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6 OCTOBER, 2006
Health & Nutrition Newsletter Vol. 10 Issue 1A
CANDIDA
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HOW
TO STAY YOUNG
Keep only
cheerful friends. The grouches and negative people can pull you down with
them. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath;
as often as appropriate.
Cherish
your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
Tell the
people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
AND
ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is
not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that
take our breath away.
Have a wonderful
day!!!!!!!
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We are soon
at the time of year that there will be little ghosts and goblins all dressed
in costume running from door to door saying “trick or treat!”
Many of us will answer the door, perhaps dressed for the occasion with
a bowl or bag of goodies. You will smile, and act scared, or maybe you’ll
even try to scare them yourselves. You’ll close the door and remark
at how cute the little girl from across the way looked with her fairy
wings. You’ll remember when you went from door to door with your
own sack of treats. You may even remember the tremendous belly ache you
got from eating more candy than mom had said you could.
This is
the stuff life’s all about. The fall festivities. The fairs, the
smell of the turning leaves. Holidays that are just around the corner.
Depending upon where you live, there may be crispness in the air. Maybe
you came from a place where that happened, but who doesn’t love
the smell of a baking pie? Set out to cool, with all the gooey stuff dripping
from a flakey crust.
It’s
a magical time of year. Preparations are being made for where will we
go. Who will be at our house. The kids are away at school, and they want
to have the nest to come back to. Tradition abounds.
Candles
burning, lights are twinkling. Stores are packed with shoppers and well
stocked shelves. Heck, there are even gifts that we can buy for our pets!
This is
the start of a hard season for a lot of people. Some are far from home,
and would love to be with loved ones. Some have little money to buy the
things they would love to. It is a tease to many.
The season
opens with a trick or treat. But what is it, a trick, or a treat? Unfortunately
the treats we give are feeding a beast. A beast that dwells within us
all. Truly these sweet potions are a treat to the tongue, and the yummy
feeling that they may bring temporarily. This is a trick however, the
treat feeds a beast whose name is Candida.
What
is Candida?
Candida
is a yeast which inhabits the body, generally arising in the colon. However,
the word is generally used to refer to when the Candida yeast has grown
out of control and begun to create harmful effects within the body. Thus
to say, "I think I have Candida", would mean that you have an
overgrowth of the Candida yeast/fungus. Candida feeds off the food that
you eat, especially sugars and starches. This takes away from the nutrients
which you need to survive. Candida then begins to produce its own waste
products. These wastes are toxic to the system and cause most of the sickness
and disease which plagues man.
Candida is controversial. The medical profession denies its existence,
except in very limited cases, making it very difficult (probably impossible)
to get a medical diagnosis of Candida even when an overgrowth has been
confirmed by a laboratory test. Despite this situation, public awareness
of Candida has continued to grow, helped no doubt by the long list of
celebrities who, quite unperturbed by its lack of medical status, assert
that they have had it.
Candida
albicans is a yeast-like fungal parasite inhabiting the digestive tracts
of nearly all adult humans. Normally, Candida peacefully co-exists with
other microbial passengers in our bodies. However, it also appears to
be a cause of a wide variety of disorders ranging from bad breath to serious
neurological disorders. It’s also controversial – at least
among the mainstream medical community
Candida
is the popular term for Candidiasis (Candida overgrowth)
- a condition first identified by American physicians in the 1970s. Moderate
amounts of Candida live in every one of us without causing
any harm, but when given free rein to grow unchecked, e.g. by wiping out
the surrounding bacteria with broad-spectrum antibiotics, Candida
can change into its fungal form and spore through the intestinal wall
into the rest of the body. Once through, it rampages around the body producing
a multitude of symptoms.
Common
symptoms of Candida
There are
too many symptoms to list them all here. A minority of sufferers have
numerous symptoms; the vast majority have thrush + a few others; not
every sufferer has thrush.
Group 1:
The damage to the intestinal wall allows undesirable toxins to permeate
into the bloodstream. This condition called ‘leaky gut syndrome’
often leads to:
- Food
allergies
- Foggy
brain
- Migraines
- Muscle
aches
Group 2:
Once through to the rest of the body, Candida has the
ability to disrupt the endocrine system causing symptoms such as:

(Candida
on
finger nail)
- Thrush
(white spots in the mouth)
- Fungal
infections of the nails/skin e.g. athlete’s foot
- Cystitis
(inflammation of the bladder causing frequent, burning urination, most
common in women. Estimated that 40% of the female population will suffer
from this)
- Weight
gain or weight loss
- PMS
- Menstrual
irregularities
- Joint
pains
- Ear infections
- Asthma
- Chronic
tiredness
- Hay-fever
- Allergies
- Sinusitis
- Sensitivity
to perfume, tobacco smoke and gasoline
Group 3:
Symptoms in the intestines include:
- Bloating
- Diarrhea
and/or constipation
- Flatulence
- Itchy
anus
In addition,
Candida involvement has been implicated in some cases
of other illness e.g. ME/CFS, Endometriosis.
Causes
of Candida
The popular
perception is that Candida is the consequence of antibiotics
usage. The medical profession dismisses this as fantasy, saying that antibiotics
could not have that effect in a healthy individual. But it may be that
antibiotics act as the ‘final straw’
where health has already been compromised, most probably by one or more
of the following:
- Use of
the contraceptive pill or HRT (hormone replacement therapy)
- Use of
natural progesterone cream
- Use of
other steroids (hydrocortisone, beconase, prednisolone etc.)
- Use of
immuno-suppressive drugs
- Repeated
use of broad-spectrum antibiotics e.g. for acne
- Dental
mercury amalgam poisoning
- Other
heavy metal poisoning e.g. lead, cadmium
- Chemical
poisoning from the home, garden, workplace etc.

(Candida)
- Hormonal
changes e.g. puberty, pregnancy, menopause
- Stress
- usually as a contributory factor
It has been
known for decades that Candida flourishes in the presence of progesterone
which explains why so many women get outbreaks of thrush when pre-menstrual.
Candida
is not just the result of a faltering hormonal system, as it in turn aggravates
the situation by binding to hormones, making them incapable of arriving
at their target sites. At this point new symptoms appear, adding to the
misery.
This is
the first part of a multi part series on Candida. Frankly; I am not certain
how many parts this will be. Candida is raging amongst us. There used
to be a funny phrase: “The fungus among us”, or “…a
fun guy to be around…”, this could not be farther from the
truth. This is not a fun topic. As you have just read, there are many
conditions brought to us thanks to an overgrowth of Candida.
In this
series, we hope to educate you on Candida, its symptoms, what it’s
caused from, and how to handle it.
Many people
get a rash or a broad-termed yeast infection; the doctor prescribes a
pill that you only have to take once (with each out-break apparently).
Use a lotion or a salve for a week (again with each out break).
We want
to treat the cause, we don’t want to treat the symptom. If a fire
is burning in a pan, you put a lid on it to smother it. Cut off its supply
of oxygen…starve it. Why not do the same for Candida, and other
yeast-like infections---STOP THE CAUSE!
So
let’s start the season with the perfect gift…The gift of health!
Instead
of going out and buying candy for those trick or treaters, buy stickers,
or pencils, or erasers for their little mistakes, crayons and anything
else that doesn’t feed the beast.
Have a
neighborhood party where everyone knows each other. Invite all the monsters
over. Tell scary stories, rent movies, have healthy foods and drinks.
Have prizes…Start a new tradition!
Future
newsletters in this series: Know if you have it. Prevention. Diagnosis.
Treatments (standard medical, and alternative). Who will get it. pH and
Candida. Probiotics and Candida. Holidays, stress and triggers. Anti-Candida
diet. Cleanse your body. Sharing Candida with the one you love.
iFlora,
the first line of defense against Candida…Bring the balance back!
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Thank you
Ron Radstrom
e-mail:
ron@healthfree.com
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