Renowned Naturopath Eric Bakker explores the increasingly prevalent Candida infection --- the symptoms - the impact of major contributors : antibiotics - alcohol.
Chronic candida infection has been known for over 20 years in medicine now. I can remember reading a book written by Dr. William Crook called The Yeast Connection in the early eighties when my father bought a copy to try and sort his own digestive problems out. Before the early eighties however, neither the public nor the health care professional had much of idea of the magnitude of this problem. Like many conditions that people present with in a naturopathic clinic, it is once again not the condition they present with so much that is the real issue – it is the continuation of a dietary and lifestyle habit underpinning candida that needs attention.
Candida problems are so widespread, if a random sample of patients complaining of miscellaneous symptoms is given anti-candida therapy many of them will exhibit a marked reduction in symptoms over the next few months and some will even exhibit a dramatic return to good health. Candida problems come in all shapes and sizes and have many disguises, so don’t be fooled into thinking that candida is purely a digestive problem.
I’d like to write a series on Candida discussing my experiences treating people with yeast infections, show you a few case studies, and in addition give my take on what I consider to be an effective solution to this scourge which we see so regularly in a naturopathic practice. Let’s start with two of today’s major contributors of this condition --- antibiotics and alcohol.
Antibiotics
According to many authorities in natural medicine, antibiotics may be the single greatest cause of candidiasis, because antibiotic treatment for infections is non discriminatory, killing the "good” intestinal chemistry-balancing bacteria, as well as the “bad" infection-causing bacteria. Let me enlighten you a little about how candida infections and their link with antibiotics, a link initially discovered by an American doctor not long after antibiotics were first introduced into general practice.
The very first antibiotics developed contained an antifungal medicine (anti-candida) built in to discourage the regrowth of fungal conditions which commonly occurs after a course of antibiotics. But at an annual gastroenterologists meeting in America in the early 1950’s it was decided to separate the antifungal component and to keep antibiotics separate. This is when the fun really began, and this separation was the beginning of creating much dysbiosis and resulting food allergies in unsuspecting people. Further down the track when antibiotics started to be introduced into the food chain the problem became even worse.
Not long after, also in the early 1950s, Dr Orian Truss discovered the devastating effects of these antibiotics in an American hospital. During a hospital round Dr. Truss was intrigued by an elderly looking man who appeared to be dying. But this was no elderly man; this man was in his forties and in hospital for several months. No medical expert was able to make a diagnosis, they simply couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t getting better. Out of curiosity Dr. Truss asked the patient when he was last completely well. The man answered that he was well until six months before when he had cut his finger He had then received antibiotics and shortly afterwards developed diarrhoea and his health went downhill ever since.
Truss had plenty of experience and had seen a few years before how antibiotics caused diarrhea and he learned that fungal conditions such as candida were “opportunistic” and thrived in debilitated patients. Dr. Truss now wondered if it might not be the other way round, that candida had actually caused the debilitated condition, he had read that potassium iodide solution could be used to treat candida and was keen to give it a go. So he put the patient on eight drops of Lugol's solution four times a day and soon the patient regained his health. The candida infection not only cleared rapidly, the patient’s health improved remarkably overall.
Every experienced naturopath can relate similar success stories, I certainly can. I have seen so many cases of a patient NBWS (never been well since) one or several courses of antibiotics. There is no doubt about it, antibiotics are usually not necessary in the first place, in fact, I have never used them with my family for more than twenty years. My four children have had the usual coughs, colds, cuts and broken bones and in spite of all this we have never once have had to resort to antibiotics. In a few per cent of the cases in which they are absolutely necessary their serious after effects could easily be avoided using natural fungicides and lactobacilli. I am still amazed how readily some doctors still prescribe antibiotics for simple cuts to the fingers as a “precautionary” measure.
It is unfortunate that most people in my experience doubt the effectiveness of natural therapies against apparently serious infections, but experience leads me to believe that natural therapies are more effective without causing the chronic and recurring fungal or other opportunistic infections often seen after antibiotics. I have seen patients who have been unsuccessful on long-term antibiotic treatment recover within days or weeks with natural medicines when correctly administered. Even severe injuries such as a shotgun blast were successfully treated with herbal tinctures of marigold (Calendula officinalis) during the First World War. When I practiced in one of Mother Theresa’s slum clinic hospitals in Calcutta as a post graduate student years ago, I remember applying layers of cloth bandage to a man’s leg that was amputated below the knee after a tram accident. No antibiotics were given; the wound was washed several times a day for three days and showed signs of healthy tissue granulation. When I left after several months later he was in perfect health. Herbal medicines work, whether you have had a cut to the finger or have lost a leg.
Antibiotics may be necessary in pneumonia and then only if it is bacterial origin. Conventional medicine is still based largely on fear unfortunately, and if you make somebody scared enough you can easily make them do something they may well later regret like an unnecessary operation, taking a drug long term or undergo a largely unnecessary invasive medical procedure. My mother told me recently that she was woken up in hospital to take a sleeping tablet. It sounds like something right out of one of those American sitcoms but it is true.
Alcohol
Candidiasis patients should also stay away from all alcohol since it is composed of fermented and refined sugar. It is more toxic than sugar in candida problems and really feeds the yeast. Alcohol suppresses the immune system, disturbs the whole adrenal – stress axis, and there in no doubt that it makes anyone with candida feel much worse in the long run.
I have seen several patients in particular who find it almost impossible to stay away from alcohol yet who have digestive issues, skin complaints and fatigue. This to me is saying that you have a money problem yet you keep taking on more credit with the bank and continue a gambling habit. Of course you have a problem, and the cause is right under your nose but you are either in denial or you just can’t be bothered.
With women it is usually the wine and chocolate, with guys it will be beer or wine. I can’t think of any food or beverage more destructive for the candida patient than alcohol. The more resistant the patient is in wanting to give up all alcohol entirely for at least 6 months (to allow the digestive system to recover), the more likely it is that alcohol is underpinning the candida condition.
Many candida patients also have anxiety, mood swings, impatience, irritability and even depression. These conditions appear to go hand in hand with chronic candida sufferers, especially if regular alcohol intake is apparent. Some candidiasis sufferers will feel, and appear to be, intoxicated. An unusual symptom of certain people with severe candidiasis is the presence of alcohol in the bloodstream even when none has been consumed. First discovered in Japan, and called "drunk disease," this condition creates strains of candida albicans which turn acetaldehyde (which is the chemical created by sugar and yeast fermentation) into ethanol. This is a process well understood by distillers of homemade brew.
A medical test has been developed in which, after an overnight fast, the individual is given 100 grams of pure sugar. Blood samples taken both before the sugar loading, and an hour after, are measured for alcohol. An increase of alcohol indicates yeast "auto-brewery" intoxication. Another connection between alcohol and candidiasis has been found in a study of 213 alcoholics at a recovery center in Minneapolis, USA. Test and questionnaire results indicated that candidiasis is a common complication of moderately heavy drinkers and alcoholics due to the combination of high sugar content in alcohol and the inability of drinker to assimilate nutrients. Additionally, female heavy drinkers with candidiasis were significantly sicker than non-drinking women with candidiasis.
Many of the symptoms exhibited in drinkers such as insomnia, depression, loss of libido, headaches, sinusitis/post-nasal drip, digestion and intestinal complaints, overlap with those in candida overgrowth. Many candida patients are at risk for various ear, nose, throat or skin infections which are treated with ... antibiotics!
Article Candida kindly written and provided by Eric Bakker ND, clinical director of www.naturopath.co.nz .