Candida and Your Immune System

There is strong evidence that systemic fungal infections—those that affect the organs and tissues of the body—have increased dramatically in both frequency and severity in recent years due to the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic as well as the widespread availability and overuse of antibiotics. It is therefore imperative that we understand how to help the body protect itself from yeast infections like Candida albicans.

Do I Have a Vaginal Yeast Infection or Something Else?

The fungus candida causes yeast infections. Candida naturally lives in the vagina. Normally, bacteria in the vagina keep the yeast in balance. But if the yeast gets out of balance with the bacteria and grows too much, you could get an infection.

Candida is a member of the Saccharomycetes class in the kingdom of fungi. Yeasts live practically everywhere on the planet and can derive their nutrients from most organic sources. This means that anything that is alive or has been alive can support yeasts. Given the right conditions for growth and replication, yeast is capable of almost explosive growth.

Candida lives inside everyone, aiding nutrient absorption and digestion. It seldom takes over the entire body, but when it does the consequences are horrific. It can only achieve such a disproportionate state if the environment for its growth is excellent, and if the defense mechanisms of the body are severely compromised or absent.

Candida is an opportunistic fungus, not a pathogenic one. It can live in your body without causing problems until an opportunity arises that allows it to become active. This is more likely to occur when your immune system is compromised: when you are run down, stressed, poorly nourished, or when your internal control system—the healthy bacteria in the gut—is depleted or damaged, as occurs following use of antibiotics or steroids.

Whenever we are ill, we experience the unpleasant symptoms of the illness. However, symptoms are signs that the body is fighting the actual cause of the condition. For example, if you have an infection, your temperature usually goes up, which is a clear sign that your immune system is fighting the infection. It is important to learn to understand symptoms and not to fight them, but to deal with the underlying cause of the illness. Consider the multiple symptoms of digestive distress, ranging from heartburn to bloating, constipation, or diarrhea. There are medications that will relieve these symptoms, but such medications will not treat the underlying causes of the digestive issue and will often make matters worse in the long run.

There is one constant trend through sickness and health, and that is the body’s self-healing, self-regulating, homeostatic tendencies. Your many interacting bodily systems (including the immune system) constantly strive for homeostasis. Cuts heal; breaks mend; infections are self-limiting (usually without any outside help). Diarrhea and vomiting are how the body gets rid of toxic substances. Instead of masking these symptoms, we should learn to recognize and understand the body’s self-regulation message in order to learn what causes them. We also need to be aware of the many things we do that can aggravate and strain the defense systems of the body, hindering both healing and recovery.

Where infection is concerned, the ideal outcome is that the bacteria, virus, or yeast is contained and overwhelmed by the homoeostatic defenses of the body. Unfortunately, when your self-repair mechanisms must deal with too many of life’s demands at the same time, they may not always be able to succeed in toppling the infection. The following factors should be considered:

• Are you getting enough essential nutrients in your diet?
• Are you eating refined carbohydrates and sugars?
• Are you exercising adequately?
• Have you picked up a viral or yeast infection that never seems to go away completely?
• Are you sleeping well?
• Are you experiencing work or emotional stress?
• Do you have a slight hormonal imbalance?
• Do you have a history of antibiotic use?
• Do you take contraceptive pills?

Each of these stressors may be relatively minor and may be coped with or eliminated by eating more sensibly, ensuring a better exercise and sleep pattern, doing something positive about the emotional stress, or getting advice and treatment for the hormonal, viral, and yeast problems. But, if nothing is done and these various adaptive demands continue, the body’s defense and repair systems eventually become so overloaded that chronic symptoms are likely to appear.

Essentially there are just three solutions:

• Reduce adaptive demands—stop and reverse the factors causing the demands that are overloading the body’s ability to cope.
• Focus on methods that repair and support systems of the body, to allow them to efficiently handle the load they are coping with.
• If the right changes are made, the homoeostatic defense systems should be able to begin to work more efficiently again to detoxify, fight infection, rebuild, and repair—and symptoms should gradually ease.

Because the symptoms of so many other conditions resemble a yeast infection, it’s better to see an OB/GYN or other doctor for a diagnosis and treatment, especially if you’ve never had one of these infections before. Your doctor can do tests to confirm which condition you have. Then if you do have a yeast infection, they can prescribe an antifungal medication that’s stronger than ones you can buy over the counter.