Chronic Candida is a condition that doctors have a very hard time diagnosing, for a variety of reasons. Therefore, identifying chronic Candida may take a bit of sleuthing on your part. The best place to start is with an examination of the most common signs and symptoms of this relatively common health concern.
What is chronic Candida? For starters, it helps to understand what, exactly, chronic Candida is. This is a systemic (whole-body) condition that occurs when a fungus called Candida albicans grows to a proportion that is not healthy for the body’s ecosystem. Candida albicans, itself, is not necessarily dangerous. As a matter of fact, it exists naturally in the intestinal tract, and usually in harmony with the rest of the body’s community of over 400 microorganisms. However, there are circumstances in which Candida albicans may grow out of control, at which point it becomes toxic and begins causing a multitude of troubling symptoms.
What causes chronic Candida? In addition to understanding what Candida is, knowing what causes its overgrowth can be very helpful in determining whether or not the symptoms you are experiencing are related to this or something else. That is because there are a number of very common culprits that are relatively easy to link to Candida overgrowth, as long as you know to look for them. Candida albicans is naturally balanced out in your body by “healthy” or “good” bacteria. Therefore, anything that lowers the good bacteria in your body can make you vulnerable to Candida overgrowth. As you can probably suspect, antibiotics are notorious for this. However, even things like antibacterial soap, chlorinated pool water, and regular douching can destroy the bacteria that fight off Candida overgrowth.
Signs and symptoms. It’s difficult to pin down any strict set of signs to look for because, as previously mentioned, Candida overgrowth is a systemic condition that can present as symptoms in any part of your body. One of the most tale-tell signs is chronic yeast infections that just won’t seem to respond to treatment the way they should. This includes vaginal yeast infections, jock itch, nail fungus, athlete’s foot, oral thrush, and diaper rash yeast infection. Because Candida overgrowth begins in the intestinal tract, it is also common to experience a wide range of digestive issues when Candida begins outgrowing your body’s healthy balance. Additionally, any type of mysterious health condition that you can’t find a cause for–from chronic fatigue to dandruff–may be indicative of Candida overgrowth. The trick is to assess every aspect of your lifestyle to determine if Candida albicans is the likely cause.
Chronic Candida can completely disrupt your life. Fortunately, you can dramatically increase your chances of identifying and curing this condition, and as soon as possible, by arming yourself with as much information as possible. Visit the Ning Candida Crusher Community to learn more and to meet others suffering from this condition.