GLUCOSAMINE: Friend or Foe to Candida? Here's the real deal.

I recently developed cracking and aching joints as a symptom after a round of Antibiotics (Rifaximin) allowed yeast to spiral out of control in my body. I thought about what helps joints, and grabbed a bottle of glucosamine from the back of my cabinet that had hardly ever been used and expired months ago and decided not to take it. Aside from being expired, I noticed it is made from shellfish.

My first concern was that if my intestinal integrity is indeed poor (leaky gut), I run the risk of giving myself a shellfish allergy. The notion could be totally bunk, but this is a common allergy and entering the blood may cause the immune system to mark it as an invader. Who knows? But candida sufferers have something far greater to worry about: what type of glucosamine are you using? It's the difference between helping yourself or helping the yeast! Check your labels carefully.

I noticed much conflicting information on the web about glucosamine's interaction with candida and I decided to find answers. I think anyone with candida will find this info VERY interesting. It seems that acetylglucosamine, found in shellfish-sourced supplements, actually feeds candida AND makes it transition to its dangerous hyphal form! On the other hand, glucosamine sulfate will help your joints while inhibiting candida. In fact, there is even evidence that it may prevent candida from adhering to cell walls.

"Glucosamine Hydrochloride and N-Acetyl Glucosamine are different than Glucosamine Sulfate."

"Using a collection of 20 strains of Candida Albicans, we found that all of them were either unable to ferment glucosamine or fermented it only slowly. Growth of all strains was noticably inhibited by 1.0% glucosamine. In contrast, acetylglucosamine was utilized fairly readily and supprted good growth."

"The Sugar N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) plays an important role in nutrient sensing and cellular regulation in a wide range of organisms from bacteria to humans. In the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, GlcNAc induces a morphological transition from budding to hyphal growth."

"GlcNAc stimulates developmental pathways in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans"

"The most potent competitive saccharide inhibitors of C. albicans adherence to human keratinocytes were the amino sugars D-(+)-glucosamine and D-(+)-galactosamine with one isolate of C. albicans (4918) and D-(+)-glucosamine and alpha-D-(+)-fucose with another C. albicans isolate (Sp-1)."

Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC279287/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805087/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8406852
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-807-glucosamine%20sulfate.aspx?activeingredientid=807&activeingredientname=glucosamine%20sulfate Tweet