Greetings. It’s Eric Bakker from New Zealand. I’m a naturopath. I’m an author of a book called Candida Crusher and also the formulator of the range dietary supplements called Canxida. Thanks for tuning in. I’ve got a question here today from a lady in Colorado, USA. Taylor Humphrey from Colorado, USA. Taylor is wanting to know, “How do I know if I have a Candida overgrowth infection?”
Taylor, let’s explain that in some detail in this video today. I’m going to read a little bit of information from my book, Candida Crusher, and I’ll explain a little bit as I go along. This is a very common question I get and I think I’ve answered it in other videos and articles that you can find at yeastinfection.org. How do I know if I have a Candida yeast infection? Let’s have a look at that in some detail now.
Chapter 3 in my book is quite an extensive chapter and contains a huge compilation of all the common signs and symptoms of a Candida yeast infection and all the less common signs and symptoms. It’s often been stated by many experts in medicine that many people exhibit signs and symptoms of Candida yeast infections. But how do you know that you’ve got one? Would it be through sinusitis? Would it be through itchy skin? How do you know if you’ve got a Candida yeast infection?
There are many ways you can pick that. Sometimes an inexperienced doctor will overlook these vague symptoms and treat the patient for something other than a yeast infection. I know this all too well after helping many patients with Candida for almost 30 years now that have visited other practitioners who were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diarrhea, parasites, food allergies, leaky gut syndrome, gall stones, inflammatory bowel disease, and many other complaints.
Some of these patients were desperate to get help and had become disillusioned about treatment and wondered if they would ever get well. Some of these cases have proven to be very difficult to deal with and is it any wonder? If you were told that you have no diagnosable health problem, but you knew yourself for certain that you did. If you had been to several doctors with little success and, in addition, tried self-help, but improved only little as a result, than you’ve probably been disillusioned, too.
I can still remember how I felt when I had a serious Candida infection in the 1980s. No one to turn to. Not being taken seriously by any doctors, family, or friends, and mainly because there was no clear-cut diagnosis. That’s why this chapter is particularly important because it really outlines also the testing of Candida, which we’ll go into a little bit in a minute.
Spot the Candida patient. There is a box here on this page. When a patient comes into my practice with a very restricted or limited diet and multiple digestive complaints, complaining of many food allergies and sensitivities, there is a big chance that they will have a major problem with intestinal dysbiosis or SIBO, including various strains of bad bacteria, yeast, and possibly parasites. Some of these patients have visited many practitioners. Others will have spent many hours online with Dr. Google and can often tell you exactly what is wrong with them, but all you need to do is listen to them.
Why am I confident in assuming that they have digestive issues and Candida? Because of comprehensive stool testing, which we’ll explain a bit in a minute. And if you look in the right places, you can usually find what you’re looking for. These are the patients that may have a bag or two full of dietary supplements, including products like digestive enzymes, parasite cleanse, immune boosters, bowel products, bowel cleansers, detox product, you name it. Products like constipation and diarrhea aids, glutamine, aloe vera, you name it, probiotics, and they’ve taken everything these people.
Is this you looking at this video right now? Or maybe you’re a doctor looking at this right now. In today’s internet age, the patient will tell you that he or she has been doing some research online with the help of Dr. Google and can relate to having yeast infection issues. Let’s go over a few signs and symptoms in a minute.
A Candida overgrowth can generally cause so many symptoms, the most of common of which in my experience are fatigue, bloating, gas, food allergies, carbo cravings, vaginitis or thrush, anxiety, depression, impaired memory, poor concentration, brain fog, feelings of unreal, general weakness, tiredness, or malaise. Additionally, numerous other symptoms may less commonly be exhibited. Of these that I see frequently in the clinic include cystitis or urethritis, a urinary tract infection, menstrual irregularities, loss of sex drive, stiff, creaking and painful joints, muscle pain, indigestion. The common ones of course are diarrhea and constipation. Inhalant allergies, multiple chemical sensitivities, mucous or catarrh, extremely common, hay fever, sinusitis, persistent cough (very common), heart arrhythmias, discolored nails (very common, especially the large toenails), acne, and other skin eruptions. Nail and skin issues are a classic telltale sign of a yeast infection. Earaches, headaches, and dizziness.
How can so many symptoms be associated with a Candida yeast infection? Is this all a load of bologna? Is this all crap? Is this just a person who’s a hypochondriac and making it all up? Candida has been called the “great contributor” for many different reasons. One of the primary reasons is Candida affects the immune system on multiple levels. It’s a very clever organism. It can evade capture. It can cripple the immune system. It can cause upregulation. It can cause downregulation of immune function. And what it often does profoundly is affect the digestive system on multiple levels. By affecting the gut, we also affect what’s called the vagus nerve. A major nerve that connects our digestive system, but also our heart, lungs, and other organs, up to our limbic system or part of the brain. Now, it does that because it’s part of what we call the autonomic nervous system, in particularly, the parasympathetic.
Recent research in the US has shown, for example, that when some patients take an antibiotic called tetracycline, they can actually fry receptors in their gut, prohibiting the uptake of a hormone called GABA and that can create major anxiety for these patients. An antibiotic linked with anxiety. Yes, it’s true. If you think about that, receptors can also be affected negatively by a yeast infection, by the chemicals that the yeast produces, and also when yeast die, they can create all sorts of problems for the immune system and for the receptors. Not just in the gut, but in many parts of the body. These receptors will link up to nerves that link up to other parts of the body and, hence, the problem can be very widespread.
There are multiple mechanisms that are being investigated right now in countries like Israel, Japan, England, and America. Plenty of scientific research is being conducted not just into yeast, but also into viruses and parasites like borrelia that cause Lyme disease. And many of these kinds of problems are virtually ignored by mainstream doctors and they have been for a long time. But in the future, a lot of this information we’re talking about now will be mainstream. I just hope that day comes soon enough for a lot of my suffering patients.
Candida, the great contributor. Yeast infections may also contribute significantly to the underlying cause of a number of medical conditions as diverse as pre-menstrual tension, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, Urticaria, epilepsy, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, hypoglycemia, ileocecal valve dysfunction, etc. and even hyperactivity. And of course I’ve discussed part of the etiology or the cause of a lot of these conditions with Candida just before.
I think that’ll do for this video, but that’s really to explain to Taylor Humphries from Colorado. How do I know if I have a Candida overgrowth infection? As I mentioned, you will have been to multiple doctors. You will have read online. You’ll be confused. You’ll be on supplements. You may be going to xyz doctor in this part of town who could be treating you for this complaint and this doctor over here treating you for that kind of complaint.
Unfortunately, many people in my natural health profession still don’t treat Candida seriously enough. They will still treat the symptoms. Naturopathic doctors, in my mind, are almost, in many cases, similar to allopathic doctors. They’ve been taught by supplement companies to treat the symptoms because it’s profitable to treat symptoms. If a company makes 500 products and the products all target separate symptoms, that’s very profitable. And if you think about it, Candida can contribute to so many different conditions. If you could only locate Candida, find out that you’ve got it, treat it, eradicate it, clean up the gut, and then watch what happens to the body, I think you’ll be quite impressed.
Coming back to testing. One of the key things I find is comprehensive stool testing. In my mind, it’s one of the best tests to determine whether you have a Candida yeast infection or not. But not just a yeast infection, you can also pick up parasites, bad bacteria, and more importantly, what kind of level of beneficial bacteria you’ve got, which we call the policemen of the gut. So you need lots of police there to keep the bad guys in check. I’ve read so many stool tests the past year, hundreds of them, where patients are showing a severe lack of beneficial bacteria and only moderate amounts of Candida, if at all.
It’s important for you to do some assessment if you’ve got a seriously bad problem and you just can’t get a handle on it. Consider the comprehensive stool test. It’s certainly worth doing. If you go to my site EricBakker.com, you can actually assess that through the lab tests. You can click on the top and you’ll actually see the tab. Make sure that you do my quiz at yeastinfection.org. Please do the quiz to see if Candida does contribute to your health problems and to what degree of severity you may have a yeast infection.
You can read a lot more, of course, in my book. This is only just part of my book. The book is 700 pages. This is half of the book. And you can get the book through CandidaCrusher.com. Also, you can access some of the best dietary supplements in the world for yeast infection and SIBO through Canxida.com. You’ll find some supplements there that have taken a long time to develop.
Taylor, I hope that answers your question about how do I know if I have a Candida infection. Thanks for tuning in.