Antibiotics and Candida infection: What is the connection?

by Eric Bakker N.D.

I am often asked if medications taken as a child can contribute to Candida infections as an adult.

I’ve seen this situation many times in the clinic. Adults who have been on many kinds of drugs, over their lifetime, including antibiotics. There is a progression of mild treatment with drugs to aggressive drug management. In my experience, multiple rounds of antibiotics tend to be devastating to people’s health. I would go so far as to say that antibiotics slowly destroys health. Antibiotics are strongly linked to the development of Candida infections.

Don’t fall into the trap of multiple rounds of antibiotics for the same condition.

If you think that early life exposure to antibiotics may be contributing to your gut problems as an adult, I recommend having a comprehensive stool test. This test will clarify whether you have an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in your digestive system. It will let you know if your good bacteria have been knocked out, and your current beneficial bacteria count. Stool testing can also alert you to small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) as well as bacterial overgrowth in the stomach or colon.

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Candida will show up on stool tests as well. You can find out where the yeast is your body is live or dead. If it’s live, you’ll want to know the number of live yeast that are colonizing your digestive system.

I always recommend investigations before treatment. You need to understand what is happening internally to know how to heal your digestive system.

Once you can answer the question, “What is going on in my gut?”, you can choose the most effective treatment.

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About Eric Bakker N.D.

Eric Bakker ND has completed almost ten years of study and has almost almost 25 years of clinical experience in natural and integrative forms of medicine, and has pursued continuous post-graduate study in Australia, America, India as well as in New Zealand.

Eric is the past Vice President of the NZ Natural Medicine Association and is currently on their editorial advisory board.