Candida
Candida is a genus of yeast, most commonly Candida albicans, that lives at low levels in the gut, mouth, and skin without causing problems. Overgrowth causes oral thrush (white coating on the tongue and mouth), vaginal yeast infections, and, in the gut, is grouped with SIBO as a cause of bloating, fermentation symptoms, and disrupted digestion.
Ray Peat on the "Candida mania"
[edit]About 40 years ago, there was a big mania in the US blaming everything on Candida. That led me to study how it actually interacts. If you are under stress, hypothyroid, inclined towards diabetes (not being able to oxidize glucose thoroughly), and tending to have high estrogen, it happens that all of those favor and attract Candida growth.
— Ray Peat
Ray Peat, "Ask the Herb Doctor: Skin Cancer Part 2", Ask the Herb Doctor (21 Dec 2018), 18:05
The presence of Candida coincides with hypothyroidism, high estrogen, and impaired glucose oxidation, rather than being caused by any one factor alone.
Contributing factors
[edit]Antibiotic use, which clears out competing bacteria, high blood sugar, and impaired immune function allow candida to overgrow. Chronic gut inflammation and slowed motility, the same factors behind SIBO, create similar conditions for fungal overgrowth.
"Sugar feeds candida": evidence
[edit]The common belief that eating sugar directly causes candida overgrowth is an oversimplification. A 1999 controlled human study gave 28 healthy volunteers ~110 g/day of refined carbohydrate supplementation and found only limited effect on C. albicans colonization in the gastrointestinal tract.[1] What more plausibly drives candida overgrowth is a combination of factors: antibiotic use (clearing competing bacteria), slowed gut motility, immune impairment, and endotoxin-driven inflammation rather than dietary sugar alone.
Vitamin D
[edit]In a randomized placebo-controlled trial of 416 critically ill children aged 1-5 on broad-spectrum antibiotics, a yogurt drink supplemented with 300 IU/day of vitamin D cut candiduria and candidemia roughly in half versus plain yogurt (26 vs. 62 cases) and shortened average PICU stay (11.8 vs. 15.2 days); mortality did not differ significantly between groups.[2] Zinc supplementation showed a comparable protective effect in the same PICU population in a separate trial.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Weig M, Werner E, Frosch M, Kasper H. "Limited effect of refined carbohydrate dietary supplementation on colonization of the gastrointestinal tract of healthy subjects by Candida albicans," Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Jun;69(6):1170-3. PMID 10357735.
- ↑ Xie J, et al. "Vitamin D-supplemented yogurt drink reduces Candida infections in a paediatric intensive care unit: a randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial," J Hum Nutr Diet. 2019. doi:10.1111/jhn.12634. PMID 30773722.