Candidiasis Risk Factors
There are a number of known risk factors associated with Candida proliferation in the intestines in humans, for example;
- Lowered immune system for whatever reason
- Use of steroids
- The contraceptive pill
- Heavy metal toxicity, from petrol, plumbing, our polluted environment and mercury amalgam fillings in teeth.
- Antacids and anti ulcer medications
- High sugar diet
- Alcohol or drug misuse
- Diabetes
- Stress
- Poor hygiene
- Antibiotics
The most commonly associated risk factor of these is antibiotic use. However, anyone with one or more of the above could be at risk of invasion by Candida.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are substances derived from moulds, fungi and other organisms which are able to destroy or weaken harmful bacteria. The broad spectrum antibiotics are antibiotics which are effective against a wide range of different bacteria. It is these which are most commonly associated with Candidiasis.
Antibiotics have played a fundamentally important role in curing disease since their discovery in the 1920s. The effectiveness of these wonder drugs has, however, been diminishing in recent years resulting in the appearance of ‘super bugs’, like MRSA and C-Difficile, which are resistant to antibiotic use.
Many medical experts believe that this is a direct result of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics both in humans and in agriculture. The very bacteria targeted by the antibiotics have mutated to form ‘superbugs’ for which we have no effective medical defence. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls antibiotic resistance one of its “top concerns” and “one of the world’s most pressing health problems.” The CDC sates that, “more than 10 million courses of antibiotics are prescribed each year for viral conditions that do not benefit from antibiotics”. Antibiotics are no use at all against viruses and so they have no effect on coughs and colds and flu and related infections, and yet patients still expect them and get them prescribed.
Doctors in the NHS in the UK have been given new guidelines for prescribing antibiotics to encourage more appropriate antibiotic use. 18 November 2008 was in fact European Antibiotic Awareness day in an attempt to educate practitioners and patients in effective antibiotic use. Of course, as well as perhaps taking antibiotics for a particular infection, we are probably ingesting even more antibiotics than we aware of, through the food we eat. If we carry on as we are, it is likely that effective antibiotics will be a thing of the past: An extremely worrying thought.
Overuse of antibiotics, as well as giving rise to more and more resistant microorganisms may have a further more insidious side effect. It is common knowledge that using antibiotics, especially if they are used over a long period of time, or are used repeatedly, will destroy much of the so-called ‘good bacteria’ in the gut.
If you take antibiotics you usually get a yeast infection. Antibiotics do not kill yeast. On the contrary, by killing off the ‘good bacteria’ they clear the path for Candida to grow and flourish at an alarming rate. The normal balance of the gut is therefore changed and this results in the proliferation of Candida in the intestines, and from there to the rest of the body. Getting things back to normal is not an automatic process, but and takes intervention, considerable effort and knowledge.
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