
Candidda is a fungus normally found in the gastrointestinal tract, the vagina, and the mouth. It can proliferate abnormally under certain circumstances, like an imbalance in the intestinal flora, causing a condition known as candidiasis.
Causes that provoke candidiasis:
- Weakened immune system, which could be due to a poor diet, a long antibiotic cure, or vitamin or mineral deficiences like vitamin C, A, E, or calcium and iron.
- Medication abuse.
- Deficient hygiene
- Clothing habits.
- Poor dietary habits.
- Nerves, irritation, tension or anxiety, emotions that lower the body’s defenses.
- Emotional causes: like all conditions, candidiasis is related to emotional states or attitudes towards life.
Symptoms of candidiasis:
When this fungus multiplies abnormally, it passes through the intestines and enters the blood stream, where it frees its own toxins, causing candidemia. This phenomenon gives rise to symptoms like those mentioned below, and which vary depending on the area in which it presents. The symptoms are:
- Abdominal problems
- Intestinal disruptions, like diarrhea or constipation
- Poor digestion
- Gas and swelling, intestinal disruptions (constipation or diarrhea), dietary intolerance, irritability, insomnia, memory loss, headaches, and depression.
- Candidiasis could cause a lessening or a deficiency in absorbing nutritive substances through the intestines. This could cause a state of malnutrition.
- If found in skin folds, this generally causes a red rash with marked flakes that emit a small amount of whitish liquid.
- If the condition is in the vagina (vulvovaginitis, which generally attacks women during pregnancy, or in diabetics, or people who have been treated with antibiotics). The symptoms are white or brown vaginal secretions, itching, inflammation, and pain during urination, or experiencing burning or discomfort in the area while having sexual relations.
- This condition generally attacks diabetics (especially men) that are allergic to metabolites that release candida in vaginal liquid. This is a balanitis allergy. We should point out that candida is not transmitted sexually. This condition produces red and flaky rashes, and is in some cases painful, appearing at the end of the penis.
- When candida affects the oral mucosa, it causes what is known as oral thrush, which is damage characterized by a white membrane. It frequently appears more in babies before 6 months of age, due to their immature immunity. They form fissures or small cuts in the corners of the mouth.
- If it appears in the nails, it could cause painful inflammation or the formation of pus.
- Deep candidiasis is characterized when the illness manifests below the superficial layers of the skin (the cornea and the epidermis). In these cases, there could be serious, and even fatal, consequences.
Natural remedies for candidiasis:
- Diet: you should, above all, look after your diet in order to increase your defenses, and for the immune system to recover and strengthen itself. Include foods that contain vitamin C, like lemons, guava, oranges, broccoli, berries, etc., in your diet. If you eat fruit, try not to mix them with other foods, so as to take best advantage of them, and so that their sugar does not ferment other foods, preventing nutrient absorption. Avoid as much as possible refined and processed products, with added artificial colorings, additives, and preservatives. And above all, avoid refined sugars, which would be terrible at this time. Also avoid fried and packaged foods, animal fats, and include more fresh vegetable juices in your diet. Eat one clove of garlic in the morning on an empty stomach, every third day, with half a glass of warm water. Garlic is an excellent fungicide and germicide, and also helps cleanse the body and strengthen its immune system.
- Avoid consuming refined sugar and its byproducts (cakes, sodas, canned products, etc.). This could help enormously in reducing your candidiasis.
- Use comfortable cotton clothing, avoid synthetic fibers, and tight or fitted clothing.
- Avoid local anti-fungal treatments from pharmacies, like creams, suppositories, liquids, and pills. These only attack the symptom, but do not resolve the problem, or cure the condition. Also remember that a lot of medications foster and accentuate the proliferation of candida. That’s why the best thing is the natural remedy and antibiotic mentioned in the following point.
- Natural antibiotics: the advantage to these antibiotics is that they not only attack the symptom, but they also help strengthen in body’s healing system. This strengthens the immune system surprisingly well. Garlic and lemon are excellent natural remedies. Garlic is recognized for its powerful anti-fungal and antibacterial properties.
- Local washes with special herbs: like Pau d’Arco tea, a South American tree that has anti-fungal properties, like tea tree, chamomile, etc.
- For the mouth: tea tree oil can be diluted in water, and used to gargle and as a mouth wash.
- Vaginal candidiasis: along with everything that has been mentioned in this article, do not use pantyliners if you are not menstruating. The skin in the vagina area needs to breath and air out, which it can’t do if you use pantyliners daily (some of which have perfumes and synthetic materials that could irritate the vagina). Also, avoid using synthetic intimate apparel. It’s best to use cotton pieces, and to change them as soon as possible if they are dirty or wet.
- If you are going to use corrosive soaps or detergents to wash your suits or clothing, use gloves to protect your hands. These products frequently break the skin’s biological balance, as they have strong substances that have the ability to pull out fats, and therefore, also affect subcutaneous fat, a layer that holds unspecific immunity substances. If this layer is broken or becomes imbalanced, Candida has no limits that prevent it from spreading. Detergents cause maceration of the skin, and then the moisture softens the nail’s cuticle, leaving a virtual space between the nail and skin. It is there that Candida proliferate.
- Macrobiotic practice, which is not just a way of eating, but a life philosophy. You must keep in mind that in order to prevent fungi, infections, or any types of other conditions, this is not only related to the way we eat, but also to a group of habits that include diet, life habits, ways of thinking, and focusing life.
- Propolis: taking propolis is also another great help for fighting infections and strengthening the immune system.
- Cleanse the body: fungi have a lot to do with blood that is loaded with toxins and acids. If you want to have a deep cure, looks for a cleansing diet to restore the body and return it to its natural balance.
- Sea water: sea water is an excellent alternative for preventing all sorts of skin fungi. So if you go to the beach, do not hesitate to take a dip in its medicinal water.
A bit more about candidiasis…
Keep your emotions in mind. Just as with any condition, candidisis is deeply related to attitude and ways of feeling and seeing life. Irritation, bad moods, repressed or constantly reserved anger not only cause the body’s defenses to lower, but the body in general also becomes imbalanced, and is more prone to all sorts of conditions and infections. Candidiasis, for example, is related to strong feelings of frustration, demands, and mistrust, especially in relationships. It is also related to constantly feeling unfocused or confused. We recommend here some literature that helps in a new way, to focus on life problems and experiences, so as to be able to understand our feelings, and the people with which we relate.
The message that this illness can give us…
Is to learn to accept and love more, to be able to feel fuller, and to let other be, thereby avoiding feeling frustrated and irritated with them because they don’t fulfill our expectations. When you let others be, you set yourself free as well, because you will be able to trust more in yourself, and in those around you. You could also observe yourself, and if you ever notice that you criticize or demand too much of yourself, begin to develop more friendly and understanding behavior and dialogue with yourself.