Gut Microbiome – Candida Imbalance
Gut Flora – Bacteria, archaea, and fungi that live inside the intestines AKA gut microbiome.
The Gut Microbiome – as defined by molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg, is the totality of microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi, and their collective genetic material present in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The gut microbiota is comprised of all the bacteria, commensal, and pathogenic, residing in the GIT. (Source)
Dysbiosis – negative alterations in your body’s microbial communities, which are associated with health problems and diseases. There are two main types of dysbiosis: bacterial and fungal. (Source)
Candida albicans – a microscopic form of yeast that exists within the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract), which helps with food breakdown and aobsorption. However, this form of yeast can multiply pathogenically when conditions turn favorable due to lack of good (beneficial) bacteria in the GI tract. Under these conditions, the candida albicans grow out of balance and cause infections, which we know medically as Candidiasis or yeast infections.
Intestinal Flora – it’s function
British science journalist Ed Yong, author of weighty microbiome tome I Contain Multitudes (2016), explains that “recent estimates put the total number of human cells at anywhere between 15 trillion and 724 trillion, and the number of gut microbes at anywhere between 30 trillion and 400 trillion.” (Source)
The microbes within the intestinal flora must have the proper terrain for healthy beneficial bacteria to thrive and maintain balance. When in balance, the intestinal flora serves as a guard fighting off pathogenic invaders and keeping in check opportunistic microorganisms present in the GI tract that seek to multiply in favorable conditions. In healthy guts, the terrain is unsuitable for opportunistic bacteria to find the source it needs to multiply, whereas in unhealthy guts the mineral and bacterial imbalance of the terrain allows for opportunistic microbes to multiply.
Candida Overgrowth
“the microbe is nothing; the milieu [terrain] is everything.” – Louis Pasteur (Source)
“Candida will always remain in the minority as long as the intestinal flora is healthy. The situation is, of course, entirely different when the intestinal flora has been weakened or partially destroyed. As it can no longer fulfill its role as a brake or protective barrier in these conditions, some pathogenic germs will multiply and trigger an infection.”
“Candida albicans, for example, is a normal resident of the intestine. Customarily, its population is extremely small and it plays an insignificant role. It would have probably have remained completely unknown to the general public if the destruction of the intestinal flora by antibiotic therapy had not permitted its disproportionate multiplication in a large number of people. When virulent, candida colonizes the digestive tract, where it creates various disorders (gas, bloating, colitis, etc.), but it can also invade the rest of the body. A large number of fungal infections, as well as certain nerve disorders, can be traced back to this invader.” -“Natural Antibiotics and Antivirals” by Dr. Christopher Vasey N.D. “
Sources to help rid Candida Overgrowth:
