Yeast overgrowth: Candida and Thrush

Yeast Infections, Candida, Thrush

Yeast, Candida & Thrush
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Some people think that to avoid yeast infections, you should avoid yeast. This sounds almost plausible until you think about it. As with sharks, spiders, and snakes, yeasts come in all kinds, but only a few of them are troublemakers. Most yeast infections are caused by one particular species, Candida albicans. These fungal critters, which are found in any healthy body, are normally kept in balance by your other resident flora of "good" bacteria and other microorganisms. But a low immune system, stress, poor nutrition, and especially antibiotic use, can bring on a Candida overgrowth.

You do not cook with Candida when you bake bread. You do not eat Candida when you eat cheese. And even if you did, I doubt if Candida could survive the trip through your highly-acid stomach. I think eliminating yeast from the diet is barking up the wrong microbial tree.

Equally useless is to try to kill off every single fungal organism six ways from Tuesday. Again, a small amount Candida normally and harmlessly lives in your mouth, or elsewhere in your body. The problem is when things get out of hand. Poor diet, especially one loaded with junk food and sugar, is an invitation to overgrowth. Such an invitation will be accepted: if you feed them, they will reproduce.

For the various forms of yeast infection, I first recommend vegetable juicing and a plant-based diet, including plenty of unsweetened yogurt. These all help get the entire body's microbe population back into balance. Eliminating sugar is an absolute must. Candida love sugar, so starve them. You also need to totally, and I mean totally avoid alcoholic beverages. This includes wine and beer. Beverage alcohol (ethanol, C2H5OH) is a simple carbohydrate, actually an even simpler molecule than the simplest of sugars (glucose, C6H12O6).

Some people may offer the objection that vegetable juice, such as carrot or beet juices, have a high glycemic index, that is, contain a lot of sugar. I think this worry is overstated. Compared to processed, starchy, sweet foods, the sugar content of carrots is low. If you feel strongly about this, or more especially, if you have a severe fungal outbreak, there is simple resolution at hand: juice only vegetables with a low glycemic index, such as leaf lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, parsley, kale, and other greens. Once you try them juiced, you may well want to include some carrots or beets in the mix for better taste. Don’t be a martyr: good root veggies are not going to hurt you. If they did, every woodchuck, mouse and rabbit would have Candida overgrowths. They don’t. Neither will you.

In addition, to help bring prompt symptomatic relief, I suggest two things: topical application of unsweetened yogurt, and oral megadoses of vitamin C. Used in sufficient quantity, I think it is superior to nystatin, imidazoles or any other pharmaceutical you may be offered. Drugs may indeed kill fungus, but they do not build your immune system. Vitamin C does, and it is your immune system that is the key to a healthy body with healthy balance.

Instructions for oral megavitamin C use, with references, written by medical doctors, will be found at
http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/klenner_table.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html

ORAL Thrush (Candidiasis or Moniliasis)

Direct application of yogurt can be a particularly effective antifungal treatment. It is certainly safe to try. Another approach can be topical vitamin C. Due to where thrush is commonly found, and to the fact that ascorbic acid is, well, acidic, it is recommended that for topical use you select sodium ascorbate, or any other non-acidic form of vitamin C. Adding a few drops of water to a half-teaspoon of vitamin C powder makes a nice paste that will adhere to the skin when applied with a "Q-Tip" type of cotton swab. Another method would be to make a vitamin C spray, using additional water and a cheap sprayer bottle from your local dollar store.

Homeopaths frequently recommend Borax, 3X or 6X, for thrush.

VAGINAL Thrush (Candidiasis or Moniliasis)

Some women have successfully employed ascorbic acid vitamin C tablets (250 mg) as twice-daily vaginal inserts. Acidophilus and other probiotics, as found in supplements or yogurt, is also very helpful. But you should get a medical opinion before you self-treat. And if you want to choose a drug therapy, you go right ahead. Ask around, check the library, do an internet search, and read up on this to be comfortable with your decision.

Copyright C 2007 and previous years by Andrew W. Saul. Revisions copyright 2018. Andrew Saul is the author of DOCTOR YOURSELF (http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html) and FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! (http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html).

Andrew W. Saul

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