Some of the biggest stresses we face involve other people, and most people can relate to the fact that there is one person they know in general, like a son, ex-partner, employer, husband, employee, mother-in-law or daughter-in-law, etc.; that is causing them stress right now, ranging from very mild and occasionally to severe and extreme.

Before I continue with this article, you should know I've recently compiled a list of science-backed ways to get rid of candida yeast infections. You can download my free Candida Report here if you haven't yet.

The emotional stresses are the ones you will notice which are on top and close to the line I have drawn near the pyramid.

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Most people consider the physical stresses to be the most toxic (like chemicals, heavy metals, etc.) whereas in fact it is the constant low-grade emotional stresses that cause us the most harm in my opinion. They continue on and sit in the background of our mind, sometimes for years or even decades and slowly wear down the ability of our body to help us recover from stressful events. These kinds of stresses are hidden from view, virtually un-diagnosable and accepted as being a normal part of our lives, unlike parasites, mercury, mold or microwaves, etc.

As our HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis becomes increasingly compromised, our immune system becomes incrementally compromised as well, and this is often how we become increasingly allergic or hypersensitive to foods and substances in our environment, we develop less resistance to many different types of infectious diseases like urinary tract infections, skin infections, respiratory infections, etc., we have an increased tendency to developing any one of the eighty auto-immune diseases like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Grave’s disease, etc.; and finally we can even be prone to developing one of the many different types of cancer.

It the accumulation of the many and varied different types of stresses which tips the balance, however. And if we can recognize stress for what it is and deal with these different stresses in our lives, whether they are emotional, mental or physical, than we will be in a much better position to avoiding falling victim to a yeast infection because our resistance will be high and our susceptibility will remain low. As you will soon discover, continual low-grade stress causes a strain particularly on our adrenal glands, and once these powerful little glands become compromised our susceptibility to virtually any immune problem increases significantly.

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Be sure to read section 5 of chapter 7, Understanding the Health Lifestyle, because in this part of the Candida Crusher book I will explain much more about stress and what you can do about it.

In a healthy and strong body, the respiratory or circulatory system can trap these microscopic spores and the immune system can then effectively deal with them, and likewise, a health and strong digestive system will be minimally affected by candida. Digestive acids and enzymes along with healthy levels of beneficial bacteria ensure that candida metabolites are effectively dealt with.

Before I continue with this article, you should know I've recently compiled a list of science-backed ways to get rid of candida yeast infections. You can download my free Candida Report here if you haven't yet.

But in a weak and immune compromised body, the candida spores can invade your immune system situated in the lungs and small intestine, where the yeast can readily change to its mycelial form, the vegetative part of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching threadlike filaments, which literally burrows into the lung or intestinal lining where this infestation irritates and effects the lining so much so that it eventually loses its ability to act as an effective barrier, allowing the candida metabolites to pass directly into the bloodstream. Once inside, these toxic metabolites are ready to circulate and create havoc throughout both the body and brain wherever your blood travels.

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Now you can understand why a yeast infection can become a systemic problem and affect literally the entire person, from their emotional and psychological well-being creating a cotton wool feeling, feeling drunk or spaced-out, depression and anxiety, right down to their toenails, creating athlete’s foot.

Poor diets, especially those high in the simple carbohydrates and immune-challenging foods and poor environments, moldy environments, can compromise your immune system because they can significantly boost the production of these immune-challenging toxic candida metabolites. This kind of diet and lifestyle also provides inadequate supply of minerals and vitamins so desperately required by your body to maintain and repair, sustain and nourish the entire system, thereby encouraging flare-ups or multiplication of the candida related problems.

After learning about the immune system’s critical involvement, you should now be able to have a better understanding as to why it is critical for you to follow the Low-Allergy Diet stage as part of your yeast infection recovery, and to make not only digestive rejuvenation a focus of your program, but immune rejuvenation as well.

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I have discovered that patients who only partially recover and who remain feeling unwell for some time appear to have very low, low or borderline SIgA levels as well. You can read a lot more about SIgA (antibodies) in chapter 3 of the Candida Crusher book under comprehensive digestive stool analysis testing.

Before I continue with this article, you should know I've recently compiled a list of science-backed ways to get rid of candida yeast infections. You can download my free Candida Report here if you haven't yet.

It would certainly pay to increase your SIgA levels, that way your immune system will get a significant boost and may help to pull you out of a sustained aggravation you are going through, the SIgA antibodies form part of your immune system’s humoral response. This part of the immune system fights the enemy at a distance, unlike the cell-mediated response that fights the enemy close up. You will find that with higher SIgA levels you will be able to tolerate foods more easily, which you previously were having aggravations from in many potential ways.

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With a reduction in candida metabolites through boosting the cell-mediated immune response, you will find that your brain fog, fatigue, feeling unreal, stoned or spaced out will be reduced much more quickly. By boosting both aspects of immunity (cell and humoral responses), you will begin to feel better than you have for a long time, possibly even several years. This is one of the key secrets I’ve discovered to a deep-seated recovery from chronic yeast infections that I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.

The best way to work on the immune system if you want to get rid of your yeast infection is to boost both the cell and humoral mediated responses, the two main branches of your immune system. This is a bit like renewing your troops on the frontline, more white blood killer cells, the cell mediated response, and giving them better weapons with a higher accuracy and more killing power, boosting the humoral-mediated response.

Your Immune System and Candida

I’m not going to give you any big or lengthy explanations of how your immune system works, but what you need to know is basically this, that your immune system works on yeast infections in two main ways.

The Cell-Mediated Immune Response

Consider this like hand-to-hand combat. This group is like the marines who are sent in first to do the dirty work; they are tough and get the job done, their mortality rate is higher. The white blood cells are killing on contact and eradicate yeasts, bacteria and other pathogens directly.

The cell-mediated response can be boosted significantly by taking selenium, zinc, Coenzyme Q10, beta-carotene, vitamins B6 and B12 and vitamin E and the herbal medicines ashwagandha, astragalus, cat’s claw, mistletoe, Siberian ginseng and ligustrum. The most specific probiotic for enhancing the production of the cell-mediated T-helper cells is Bifidobacterium lactis. Omega 3 fish oils are also a very good idea, as they reduce any inflammatory response and boost many aspects of your immune system function.

The other point I’d like to make it to ensure that you have sufficient cortisol production by your adrenal glands, as cortisol has a significant effect on your lymphocytes, so be sure to get a salivary cortisol test completed with the assistance of your health-care professional. As I have mentioned elsewhere in the Candida Crusher, adrenal fatigue treatment is one of my best-kept secrets when it comes to recovery of impossible cases of candida yeast infections. Both the cell and humoral mediated responses are significantly boosted with strong adrenal function.

The Humoral-Mediated Immune Response

Consider this part of your immune system. It is fighting the enemy at a distance. These guys are the snipers squads and the artillery; they either can’t see the enemy or can kill them from miles away. In this case, white blood cells produce antibodies that travel widely throughout the bloodstream and can kill yeasts, bacteria and pathogens anywhere the bloodstream will take them.

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The humoral response is responsible for your body’s SIgA production. Go to chapter 3, Diagnosing, Identifying and Testing For Candida yeast Infections and then read The Best Nutritional Way To Increase SIgA, you will find it under the information on comprehensive digestive stool analysis testing.

One of the major problems which has faced clinicians and patients alike when trying to rid a body of excessive Candida albicans is its stubborn resistance to treatment. The overgrowth has long been noted for its persistence which is unlike that of most other microflora – yet the scientific community have had a good idea why this is so – and the science behind it has been recognized, if not truly understood, for decades.

Before I continue with this article, you should know I've recently compiled a list of science-backed ways to get rid of candida yeast infections. You can download my free Candida Report here if you haven't yet.

It is accepted that under normal circumstances a certain amount of Candida is essential for optimal digestive function but when the organism overgrows it ceases being beneficial to the human body and instead upgrades to that of a pathogenic organism. Yet most clinicians and scientists are aware that when this happens, Candida albicans in particular, can be the very devil to treat.

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Yet although there are many theories as to why this occurs, the specifics are not available to us. As I have already discussed, biofilms, the environment in which microflora often live, can and do provide the community within protection against not only antibiotic attack but also from the immune system. Yet the issue of biofilms is not exclusive to Candida, the film protects all inhabitants be they bacteria or fungi. So what are the other reasons for an overgrowth of microflora being so persistent? And, when it comes to Candida albicans, why is there one specific issue, which, for some reason, gets very little mention today.

It has been known for several decades that the cell walls of Candida albicans contain a glycoprotein called Mannan. And, although there was a spectacular amount of scientific interest in this subject back in the 1980s and 90s, the research comes to a strange and abrupt halt when reaching the new millennium.

Yet the investigations into Candida Mannan, and there were dozens of research studies, highlight one of the possible immunological problems it can cause and are highly significant. This is particularly so, when it is generally accepted that not only is an overgrowth of Candida albicans renown for setting up infections but possibly more so for not only resisting many contemporary treatments but also existing in conjunction with a depleted immune response in the patient. In short, where Candida overgrowth exists, the patients will often also have an immune response which is working at less than optimum capacity.

The many scientific papers which investigated this issue back in the 1980s and 90s, looked at the construction of the cell of Candida albicans and of the mannan element in particular. It was discovered that mannan actually has the ability to suppress the immune system and so prevent it from attacking the Candida and killing it off. A splendid survival tactic indeed.

Yet there are many recent scientific papers investigating candida and its corresponding existence with depleted immune response and suppression but surprisingly few are now looking mannan as a probable cause and this is despite the fact that it is supported by the strongest and most significant scientific evidence.

There can be no doubt that depleted or suppressed immune response in respect of Candida is highly complex, yet what has been shown is that mannen is not only part of the celluar construction of Candida but also that fragments of this compound are released into the body. This means that the organism likely has a defense within its own walls in addition to sending out what can be interpreted as ‘scouts’ to disable the enemy before it ever has chance to attack.

How Candida mannan does this is still open to some debate, however it is thought to neutralize T-lymphocytes which are cells actively involved in the immune response system. This would result in the patient having a depleted cellular immune response and not only prevent the Candida itself being killed off, but will also result in leaving the individual open to more infections. Because Candida has always been considered an ‘opportunistic’ organism, then this leaves the door wide open for the pathogen to cause systemic disease. Indeed it may be proven some time in the future that mannan is exactly why Candida is considered to be the ‘opportunistic’ organism that it is today.

It can now be seen why it is very important to understand what feeds Candida and C. albicans in particular, because, for now at least, this is one of the primary ways in which Candida numbers can be reduced in the human body. Without attacking the Candida at source, for instance by only supporting the immune system or by treating infections resulting from systemic Candida overgrowth, the primary source continues to expand. This leaves the patient’s body in a continual state of defense rather than attack, and, in this particular case it would seem that it is a defensive position it simply cannot win.

While C. albicans continues to thrive, it is releasing not only toxins which can damage the intestinal wall and become systemic, but it is also damaging the immune response by releasing mannan fragments which can travel throughout the body and disable the immune system. The defense of the pathogen itself also becomes increasingly stronger as its numbers grow and the amount of mannan within the Candida community strengthens correspondingly.

The amount of research available regarding mannan is, surprisingly, vast – even though much of it is not recent. But the suggestions are consistently made that there is no doubt mannan causes the human body not only to deplete its immune defenses but correspondingly strengthens the defense of the Candida cell itself.

As I mentioned earlier, although most of the research undertaken was done several decades ago, there has, in 2010, been a clinical review released looking at the association between both Candida and mannan in critically ill patients. For those who doubt that Candida overgrowth, mannan and its links to serious illness are in any way significant, then this review would certainly be the meal which would give them food for thought. As the Introduction to the review clearly states, ‘Invasive Candidiasis (IC) is an important infectious complication in severely immunocompromised patients and is associated with severe morbidity and high mortality.’ https://www.ccforum.com/content/14/6/R222

It goes on to investigate not only mannan antigens but also anti mannan antibodies relative to diagnosis in critically ill patients.

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It is clear that there is much work to be done on not only Candida mannan in respect of not only seriously ill patients but also those with disease which is of a more chronic and systemic nature.

A gliotoxin is a mycotoxin produced by several species of fungi, including pathogens of humans such as Aspergillus, and also candida.

Before I continue with this article, you should know I've recently compiled a list of science-backed ways to get rid of candida yeast infections. You can download my free Candida Report here if you haven't yet.

A study* published in 2010 revealed that candida could produce a substance called a gliotoxin (GT), an immunosuppressive toxin. It is now believed that GT’s immune-suppressing activity contributes to the survival of candida albicans in the blood stream during infections. In addition to GT’s immunosuppressive properties, this mycotoxin may also suppress and cause apoptosis (cell death) in certain types of cells of the immune system, including neutrophils, eosinophils, granulocytes, and macrophages.

This explains why this parasite can be so hard to eradicate by so many people’s immune systems. GT has also been discovered to have antithrombotic properties, which means that it prevents the formation of clots and thins blood, allowing it to travel more freely through the bloodstream and giving it the ability to be able to access areas of the body where it couldn’t normally go. GTs also explain brain fog and the severe and debilitating feelings many people feel when they are on the candida program.
*Thrombosis and Haemostasis. 2010 Aug;104(2):270-8. doi: 10.1160/TH09-11-0769. Epub 2010 Apr 29. Bertling A, Niemann S, Uekötter A, Fegeler W, Lass-Flörl C, von Eiff C, Kehrel BE. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Experimental and Clinical Haemostasis, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.

In addition, yeasts continually die as well as multiply causing yet even more chemicals to be produced and circulated throughout your system, and some of these chemicals other than aldehyde have also been identified as being toxic to the brain, capable of causing various behavioral disturbances. Is it any wonder that a yeast infection can leave you feeling so lousy?

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A chronic yeast sufferer may consume large amounts of foods or drinks which are continually causing a large amount of these toxic metabolites to be formed in their body, and these foods may include alcohol, soda or cola drinks, breads, fries, confectionery, dried and fresh fruits, chocolate, refined carbohydrates, and sugar. It is surprising how many people drink diet drinks, in the belief that they are entirely harmless.

A hidden problem surfaces when there is a large amount of toxic metabolites like gliotoxin and mannan present in the body, with more being continually produced along with the large amount of yeast and bad bacteria already present. The big problem arises however when these formed toxic metabolites begin to challenge the immune system, along with the candida itself.

If your diet is high in the foods that candida love, the foods and drinks I have clearly outlined in various articles on this site, then you may well be producing far too many yeasts themselves in addition to their metabolites, thereby challenging your immune system on a continual basis, twenty four hours a day.

Sometimes the sheer volume of these toxic metabolites in combination with very poor levels of beneficial bacteria may be even too large for your immune system to cope with, because your body may already be having to deal with numerous hidden food allergies, bad bacteria and parasites, leaky gut syndrome and low-grade inflammation present elsewhere in your body. Now you can understand how a chronic yeast infection can affect you at any time of the day, and in any one of a hundred or more ways!