According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, up to 75 percent of women will experience Candida overgrowth at least once in their lifetime – usually in the form of vaginal yeast infection.
However, as Dr. Mark Hyman explains at the Huffington Post, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Yeast overgrowth can be far more complex and result in symptoms like unexplainable allergies, chronic inflammation, digestive disorders, loss of energy and inability to concentrate.
Unfortunately, many well-intentioned medical professionals have not been taught about the disease and therefore tend to overlook it. As a result, sufferers are often seen as hypochondriacs, much like those with lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
“Medical students learn about fungal and yeast problems, but only in a limited way,” explains Dr. Hyman. “Unfortunately more subtle problems related to yeast are usually ignored and not linked to patient’s complaints.”
What Happens When Your Body Has Too Much Yeast
People often equate Candida yeast infections with vaginal yeast, rarely connecting yeast withwhat’s going on in their body. Candida albicans is a single-celled organism living in our intestines that produces more than hundred different toxins which can be absorbed through the intestinal wall into our blood stream. The result is a fight – and your body is the prize.
“Most of the time I can cope with the symptoms but there are times when I could cry.”
“You feel jet-lagged all the time; some days just getting out of bed is a challenge.”
“My love life was shattered for the last 8 years and now I know it is to do with candida.”
– PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC CANDIDIASIS
Each one of us carries Candida albicans in the digestive tract. Provided they’re kept under control by beneficial microbes and normal immune system, these little yeast-like organisms don’t cause any harm and even help us digest excess sugar and make small amounts of vitamin K and B12.
The problems arise when there’s an imbalance in the intestinal environment, leading to an out-of-control growth of the Candida cells. Unfortunately, the intestinal balance can be easily upset by impaired immune system, antibiotics, stress, and others factors, including high-carb diets, birth control pills, diabetes and pregnancy.
“It’s one of the many diseases of civilization – the culmination of the side effects of drug and food technology and the disservices of our stressful way of life,” writes Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. in her article on yeast and inflammation.“It is a scientific fact that when yeast cells reach a certain critical mass they change from a round budding stage to a thread-like tissue invasive stage,” she explains.
Most people don’t realize realize that when Candida albicans proliferates and changes its form, it becomes capable of penetrating the intestinal lining. Known as leaky gut syndrome, the breakdown of the boundary between the circulatory system and intestinal tract allows yeast’s toxins and by-products hit the blood stream and wreak havoc on the body.
