The Solution to Candida Overgrowth I Didn’t Learn in Medical School

What I Learned About Candida In Medical School?

Most of what I and other medical students learn about Candida is that it’s a species of yeast — also known as a fungus — that naturally lives in and on your body. The most common form is Candida albicans.²

Candida, in the right amounts and in the proper places — such as your mouth, throat, gut, and vagina, as well as on your skin — is a necessary and natural part of your microbiome, the community of organisms that assist you with a variety of body functions.

Conventional medicine also acknowledges that Candida can grow out of control and affect the skin and mucous membranes.³

When there’s an infection in the mouth or throat, it’s called oral thrush or oral candidiasis. It can also overgrow in your vagina, where it can cause an itchy yeast infection. Both instances are usually treated with antifungal drugs. Candida can also overgrow on your skin, including around your nails, and cause a rash that’s usually treated with over-the-counter medications or prescription antifungals. Learn how I helped thousands of people beat Candida overgrowth with this free training.

In rare cases, it can move into your bloodstream and affect your internal organs.⁴

At that point, the fungal infection is called systemic candidiasis. This can develop into a very serious, life-threatening medical condition, particularly for people with compromised immune systems, such as AIDs patients.⁵

What I’ve Learned About Candida Since Medical School

What I know now is how Candida can impact your gut and immune system. I like to think of the gut as a rainforest that includes good bacteria, bad bacteria, viruses, and a tiny bit of yeast — all in a delicate balance. Good bacteria and yeast help to digest and absorb minerals and nutrients from your food.

When your rainforest gets out of balance, everything gets out of control. Candida can take over and essentially wipe out the good bacteria in your gut. 80% of your immune system is in your gut and the good bacteria there is at the heart of it. When your immune system is compromised, Candida can continue to overgrow unchecked.

When Candida overgrows in the body, it can cause a wide range of signs and symptoms, such as:

• Brain fog
• Fatigue, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia
• Gas and bloating
• Diarrhea or constipation
• Sugar cravings, weight gain, or difficulty losing weight
• Diabetes
• Skin issues (acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, tinea versicolor)
• Dry, itchy, or red skin
• Nail fungus, athlete’s foot, dandruff
• Recurring yeast infections
• Vaginal, rectal, or jock itching
• Itchy ears
• Mood swings, sleep issues, anxiety, or depression
• Sinus infections or seasonal allergies

Candida Overgrowth Leads to Leaky Gut

Candida overgrowth can also lead to leaky gut. Your gut wall has many tight junctions within it that normally allow water and nutrients to pass through and into your bloodstream. This is how we digest and absorb our food.

However, external factors, including toxic and inflammatory foods, infections, environmental toxins, and stress, can cause the tight junctions in your gut cell walls to break apart and let molecules through that were never meant to get into your bloodstream.

This can cause widespread problems, as your immune system flags these molecules as “foreign invaders” and attacks them. This may then lead to molecular mimicry, a phenomenon that occurs when a foreign substance (such as gluten or dairy) is so similar to your body’s own tissues that your immune system can no longer distinguish between them in a case of mistaken identity. This is believed to be one of the main triggers of autoimmune disease.⁶

Candida cells normally have a rounded shape but under certain circumstances, the yeast switches to a hyphal form.⁷

That means its shape elongates into a sticklike structure that can pierce holes in your gut wall, increasing the number of particles and pathogens that pass through.⁸

This is relatively easy for Candida to do because your gut wall is just one cell layer thick.

5 Root Causes of Candida

Here are five root causes of Candida overgrowth:

1. Birth and childhood:

All babies are exposed to good bacteria as they grow in their mother’s womb. Babies who are delivered vaginally gain additional good bacteria from their mother when they travel through the birth canal. However, babies born by C-section miss this very important step. However, beneficial bacteria from the mother’s body can be manually transferred to the baby just after birth in a process called seeding.

Additionally, breast milk is packed with nutrients, antibodies, and prebiotics to help a baby’s immune system and microbiome to develop optimally. Babies who are not breastfed miss out on these crucial building blocks. We also know that children who are fed dairy formula or milk (especially if they were C-section and were not breastfed) are at higher risk for developing ear infections.⁹

This often leads to antibiotics being given, which can wipe out the good bacteria in the gut, disrupting that delicate rainforest and leading to Candida overgrowth in childhood or later in life.

2. Diet:

Diets that are high in sugar, carbohydrates, and alcohol generally can lead to Candida overgrowth. High blood glucose levels feed Candida growth and trigger the switch from its rounded to its hyphal form.¹⁰¹¹

Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with intestinal bacterial imbalance, and studies show that people that are dependent on alcohol have more Candida overgrowth than other individuals.¹²

3. Medications:

You are probably aware that antibiotics can kill off your good gut bacteria, which of course disrupts your microbiome. However, you may not realize that the same can happen by simply taking NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or aspirin. Scientists have recently found that a single dose of NSAIDS can disrupt the delicate balance of bacteria in your gut.¹³

Steroids, which are often the first-line medications prescribed for those of us with autoimmunity, can actually weaken the immune system over time, making it easier for Candida to spread out of control.

4. Hormones:

Research suggests that Candida thrives in a high estrogen state such as during pregnancy or estrogen dominance, or when taking birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy. This is one of the main reasons that I recommended that patients ditch the pill and find an alternative birth control method that works for them. It’s also why I advocated using bioidentical hormones rather than conventional hormone replacement therapy.

5. Stress:

Because stress raises your blood sugar and weakens your immune system, chronic stress may also encourage Candida overgrowth.¹⁴ Under stress, cortisol provides your body with glucose. This energy helps us fight or flee. However, prolonged stress over time means elevated cortisol and more glucose leading to increased blood sugar levels — and Candida thrives in high sugar environments.

Studies have also shown that stress in and of itself can disrupt your microbiome’s delicate balance,¹⁵ suppressing good bacteria and allowing an environment for bad bacteria and yeast to overgrow. Lastly, under chronic stress, cortisol ultimately suppresses your immune system. And when your immune system is suppressed this can lead to Candida growing unchecked.

Solutions to Candida Overgrowth

As I explain in detail in my free training, I’ve developed a 3-step approach to overcoming Candida overgrowth. This approach is what I used with patients in my clinic. Since then, this has helped thousands of people from around the world beat Candida overgrowth for good. And they didn’t even have to spend thousands of dollars to travel to see me or wait for an appointment! This problem is so widespread, it was critical that I make the training available to everyone. It’s just three simple steps:

• Starve the yeast
• Kill the yeast
• Restore the good bacteria

Depriving the yeast of the foods it thrives on is the first step in addressing Candida overgrowth. Starve the yeast by adopting a meal plan based on these foods that nourish you and your body’s good bacteria.

Discourage the yeast overgrowth with my physician-formulated supplements. Caprylic acid breaks down the cell walls of Candida and Candifense® pokes holes in its cell walls. I successfully used this method in my clinic for more than ten years, with patients from all walks of life. I developed and refined this method during this time and I know it works because I’ve worked with thousands of people who have gone from wondering what’s wrong to living their best lives.

Restoring the delicate balance of your rainforest — the microbiome of organisms living in your gut — is essential to both your overall health and to the health of your immune system. Probiotics help support the growth of good bacteria so that Candida can be kept in check by your good bacteria and promote the health of your gut lining.

When I formulated my custom blend of probiotics, I chose 14 of the most important strains, and made absolutely sure that there were enough viable CFU’s in each capsule to support digestive health and immune function. Besides having been third-party tested to carry strains that support a healthy microbiome, they are dairy-free and do not need to be refrigerated.