Candida Yeast Infections/The Yeast-Free Page

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH YEAST?

People normally have yeasts, as well as billions of bacteria and other microorganisms, in their gut. Most of those people are not made ill from all of those microscopic freeloaders. Yet some folks do develop health problems that appear to be yeast-related. Why? What's going on here?

In a healthy gut the "good guy" bacteria maintain a certain level of balance with the yeasts present - much like a teeter totter so perfectly balanced it stays level. But when we take broad spectrum antibiotics for an infection somewhere in the body, they kill both the "good guy" and "bad guy" bacteria in the gut indiscriminately. Steroids, birth control pills and certain other medications also disrupt the delicate balance of organisms. When this happens the yeast are unopposed. They flourish and thrive, and reproduce wildly - so that delicate balance is upset. The yeast proceed to overgrow the area of the gut they occupy. Candida albicans, while not the only yeast involved, often seems to be the main culprit.

But that's only part of the problem. Every living creature, even one-celled yeasts, give off toxic waste products (humans not only urinate and defecate to rid our bodies of wastes, we sweat and exhale carbon dioxide, too). Lacking the restraining influence of bacteria, the population of yeasts explodes, and the amount of toxins they generate increases astronomically. Large amounts of those toxins, as the name implies, are capable of making people ill, especially if the host immune system happens to be run down, perhaps engaged in fighting an infection. The toxins simply accumulate - overwhelm - and start to cause a variety of symptoms.

SYMPTOMS OF YEAST OVERGROWTH

Fatigue and fuzzy thinking may be the two most universal symptoms of yeast gaining the upper hand. Others include headache, depression, muscle aches, joint pains, digestive problems, sugar cravings, being bothered by odors, scents and fragrances, recurrent vaginal yeast infections, PMS, sexual problems, sleep disturbances, and more. While the yeasts themselves may stay in the gut the toxins travel via the circulating blood, to do their mischief in every system in the body. The circulating toxins cause such a great variety of symptoms that some doctors jump to the conclusion that such patients with vague and widely scattered on-again-off-again symptoms must be hypochondriacs. What a pity.

FINDING HELP

Here we have patients feeling sick all over and not understanding why. And their problems may be compounded by not being taken seriously. Their best bet in finding satisfactory care is to seek out a physician (MD or DO) who practices Environmental Medicine(EM). (Call the American Academy of Environmental Medicine at 316-684-5500 for a physician referral in your area.) EM docs are trained to search for root causes of illnesses and imbalances - like medical detectives. To some extent, you may find help with nutrition and supplements in a "holistic" MD or DO, or a naturopathic physician (ND) or in a chiropractor (DC). But I doubt their expertise in factoring in environmental factors will equal that of an EM doc. It's important to find a doctor you can work with, who can coach you along for the long haul. Recovery can take from a few months to a few years, and really does require knowledgeable guidance from a professional.

One reason I feel recovery isn't a do-it-yourself thing is that unfortunately, by the time a person has symptoms in more than one system, he or she probably has other complaints, too. First, the candida yeast may have burrowed deep into the tissues lining the gut, making them extremely difficult to dislodge. Often patients have developed food, mold, and/or pollen allergies, or thyroid or adrenal hormonal imbalances and dysfunction, and probably nutrient deficiencies, too. Their yeast-overgrown gut probably isn't absorbing all of the nutrients ingested, resulting in malabsorption-caused malnutrition. If the digestion is seriously impaired the diagnosis may include "Leaky Gut", meaning tiny particles of undigested food are slipping through the inflammed lining of the gut causing food allergies and reactions. All of this is usually just too much to sort out without professional help. My personal bias is that whatever foods or environmental factors you can figure out are bothering you, on your own, are probably right. But most probably incomplete. The foods you can recognize as allergens may be just the "tip of the ice berg." So even though you may eliminate all of the offender foods you know, you may still drag around feeling ill - because you haven't identified ALL of the allergens causing your symptoms.

TREATMENT

Because simple sugars feed the yeast, going on a sugar-free diet is first and foremost. Even the simple sugars of fruits may have to be restricted temporarily. Your doctor - think of him/her as your health coach - will tell you how strict you need to be. S/he will also select an antifungal medication or herb for you. At the same time, most physicians will suggest some kind of acidophilus-bifidus supplement (these are the "good guy" bacteria) to try to recolonize the gut. Further therapy will depend on the other co-existing problems - hormonal imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, etc - that your doctor identifies.

SELF-HELP

Even though I firmly believe seriously ill people need to work with a health professional (see above) to coach, guide and encourage them, the task of following the program falls to the patient. I feel that one of the most significant activities a patient can engage in is to read, study, and increase his/her understanding. Time and again, I've seen the well-informed patient progress better than average. Understanding the "why" of the treatment, the "why" of recovery taking so long, the "why" of avoiding sugar, and so on, makes all the difference in a person's compliance with the treatment. Further, recovery is so diet related that the decisions the patient makes 3-5 times daily in selecting his/her food directly influences the rate and course of recovery. If you want to help yourself, do your homework - read and study, devouring information and learning which factors promote, and which ones hinder, recovery.

A good place to start is to order the revised second edition of The Yeast Connection Cookbook - released in 1999. Jam-packed with helpful information, this book includes 225 safe recipes for you to use, plus menu aids in the back to help you "get it together" at meal time. Also, Dr. Crook wrote an introductory 100-page overview and explanation of how yeasts threaten your health (more detailed than I can offer here). If yeast is the problem, this book has got to be part of the answer! See The MFA Bookstore of this web site, or check in bookstores. (This book is a companion to Dr. Crook's The Yeast Connection Handbook which we highly recommend, but don't handle. Check in your bookstore or health food store for this book, and ask them to order it for you if it isn't on their shelves.)

Two sample recipes follow:

Allergen-Free Recipes

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar OR 1/4 teaspoon unbuffered vitamin C crystals
• 2/3 cup cooked brown rice, leftover is fine
• 1 cup soy, rice, almond, or goat's milk, or lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons oil

Preheat the griddle or 2 non-stick skillets. Combine ingredients, making a medium batter. Spoon tablespoonfuls of batter onto hot griddle. When edges brown and just begin to seem dry, turn to cook the other side. Repeat with remaining batter. If batter thickens, add a little more liquid.

VARIATIONS
Replace up to 1/3 of the flour with ground nuts or seeds. Add 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon of ginger to the batter. Use up to 3 tablespoons of oil in the batter if your griddle tends to stick, and oil the griddle if you need to.

• 1/4 cup almond, cashew or sunflower butter (from health food store)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce or applebutter
• 8 Rice Flour Pancakes
• Sprinkling of sunflower seeds, raw or toasted (optional)
• Raw apple slices, thinly sliced (see Variations)

Mix the nut butter and applesauce in a small bowl. Spread each pancake/flatbread thinly with the nut butter mixture. Sprinkle four of them with a few seeds for "crunch", if you want them, and top with apple slices. Put the remaining four thinly-spread pancakes on top of the apple slices, spread side down. Wrap snuggly in plastic wrap for the lunch box. Yum!

VARIATIONS
May either omit seeds or substitute sesame or pumpkin seeds, if you wish. Also try this idea with other fresh fruits, depending on availability: pear, apricots, peaches, nectarines, or banana, each sliced to fit the small sandwich. (All are good, but banana may be the least messy.)

These recipes are adapted from The Yeast Connection Cookbook by Wm. G. Crook, MD and Marjorie Hurt Jones, RN. Revised and updated in 1998. To order this or our other helpful allergy cookbooks see The MFA Bookstore.

For additional allergen-free recipes see Gameplan For Recovery Page and The Wheat-Free Page.