Breaking Down The Disease Of Intestinal Yeast

esqil (50)in #writing • 8 years ago (edited)

As a couple of forewords, before digging into this, I would like to remind you to not become over-exaggerated by the content of this text. It's easy to work oneself up when reading about diseases, and projecting all sorts of troubles onto one specific diabolical influence, when – as always – there is more to the story.

Let's get into it...

Candida, an underlying epidemic of modern day civilization?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Burning gut feeling
Gas and gas pains
Craving for sugar
Dry mouth
White tongue coating
Cold sores
Allergies and food sensibility
Bad breath
Vaginal infection
Urinal infection
Iron deficiency
Hormonal imbalance
Acne
Rashes
Mental fog
Headache
Chronic fatigue
Erratic vision
Asthmatic symptoms
... The list goes on

These are all possible indicators of a Candida overgrowth in your body, clearly making it a disease which is hard to diagnose – all symptoms being somewhat vague. But the gut is obviously the main focus in this context.

Candida is a yeast that lives also in healthy guts. Just like the many bacteria, it plays a role in the gut flora. The gut flora could be considered a biological system of it's own, operating within our intestines, and helping us to digest what we eat. Along with yeasts such as Candida, the gut flora makes an essential part of our body.

If our gut flora however becomes imbalanced or unhealthy – which can be caused by many factors (typically when our lifestyle is unhealthy), this open the doors for 'bad bacteria' and also such overgrowth of candida that cause the many problems above.

To understand what we are dealing with, further reading is necessary:

"[...]Candida is a yeast that lives in the human digestive system. It has the ability to change from a yeast and become a fungus. As a fungus it operates in a similar fashion to any other fungus such as athletes' foot fungus, etc. Candida is kept at low levels by the friendly bacteria that also reside in the digestive tract. The friendly bacteria feed on the Candida, thus a balance in the body is maintained. Modern medicine's use of antibiotics, birth control pills, cortisone and chemotherapy kill this friendly bacteria as do street drugs, alcohol, and junk food diets.

Once this friendly bacteria has been destroyed, the yeast begins to overgrow and take over the digestive system. Left untreated, it becomes a fungus and grows into a plant-like structure complete with roots. These roots can break through the intestinal walls, allowing the yeast to travel to other areas of the body such as the sinuses, throat, reproductive organs, the lungs and skin just to name a few. " (link at the bottom)

What we can deduce from this is that Candida is not merely a yeast, but can actually develop into proper fungus. This means that we have to assume that Candida is not only an infection type disease, but rather, in it's developed forms, operates more as a parasite of sorts. I think it's important to distinguish this from e.g bacteria or viruses, which both are considered to be simpler organisms (biologically non-related).

...

To be said about fungus as a species

"Fungi are sessile, highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources both above and below the ground. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realise the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’. They process and evaluate information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. These highly diverse competences show us that this is possible owing to sign(aling)-mediated communication processes within fungal cells (intraorganismic), between the same, related and different fungal species (interorganismic), and between fungi and non-fungal organisms (transorganismic). Intraorganismic communication involves sign-mediated interactions within cells (intracellular) and between cells (intercellular). This is crucial in coordinating growth and development, shape and dynamics. Such communication must function both on the local level and between widely separated mycelium parts. This allows fungi to coordinate appropriate response behaviors in a differentiated manner to their current developmental status and physiological influences." ...

This is a very broad description of fungus, and I don't know how much of it holds true to the specific Candida intestinal fungus, but it gives us a hint that whatever we are dealing with has a instinctual strife for survival, and that an infested body probably lives in symbiosis with the fungi – to the extent that whatever feeds the Candida will have various effects on the host.

And it does. The Candida feeds of glucose much like any other yeast, which result in a byproduct of Acetone (Alcohol), thus giving the effect of 'mental fog', low productivity, or even feelings of being hungover.

We clearly need more research on this area. Good thing is that more and more studies arrive about the stomach, most of which tend to highlight the very central role to our body our stomach plays (doubly so), and the prosperity of having a healthy gut. However, as we can conclude, there are many factors that impacts the gut – and we should not jump to conclusion too fast. For one person it might be a different diet that is the answer. For another person it might be to reduce the stress levels, or taking less drugs, or both – At this point we don't know enough...

If you suspect that you might have an overgrowth going on, this seems to be the easiest test:

First thing in the morning, gather as much saliva you can – not by clearing your throat.
Spit in the center of the glass
Watch every 15 minutes and compare to the image below

If it takes on a similar structure as the image describe, and you can relate to the symptoms – you could have a candida overgrowth in your body.

I have over a long time noticed suspicious activity correlated to my gut. I did the candida test, and it turned out positive. I reckon that by this point the candida has already infiltrated huge parts of my body, perhaps even my brain. Thus I cannot be trusted, and it might very well be the Candida hitting the strokes here.... I'll keep you posted...

Further reading and details can be found in the links below.