01 July 2002

MICROBEASTIES

In a healthy human body between 9 and 11 pounds of microorganisms – bacteria, yeasts and fungi – make their home. A few thousand, some believe as many as ten thousand, different species of micro flora inhabit your intestinal tract alone. There, these microorganisms live together in a delicate and ever-shifting balance. Most are very different from the disease-causing bacteria which give micro-beasties a bad name. Some, like Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus produce vitamins and other nutrients to help support our immune system. Others help us digest our food. Some forms of bacteria and yeasts, however, are parasitical and can be highly toxic to the human body – especially when their colonies overgrow and displace the good guy bugs and they begin to communicate signals to their host - the human host - which are actively detrimental to its health.

The bad guys include Clostridia, enterotoxigenic E. coli and Salmonella. These beasties produce toxic chemicals, activating the body’s alarm system and nudging it into chronic inflammation. Certain other micro organisms – like the water and food-borne amoebic organism Guardia for instance, as well as certain yeasts which metamorphose into fungi like Candida albicans - can utterly destroy health and life when they get out of hand. In the Twenty-first Century world of junk foods, alcohol, drugs and ubiquitous poisons, they often do.

Recent research carried out at Washington University School of Medicine has shown that our intestinal bugs have a remarkable ability to send out signals which enable them to communicate their needs to our human body. When levels of the carbohydrates on which they feed get low, they shout for more. Obedient to their insidious calls, we respond unknowingly by reaching for yet another bar of chocolate or piece of pizza. The epithelial lining of the human gut is almost 2 inches thick with bacteria. Even beasties with virulent potentials can live happily and benignly in the intestines of a normal healthy body. Then one day, things change – too much sugar, a course of antibiotics given for flu, an illness which suppresses immunity – and all hell can break lose.

OVERGROWTH

These are but a few of the symptoms connected with an overgrowth of Candida albicans on the human body:

• Weight gain

• Chronic fatigue as a result of impaired metabolism
• Brain and nervous system dysfunction
• Headaches
• Poor memory, fuzzy thinking, inebriation
• Heart problems – rapid pulse rate, palpitations, pounding heart
• Vaginitis and lack of bladder control – this can lead to frequent urination, itchy rashes and vaginal thrush
• Stomach troubles: diarrhea, bloating and gas, gastritis, gastric ulcers, constipation
• Allergic Reactions

OUT OF BALANCE

Candida albicans is a form of yeast which occurs naturally in the human body, flourishing in the warm folds of the digestive tract, the vagina and the skin. There it absorbs certain quantities of heavy metals, and by doing so removes them from the human bloodstream where they could cause problems to our body. In a healthy body, the population of Candida is kept in check by the good guy bacteria that live in the same area. But when these normal, helpful, bacteria are disrupted, by the use of antibiotics – which not only destroy the bad guy bacteria they are designed to destroy, but wash away the good - then Candida albicans can take on a very sinister form indeed. It can overgrow in the gastrointestinal tract, producing a complex medical syndrome known as chronic Candidaisis – also called the yeast syndrome. The most common place in the human body where yeast proliferates is the vagina of women, where it produces redness, burning on urination, a yeasty odor and itching, but it can also overgrow in the mouth where it is known as thrush, and inside babies nappies, causing diaper rash. In these places it can be irritating but really only causes minor problems.

In people, however, who eat a high carbohydrate diet which provides the yeast and other bacteria and fungi in the body with an abundance of glucose, not only do they survive, they overpopulate and become an invasive and dangerous organism. When the immune system has been compromised, or when the normal lining of the gut becomes damaged, the yeast, instead of remaining within the intestinal tract where they belong, can metamorphose into its fungal form sending out rhizomes to penetrate the walls of the gut, opening it to the absorption of yeast cells, particles of cells, and the toxins these micro organisms produce enter the interior of the body and pass into the bloodstream.

Although chronic Candidaisis was clinically defined back in the early Eighties when Orion Truss published his excellent book The Missing Diagnosis, followed by William Crook’s better known The Yeast Connection, neither the public nor the medical profession had any idea of the magnitude of the problem.

A BLIND EYE

Almost 25 years ago, researchers in Japan discovered that there are many other - some as yet unidentified - organisms which proliferate with Candida albicans and are equally destructive to the body. These organisms produce toxins. When these toxins are injected into animals they cause immuno-suppression and can produce the symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as a myriad of other illnesses. Candidaisis also produces food allergies, leaky gut syndrome, and many other destructive processes in the body which are blamed on other diseases.

FOOD ALLERGIES

Candidaisis can cripple an immune system so that it is no longer able to protect itself from invading chemicals and destructive organisms. It also produces a leaky gut making you highly prone to chemical poisoning and food sensitivities as toxins from micro organisms and protein molecules enter the bloodstream. For your body sees them as foreign antigens – invaders – and this brings about a phenomenon known as cross reactivity producing yet more food allergies.

Conventional medicine has only begun to acknowledge the existence of overgrowth of Candida albicans and its opportunistic behavior. Investigations in the last few years by physicians who are aware of the widespread nature of Candida overgrowth – by the latest, highly conservative counts, tens of millions of people in the United States are believed to have a Candida overgrowth – verify Truss’s findings. Gradually Candidaisis is being accepted by an ultra conservative medical establishment, although few still understand either its nature or its cause.

Candida is best controlled through a combination of diet and medicines, either prescription, or nonprescription. One of the reasons my Insulin Balance works so quickly to enhance energy levels and improve the way most people feel, is that in addition to countering insulin resistance and blood sugar problems, it also encourages a decrease in any Candida overgrowth that may be present. It stops feeding these beasties the carbs and sugars on which they thrive. However, in moderate or serious overgrowth of Candida, more than this alone is needed. The standard antifungal prescription drugs used often address the symptoms rather than correcting the problem. For this can only be done by changing the biological terrain of your body so that it no longer lends itself to Candida’s continued growth and reproduction.

SHAPE SHIFTER

What few are as yet aware of – even the growing number of physicians who do address the Candida issue – is that Candida albicans has six switching mechanisms and seven viable forms, thanks to the amazing ability of yeast and fungi to metamorphose. In effect, they change shape and function according to their surrounding environment. There is even a form of Candida which is cell wall deficient. In this form it is not recognized by the human immune system so that it floats around freely in the bloodstream. When it finds a suitable place to reproduce, it then changes into one of the other six forms, providing a constant focus of infection. One of the problems with only treating the intestinal tract for Candida – as most doctors still do – is that, because of this ability to migrate around the body unnoticed, you still get a constant return of the organisms even after a "cure" is supposed to have taken place.

TAKE BACK YOUR POWER

Clearing Candida requires a major life change. The good news is that change that comes about through a good anti-Candida program can be so health-enhancing, that many people who experience it claim it quite literally changes their life. People who had not been able to think clearly, who suffered from aches and pains and from allergies to chemicals in the environment as well as food sensitivities, find they can lead a normal life. They can think more rationally any they no longer experience unpredictable emotional upsets. People who have long been overweight find, often for the first time in their life, they have shed excess fat. People whose candidaisis has been cleared often report that the sense that they have long had that they had no control over their lives and who were unable to make clear choices, is now gone. They now move into an experience of personal power that they seldom dreamed possible. Clear headed and emotionally balanced with energy to spare, they now look forward to a life in which they are at the helm.

HOW TO CLEAR IT

The successful treatment of an overgrowth of Candida needs a four pronged attack. All four aspects need to be strictly followed otherwise, experience shows, it just won’t work. This is not always the easiest thing to do either. For people with an overgrowth of the yeast/fungus sometimes have difficulty sticking to the commitment they make to change their lifestyle. Their brains are sometimes so much at the mercy of the confusion, muddled thinking and lack of clarity that accompanies the high levels of ethanol and acetaldehyde produced by the Candida, that it can be difficult for them to take consistent action. The four steps to clearing Candida are:

• Starve out the fungus with a proper diet, at the same time using natural forms of treatment to wipe out the ineffective agent.

• Rebuild your immune system and restore the integrity of metabolism using specific vitamins, minerals and fatty acids which Candida overgrowth has created.
• Recolonize normal gut flora. To keep Candida from reestablishing its hold on the body, it’s essential to use a good quality form of Lactobacillus acidophilus and other good guy bacteria – preferably in powder form – to build up the good bacteria in the intestine as well as in the mouth and throat. Capsules don’t do this as well as the powder. These probiotic supplements need to be refrigerated at all times. They are living organisms.
• Stay away from the perpetrators of Candida overgrowth. This means avoiding all forms of antibiotics - except in life and death situations - hormones and steroids as well as any foods that you might be allergic too.

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

There are certain foods you need absolutely to avoid when fighting Candida. They include any gluten containing grains such as wheat, oats, rye and barley. The fungus grows on and is fed by yeast molds and yeasty foods which cross-react with it.

CLEARING CANDIDA

• Don’t eat any standard form of sugar or any foods containing it including fructose, glucose, maltose and lactose.
• Don’t eat corn, barley, oats, rye or wheat or anything made from it and steer clear of rice, potatoes, buckwheat, beans and corn until your body is completely clear of the infection. (Have a bowl of porridge made from steel cut organic oats once a day if you like).
• Stay away from milk and all milk products except butter and plain unsweetened natural yogurt.
• Eat nothing with yeast in it – this includes bread, pastries, cakes, rolls, hamburger buns, crackers and biscuits.
• Avoid all foods, except whole apple cider vinegar, which have been fermented, smoked, cured, or contain yeast. This includes smoked fish, proprietary mayonnaise, most salad dressings, tomato sauce, pickles and other condiments.
• Don’t drink fruit juices or colas – even those without sugar.
• Be sure to choose top quality vitamins and mineral supplements that are yeast free and do not contain unnecessary additives.
• Avoid high glycaemic fruits – including dried fruits – and use low glycaemic fruits like berries only in limited amounts until the Candida is cleared.
• Steer clear of melon, such as cantaloupe, rockmelon and watermelon as their skins accumulate mold during growth.
• Don’t eat chocolate, honey, maple syrup and nuts – they tend to accumulate mold
• Eat no mushrooms or fungal products of any kind
• Black tea is notoriously loaded with yeast – steer clear of it.
• Eat no high glycaemic fruits (see page 00) and use low glycaemic fruits like berries only in limited amounts until the Candida is cleared.
• Do not drink alcohol of any kind, as it contains sugar and yeast.

I have written at length about how to clear Candida in Age Power which is published in August in Britain, and soon after in other countries. Have a good month.

Leslie