Signs and Symptoms of Yeast Overgrowth
• constipation, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome
• abdominal pain
• bloating, gas, and indigestion
• rash
• bladder spasms and infections,
• ear infections
• sinus infections
• rectal itching
• itchy ears or nose
• sugar or starch cravings
• white tongue (thrush)
• toe or finger nail infections
• jock itch
• chronic vaginal yeast infections
• intestinal permeability
• increased body odor
• PMS
• asthma
• depression
• chronic fatigue
Like most opportunistic infections, Candida and other yeasts may increase during times of stress. This overgrowth leaks toxins into the bloodstream or other tissues, allowing antigens (foreign invaders) to set up residence in various bodily tissues. Antigens then trigger complex allergic reactions. (This might explain why most individuals with chronic yeast overgrowth develop food, inhalant, and environmental allergies).
Allergic reactions can manifest in a variety of symptoms: fatigue, brain fog, depression, joint and muscle pain, digestive disorders, headache, rash, and breathing problems. Inflammation of the nose, throat, ears, bladder, and intestinal tract, can lead to infections of the sinus, respiratory, ear, bladder and intestinal membranes. In an attempt to arrest these infections, doctors might prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic. Such antibiotics promote yeast overgrowth and often times, additional symptoms. It invades the intestinal wall creating intestinal permeability. This allows toxins from microorganisms and protein molecules from your food enter the blood stream.
Remember, yeast feeds on sugars and on carbohydrates that easily convert to sugars. In turn, yeasts produce a series of chemical products as waste, among which are acetaldehyde and ethanol. Ethanol is alcohol, and there are cases of people who have never drunk a drop of alcohol yet are daily inebriated. Acetaldehyde is produced as the alcohol breaks down and is about six times more toxic to brain tissue than ethanol.
What Causes Yeast Overgrowth?
Birth control pills, food allergies, antibiotics, and corticosteroid therapy are all initiators of yeast overgrowth. A minor increase in intestinal yeast is usually not a problem, leading possibly to infection of the mouth (thrush) or vaginal lining (vaginitis or “a yeast infection”). The body’s immune defenses are usually strong enough to keep the yeast from taking over the intestinal tract. However, if yeast overgrowth is left unchallenged, more sinister symptoms appear. Yeasts can change into an invasive mycellial fungus with rhizoids (tentacle-like projections) that penetrate the lining of the intestinal tract. These projections can cause intestinal permeability and leak toxins across the cellular membranes.
Treatment of Yeast Overgrowth
The Candida Diet
• Avoid sugar for at least three months. Sugar is the chief nutrient for Candida albicans, so restricted sugar intake is absolutely necessity to effectively treat chronic Candidiasis. Avoid refined sugar, honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, milk, white potatoes, corn, beans, processed or bleached (white) flour, bakery goods, muffins, cereals, and anything containing sugar. This includes ice cream, cake, cookies, and other sweets; potato or corn chips, pretzels, or crackers; and dried fruits, including raisins.
• Avoid alcoholic beverages, malted milk, and other malted products for at least two months.
• Avoid mold- and yeast-containing foods for at least two months. These include peanuts, dried fruits (including prunes, raisins, and dates), vinegar, pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, relishes, green olives, vinegar-containing salad dressings, catsup, mayonnaise and, pickles.
• Avoid milk and dairy products for at least two months. All natural (unsweetened) yogurt is allowed.
• Avoid fruits and fruit juice (for at least two weeks. After two weeks, try introducing apples and pears to see if you have any reactions. (Reactions might include fatigue, depression, aches and pain, rectal itching, itching of the ears or nose, and digestive disturbances.) If not, then try berries: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Avoid all other fruits.
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• Most
vitamin and mineral supplements purchased at a drug
store are contaminated with yeast. Follow your
doctor’s recommendations about which supplements are
acceptable. Of course all of the Essential
Therapeutics products including the
multivitamin/mineral formulas
are free of yeast, sugar,
wheat, gluten, dairy, and other additives.
• Take one tablespoon of virgin olive oil each day on your
salads or vegetables. Add lemon juice it you’d like.
Candida Diet Allowable:
• vegetables and
salads (remember your olive oil!)
• meats and proteins (lean cuts)
• fish and shellfish
• game birds and animals
• nuts and seeds (in small amounts)
• cold-pressed or expeller-pressed, non-hydrogenated oils
• artificial sweeteners (plant-based like Stevia or FOS are
best). Fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) is a short-chain
polysaccharide used in Japan for dozens of years. It isn’t
digested by humans but does stimulate the growth of good
bacteria within the intestinal tract. It also helps with
liver detoxification, lowers cholesterol, and eliminates
various toxins. It can be used as a natural sweetener.
Dosage for powder is 2,000–3,000 mg. daily. Stevia is a
remarkable (no calories, no carbs) herb, native to
Paraguay. It has been used as a sweetener and flavor
enhancer for centuries.
• butter (not margarine)
• one cup of old-fashioned oatmeal per day
Herxheimer Reaction
Sometimes, when a
lot of Candida organisms are killed off during initial
treatment, a sudden release of toxic substances results in
an immune response and intensified symptoms, called the
herxheimer reaction. The body becomes extremely acidic.
This is known as a die-off reaction. It normally lasts no
longer than a week and is frequently confused as an
allergic or adverse reaction to the antifungal treatment.
Symptoms can be minimized by taking Alka-Seltzer Gold or 2
tablespoons baking soda in 8 oz. of water two–three times
daily as needed.
If the reaction is severe, you might need to reduce your
antifungal medications. Half the dosage (or take every
other day) for a week and then return to the original dose.
Then continue antifungal medications for a minimum of three
months. If treatment is discontinued too early, symptoms
will gradually return.
Once fungus overgrowth has subsided and yeast levels have
returned to normal (three–four months), medications and
supplements can be gradually decreased over six–eight
weeks, and you can gradually add previously forbidden foods
to your diet. Continue to be vigilant in monitoring your
sugar and simple carbohydrate intake.
Yeast Overgrowth Protocol
Step 1: Eliminate
yeast-producing foods with the Candida diet above. Also
make sure you’re taking yeast-free supplements.
Step 2: Improve digestion. Gastric hydrochloric acid and
pancreatic enzymes help keep Candida from overgrowing in
the small intestine. Patients on Zantac, Nexium, or other
acid-blocking drugs increase their risk for developing
yeast overgrowth.
• Supplement with pancreatic enzymes with each meal.
• Supplement with betaine hydrochloric acid
with each meal. Yeast can’t
live in an acidic environment.
Step 3: Replace good bacteria, such as Lactobacillus
acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. catnaforme, L. fermentum,
and Bifidobacterium bifidum. These normally inhabit vaginal
and gastrointestinal tracts; help digest, absorb, and
produce certain nutrients; and keep potentially harmful
bacteria and yeast in check.
Yogurt contains certain strains of good bacteria, but it
isn’t standardized for a particular amount. Also, most
yogurts are made from L. bulgaricus or Streptococcus
thermophilus. Both are friendly bacteria, but neither will
help colonize the colon. So it’s best to use live organisms
that are shipped on ice and then kept refrigerated until
purchase. Live L. acidophilus and B. bifidum powders or
capsules are preferred.
• Supplement with probiotics for three months: 5–10 billion
organisms on an empty stomach each day. Some extremely
resistant yeast infections may need continuous probiotic
replacement therapy.
Step 4: Reduce liver
toxicity. Always
take milk thistle and or alpha lipoic acid when taking
yeast overgrowth (antifungal) prescription or natural
medication.
Step 5. Treat your intestinal permeability. Yeast
overgrowth can cause intestinal permeability and contribute
to food sensitivities or allergies. Treat leaky gut and
yeast overgrowth at the same time.
Step 6: Use prescription or natural antifungal medicines.
I
use a product called Yeast Formula with the following
ingredients:
• calcium
undecylenate 150 mg. Undecylenic acid (10-Undecylenic acid)
is one of the most powerful anti-yeast medications
available. It is a mono-unsaturated fatty acid found in the
body (occuring as sweat) and is produced commercially from
castor bean oil. It has been used as a topical (Desenex)
and oral antifungal medication.
• sorbic acid 50 mg.
• beberine sulfate 200 mg.
• Indian barberry (Berberis aristata) min. of 6% berberine
50 mg.
• Chinese goldenthread, min. 20% berberine 25 mg. Another
form of Beberine.
• green tea leaf, min 80% 50 mg. The polyphenols in green
tea kill harmful bacteria and promote the growth of
friendly bacteria (bifidobacteria).
I have patients take one tablet a day and slowly increase
up to three tablets a day with food. This concentrated,
broad-spectrum formula combines specific natural agents
useful in supporting a healthy balance of intestinal
microflora, thus discouraging the overgrowth of yeast.
Sustained-release and pH balanced, this potent formula is
readily absorbed into the small and large intestine.
Other Natural Antifungal
Medications
• Caprylic acid
is a naturally occurring fatty acid and a potent antifungal
medicine. It should be taken as an enteric-coated
timed-release capsule. Dosage is 500–1,000 mg. three times
daily with food. The Caprylic Acid is fungicidal for
Candida albicans. It is harmless to friendly intestinal
flora, and effective against the invasive mycelial form as
well as the yeast form, because it is absorbed by the
intestinal mucosal cells. Caprylic Acid is metabolized by
the liver and does not get into the general circulation. It
must exert its fungicidal effect in the intestinal tract or
not at all. According to studies, just ten minutes after
oral intake of straight caprylic acid, more than 90% can be
traced in the portal vein on its way to the liver.
Consequently, caprylic acid should be taken with psyllium
powder which will form a gel in the intestinal tract and
release the caprylic acid trapped within over a period of
time.
• Oleic Acid, the major (56–83%) component of virgin olive
oil, hinders conversion of Candida albicans yeast to the
more harmful mycelial fungal form.
• Berberine (sulfate) has a wide range of antimicrobial
properties. It is a proven herbal medicine used
successfully to treat fungal, bacterial, and parasitic
infections. Dosage of standardized extract (4:1) is 250–500
mg. three times daily with food.
• Garlic has been used for medicinal purposes for
centuries. It is an effective treatment for the overgrowth
of Candida albicans and other yeasts. It has been shown
more potent than Nystatin for Candida albicans. Dosage of
standardized garlic (1.3% alliin) is 600–900 mg. two–three
times daily with food.
Prescription Medications
for Yeast Overgrowth
Prescription
drugs include Nizoral, Nystatin, and Diflucan. Nystatin is
the safest of the three, because it doesn’t penetrate the
intestinal lining. However, this is also one reason I find
it less helpful than other prescription drugs. The majority
of the yeast sensitivity assays I see from positive stool
samples show that Nyastatin is usually the weakest
prescription medication. Most prescription anti-fungals,
including Nizoral and Diflucan, have potentially serious
side effects and should be used with caution. Those with
yeast overgrowth must weigh the benefits and risks, but
treating a raging infection with anything other than
prescription medication might be futile.
Other Related Lab Tests
Available:
Intestinal Permeability
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