What Causes Candida Albicans Symptoms?

What Causes Candida Albicans Symptoms?

In my prior post there are long lists of symptoms that occur when Candida overgrowth is doing its dirty work.  Let’s look now at what causes overgrowth symptoms to arise and what diseases can result.

“Among the more important and recently recognized connections are those between the immune system, the endocrine system and the brain. And since Candida toxins affect each of these systems and one system affects the other, the yeast connection can cause all sorts of symptoms.”

…Dr. William G. Crook, M.D.

We will be analyzing seven different body systems, as well as the general areas of allergies, fatigue, and weight gain.

I bet you will find yourself somewhere!

First, your Gastrointestinal (GI) System

Your GI tract is the favored site of all for yeast. From your mouth to your rectum, it is full of nooks and crannies where yeast can hide. It has the ideal moisture and warmth which yeasts require, and as long as you keep sending down lots of sugar and carbohydrates for them to eat, they are fat, dumb and happy.

Rampaging fungi invade and damage your protective lining of your colon. Afterwards your linings themselves become clogged with growing colonies of yeast, blocking the absorption of essential nutrients. Candida organisms can actually “eat” enough of the ingested nutrients to produce a state of malnutrition or semi-starvation. Then allergens slip through the holes in your colon and spill into your bloodstream, along with partially-digested food, dead yeasts, and their poisons causing leaky gut out of your bloodstream. It becomes a screen door! Allergies, fatigue, depression, and headaches soon follow.

If food you eat is high in sugar and simple carbohydrates, yeasts eat the sugar and produces a lot of carbon dioxide (also known as gas). You suffer from uncomfortable gas and bloating.

Direct assault on your intestinal lining can result in abdominal pain, gastritis, gastric ulcers (Candida overgrowth has been found in the craters of gastric ulcers), cramping-often called “spastic colon” or “irritable bowel syndrome”-and diarrhea.

Because of increased pressure in your stomach from gas, your valve between your stomach and your esophagus can be forced open. “Reflux” from your corrosive stomach acids and digestive juices flow up your esophagus, burning and irritating your lining, causing heartburn, burping, and indigestion. These acids also can burn your cardiac valve, weakening it and allowing acids to burp up into your mouth when you are asleep, destroying tooth enamel.

Second, your Respiratory System

Yeast is in every breath of air you breathe, so it’s not surprising to find respiratory involvement with Candida overgrowth. Your mucous membranes from your nose to your lungs become irritated from constant exposure to yeast and its toxins. If your nose and sinuses are affected, sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, post-nasal drip, and sinus infections may appear. Direct invasion by yeast in your mouth can manifest as sore throat and mouth ulcers. Sometimes white patches appear on your throat and inside your mouth. Oral thrush coats your tongue with a creamy film. Your gums may be spongy, sore, and bleed easily.

Studies have proven that yeast organisms are present in almost all lung conditions. Bronchial candidiasis, is a form of chronic bronchitis, and in advanced cases yeast patches can be seen with the naked eye growing on the bronchial tree. Asthma and pneumonia have powerful links to Candida overgrowth.

Third, your Cardiovascular (CV) System

Candida overgrowth lives on and attempts to digest the lining of blood vessels, causing coronary artery dis-ease (CAD). The damage is patched up by the body in the form of scabs called atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis. Candida overgrowth can live on heart valves (causing mitral valve prolapse) and both in and on arteries. By interfering with the balance of hormones that regulate your cardiovascular system, especially stress hormones, Candida overgrowth can cause heart palpitations, pounding heart, rapid pulse, and changes in electrocardiograms (ECG).

When your circulatory system is slowed by yeast, all cells are poorly supplied with blood and the nutrients therein, including oxygen. Without oxygen the activity of the defender white blood cells (WBC) is severely restricted. Fungal overgrowth appears on and under fingernails and toenails, often accompanied with a thickening of the nail. Poor circulation also contributes to fluid retention excessive perspiration, and cold and clammy feet.

Biofeedback has clearly shown that anxiety, tension, and the stress of modern day living promote restricting blood flow.  When thoughts are reprogrammed from anxious to peaceful, skin temperature rises, indicating increased blood flow.

On the other hand, the more anxious we become, the slower the blood flows. And the more blood slows, the more yeast has a chance to grow.

Fourth, your Genitourinary (GU) System

How are our twenty-first century female bodies different from the bodies of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers? In a nutshell, our intestines are different. Grandma’s intestinal flora was balanced with lactobacillus but ours aren’t.  Their flora was strong enough to resist Candida overgrowth, and ours, having been weakened by drugs, wrong food, and stress, that can’t oppose the tide.

Yeast can attack the lining of your bladder directly, causing burning upon urination, frequent urination, lack of bladder control, and bedwetting. Males may develop penile rashes and chronic prostate problems, as well as sexual dysfunction problems such as impotence and premature ejaculation.

In women, yeast can attack the ovaries and fallopian tubes. If ovaries are covered with yeast they cannot function or make the hormones needed. Menstrual problems and PMS result. If the fallopian tubes are clogged with Candida overgrowth, conception is unsuccessful, resulting in infertility.

Candida overgrowth also makes your body very acidic, which makes conception even more difficult.

Fifth, your Musculoskeletal (MS) System

As Candida overgrowth damages cells, it is nearly impossible for nutrients to get into muscle tissue and for waste products to get out. This has a wide range of effects all over your body. Weakness, charley horses, deep muscle pain (especially in the neck and shoulders), soreness, stiffness, poor coordination, and tension headaches all fall in this category.

Arthritis has a definite connection to yeast. Arthritis appears in bodies that are too acidic. Candida overgrowth tilts your body from alkaline to acidic, and acidic is the medium that yeast like best. Antibodies the body manufactures to attack yeast, attack the joint tissue as well! Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an excellent example of this. In the back, muscular stress can actually pull vertebrae out of line and cause pinched nerves. Osteoporosis is due mainly to yeast living inside bone, eating the marrow and nutrients.

Sixth, your Skin

Yeast can directly invade your skin, usually breeding in warm, moist areas under the breasts and in the groin. Alkaline and anti-bacterial soaps are implicated in the growth of yeast on the skin since they kill beneficial flora, doing the same thing as antibiotics in the body-creating a favorable environment for yeast.

The skin of diabetics is especially vulnerable to fungi. Their sweat is high in sugars, which provide a rich medium on which to grow.

Many yeast patients exhibit skin lesions of some type. Acne is skin layers infiltrated by yeast. And what do dermatologists prescribe for most of their acne patients? Antibiotics, which make more yeast, that make more acne. Voila! Acne soon becomes a chronic dis-ease.

Seventh, your Central Nervous System (CNS)

Yeast affects your central nervous system through endocrine hormones and muscles. In the brain, the hypothalamus, which serves as a switchboard for your entire body, becomes stressed because hormones have been blocked or destroyed (eaten) by yeast. When the hypothalamus is stressed, or gets out of sync, “messages” get re-routed or lost, and the body’s metabolism is affected.

When Candida overgrowth is present, stress hormones act like irritants to nerves. Headaches, migraines, anxiety, sleep disturbances, low blood sugar, panic attacks, and herpes may manifest.

The brain itself is very sensitive to the yeast/beast, and a proliferation of yeast there is especially cruel. Autopsies often reveal Candida “caps” on the brain. When colonies set up housekeeping on top of and inside brain tissue and begin excreting their toxic waste, a countless number of symptoms follow. Short-term memory loss, confusion, short attention span, ADD, ADHD, depression, irritability, mood swings, lethargy, emotional and behavioral problems, hearing voices, hallucinations and convulsions are only a few.

When people lose control of their behavior, they first have lost control of their mental processes. Many madmen and their brutal killing sprees can be traced directly back to the dark side of yeast.

I don’t think anyone today would argue that this country has a huge problem with crime. Our prisons and jails are filled to the max! Too often we read and hear about people going on rampages and killing large numbers of people. My bet is that if you looked at the diets of all criminals who have committed aggressive and brutal acts, you will probably find yeast-stimulating food as the major portion of their diets.

The first area of general interest is Allergies.

Like the chicken and the egg, we’re not sure which came first, the yeast or the allergy, but what we do know is that people who have allergies are susceptible to Candida overgrowth, and people who have Candida overgrowth are susceptible to allergies.

In any case, anyone who exhibits an allergy to a substance is exhibiting an intolerance or unusual sensitivity to it. In allergic situations, high levels of yeast keep the immune system on high alert, causing the immune system to overreact to allergens. But candida overgrowth can also cause a depressed immune response. This shifting back and forth creates an imbalanced immune system, which then encourages more yeast to grow. With the spread of Candida overgrowth and their poisons, the immune system is further weakened and more allergies appear. As you follow a yeast-free diet and become consistent with an excellent probiotic these swings of hypo- and hyper-immunity flatten out, and allergies slowly disappear.

Allergies in some cases are very easy to identify. You react swiftly after exposure to the offending allergen (an anaphylactic reaction). You also react every time you are exposed, and the results are predictable: sneezing, headaches, runny nose, burning eyes, dizziness, and wheezing. Asthma and depression also can be allergy related.

In other cases, it’s not so easy. You may not react for hours after exposure or you may not react at all. Or you may react only once after repeated exposure. Hives, nasal itching, and contact dermatitis are examples of delayed reactions to allergens.

The good news is that the longer you stay on a yeast free diet and an excellent probiotic, the more of an offending substance is needed to elicit a response.

The lower the yeast levels in your body, the more your tolerance improves.

The second area of general interest is Fatigue.

It has been said that fatigue and depression are the hallmarks of yeast infection. With yeast living in both the body and the brain, it makes sense that both are tired and functioning at low levels.

With fatigue and depression, and the withdrawal from life activities, come feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, and hopelessness. A psychiatrist may be recommended with anti-depression and mood altering drugs to help you “snap out of it,” because this is “all in your head.” But these prescription drugs are chemicals. Chemicals are only band-aids, which don’t get to the root of the problem, they ARE the problem.

The problem is the “dis-ease behind dis-ease”, the yeast/beast.

The third area of general interest is Weight Gain.

This is a “biggie”, no pun intended. Overweight is one of the most universal complaints of people loaded with yeast. If you have a weight problem, think back carefully and you probably will be able to trace the beginning of the scale’s climb back to your first prescription for antibiotics or birth control pills.

Fatigue and a slowed metabolism obviously contribute to the burning of fewer calories. When all you want to do is sleep, your bodies systems need less fuel, and the pounds pile up due to decreased activity. Add to that the constant cravings for food, because damaged cells can’t take up nutrients, plus the unremitting sugar and carbohydrate cravings from the yeasts themselves who are screaming to be fed. To top it off, malfunctioning insulin hormones keep blood sugar levels high, which add more pounds.

Water retention, or edema, is another common complaint. If the kidneys are sprouting a nice stand of fungus, it is impossible for them to do their jobs of filtering blood, producing urine, getting rid of wastes, and balancing minerals and salts. “Water weight,” “puffiness”, and “swellings” are inevitable.

Candida overgrowth disrupts sugar, fat, and protein metabolism in your body. Most people tend to gain weight under these circumstances, but occasionally we see someone who is so severely debilitated from Candida overgrowth, that he or she has gone the other way and has developed eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Or has become emaciated from constant diarrhea or vomiting. As soon as the yeast is brought under control and normal metabolism is restored, especially to the thyroid and pancreas, normal weight soon follows.

I hope I have impressed upon you the magnitude and scope of destructive activity that Candida overgrowth can cause. It seems this little organism can go anywhere and do anything it pleases.

That is, until a yeast-free diet and an excellent probiotic comes on the scene.

It’s the law that I tell you that dietary supplements are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as foods, not as drugs.

Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Kim Seymour LVN

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Remington, Jane. Recaging the Beast. Aerie LLC, 2012.

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