Posts Tagged ‘Candida albicans’

Candida albicans Friend AND Foe

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Perhaps you are most likely to be seeking thrush treatment information if you hail from the United Kingdom where the term thrush is more popular as a reference to the aggravating of yeast infection symptoms caused by the yeast Candida…

Candida albicans is a natural part of our body’s ‘flora’ and in fact it is essential to our health when it stays and works where it should - in the latter part of our bowel system. Candida’s actions - effectively beginning to ferment our ‘faeces’ - helps to soften them and make them easier to pass out of the body.

But - Candida is an opportunistic organism and if we don’t take proper care of our biological system we can accidentally create an environment that enables Candida to thrive and trigger those uncomfortable thrush symptoms in any nice, warm, moist part of our body … both internally and externally.

You may not realize that your habits - particularly with respect to diet - can be creating a chemical imbalance in your body that favors the growth of Candida. Candida albicans is a yeast - and you probably know that when yeast thrives, as it does in bread making and beer brewing - it is actually ‘consuming’. better known as fermenting, sugars. When yeast ferments sugar it produces the gas carbon dioxide. Thsi is what ‘gives rise’ (to coin a phrase!) to the bibbles in bread, and originally was all that used to make beer slightly gassy (before the days of ‘forced’ fizziness!).

You’ll know that you ned oxygen to live — right? And that too much carbon dioxide (CO2) would eventually cause you to sufficate. Well the production of CO2 by yeast as it digests the sugar surpluses in your body, also ’starves’ local cells of oxygen.

So — what happend to the suffocating cells? You might think they’d die — which would be gad enough. But no! Ispired by the natural urge to survive the cells in your body can start to operate ‘an-aerobically’ — mening ‘without oxygen’. They begin to used carbon dioxide (produced by the yeast) to keep themselves alive. The problem with this is that the cells themsleves become a potential source of disease. They prolong their own existence — but sometimes cause illness that eventually kills the whole body! Cells that operate anerobically are commonly identified as — cancer cells.

Naturally the whole strory is more complex and would take too long in the telling here. But it is the reason why you should not ignore yeast infection symptoms. The aymptoma you suffer are simply natures way of informing you that you need to do something to put your body right.

It is also the reason why you should not simply rely on drug-based pessaries, creams and potions! Why? Becaues these only treat Candida in local areas and do not get to the bottom of the problem. This is why it is often the case that thrush symtoms reappear after a short period of relife provided by a topical cream. Taking medications and drugs really does not ‘put things right’ they just ‘alleviate symptoms’ and/or temporarily hold up Candida’s progress by killing-off some yeast cells and yeast buds in a ‘localized’ area. But for long-term effect you NEED to make some other changes to become truly healthy again.

So you can begin to see why you need to keep your Candida under control. It is not that it is ‘just a bad guy’! It is that if you turn your body into a Candida farm, through eating the wrong things, and ceating a Candida-kind environment throughout your body — you could end up with a whole lot more problems that just that embarassing itch, rash and soreness!

You can discover more about strategies you can take to control Candida and stop thrush symptoms for good, by grabbing the free 5-part course at this link. Or simply take a look at our recommended, no-risk, Yeast Infection remedy resources on this website’s home page, and choose the one that appeals to you. They will help you get your system back into balance and overcome any current yeast infection symptoms and stop the likelihood of YOU developing the longer-term serious health issues that could occur!

AT
08/09

What is Candida?

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Maybe be you have heard of it but are still unclear about just what is Candida?

Candida - or more properly Candida albicans - is now commonly acknowledged as the particular genus of yeast that causes yeast infection or thrush in humans - otherwise known as Candidasis.

Yeast is a single cell organism that grows into colonies of many cells and can be seen physically at this stage when it infects areas of the body as white patches or clusters, This is how it may appear in the throat, the vagina or in the intestine when a ‘camera’ is sent in to investigate!

Normally Candida is restricted in its growth by those other little micro-organisms that are commonly called ‘good bacteria’ (at least in Yoghurt adverts!). The good bacteria do not tend to cause any adverse symptoms in the body, and their actions actually provide benefits. One group, or family, of good bacteria are the Lactobacillus strain. Lactobacillus are rod shaped bacteria and they can be derived from certain products like live yoghurt, where their action of creating lactic acid helps to turn milk into the thick creamy dessert or breakfast item.

One reason that yoghurt is sometimes recommended for application to thrush affected areas is that it will provide a ‘dose’ of Lactobacillus to try and bring Candida back under control. But note, only live yoghurt will help - so be sure to check the tub! Smearing pasterized, ‘mango and kiwi’ yoghurt on your ‘parts’ that is laden with extra sugar will only likely make matters even worse!!

In normal lower levels Candida is not really a problem and in some respects it also provides some benefits for the body. Candida is a sort of ‘natural’ kind of waste digester and starts to ferment sugary wastes. But the problem comes when it grows out of control.

This occurs when the good bacteria have been inhibited - say for example after you have taken a course of antibiotics. Antibiotics kill off the bacterial entities that cause an infection, but indiscriminately kill off your good guys too! this allows Candida (which is a yeast, so NOT killed by antibiotics) to ‘run wild’. This is why many people suffer a yeast infection when or just after taking antibiotics.

Candida loves warm. moist places - so you can easily suffer a vaginal yeast infection or penile thrush after taking antibiotics. But worse can happen - because one key areas where we tend to have lactic acid bacteria keeping our system running smoothly is in the gut. If Candida grows out of control in the gut it can lead to ‘leaky gut’ syndrome and the yeast can pass into the blood stream and literally be transported around the body where - if the bodily imbalance continues - it can cause all sorts of havoc.

In addition to losing our good bacterial body guards we are also liable to excessive Candida growth when our body becomes overly ‘acidic’. Now this is a major problem in Western society for various reasons. Most notable the issue relates to diet. Typical modern processed foods, soda drinks (like Coke or Pepsi - whether diet or otherwise!) all add acidic influences to the body. Eating foods that contain simple carbohydrates is also a problem - ingredients like white sugar and white flour - provide food sources for Candida and simply exacerbate the overgrowth of yeast.

Another acidifying influence can also be stress - and the world we have created today often causes us to be stressed and therefore more acidic (the psychological impact of stress causes the release of natural acids in the body).

If Candida albicans does pass through the gut walls and begin to manifest itself in colonies around internal organs of the body it can potentially lead to serious health issues.

One real problem with typical prescription drugs, creams or pessaries for thrush infection, is that so no more than quell the more noticeable symptoms of yeast infection - for a time. If your body is out of balance you need to try and address this in order to bring yeast overgrowth under control. The only effective way to do this is to take a holistic approach. This is where the selection of tried and tested holistic methods for treating Candida come in.

Simply applying a cream may temporarily provide local relief…But if Candida is affecting you systemically you urgently need to adopt an holistic strategy. The real worrisome issue with allowing Candida to continue to thrive is that internally massive colonies of Candida can starve healthy cells of oxygen. This then sets up a dangerous precedent. Cells do not willing ‘give up an die’ so they will start to operate ‘without oxygen’ - which is technically called becoming ‘anaerobic’. When cells do this they have literally regressed to a self preserving mode - but it is one that can become disastrous for the body. Groups of anaerobic cells are commonly referred to as a ‘tumour’ - that’s correct - it is the beginning of a Cancerous condition!

So do not ignore a yeast infection, particularly if it is persistent. You need to start a process of re-balancing your body as soon as possible and following an holistic plan for regaining health and bringing Candida back under control is paramount.