We treat a lot of Candida, and I can tell you from experience that it’s a complicated process and is rarely straightforward, even for experts like ourselves. So, it’s not surprising if you’re finding it difficult to treat a Candida overgrowth.
You may have read that everyone has Candida. And to some extent that is true. Candida is everywhere in our environment, and everyone has been exposed to it. But what they don’t tell you is that most people only have a very, very, small amount of Candida. They don’t have an overgrowth of it, and it’s not in danger of causing you any symptoms.
But and this is a big but, this small amount of Candida creates the opportunity for a much larger overgrowth. And the more risk factors you have for Candida to flourish, the greater chance that you’ll develop a Candida overgrowth and all of the fun symptoms that can come with that.
I did an entire video on the causes of a Candida overgrowth, but to give you a really quick synopsis, a few of the causes are sugar in the diet, antibiotics, acid blockers, diabetes, prednisone and other steroidal medications.
We can safely say that there are a few million people that are exposed to those risk factors. But those risk factors don’t cause a Candida problem overnight, at least not at first.
The normal Candida in your digestive system, which is part of your microbiome, is like all of the other organisms (mostly bacteria) in there. It’s competing for territory. And every time you do something that it likes, such as eat the sugar that feeds it, or take an antibiotic that kills its competition (kills the good bacteria), or take a medication that reduces your immune response (i.e., prednisone), then the Candida takes over a little more turf.
Every time these things happen, the Candida continues to expand, and this can go on for years and even decades. And over time your Candida becomes overgrown, to the point where it is no longer kept in check by the other organisms in your microbiome.
This is no different than the weeds or moss or ivy or dandelions, or whatever it is that is taking over your yard. It happens slowly, but over time it gets worse and worse. And the worse it is, the harder it is to treat and eradicate.
And then one day you take an antibiotic or you eat sweets or do something else that Candida loves, and you get oral thrush, or terrible gas, or diarrhea, or headaches, or any of the hundred other lovely symptoms you can get from a Candida overgrowth, and you wonder why it just suddenly happened.
But in reality, it had been developing for years. And only now did you finally start to get symptoms that were so noticeable and so bad that you could no longer ignore them or tolerate them.
And now the Candida is super well established. It’s not just an acute problem with a simple fix. It’s a chronic problem that will require serious long-term treatment and a conscious change in behavior for you to get it truly under control. Fortunately, that is possible, and you are fully capable of doing that.
In the comments section below I would love to hear from you about your experience and challenge with treating Candida. There are so many challenges, and I’m sure that you will find that you are not alone.
And if you need more help getting your digestive tract back on track, gives us a call at 206-791-2660. We work with people all over the world, and we can help you get the expertise you need to solve this problem.
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Dr. Wangen is the founder and medical director of the IBS Treatment Center, the award winning author of two books, and a nationally recognized speaker on digestive disorders. He has been on ABC, NBC, and Fox as well as public radio, and was named one of Seattle’s Top Doctors by Seattle Magazine.