So What is the Main Causes of Candida Overgrowth ?

A fungal infection with Candida, or Candidiasis is usually caused by some sort of disruption of the gut flora. In a healthy digestive system, the populations of “good- gut flora are so high that there is very tittle space or food left for Candida to establish itself.
When the delicate balance of the “good” gut flora is upset, however, the “bad- bacteria are suddenly given an opportunity to multiply. Gut flora can be upset by myriad factors, including antibiotic use, a high-sugar diet, high stress, constipation, a depressed immune system, hormonal imbalance and even diabetes. If you are wondering just what is a yeast infection, find out here …..

• Poor diet
• Antibiotic use
• Stress
• Oral contraceptive pill
• Diabetes
• Exposure to chemicals or heavy metals
• Hormonal imbalance

Poor diet

The typical Western diet is high in refined sugars. Foods such as lollies, chocolates, sweet biscuits and soft drink are obvious culprits, but even highly processed carbohydrates such as white bread, white pasta and white rice can contribute to the sugar load in the bloodstream. Candida loves sugar. Eating a diet high in sugar provides candida with plenty of the food it needs to multiply and develop and transform into its more virulent fungal form.

This is why an anti-Candida diet’s primary focus is cutting out all sugar. This, of course, means cutting out all the obvious sugars but also sugars you may have thought were good for you, including fruit sugars. Starving Candida of sugars has been proven to impair its ability to grow and multiply and reduce the chance of transformation into the fungal form.

Giving up sugar is easier said than done. In fact, a study in 2008 discovered that sugar consumption can trigger the same biochemical changes in the brain as cocaine, morphine and nicotine. So if you feel like you are addicted to sugar, it may be that you are. As with giving up any addiction, giving up sugar can be very hard initially. Having a good understanding of why it is so important to change your diet will help improve your motivation. A small amount of pain now can create a bigger pay-off for your future health.

To find comprehensive information regarding healing foods for Candida treatment go to Candida and Healing Foods

On this page we have  great ideas on Symptoms and Anti-fungal Treatments for Candida Albicans/ Candida

Antibiotics

We get the beginnings of our digestive flora from our mothers during birth and the remainder from the environment and the food we eat. A healthy adult should have around 500 individual strains and up to 100 trillion bacteria. After taking antibiotics it can take years for this healthy gut flora to recover. Fortunately, doctors are much less inclined to prescribe antibiotics now than previously.

However, if you have taken antibiotics in the past six months, you are much more Likely to be suffering from Candida overgrowth. This is even more likely if you took broad-spectrum antibiotics. Part of the reason for this is that antibiotics will not only kill off the bacteria that are potentially causing you harm but also some of your good gut bacteria. The loss of your good flora also weakens your immune system, which is responsible for cleaning up any Candida found in the bloodstream, further enabling the spread of Candida.

Of course, there are times when taking antibiotics is absolutely necessary. In these cases there are probiotics that are appropriate to take while on antibiotics. Once you have finished the course of antibiotics, it’s a good idea to swap to a high-strength probiotic with multiple beneficial strains. These come in both capsules and powders and generally need to be refrigerated and taken on an empty stomach.

If you have taken antibiotics in the past six months, you are much more likely to be suffering from Candida overgrowth.

Stress

An elevated level of mental stress is associated with increased vaginal yeast infections of which Candida albicans is the main culprit. Long-term emotional stress can create changes to the body’s chemistry and cause an increased level of cortisol.

Cortisol triggers your fight-or-flight response and causes your muscles to break down glycogen into sugar and release it into the bloodstream. Cortisol also restricts the production of insulin, which means sugars float around in the bloodstream for longer. Of course, Candida loves this increase in blood sugar. Higher levels of sugar in the blood also reduce the uptake of sugar from the intestines, thereby leaving more sugar in the gut for Candida.
High cortisol also inhibits the activity of part of the immune system, namely white blood cells called lymphocytes. Some of these lymphocytes are vital for keeping Candida in the gut in check. This weakening of the immune system leaves the body more vulnerable to opportunistic Candida infection.

Stress can be a very difficult thing to avoid with our modern, hectic lifestyle. Stress management needs to be prioritized and actively sought if your stress levels are high. Different personalities release stress in different ways. Some people reduce stress best with hard physical exercise and others with peaceful meditation. Creative people really need to maintain a creative outlet, especially if their work is not creative. These personalities may reduce best with art or dance classes.

Everybody should prioritize getting eight hours sleep per night helps increase health and resilience.  Achieving more sleep is sometimes as easy as going to bed earlier. For individuals with sleep issues, seeking help from a health professional is recommended. We also know it is important to have a healthy social circle. This helps you reduce stress, disconnect from work and connect other people’s lives. If you feel too busy  to catch up with friends, this is often sign that stress levels are far too high and re-evaluation is needed.

Personally, I have found the Yeast Infection No More program absolutely fantastic . When I first found that I had Candida a little while ago,  I did a lot of reading but as you know there is an awful lot of information out there on the Internet and quite frankly, I wanted a program that would tell me what to do without having to trawl through pages and pages of information on the net.

Yeast  Infection No More give clear guidelines on how to tackle and eliminate candida through foods and food elimination, supplements to take and lifestyle changes which I found invaluable. Were the results immediate? No, it did take a little while for my system to turn around. I can happily say now I have much more energy, I’m not itchy and what I am really enjoying is, I can think clearly, much more clearly!!

My food choices are much healthier which my body is really enjoying, actually the whole family is and every day I am noticing little improvements which is really nice. It has also meant that I needed to slow down and not buzz around trying to do everything, less stress in my life also!  Now I fit in time for Pilate’s, go for morning walks and enjoy fresh wholesome food as well as a few important supplements.

The oral contraceptive pill

A study published in 2007 in the Journal of Medical Microbiology found a strong correlation between contraceptives and vaginal Candida. This link was the highest for the oral contraceptive pill  but also present for injectable contraception and IUD use.

If the oral contraceptive pill is mixed with antibiotics, then Candida overgrowth is even more likely. Estrogen in the Pill stimulates the production of glycogen in the vagina. Glycogen is a complex sugar and an ideal food for Candida. In a healthy person, this excess glycogen is metabolized by the “good” bacteria in the vagina and recycled into lactic acid. If these bacteria are destroyed or altered by antibiotic use, the glycogen becomes very available for Candida.

A study published in 2008 in the Journal of Contraception showed Candida can actually attach to the IUD itself, which encourages repeat vaginal thrush. Researchers found that  Candida could attach to every part of the IUD, whether it was plastic or copper. Diaphragms can also become a breeding ground for Candida. For those looking for  a Candida-friendly alternative, condoms, combined with a spermicidal cream have a 90 per cent effectiveness rate an( do not involve anything being left in the vagina long term.

Diabetes

Unfortunately sufferers of diabetes can be more prone to Candida due to high blood sugar levels. High blood sugar levels can also weaken the immune system which gives the Candida further toehold. A study in 2002 in the BCM infectious diseases journal found that type I diabetics were three times more likely to be colonized with a yeast infection and those with type II diabetes.

The article concluded that improving blood sugar level control in diabetics may reduce the incidence of Candida. If you have a high blood sugar level resulted in the past and your doctor has mentioned that you  may be prediabetic, you may also have a higher risk of yeast colonization.

Chemicals in your drinking water

Traces of chlorine can be found in most domestic water. It is used as a disinfectant kills potentially harmful organisms. unfortunately chlorine is also capable of upsetting your delicate gut flora. Public health officials consider that the benefits of the reduction of waterborne disease through the use of chlorine is far more important than any knock-on health effects. Water filters and even shower head filters that remove chlorine can be installed to overcome this problem.

 

Wishing you all the best in your search for health and balance,