Yeast :: Food and Nutrition

Yeast
by author Carolyn Dean, MD, ND

A recent conversation with Edith, an old friend, reminded me that even an ordinarily vivacious and energetic health professional can occasionally have trouble with weight and depression.

Edith told me she had been in an “English muffin and sugar-induced comatose state” for the past several years. She had tried many popular weight-loss diets, but nothing seemed to help. She didn’t realize how far she had slipped until her doctor gave her a prescription for Prozac. Having a prescription in her hand finally shocked Edith into wanting to change her lifestyle, but she didn’t know where to start.

Because I’ve helped many people with weight and depression issues as medical advisor to yeastconnection.com, I asked Edith seven basic questions that relate directly to yeast overgrowth and found this interesting pattern:

She had taken several courses of antibiotics over the previous three years for a succession of dental abscesses.
She had a particularly strong reaction to damp moldy places.
She craved sugar and bread.
She felt drained to the point of exhaustion.
She had symptoms of intestinal gas, bloating, and cramping (IBS).
She was troubled by constant vaginal infections.
She was bothered by itchy, burning eyes.

I suggested we consider the possibility of a yeast overgrowth, which could be driving her sugar cravings, making her depressed, and causing her inability to lose weight.

Antibiotics, I reminded her, are used in the beef industry for the specific purpose of putting weight on cattle, and are little recognized to do the same to humans.

Also unrecognized is that antibiotics kill off good and bad bacteria in the intestinal tract leaving room for yeast to flourish. As they grow into new territory, yeast mutate from a bud to a thread-like mycelium that irritates the lining of the intestines, causing a newly discovered condition of micropunctures in the intestine called leaky gut.

Yeast produce up to 180 different toxins that don’t just stay in the gut, but can be absorbed through a leaky gut into the blood stream, setting off widespread inflammatory and allergy reactions. Many of the toxins impair the immune system and the central nervous system. Others block thyroid function, impair female hormones, cause symptoms of PMS, and aggravate menopause.

I suggested to Edith that she consider the protocol for fighting yeast and sideline her English muffins and sugar.

Yeast-Fighting Program

Avoid sugar, wheat, dairy, fermented foods, and alcohol.
Take probiotics (good bacteria), such as acidophilus and bifidus. Obtain products that guarantee two to 10 billion organisms per capsule.
Take antifungal supplements such as garlic (1 or 2 cloves a day), oil of oregano (2 to 3 capsules per day), and grapefruit seed extract (2 to 3 capsules per day) or take a formula that also includes caprylic acid, pau d’arco, black walnut, beta-carotene, and biotin.
Exercise to move the lymph circulation, which clears toxins from the body.
Reduce stress to reduce the amount of natural cortisol that creates yeast overgrowth.

Source: yeastconnection.com

Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, is a wellness consultant and author of ten books including The Yeast Connection and Womenâ€™s Health, (Professional Book, 2005) and IBS for Dummies (Wiley, 2005). carolyndean.com

Source: alive #286, August 2006

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