Candida - A Crisis of Critters
Candida albicans, yeasts, fungi,
parasites, bacteria, etc.

by Phillip Day

Profiles

Candida albicans
Little critters are a fact of life with all organic life-forms. The human body is no exception. Our bowel, for instance, plays host to over three pounds' weight of up to 400 species of bacteria and other organisms that help break down food for nutrient absorption and create the necessary waste products to be eliminated from the body. These micro-organisms, in a properly healthy body, exist in harmony with one another inside the host human. It's when we change our internal environment through diet and lifestyle choices that serious problems start.

Candida albicans, a usually benign and beneficial yeast, is one of the main trouble-makers. When fed a constant diet of its favourite totty, glucose, and housed in its ideal environment of acidic, oxygen-repelling, fermentation-rich tissues and ductal structures, it multiplies prolifically and feeds and grows, damaging healthy cells and producing toxins that compromise the body's own immune defences.

Parasites
All people, especially those with cancer, play host to one form of parasite or another. Parasites are life-forms that are uninvited lodgers in our acidic bodies who do not pay rent. They can range from tiny amoebae detectable only with a microscope to tapeworms many feet in length.

We inadvertently pick up parasites through our day-to-day activities and especially through eating undercooked or contaminated food. Try an experiment and put some cat food out in an isolated part of your yard for a few sunny days and then go back and examine it (don't let any pets interfere and keep away from grass and earth). You will invariably find it crawling with infestation.

Blood flukes can enter our systems through infected drinking water and take up residence in the bladder, intestines, liver, lungs, rectum and spleen, laying their eggs and breeding in humans for up to 20 years. Trichina worm larvae found in undercooked pork migrate from the intestines through the blood and lymphatic system, eventually lodging in muscles and ducts. Threadworm larvae enter skin from the soil and pass through the bloodstream to the lungs, sometimes causing pneumonia.

Eliminating parasites is effectively a three-phase program. Killing them, flushing them out and then supplementing our relieved bodies with healthy nutrients to maintain optimum health.

Fungi and yeasts
Fungi and yeasts also inhabit our bodies. Canadian researcher Ron Gdanski describes them to us: "There are about 500,000 fungal species on Earth. Biologically, they are closely related to both the plant and animal kingdoms…. Fungi are not plants because they lack the vascular tissues (phloem and xylem) that form true roots, stems and leaves of higher plants. Fungi also lack chlorophyll for photosynthesis and must therefore live as parasites. Their function on Earth is to break down dead and dying matter for renewal. Fungi also attack living tissue and survive by producing toxins and enzymes to defeat the host's immune system."

Yeasts like Candida are single-cell fungi, which multiply prolifically when fed organically bound carbon, one essential element that characterises all dead and living matter. Fungi and yeasts are like the hyenas of the veld. They are scavengers. Abundant carbon compounds like sugars are their favourite. The more sugary foods we eat, the more these life-forms feast within us. Yeasts are well known to ferment sugar into alcohol in the absence of oxygen. Breweries depend on it! If we fail to exercise or eat oxygen-rich, organic fruits and vegetables, we are inviting the dangerous and unwelcome proliferation of critters - by providing an oxygen-poor, fermentation-rich breeding ground in which they can boom. We literally become our own brewery to the delight of our squiggly little lodgers deep inside. The Columbia Encyclopaedia states:

"Their bodies [fungi] consist of slender, cottony filaments called hyphae; a mass of hyphae is called a mycelium. The mycelium carries on all the processes necessary for the life of the organism, including in most species, that of sexual reproduction."

The connection between parasites and cancer
Cancer is a healing process that has not terminated upon completion of its task. Candida and other trouble-makers have a powerful ability to hurt our bodies, their thread-like mycelia penetrating and invading the walls of human cells to take root and feed. This damage initiates a healing process of these infected cells which can proceed uncontrolled into a cancer tumour. This cancer is fuelled further by the sugary diet of the patient which, in an acidic, anaerobic environment, produces alcohol waste products through fermentation, which in turn fuels the cancer further.

As fungi and yeasts, and their progeny - tumours - thrive, they secrete enzymes of their own to depress the immune system of the cells around them and rob them of their oxygen, thus maintaining their ideal fermentation environment, enabling them to invade and corrupt more cells.

Here we have the dynamic connection between parasites/yeasts/ fungi and cancer. In our section on cancer in this book, you will learn how cancer occurs commonly in areas of the body hosting tubes, ducts and storage areas where blood sugars can become trapped and bereft of oxygen, for this is where the critters can feed most gluttonously. Blood clots, stagnant lymph fluids, injuries that won't heal and benign tumours are also prime spots where blood sugars collect and provide fodder for opportunistic critters. These then thrive and damage cells, which trigger the healing process, which replicates these mutated cells into tumours, etc.

Killing overgrowths of candida and other critters is not the only task necessary for a full and complete remission from diseases like cancer, heart complaints, multiple sclerosis and AIDS, as this book demonstrates. A reorganisation of your body into a well nourished, oxygen-rich, active and toxin-free environment is essential to ensure that you cut off the food supply to these insidious and selfish beasties, and boost immune function and cleansing to restore your body to its rightful health.

Candidiasis
Trouble caused by Candida is known as 'candidiasis' or 'the yeast syndrome'. The problems parasites, fungi and yeasts cause in the body are only now being understood and appreciated. Before, most doctors would not suspect this type of problem unless presented with the obvious symptoms of thrush, jock itch, anthlete's foot or toenail fungal infections. But, like a leviathan, fungal problems have risen from obscurity within our consciousness to become a major health hazard today. What's caused it? Excess antibiotic intake and those sugary, yeasty, alcoholic lifestyles.

Symptoms of parasitic infection
Poor immune function, lack of sex drive, toe-nail fungus, chronic bloating and gas, rectal itching, mouth sores (white patches on the tongue or inside the cheeks), tingling, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), numbness or burning sensations, chronic fatigue (ME), allergies, food sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, thrush, chronic vaginal yeast infections and discharges (usually thick, white), rashes and itching around male genitalia, bladder infections, intestinal cramps, cravings for sugar-rich foods and sweets, cravings for foods rich in yeast and carbohydrates.

Those suffering from candidiasis may have a history of use of antibiotics, prednisone or other cortisone-type drugs. They are bothered by tobacco smoke and perfumes. They can feel spacy or 'not quite there', variously suffering menstrual irregularities, endometriosis, spots in front of eyes, diarrhoea, constipation, chaotic bowel movements, muscle aches and prostatitis.

Associated complaints
Irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, psoriasis, depression, irritability, pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, chronic fatigue syndrome (ME), leaky gut syndrome, esophageal reflux, lupus, gout, Crohn's disease, hyperactivity, infertility, herpes, chlamydia, Alzheimer's, scleroderma, Raynaud's disease, kidney stones, Cushing's disease.

Causes
Parasites, yeast, fungi and bacteria invariably proliferate in moist, warm zones, especially when beneficial gut flora, which usually control the uglies, are killed by prolonged exposure to any of the following:

· Antibiotics and other drugs
· Malnutrition
· Constant cooked food devoid of enzymes
· Constant acid ash food consumption
· Cigarette smoking
· Fluoridated water consumption
· Antacids
· Excess sugar and high glycaemic carbohydrate intake

Take action
Clinics can do a stool analysis in which Candida and other problems will be readily apparent if they are the cause of your problems. Measures adopted against Candida, fungi, yeasts and other parasites are designed to starve the parasites into submission. The Anti-Candida Dietary Regimen forms the basis of this and should be adhered to strictly. Components below are designed to kill parasites and flush them from the system. The bowel cleanse will take a whole truck-load out in one go, but beneficial flora such as Latobacillus acidophilus/bifidum need to be reinstated afterwards to keep the balance.

·DIET: COMMENCE THE ANTI-CANDIDA DIETARY REGIMEN
·DIET: AVOID ALL SUGAR AND YEAST
·DIET: Avoid all products that readily break down into glucose or have a yeast component: e.g. bread, pasta, pastries, sweets, pies, alcohol, beers and some fruits and vegetables (see diet above)
·DIET: Drink at least four pints of clean, still mineral water a day (not out of plastic bottles and please avoid distilled water!)
·PREVENTION: Don't smoke and avoid second-hand smoke
·PREVENTION:Avoid behavioural and dietary problems that have caused the condition
·DETOXIFICATION: Conduct a two-week bowel cleanse with magnesium oxide
·DETOXIFICATION: Cancer patients should also consider colon hydrotherapy for extra internal cleanliness
·ANTI-PARASITE: Take fresh sticks of cinnamon (not the processed supermarket dust), and grind them down in a coffee grinder. Take a teaspoon of this ground cinnamon powder, mixed in a glass of warm water, two/three times a day.
·ANTI-PARASITE: Take wormwood (artemesia) capsules, one four times a day
·ANTI-PARASITE: Enteric-coated capsules of the following oils are all effective antifungals: oregano, thyme, peppermint and rosemary, garlic
·ANTI-PARASITE: Brew Essiac tea the classic way (see A Guide to Nutritional Supplements) and drink 2oz of it 4 times a day
·ANTI-PARASITE: Take a parasite purge formula (this should contain items such as black walnut, clove, ginger root, anise seed, pau d'arco, peppermint and fennel)
·ANTI-PARASITE: Take an enzyme supplement away from food. This should contain, but not be limited to bromelain, papain, thymus, trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase, amylase, etc.)
·ANTI-PARASITE: Take 3-5 grams of water soluble fibre such as psyllium husks or guar gum to help flush out the bowel as the killing proceeds apace. The anti-candida dietary regimen, coming up in a minute, will also provide you with haystacks full of bowel-scraping fibre to help broom your innards clean
·ANTI-PARASITE: L-arginine (as directed) to assist in the removal of ammonia waste products
·RESTORING NUTRIENT BALANCE: Take a priobiotic supplement to install beneficial flora
·RESTORING NUTRIENT BALANCE: Take a comprehensive liquid mineral, vitamin and amino acid supplement (Maximol is ideal)
·RESTORING NUTRIENT BALANCE: 5 g Vitamin C complex (ascorbates plus bioflavonoids). This amounts to one heaped teaspoon of C-complex powder per day. Take half of it in a bland juice, such as pear, every morning and the rest at night
·RESTORING NUTRIENT BALANCE: Take 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed (linseed) meal or oil daily
·BOOSTING IMMUNITY: Take an antioxidant supplement (Revenol is ideal)
·BOOSTING IMMUNITY: Astragalus (herb), two capsules, three times a day
·BOOSTING IMMUNITY: Indulge in regular and vigorous exercise (unless health problems prevent this) to exercise and pump the lymphatic system, rid the body of waste products and draw oxygen into the body
·BOOSTING IMMUNITY: Get plenty of exercise and rest
·TIP: Be consistent!
·TIP: Do not fall prey to sugar cravings. Who really wants to splurge and feed inside you?

Herxheimer's Reaction
During the critter-killing process, the body may become clogged with catabolic debris, dead beasties and their resultant toxaemia, including ammonia. You may feel ill as your symptoms apparently worsen. This is known as the Herxheimer Reaction, after the venerable German dermatologist of the same name. It is temporary and will be experienced in proportion to the vehemence with which you apply your attack strategies. Symptoms may be alleviated by commencing the anti-Candida diet a full two weeks prior to starting on the anti-fungal/yeast supplements.

Maintenance - The open road ahead
Once clear of the problem(s), avoid the minefields to prevent re-infestation. Remember: what you eat determines the condition of your body's immune system, and poor immunity is written on the gravestone of many a promising lad and lass. Solving the fungal/parasite problem in the body can lead to tremendous health benefits, not to mention advances in finding the answers to many of the vexing diseases which still afflict us.

Excerpted from The ABC's of Disease,
the coming new release from Phillip Day
and Credence Publications