donch@teklabs.UUCP (Don Chitwood) (08/06/84)
I've recently been diagnosed as having a candida albicans infection that has gotten out of hand. Candida is one of those "bugs" that live in everyone and are kept in check and balance by all the other resident "bugs" in our system, primarily in the gut. But, after intense and/or repeated courses of antibiotics, all of candida's competitors get knocked off and it begins to thrive. It is not an invasive infection, my doc says, but should be considered "opportunistic" and creates a toxic condition in the body due to its own metabolic processes. The symptoms of this toxic condition can be extremely varied. Because everyone has candida to some degree, testing for its presence doesn't prove anything unless perhaps it is lodged in an unusual place, such as in a gland or an organ. The most common technique for determining an out-of-control candida infection is a strict, sugar-free diet along with a fungal-specific medication called Nystatin. The idea is that starving and poisoning the candida will bring a relief of candida-induced symptoms. One sign of the success of this is a period of intensified symptoms during the so-called die-off period shortly after begining this regimine. As the candida is dying is great numbers, the toxic condition in the body intensitfies and the symptoms of the sufferer become pronounced. For me, I became very lethargic, felt ill like the flu, and had bad headaches. After about five days these symptoms rapidly diminished. I recommend a book called THE YEAST CONNECTION; the author's name eludes me. He calles candida the disease of the 80's and 90's because of the indiscriminate use of antibiotics without consideration of body ecology. It infects women more frequently by about 3 to 1. A further complication of the disease can be an allergic reaction to the yeast itself, as a separate symptomatology to the toxic condition. So the situation can be quite complicated and hence difficult to treat because of the variety of symptoms possible. If anyone else out in net-land has knowledge of or experience with this condition, I'd be very interested to hear about it. Don Chitwood tektronix!donch Imaging Research Labs Tektronix, Inc.