Have you experienced any of these symptoms? Are they the only symptoms? Chances are, you might have or know someone who might have experienced these symptoms. By now, you would have already thought about “candida” or what is commonly called a yeast infection.
What is Candida?
Candida is a genus of yeasts (20 species) and is the most common cause of fungal infections worldwide. The most common is Candida albicans, and also the most prevalent cause of fungal infections in people.
Candida is a fungus and a very small amount of it resides in your mouth, bowel, skin, other mucous membranes and gut. It helps in the digestion of food and absorption, which is good but overproduction of it leads to different health concerns. Under normal circumstances, candida should be living in our gut in a normal healthy balance with other yeasts and bacteria.
What are the signs that you have to look out for and some common conditions?
Candida for most people happens after a round or two of antibiotics. You’ll be surprised that if you smoke you are likely to have candida overgrowth.
Some of the conditions that candida is associated with are – vaginitis, chronic fatigue, food allergies and allergies in general.
Candida overgrowth can also induce the typical symptoms of IBS.
Candida, however, is not as common as most people think it is, The patients with the highest candida growth are likely to be immune-compromised.
Though if you have an overgrowth you can get a host of digestive and systemic symptoms. Examples are excessive gas, abdominal bloating, sugar and complex carb cravings, fatigue, depression, muscle or joint pain, prostatitis, vaginitis, rashes with a fungal look about them.
It is very common for sexually active women to get an overgrowth. If you have vaginal candida and it recurs over and over. What should you do in this case? Get yourself and your partner tested and treated as well. Otherwise, you are just passing backwards and forwards between each other.
If you get an overgrowth, it will throw the entire gut into imbalance. Once this happens, you are more predisposed to infection, nutrient depletion especially iron, B12 and those fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and other essential fatty acids.
What can you do and where do you start with the treatment?
In the past, you would have been put on a strict anti-candida diet for months to years, which can be terrible and tortuous.
Now it’s way better to feed your good gut bacteria so we can get your gut bacteria back to balance. There are lots of dietary strategies around this. Eliminating simple carbs and fermented foods to start can be most helpful.
It is definitely worth getting your partner treated if you always have vaginal thrush to prevent that chronic reinfection.
Try avoiding consumption of excessive amounts of processed carbohydrates Iike pasta, and alcohol. Make sure that you are digesting your food properly and also make sure your bowel is moving.
There is a stack of other lifestyle factors you can do as well that will help with Candida.
Know that it can be bought back into balance and you can get back on with your life.
Are you suffering from gut issues?
Book for a free 15-minute consultation and I will give you an action plan on what to do next so you can take the next steps knowing you are going in the right direction.
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