Chitosan is a fiber made from the crushed chitin of shellfish shells. It is generally used as a weight loss supplement, to be eaten with meals, because it binds fat and carries it out of the body before it is absorbed. However, a large amount of evidence shows that it has a strong antifungal effect, piercing yeast cells and most importantly damaging and breaking up candida's BIOFILMS in addition to preventing new ones from forming.

I have been using Chitosan (Now Foods brand) for about a week on an empty stomach and it has been producing definite die off symptoms (large amounts of hot gas = my classic die off symptom when yeast in my gut is killed off). It is relatively cheap and generally agreed as safe so I don't see why it shouldn't be a part of anyone's anti-candida regime. Also, because of the mechanism through which it works (physically damaging the structure of the yeast cells and biofilms), it is impossible for the yeast to become resistant to it as it becomes to herbal or drug antifungals.

There is actually much more research out there than this but here is enough that should convince anyone. Do a Google or PubMed search for "Chitosan candida" or "Chitosan biofilm" and see for yourself.


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http://benthamscience.com/open/tomycj/articles/V005/SI0008TOMYCJ/29TOMYCJ.pdf

Page 6: "It was already known that Chitosan exhibits antimicrobial activity against fungi, bacteria and viruses. Now, it was determined that mature C. Albicans and C. Parapsilosis biofilms are susceptible to Chitosan in vitro."



http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/201/9/1436.full

"The findings of this study suggest that chitosan might offer a flexible, biocompatible platform for designing coatings to protect surfaces from infection. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that chitosan inhibits candidal biofilm formation in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrated that chitosan exhibits strong antifungal activity against Candida species biofilms in vitro. Our data suggest that chitosan could potentially be developed as an antimicrobial agent in the treatment of catheter-related fungal biofilm diseases."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23844364

"Besides the findings at low chitosan concentrations, this work provides an insight of the conditions required for chitosan to act as a fungistatic or antifungal and proposes a method for the permeabilization of yeast cells."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20482450

"The aim of this study was to investigate the in vitro antifungal activity of low molecular weight chitosan (LMWC), and the potential synergy between chitosan and a currently used antifungal drug, fluconazole. The in vitro minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of chitosan and fluconazole against 105 clinical Candida isolates were measured by the broth microdilution method. LMWC exhibited a significant antifungal activity, inhibiting over 89.9% of the clinical isolates examined (68.6% of which was completely inhibited). The species included several fluconazole-resistant strains and less susceptible species such as C. glabrata, which was inhibited at a concentration of 4.8 mg/l LMWC. Although some strains were susceptible at pH 7.0, a greater antifungal activity of LMWC was observed at pH 4.0. There was no evidence of a synergistic effect of the combination of LMWC and fluconazole at pH 7.0. This is the first report in which the antifungal activity of LMWC was investigated with clinical Candida strains. The use of LMWC as an antifungal compound opens new therapeutic perspectives, as the low toxicity of LMWC in humans supports its use in new applications in an environment of pH 4.0-4.5, such as a topical agent for vulvovaginal candidiasis."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20603144

"The anticandidal activity of four fungal chitosan types, produced from Mucor rouxii DSM-1191, against three Candida albicans strains was determined. The most bioactive chitosan type, to inhibit C. albicans growth, had the lowest molecular weight (32 kDa) and the highest deacetylation degree (94%). Water soluble types had stronger anticandidal activity than soluble types in 1% acetic acid solution. Scanning electron micrographs of treated C. albicans with fungal chitosan proved that chitosan principally interact with yeast cell wall, causing severe swelling and asymmetric rough shapes, and subsequent cell wall lyses with the prolonging of exposure time. Fungal chitosan could be recommended for C. albicans control as a powerful and safe alternative to synthetic and chemical fungicides."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24013184

"We found that LMWCH efficiently impaired biofilm formation of all Candida species, also promoting biofilm disaggregation. Most importantly, LMWCH was able to significantly inhibit biofilm formation by C. parapsilosis in an in vivo catheter mouse model. SEM images showed biofilm collapsed cells compatible with membrane damage, suggesting that this could be one of the possible mechanisms underlying biofilm impairment. LMWCH revealed to be a promising compound for treatment of candidiasis or its prevention through medical device coating."



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6094990

"Chitin and chitosan were found to exhibit a protective effect on mice administered these polysaccharides intraperitoneally against infection of the viable cells of Candida albicans NIH A-207 strain."



http://www.isah-soc.org/documents/2005/sections/95_vol_2.pdf

"The results of antibacterial and fungicidal activities of chitosan are presented in the Tab.2. All bacteria and fungi, which have been used in these studies, were susceptible to chitosan... Allan and Hadwiger (1974) have found that 1% solution of chitosan in 1% of acetic acid had completely inhibited growth of Candida tropicalis. That study corresponded to our results- chitosan was highly active against Candida albicans as well."