Connection Between Candida And Arthritis

Greetings. Eric Bakker, naturopath from New Zealand, author of Candida Crusher and formulator of a product range called Canxida. Thanks for checking out my video. I’ve got another question here. This time, I’ve got a question from Nabil Sani from Bahrain. Nabil is asking on behalf of his mother. “Is there a link between Candida and arthritis?” Nabil, I’ll answer that question in a bit of a roundabout way and explain a little bit about arthritis in general.

There are about 100 different kinds of arthritis, so it’s not just one particular kind we’re dealing with. Candida has been associated with many different forms of arthritis through different mechanisms. The common types of arthritis that people have heard about are rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. But there is also gout, reactive arthritis, all sorts of types of arthritis.

Osteoarthritis we call the “wear and tear” arthritis, and that’s not generally associated with a yeast infection. It’s not autoimmune by nature, meaning it’s more like wear and tear in general. Although there are some relationships between Candida and osteoarthritis that don’t tend to be as strong as the autoimmune relationships that Candida has with rheumatoid arthritis. There are plenty of research now showing links between inflammatory arthritis and also autoimmune conditions in general and a yeast infection.

This happens by different mechanisms. But for example, Candida produces lots of different kinds of enzymes and there is one called phospholipase A, and this particular enzyme has been shown to have a relationship with causing inflammation in different parts of the body. These enzymes that Candida produce can upregulate and downregulate different parts of the immune system. They can activate and deactivate certain parts of immunity.

There is also research in Japan a few years ago now showing that there are cell wall fragments like mannan for example or beta glucans. If we look at beta glucans, it’s quite an interesting sort of a protein and this protein upsets the immune system. It doesn’t really like it. It’s a little bit like if you’ve got a loud party at your house, you turn the music up; it can really annoy the neighbors to the point where the neighbors just call the cops. They’ve had enough. And that’s what beta glucans can do. It can call the immune system, “Hey, get over here. I’ve had enough of this crap.” And then the immune system turns up and it starts attacking beta glucans and attacking tissues around it causing swelling, inflammation, and pain. And these are just little pieces of cell wall fragments from Candida.

I read an interesting article once that said that when Candida dies, it can actually; it’s like a champagne glass that drops. Have you ever dropped a wine glass at your house and had shards of glass all around the place and you can’t walk and people say, “Don’t move. We’ll get the vacuum cleaner.” Well, the vacuum cleaner is the immune system. It’s got to pick up all those shards of glass. And every tiny little shard can really piss off the immune system. It can like hurt it. So in turn, the immune system will release different kinds of chemicals.

And also, the immune system is very clever because it will actually shout out to other white blood cells all around and release chemicals we call cytokines or cell signaling chemicals. It’s a little bit like people getting up in the tree and beating the drum in the jungle to alert troops to come because there is a problem. And then of course white blood cells all come to the area and release chemical themselves, and these chemicals have got weird names like [trumenachrosis]sp? factor and interleukin and names like this. So these chemicals create pain, redness, itching, inflammation, all sorts of problems they can cause. And not only that, Candida is even smarter than that. They can actually release a chemical called gliotoxin and that chemical can actually neutralize part of the immune system creating even more of a problem.

Candida is definitely implicated with many different forms of arthritis and especially conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. In my professional opinion, I’ve found a lot of people with rheumatoid arthritis, in fact, have got a bad yeast infection. And I find the same with ankylosing spondylitis, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, any of these kind of autoimmune diseases.

I remember reading an old medical textbook from the 1930s and I think I might actually have it here in my library, a copy of it. Here it is. This textbook here, “Treatment and General Practice Articles from the British Medical Journal.” I’ve actually got a section here talking about rheumatoid arthritis. It says in this book, “In all cases, look for the hidden infection.” Have a look at the date on this book. What can you see there? 1936. One of the specialists in this book says, “In all cases of rheumatoid arthritis, look for the hidden focal infection.” There are not many doctors that look for infections today when it comes to rheumatoid arthritis. They just give drugs. These guys worked in an era where pharmacy wasn’t really big, and they had to try to troubleshoot things themselves and fix things up with patients. In fact, a lot of herbal medicines were used back in the 1930s to treat people.

I hope that answers your question in a roundabout way. “Is there a link between Candida and arthritis?” There definitely is a link and it could be multiple links. More so with rheumatoid than with osteoarthritis, so that’s worth bearing in mind. But osteoarthritis can also be involved in Candida, and particularly, if patients have been taking anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDS, non-steroidal drugs, for many years, which will wreck their digestive system. Again, making them more susceptible to a yeast infection. That’s that link there.

I hope that answers your question in a roundabout way. Don’t forget to check out my quiz at yeastinfection.org and check out CandidaCrusher.com. I think you might find quite an interesting book. And also, don’t forget to check out my website with my products, www.canxida.com. Thanks for tuning in.