population of good bacteria in your gut.
Mercury Fillings
Although this is just a controversial topic, there is significant evidence that ‘amalgam’ fillings containing mercury can release toxins into your body. This mercury toxicity has been cited as being the cause of chronic fatigue, depression, weakened immunity and loss of memory. A 2006 study in New Zealand looked at 465 patients who were suffering from mercury toxicity. It found that the “removal of amalgam mercury fillings when combined with appropriate treatment resulted in a significant symptom reduction to levels reported by healthy subjects” . With more evident becoming available the FDA changed its opinion on mercury fillings in 2008, altering the text on its website to read “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which my have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and foetus.”
Stress
Stress is a factor that is often overlooked when it comes to yeast infections and Candidiasis, but there is some very good evidence that the two are strongly linked. An elevated level of mental stress has frequently been associated with an increased incidence of vaginal yeast infections, and it is a major cause of Candida infestation.
There are several different ways in which a period of stress changes the physiological makeup of our bodies. Not all of these are important for Candida sufferers, but there are two particular changes that make a Candida infestation much more likely. These are an elevated blood sugar level and a weakened immune system. They are both caused by a stress hormone named Cortisol.
Stress can mean either short-term physical stress or longer-term mental stress. Longer-term stress is far more likely to cause a candida infestation because it leads to prolonged changes to your body chemistry, including a higher level of cortisol. You may have heard of cortisol before in a relation to weight gain around the abdominal area, but for Candida sufferers, it has two much more important implications for your physiology.
The Contraceptive Pill
The relationship between the contraceptive pill and Candida Albicans is well established. The oestrogen in the contraceptive pill stimulates the production of glycogen within the vagina. Glycogen is an energy store and an ideal food source for the Candida yeast cells living there, which can quickly lead to a candida overgrowth. A 2001 Austrailian study showed that “there was a highly significant relationship between the usage of oestrogen and the occurance of Candida Albicans infection.”
The contraceptive pill is even more likely to lead to a candida overgrowth if combined with antibiotics. This is because in a healthy person the excess glycogen is metabolized by the ‘good bacteria’ in your vagina and turned into lactic acid. If these bacteria are destroyed by anti-biotics, all of the glycogen is available for Candida Albicans to sustain an overgrowth.
Diabetes
Sufferers of diabetes are more likely to experience repeated yeast infections for two reasons. The first reason is that diabetics have high blood sugar levels that feed the Candida yeast cells. This is either due to a shortage of insulin in the body or because the body is not reacting to insulin as it should. The second reason is the weakened immune system that is one of the symptoms of Diabetes. According to a british study published in 2011, this is because the high levels of glucose effectively ‘blind’ the receptors in your immune system that identify pathogens. This allows the Candida yeast cells to multiply and transform to their fungal, pathogenic form.
Chemicals in your drinking water
Most drinking water contains traces of chlorine, a disinfectant that is added to kill disease-causing microorganisms. This is similar to the chlorine that is used in swimming pools and it has many known side effects. However, public health officals in many countries have concluded that the reduced incidence of water-borne disease is more important, and outweighs the risk to public health of chlorine consumption.
There may be some truth to that, but it is also true that chlorine acts to weaken our immune systems and leave us more vulnerable to other infections. Chlorine is an effective disinfectant designed to kill microorganisms, so when it reaches your intestines, it destroys colonies of both bacteria and yeast indiscriminately. With you gut flora reduced, this allows opportunistic microorganisms like Candida Albicans to grow and flourish. Over long periods of chlorine consumption, this can be lead to a weakened immune system and a candida overgrowth.
Chlorine has also been linked to higher rates of cancer in the colon. A 1992 paper looked at chlorinated drinking water and the incidence of cancer in Norway. Although the study was not conclusive, it found that chlorination was “associated with a 20-40% increase in colorectal cancer rates”. Another study in lowa in 1997 found similar results.
“I had been sick for more than 10 years & now I feel wonderful! “
Carolyn USA
