Diet is not near as important that maintaining the flora, which maintains a slightly acidic terrain that controls the Candida. Keep in mind that everyone has Candida, it is a natural part of the body. But not everyone has Candida overgrowth. All the areas of the body that Candida normally reside in also contain beneficial bacteria (flora) that produce acids that turn off the Candida growth gene and keep the Candida in a more benign yeast form. When the flora are killed, such as with antibiotics the Candida growth gene is turned on and the Candida goes fungal forming tissue damaging hyphae.
The biggest mistake people make is that they try to kill of the Candida with antifungals. But this just leads to rebound growth, especially with cellulase and hemicellulase enzymes.
A restrictive Candida diet does not work either because it does not address the cause of the Candida overgrowth, which is the lack of flora leading to an alkaline terrain that the Candida thrives in. Think about it. People can eat all sorts of junk food and not have Candida overgrowth. Why? Because the flora are keeping the Candida controlled. With candidiasis something disrupted the balance between the acid forming flora and the alkaline loving Candida.
Restoring the flora will do more to getting the Candida under control than any antifungal or Candida diet. Probiotics are a good start, but you want a variety of strains, not just acidophilus. You also want large quantities of flora. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is with homemade kefirs and other cultured foods. Just remember to allow them to ferment long enough to destroy all the sugars in them before ingesting them.
You will need to feed the flora as well so they will reproduce and generate their beneficial acids. The flora feed on fibers such as brans and gums. I prefer rice bran and oat bran because they are soft fibers and very nutritious. They are not harsh to the intestines like wheat bran and psyllium, and do not cause bloating like psyllium. Gums, such as konjac gum and guar gum, are also excellent foods to feed the flora.
While I agree about the importance of probiotics/flora, I have to say that saying diet is not that important is odd.
I did not say that it was not important. I said it is not near as important as terrain. There is a big difference between the two statements.
It is like with cancer. The vast majority of cancers are caused from viruses. And the reason that cancer comes back in most cases with conventional treatment is that they do not address the virus that caused the cancer in the first place. Diet can slow cancer as well but again if it does not address the cause diet is not going to stop the cancer.
An anti-Candida diet may slow the growth of the Candida, but until you address the cause, which is an alkaline terrain from a lack of flora and food to feed them the Candida is still going to be out of control. Address the cause, not the symptoms.
I am not totally convinced about the theory of recovering the gut microbiota to eliminate candida. It is true the friendly flora keeps candida in its yeast form but when candida mutates to its germ tube form, recovering the flora isn't going to revert candida back to its normal state.
Candida is dimorphic. What form it takes on all depends on the pH of the terrain.
When candida mutate to mycelial, it penetrates the cells ( the intestinal lining) and is a pathogenic infection you need to eliminate with proper medication.
It is the hyphae that form that allow Candida to dig in to the tissues when it goes fungal. Germ tubes are the precursors to the hyphae. But again it is pH that controls whether or not Candida will remain in a yeast form or will go fungal and develop hyphae. The hyphae are finger-like projections that allow the Candida to dig in to harder substances like organs. Mold also develop hyphae, which is why it can dig so deep in to hard things such as wallboard or cheeses.
Despite this Candida rarely goes systemic as the rest of the immune system will generally deal with Candida making it in to the bloodstream.
I know of CDSAs showing proper levels of friendly flora, and those people still have an intestinal candidiasis. My own case is an example. I have benefical Lactobacillus 3+, E. Coli 3+, and Bifidobacterium 2+, and I still have intestinal candidiasis.
What people need to realize is that there are literally thousands of different strains of beneficial flora in the intestines all playing role in controlling pathogens and helping to maintain our immune system. We cannot look at one or two beneficial bacteria and determine the health of the intestinal flora. That would be like looking at a healthy heart and saying the entire rest of the body must therefore be healthy since the heart is healthy.
I think the immune system plays a big role keeping candida controled.
Exactly, and 80% of the body's immune system consists of the intestinal flora.
I have been in antibiotic forums asking people who have taken them for months if they have candida symptoms. Many of them feel well. So, this demostrates me you need to have some level of immunesuppression at the time you take the antibiotics to allow candida to take hold.
The immune suppression comes from the killing of the flora. This shifts the pH to the alkaline side allowing Candida to take hold, reduces bacteriocide and peroxide formation that help with controlling pathogens, etc.
But there are other things that need to be kept in mind. For example not all antibiotics will affect the flora. Some antibiotics can target an area for example some antibiotics that target the urinary tract. These antibiotics do not affect the flora. Some people will also be taking probiotics and/or prebiotics while taking antibiotics that can help control Candida overgrowth. And not everyone reacts the same to medications for a variety of reasons. If everyone reacted the same we would not have to say these are possible side effects. Instead we could say these are the side effects you will experience. And finally a lot of people don't have a clue what real Candida symptoms are. So people frequently mistake symptoms of something else for something to do with Candida. There was just a great example posted where someone is posting classic reactive hypoglycemia symptoms but they are being told this is a die off reaction. Conversely people can have Candida symptoms that they may not attribute to Candida. So to ask people how they feel after taking antibiotics really does not tell us much.
I think a healthy immune system is able to control candida until the friendly flora recover.
And again 80% of the immune system is the intestinal flora. Macrophages on the lung surface have nothing to do with Candida in the gut. Interferons in the blood have nothing to do with Candida in the gut. Peroxides formed by cells other than in the gut have nothing to do with Candida in the gut. The gut is pretty much its own immune system. If pathogens go beyond the gut though then the rest of the immune system can kick in.
Selective IGA deficience
IgA is only one of the antibodies generated in the gut. There is also IgM and IgG.
and damage to the intestinal lining can play an important role to allow candida to overgrowth in the intestines.
This is a chicken and egg thing. Did the Candida overgrow from the damage or drugs given for the damage or did the Candida cause the damage from going hyphal?
Once candida is fungal, intracellular, you must eradicate it.
We have other immune cells for that such as granulocytes and monocytes.
The friendly bacterias don't revert this condition.
But again we have other immune cells for this.
No everybody who takes antibiotics develop candida
Actually it would be Candidiasis since everyone has Candida as a natural part of the body. But I explained some reason why everyone taking antibiotics does not develop Candidiasis earlier in this post.
and people with a healthy immune system take antibiotics and their immune system keep candida controled during the time the flora needs to recover.
Not really since again the flora make up the majority of the body's immune system. And most of the remaining immune system has nothing to with the gut flora as I also pointed out earlier.
I agree the flora is a must when the infection be eradicated.
Again, I have good levels of Lactobacillius
Lactobacillus what? Do you realize how many different species of Lactobacillus there are? That was the point I was trying to make. They cannot culture and identify levels of every beneficial species of Lactobacillus. So you may have adequate levels of Lactobacillus acidophilus, but what about L. casei? L. reuteri? L. bulgaricus? L. plantarum? L. rhamnosus?..........................
These beneficial bacteria do more to control Candida than just generate acids.