This question is not that hard to answer. We have so many bacteria, microbes and fungi living in and on our body’s surface, it is all a matter of balance. From the day of your birth your body lives in a sea of bacteria. Infectious germs known as microbes swim throughout your body at all times. These microbes can live in your throat, mouth, nose, gums, gastrointestinal tract, blood, bladder, vagina, and numerous other body tissues.

These microorganisms that may be bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites, are as much a part of every human being as foods and chemicals. Figuratively speaking, they are constantly trying to ‘eat us alive’. In some people these bugs actually succeed and death follows. An example of this is deaths we have had in many other parts of the world due to the HN1 swine flu virus. The influenza virus is so small is impossible to see without amazingly powerful magnification, yet is capable of causing perfectly healthy people to die.

And, even if when we do die of natural causes the bugs eventually eat our physical remains. Only healthy cells and tissues within our living bodies can effectively defend us against infectious microbes.

Immunologists, gynecologists and other health-care professionals generally tend to see the candida syndrome as a fictional one, probably because the manifestations are seen too often, the need for treatment too frequent, and the conventional testing for its presence and effect too inadequate, and because almost everyone suddenly has become an expert in its presence or absence.

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Many naturopaths and natural health-care professionals see candida as a scourge, affecting patients so widespread that some like myself actually specialize in this condition. Some do a great job, but many do an average job because they only have their patient follow a “candida program,” which can last anywhere from one to six weeks, and that’s it. Many pay lip service to the importance of the correct diet and lifestyle ongoing, and whilst the patient may initially feel OK, the candida comes back with vengeance. The patient is disillusioned and begins, over the years, to hop from one practitioner to another.

In our business, we call this “doctor-hopping,” and such patients generally end up on my doorstep with bags or boxes of dietary supplements as well as medical prescriptions for all manner of creams, pills and lotions with the condition remaining unresolved.

Candida can be a real trap for most medical natural health care professionals. This is another prime reason why candida is just so prevalent today. Most shocking, since many medical doctors do not recognise systemic candida as a problem, they often misdiagnose the condition and mistreat accordingly. Those patients are the ones I find who suffer and suffer and continue to suffer for years. But don’t be alarmed. With an ounce of proper treatment and the correction of the underlying dietary and lifestyle patterns today, you can overcome candida and save yourself a ton of health misery down the track tomorrow. The connection between your digestive system and the rest of your health, in particular your mental and emotional health, is only just starting to become apparent to the many enlightened medical health professionals.

Let’s take a look at drug treatments today. We have such powerful drugs like the broad spectrum antibiotics which kill the friendly bugs in your digestive system, chemotherapy (immuno-suppressive) drugs, steroidal drugs like asthma puffers, hydrocortisone creams for all manner of skin afflictions, and prednisone whenever a patient has an incontrollable immune condition which again needs suppression. We will go more into these causes a little later. Pharmaceutical drugs such as these along with a diet laden with sugar, alcohol, breads, convenience foods, etc, are hugely responsible for the candida problem. Most all cancer patients have candidiasis. The candidiasis was not the cause of their cancer; rather it was part of the lowered resistance that had likely contributed to the cancer itself due to the chemotherapy treatment.

Many sick people, in my observation, have yeast overgrowth to some degree, but yeast overgrowth is not what makes so many people sick. It is ultimately their lowered resistance and their increasing susceptibility to other infections and conditions. So, as our population continues to develop more and more degenerative ailments, what do we do? We have to begin to eradicate the yeast overgrowth while changing our fundamental ways of life – by altering our lifestyles so that we are not creating an environment in which yeast can grow and thrive.

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Here is a recent scenario that happened to me. It perfectly illustrates cause and effect. I have been busy renovating my house for the past several months and recently have been painting the outside of my old home. One day I developed a sore right foot and when I had a bath later that evening I noticed a painful red sore on the sole of that same foot. I treated this promptly with tea tree oil and a plaster. I checked the shoe for a rose thorn or nail but found nothing.

After a few days, the pain would not go away. Each time I climbed up the ladder and placed my right foot on a rung, I felt a sharp pain in my foot. That’s when I decided to take a much closer look at the bottom of my shoe and found a tiny panel pin that had worked its way into the sole. It was the primary cause and it was partially hidden. I could only feel a sharp prick when I placed my hand in the shoe and applied pressure.

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Once I removed the tiny pin I no longer had any pain and my foot healed fine. You are probably thinking, “Why didn’t he look carefully right away?” Well, I did, but when I looked much more carefully I saw the tiny head on the panel pin (a very small nail). It was barely visible on first inspection and could only feel the pain under pressure. Leaving the panel pin in my shoe was the maintaining cause of the pain. I just didn’t know it at the time.

The moral of this story is that if you don’t immediately find a cause, you need to continue to look very carefully for the hidden cause. You may initially glance right over the cause when you first look at a problem, just like I did. There is always a cause, but sometimes it is not that obvious – even when it is staring you right in the face. That’s why most people miss the cause and just end up treating the effect.

On other occasions, things are right there in front of us but we don’t see them! Have you ever been in your kitchen and looked for the can opener or a particular knife and couldn’t find it, but it was right there in front of you, staring right at you from its normal spot on the counter?

Sometimes the solution to our problem is staring us right in the face but we have become blind due to familiarity. And at other times we know what the cause is but just ignore it for some reason, like the person who keeps on drinking and is in denial. I once spoke to a pharmacist’s wife when she brought me her 11-year-old son. He had a major yeast infection but had also been on an antibiotic almost continually for eighteen months due to an unresolved cough and cold.

The truth is often easier to find an identify than you think. Sometimes you simply need a second set of eyes (or ears) to look at or hear your story – to ask the right questions. Once you’re thinking on the right path, you’ll be able to find the right course of treatment.

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In my last post I started to outline some of the main causes of yeast infections, taking a careful look at issues pertaining to antibiotics, immune disorders, and other chemical medications. Of the 11 main causes, I covered just 4 – and they were pretty big. Today I want to cover the rest.

Alcohol

In my experience, not many avoid alcohol. While I do occasionally see some people with a yeast infection who don’t drink, they tend to be uncommon. Most all folks I’ve seen with a chronic yeast infection drink alcohol regularly. And the types of alcohol I associate the most with a yeast infection are beer, white wine, and spirits like whisky, rum and bourbon. Any alcohol can be implicated, but these are the big ones. Why these spirits? Any spirits that a person will routinely mix Coke (or a high sugar soda drink) with is more likely to get a yeast infection because they are consuming plenty of extra sugar. Those with yeast infections are drawn to alcohol, like moths are to a flame. Is there any “safe” alcohol? Not really. All alcohol can promote candida, whether it is gin, vodka, whiskey or wine. Most yeast infection sufferers have poor digestive health leading to nutritional deficiencies, and alcohol is often implicated here too.

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Candida Friendly Diets

Just like alcohol, this group of foods – sugars, alcohol, refined flours, etc. – encourages the growth and proliferation of a yeast infection. Typically craved foods are breads, chocolate, moldy cheeses (brie, camembert, etc.), pickles, sweet sauces, and the sweet fruits like oranges, bananas, grapes, and dried fruits. I won’t elaborate on foods too much here. We’ll discuss them in a lot more detail later on.

Stress

Stress eventually depletes our body’s ability (adrenal glands) to produce sufficient cortisol, which in turn reduces the immune system’s functionality. Fluctuating cortisol levels also cause blood-sugar dysregulation (hypoglycemia) that is a further risk factor for candida. Those with prolonged stress often end up developing adrenal fatigue. In my experience, most all chronic yeast infection patients have some degree of adrenal fatigue, which is best treated at the same time as their yeast infection.

Exposure to Pesticides, Herbicides, Chemicals, and Other Toxins

Many people with chronic yeast infections are toxic people, and hair or urine testing may reveal a heavy metal problem. Mercury has been implicated with chronic candida as well. Later on, we’ll talk about methods for detoxification.

Diabetes

Diabetics are more prone to candida yeast infections for several reasons, but the main connection is that diabetics have problems regulating their blood sugar levels. There are two main types of diabetes, however, all forms of diabetes have one thing in common, which is insulin production problems or insulin resistance. The pancreas in a healthy person produces insulin. Type 2 diabetics (diabetes mellitus) have generally a problem with insulin resistance in that the cells of their body have a problem accepting insulin’s ability to regulate blood sugar. The purpose of insulin is to process blood sugar (glucose) into energy. And sugar, as you are aware, is the primary agent that feeds a yeast infection. Since people with diabetes have higher concentrations of glucose in their body, they are therefore also at a higher risk of developing recurrent and chronic candida yeast infections.

Chlorinated Water

Chlorinated water is a big but commonly overlooked problem in the development of a yeast infection. By swimming in a chlorinated pool or a Jacuzzi (spa pool) you are allowing your body to absorb plenty of chlorine, an antibiotic. Why is this so? Why do you think they throw that stuff into the water? They throw it in to kill any bacteria and algae, and not unlike an antibiotic you swallow, you are allowing the yeasts to thrive by reducing the beneficial bacteria levels in your body. Just as chlorine kills bacteria in the water, it also kills the body’s normal bacterial flora.

Mold Exposure

Just like chlorine, mold is a frequently overlooked problem when it comes to candida. Mold will hurt the immune system by suppressing it. I have seen many patients who improved once they moved out of their house. Think about carpets, rugs and walls in bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms. Sometimes mold is obvious on walls or ceilings and sometimes it is not. If you have a mold problem it will continually send out microscopic spores into the air that you inhale.

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It would be crazy of me to tell you to avoid all of the above risk factors 100%. My goal here is to make you more aware so that you can at least work to significantly reduce your exposures and, in turn, your risk for developing chronic Candida.