Have you been searching for answers to health issues that seem to evade all treatments? Does your doctor dismiss your concerns and questions, or tell you that you’re just aging? Do you feel as though nobody has a clue as to what’s happening to your health and your body?
Chances are that you’re dealing with the effects of a fungus called Candida Albicans. Candida Albicans is the most frequent opportunistic and costly fungal infection in man.
Candida Albicans is a dimorphic organism, meaning that it can exist in 2 different forms, as a yeast or as a fungus. In its yeast form, Candida Albicans is a beneficial member of the normal flora of the human digestive tract and other tissues, but in its fungal form, it is capable of causing acute and chronic problems ranging from diarrhea and life-threatening colitis to obesity, cancer, and other illnesses and diseases. Research shows a link between diabetes, hypertension, and immune system suppression and the mechanisms that Candida uses to spread throughout the body.
Some of the other conditions commonly associated with Candida include allergies, skin conditions, hormonal imbalances, digestive disorders, sugar cravings, gas and bloating, acid reflux, headaches, arthritis, depression, irritability, exhaustion, brain fog, anxiety, and sinus infections.
Antibiotics are the primary cause of fungal Candida. They can change the health of your body permanently. Antibiotics take a normal physiological response to an imbalance in the body and turn it into a pathogenic, disease producing process. Antibiotics destroy the natural bacterial flora that helps to keep candida in check. Eliminating large bacterial colonies eliminates the competition and enables the candida to have a bigger share of the pie.
One study showed that 98% of the Candida yeast had converted to its fungal form within 24 hours of being exposed to antibiotics. Another study showed that from 4-72 hours later, it was destroying tissues within the liver and pancreas.
As bacteria are destroyed by antibiotics, they break down and release substances from within their cells that promote inflammation and tissue break down. One of these inflammatory substances, peptidoglycan (PGN) has been found to directly stimulate candida to change from its yeast to fungal form.
Antibiotics also suppress immune system responses and function, which enable the fungal candida to evade immune cells and grow unchecked throughout the body.
When antibiotics indiscriminately destroy the good and bad bacteria of the intestinal tract, they affect the normal pH of the gut. The bacteria help to keep the pH of the intestinal tract in an acidic range through secretions of acids and enzymes. Without these acids, the pH becomes more alkaline. This creates an environment that stimulates and promotes active fungal growth. Candida continually demonstrates an amazing ability to adapt to changes in its environment at lightening-like speeds.
Research shows that a deficiency of nutrients can also stimulate the yeast-to-fungal change, as the candida will go in search of nutrients elsewhere in the body’s tissues, much as you or I would go shopping if there were no food in the house. The fact that candida grows on the nutrient barren plains of our body’s skin surface is a good example of how well it can survive under different conditions.
To restore health and vitality in the body, the candida needs to be reduced to its yeast form once again. Additionally, the body needs to detoxified, the immune system boosted, and the beneficial bacterial flora needs to be re-implanted into the body’s tissues. The intestinal tract is considered to be the densest ecosystem of bacteria on the planet.
There are an estimated 100 trillion cells that reside within it. Restoring and maintaining the balance of this system will have a tremendous impact on our health and how we age. We now have enough information to enable us to activate the life force within us and make the right choices for leading a healthy vibrant life.
Dr. Jeffrey S. McCombs, DC, is a 3rd generation Doctor of Chiropractic, author of the book: LifeForce, and developer of the McCombs Plan for Health, Vitality, and Transformation . His 25 years of ongoing research and practice emphasizes addressing the nutritional, environmental, emotional, structural, and biochemical aspects of acute and chronic health conditions in his patients.
Dr. McCombs will be answering your questions about Candida on a free one-hour teleseminar Thursday October 22, 2009. Sign up and submit your question at: www.AskTheHealthLady.com. The call with be archived so you may replay it later.
Dr. Jeffrey McCombs, DC 