The "Other" Candida

The term "candida" does not imply the same thing for everyone. Many medical practitioners (almost exclusively alternative medicine practitioners), believe that the candida fungus is responsible for a large number of ailments, such as fatigue, depression, headaches, pain and/or swelling in joints, constipation and/or diarrhea, loss of sexual desire or feeling, premenstrual tension, shaking or irritable when hungry, bad breath, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and more. A much larger list (76 possible symptoms) can be found at this and (some even longer lists) at many other sites.

The proponents of this approach consider several factors that weaken the body's ability to control the candida (with bacteria that reside in one's body) at a normal level - stress that weakens the immune system, environmental contaminants, use of antibiotics, high-carbohydrate diets, mercury amalgams (fillings in teeth), and more. Treatment is highly variable, depending on the speciality of the practitioner. Most of the web sites that discuss this problem also offer treatment for a fee.

The question we now ask, is that of plausibility - could all these symptoms be a result of a yeast called candida, running wild, and if so, is there any study that provides evidence to this effect?


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Last Modification - September 18, 2005