Good day, there. Eric Bakker, naturopath, author of Candida Crusher with another question.
Are my bad headaches caused from a yeast infection, Eric? I get lots of headaches. I get bloating.
Here’s a question I do get asked not that often, but I do. And this is how I’m going to explain it to you.
I think a key thing which people tend to overlook with Candida is what I call the metabolic byproducts of Candida. We know that Candida albicans is yeast, but what a lot of people don’t know is what yeast can basically do; yeast can die down and cell wall fragments can create problems. Yeast can also create immunosuppressant toxins themselves, and yeast can also create another chemical called acetaldehyde, which is very common. Acetaldehyde also occurs when you drink alcohol. Acetaldehyde production also occurs when yeast are in the digestive system.
In Japan, high yeast in the gut is a disease now called Drunk Disease and some people can actually feel spaced out or stoned with high acetaldehyde levels. Acetaldehyde infiltrates the brain and you certainly know all about that when you drink having that stoned heavy feeling the day after. Now imagine when you drink alcohol and you’ve got a yeast infection, you’ve got a double-barrel dose. And this is why a lot of guys who drink beer or wine or women who drink lots of wine with bad yeast infections can feel particularly phaged out and really stoned and washed out with consumption of alcohol.
The toxins I was talking about are called Gliotoxins. A study was conducted in Germany in 2010, and has actually been published in a circulatory journal. You can actually read about that in my book, Candida Crusher. Gliotoxin can cripple the immune system. So Gliotoxins produced in the presence of various types of fungi like Aspergillus, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis; I think there are 19 species of Candida and several produce Gliotoxin. Gliotoxin is quite an insidious toxin that can have very bad effects on the immune system. It can out regulate some pathways. There’s a particular chemical produced called Interleukin 6 and that can be produced, and in higher amounts, in the presence of Gliotoxin. And this can create pain and inflammation.
The other thing with the Gliotoxin is it can affect the circulation and even the clotting of the blood. So some experts even believe that Candida can predispose you toward things like strokes. It’s amazing, isn’t it? The mannose, basically glycoproteins or small fragments of cell wall that get into the bloodstream as yeast dies, and these can also infiltrate into the brain like Gliotoxin and acetaldehyde and create pain and pressure and inflammation. So many people talk to me about feeling washed out, stoned, brain fog, even drunk, and now you know. These are some of the reasons why you could feel like that from a Candida infection.
So yes, Candida can cause headaches and even serious headaches. So I hope that answers your question. You can read a lot more about this in my book, Candida Crusher. Thank you.