Immune Support Online

What is Candida?
Candida albicans is a yeast. This particular yeast typically lives in almost all the areas in our body in small numbers. Here, it competes with bacteria for food sources - and with our immune system which, when we are healthy, keeps its numbers low.
It is only when we are ill, or if the balance in our system is disturbed, that Candida becomes a problem.

What are Yeasts Like?
Yeasts are found everywhere on earth. They are microscopic in size, have a cell wall and a nucleus. For their nutrients, they depend on a wide range of food sources. However, they always need food from organisms which have been alive. Sugars (from plants or from animals) are preferred food. Yeasts have developed the ability to break down cells which they will feed on, by sending microscopic root-like tubes into those cells. These root-like structures (hyphae) produce chemicals which break down the food's cell membranes which allows them to kill the cells and use the nutrients for their own growth.
Yeasts are therefore formidable opponents. for their own self defense, they create chemicals which repel bacteria. Bacteria feed on many of the same food sources as yeasts and are in a life struggle with them.

Thus is a microphotograph of yeast cells in the process of budding.

Both bacteria and yeasts synthesize chemicals which they use against each other. Bacteria create anti-yeast substances which are the starting point for many of the commercial anti-yeast drugs (Nystatin™). Yeasts create anti-bacterial substances. Many modern antibiotic drugs started as discoveries of these substances from nature. Penicillin grew on agar plates in Fleming's lab. Tetracycline came from a yeast in a sewer in Sardinia etc.

Both yeasts and bacteria 'view' the human body as food. The yeasts would be very 'happy' to have us dead or alive and work actively to kill us. Thus, when we find the yeasts in ascendance, it means that we are less alive than we really want to be. This may be because we are ill or because our diet has included too many sweet foods. Other situations may also produce a condition in which the yeasts love to grow - women who take the pill, those on steroids or chemotherapy, and most important, those who have recently taken antibiotics.

Could Yeasts and Bacteria work together?
Yes- usually for the worst for us. For example, it is often the case that children with an ear infection (otitis media) get an antibiotic, get better and then in a short time get another infection requiring another dose of antibiotics. It seems to me that what happens here is that this first antibiotic killed most of the bacteria and upset the balance with the yeasts in the body. Unchecked, the yeasts pro;proliferate and cause swelling, irritation and a fluid discharge in the middle ear and the eustation tube - the narrow tube connection the back of the mouth and the ear. This sets up a condition perfect for the bacteria to begin to grow again. then another antibiotic is prescribed, setting up repeating round of infections.

In health, the bacteria and yeasts are in a kind of balance in our body. We can help this by helping the beneficial bacteria in our digestive system. These friendly bacteria are called probiotics Probiotics mean pro-life and perform immune miracles in our intestine.

How does Candida cause us trouble?
Small amounts of Candida live in our body all the time. It is only when they grow out of control that they can harm us. The harm comes in several forms. Chemicals produced by Candida cause local swelling and irritation. These same chemicals also cause 'brain fog', fatigue and sugar cravings.

In the intestine, they consume sugars and create gas, leading to bloating and cramps (irritable bowel). Also, their ability to send out root-like hyphae which can penetrate between the cells of the intestine wall as well as entering cells and killing them, make them one of the leading causes of inflammatory bowel disease.

The healthy small intestine looks like this.

The thin layer of the intestine wall is defended by a mucus layer full of antibodies created by the immune cells and, living on the surface, a healthy number of probiotic bacteria which help to ward off potential harmful bacteria, yeasts and viruses.

By contrast, the following picture represents active invasion by yeasts - the usual condition in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).