From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: yeast infection
Date: 29 Dec 1997 05:49:43 GMT

In <34a6fe2a.62548057@news.labyrinth.net> sarah@nospam.labyrinth.net
(Sarah L. Sullivan) writes:

>Candida is, in fact, normal vaginal flora.  A candidal vaginal
>infection is caused by a condition which allows overgrowth of the
>candida, such as using antibiotics which kill off the normal bacteria
>which maintain the balance... pH is also a factor.  A good way to
>restore normal vaginal pH without using commercial chemicals is to use
>a plain yogurt douche.  This is just about the only circumstance in
>which I would recommend a douche of any type.


    Candida may be "normal flora," but then so is Staph.  The fact that
candida is normal flora doesn't even mean that pathological problems
with it (symptomatic skin and vaginal infections) are always due to
some kind of suppression of other flora, such as with antibiotics.
Clearly, sometimes environmental problems are involved, such as
unusually hot or moist conditions.  Also, it should be remembered that
large innoculations of "benign" organisms can result in pathology, as
for example the normal man who finds himself with cutaneous genital
area candida after sex with a women who has candidiasis.  The innoculum
effect for candida itself was demonstrated most vividly with some years
ago, when a infectious diseases specialist decided as a demonstation to
drink a pure culture of candida to prove that any amount of the stuff
is harmless if you have a normal healthy immune system, and the
innoculum is oral. That doc developed esophageal and then systemic
candidiasis, spent the next few weeks in the hospital on amphotericin,
and came close to dying.  But it was the same organism he probably
could have isolated from his gut already.

   Some women have a LOT of candida in their guts, for some reason or
another.  That gives them a severe innoculum problem if they have any
perineal transfer AT ALL.   They get vaginal candidiasis all the time.
Is there something wrong with their vaginal pH, and they don't have as
much acid as other women?  Who knows?   Put them on oral Nystatin
suppression, however, and many of them do very well over the long term.
Try it in your practice.  You'll save many a woman many a yoghurt
douche.  Which sounds rather ghastly to me, but then I suppose tastes
differ.

                                           Steve Harris, M.D.

From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Curing Systemic Candida without GP help - questions
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 11:43:49 -0600
Message-ID: <adiuec$9dn$1@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net>

"N. Thornton" <bigcat@meeow.co.uk> wrote in message
news:a7076635.0206040827.16012f41@posting.google.com...
> So my questions are:
> >
> > 1.    Can I eat products containing yeasts or fungi, such as Marmite,
> > mushrooms, (wheat-free) yeasted bread, etc.?
>
> The biggest encouragement for candida is yeasty foods--


Comment: There's a nice answer based on ceremonial magic. Don't eat anything
vaguely like what you think is giving you the problem. For the candida will
take one look at their remote cousins who have done so well in the
bread-dough rising department, and draw moral suppport from them. "Oooh, we
were so lonely here without even a member of our own phylla going by. Now we
have stirring success stories!  And look how those mushrooms have done in
the manure-eating racket!  Role models for our kids.  Come on, boys, if
those guys can do it, so can we. We can coat this guy's tongue an inch
thick!

SBH

From: David Rind <drind@caregroup.harvard.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: is "candida albicans" A REAL MEDICAL CONDITION?
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 18:45:57 -0400
Message-ID: <c6pc7e$sev$1@reader2.panix.com>

barb28 wrote:
> Hello, I would like to ask if "candida alibicans"
> is a 'real' medical condition?
> I am attempting to get a traditional opinion from
> a traditional medical doctor. I know there are lots
> of alternative type people on the internet, but I
> would like to know what a regular doctor would say?
>
> His medical test, from a regular lab (not one of the
> alternative labs), says the
>
> candida ab IGG 1.59
> (results say anything over 1.00 is positive)
>
>
> candida ab IGA 2.04
> {results say anything over 1.00 is positive)
>
>
> candida ab IGM 1.14
> {results say anything over 1.00 is positive)
>
>
> I was just wondering if I could get someone elses
> opinion on this?
>
> He has not had any rashes or itching or breakouts
> (or whatever candida does), so it is probably an
> internal thing.
>
> The sheet that came from the lab, had a long
> paragraph that basically downplayed candida.
>
>
> Thank you for your time.

The short answer to your question (in the way I think you
mean it) is "no, it's not a real medical condition." That's
the answer to the question "do followers of scientific medicine
believe in 'The Yeast Connection', 'systemic yeast syndrome', and
related disorders?"

Candida albicans is a real organism -- it's the cause of vaginal
yeast infections and various other problems, and when it grows
in the blood it can rapidly be fatal (this pretty much only happens
in people who are already severely ill with some other problem).

But having antibodies to candida is normal and of no diagnostic
value, and there is no reason to believe that someone with antibodies
to candida has a problem with candida. So again, in the way I think
you mean it, it (systemic yeast syndrome) is not a "real" condidtion.

--
David Rind
drind@caregroup.harvard.edu