From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Subject: Re: King Philistine
Date: 22 Apr 1998
Newsgroups: misc.health.alternative

In <6hl901$qb7$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> JDTree@aol.com writes:

>I know of very few 'candida' advocates who maintain that the syndrome is
>a systemic, blood-borne infection. Even the so-called quacks who run up
>needless and expensive diagnostic tests to check for serum antibodies to
>fungal antigens recognize that this type of infection is rare among
>immunocompetent individuals.
>
>Most people familiar with the diverse and varied symptoms which are said
>to characterize the disease attribute them to allergenic metabolites of
>the fungus, which can be absorbed from the GI tract, and carried
>throughout the body, provoking reactions in the process. Sure, there are
>some folks who think yeast can freely migrate throughout the body,
>evading the immune system like Ted Bundy on the run. I don't believe,
>however, that they are representative of the "pro candida syndrome"
>school of thought. Based upon my experiences, I maintain that these few
>misinformed souls most certainly do not reflect the view of the majority
>of health professionals who attempt to treat this complex.

----------------------------------------------------

     Well, the guys who show up at the alternative fairs and expos,
with various live and dark-field video microcopes, claiming that the
large thingies in the blood stream they are seeing are yeast, don't
look like the poor hillbilly missed-the-idea word of mouth folks.
Those systems cost money.  And they're being financed by selling a lot
of tests to "patients."

   I did go and pull of my shelf my copy of Crook _The Yeast
Connection_, and it is true that he does NOT claim live yeast in the
blood.  Nor, from what he says, did Truss in the original 1983 papers.
Okay.  So we have orthodox and unorthodox schools of thought in the
area.  The orthodox one (Crook) certainly makes better sense.  That
book has sat on my shelf while I've been to quite a number of quack
expos.  I wonder what Crook's doing these days.

    It's possible that yeast fragements of some kind are getting
through the gut and causing symptoms.  I can only report that I don't
seem to see these in people who really have quite severe mucocutaneous
candidiasis from tropical and athletic infections or large patches of
skin, nor have I clearly seen it in women with pretty severe
vulvovaginitis, who must also have quite a bit of yeast in the gut,
since they don't clear except with the addition of chronic nystatin
(I've treated perhaps a dozen of these cases)

    I say "clearly" because the list of symptoms which Crook gives for
this syndrome reads like a textbook of general conversion symptoms,
anxiety reactions, depression, fibromyalgia, and borderline personality
disorder.  Once again, when I get the time, I'm going to line up
columns for mercury poisoning, yeast, fluoride, Aspartame, depression,
anxiety, and placebos for each.  Petty much identical.  When I see THAT
syndrome, it makes me shake my head and think that yet one more
"practioner" has got hold of this group of forever anxious and ill
personality problem people, and is trying to give them his/her favorite
system of drugs and diet.   It could be EDTA and filling removal as
well as Nystatin and low carbos.  Or it could be acupuncture and
Chinese herbs.  Or vitamins and manipulation.  Homeopathics and
clinical ecology.   Xanax and psychotherapy.  SSRIs and behavior mod.
I'll bet you a wooden nickle they all work for all these things.  Flip
a coin. Which means we're not talking about medicine, by which I mean
here narrowly chemisty.  Rather, this is basically psychiatry, with
shamanism.  That offends my chemistry education.  Also my sense of
integrity, since the very same people who complain that doctors are
chemical happy, are the folks who are putting EDTA and Nystatin and
Nizoral (!) [it's an old book] into these people.  Homeopathy might be
better.

                                    Steve Harris M.D.