1 Candida albicans and common health problems

      Since the mid-1980s, it has become clear that an increasing number of common health problems, both physical and mental, might have a common cause – namely, the spread in the body of a yeast that lives in each and every one of us. Its name is Candida albicans, or Candida for short.

      Since the first edition of this book (published in 1985), the major emphasis in my practice has involved people with Candida overgrowth as a part – often the major part – of their health problems, which commonly include symptoms of chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), allergies and fibromyalgia.

      The scale of such problems worldwide has become increasingly apparent as a result of the stream of letters which continually arrives from readers of this book. Many contain phrases such as ‘your book has changed my life’, and often come with heartbreaking stories of desperate health situations which have been positively transformed (although not overnight) by the application of the methods and principles outlined in this book. While receiving such letters is truly humbling, the real credit should go to the pioneers of research into the subject of Candida, such as Dr C. Orian Truss of Alabama, USA, who first noticed what no one else seemed able to see, although it was staring them in the face. Because Candida yeast is present in everyone from the first few months of life, it tends to be overlooked by doctors seeking the causes of complex conditions which commonly involve multiple symptoms, including fatigue, allergies, IBS, ‘brain fog’ and muscle pain. Since this yeast is present in all of us to some extent, it seems that many doctors think that Candida could not possibly be causing the wide range of symptoms that are now linked to yeast overgrowth in so many people. This way of thinking has prevented sympathetic medical attention being given to Candida, except in rare conditions in which it proliferates to the extent of becoming life-threatening – something which happens in people whose defence mechanisms (immune system) has become weakened or deficient because of lifestyle, disease and/or drugs. Chronic Candida overgrowth can result in so many different symptoms that it has been renamed by many practitioners as Candida-related complex (CRC).¹

      A great many people suffer from a collection of symptoms due to the spread of Candida in their body. Usually, the conditions which are experienced are not severe enough to endanger life, but are certainly sufficient to produce a range of debilitating symptoms.

      One of the most interesting summaries of the chronic ill health linked with Candida (particularly fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome) was presented at a conference on the subject in 1990 by Carol Jessop, MD, a leading physician from San Francisco.² She had studied the histories of over a thousand patients and discovered some alarming trends which can help us enormously to understand the way some health problems develop.

      Among the most common symptoms reported by her patients were: chronic fatigue (100 per cent), cold extremities (100 per cent), impaired memory (100 per cent), frequent urination (95 per cent), depression (94 per cent), sleep disorder (94 per cent) and muscle aches (68 per cent). When patients were examined, among the most common findings reported by Dr Jessop was the presence of yeast infections (87 per cent). Of the 880 patients specifically tested for this, 82 per cent had yeast in their stool samples, and a further 30 per cent had parasites in these samples.

      Among the most revealing of all were the findings when Dr Jessop investigated the symptoms experienced before their conditions became chronic: irritable bowel symptoms (89 per cent); recurrent childhood ear, nose and throat infections (89 per cent); ‘constant gas’ or bloating (80 per cent); endometriosis (65 per cent); constipation (58 per cent); heartburn