Candida explained

By Len Duggan 22 / Apr / 2018

Candida explained -

Candida is a pleomorphic organism ⁽¹⁾, in that it takes on different forms. Candida lives in our gut as a single-celled yeast organism ⁽²⁾ and does us no harm (commensal) but when it is allowed to escape from our gut into the rest of our body it turns into a major problem because it morphs into a fungus ⁽³⁾. It forms associations with other candida cells to make a candida community (hypha) ⁽⁴⁾. The hypha is like a city of individual candida cells that work together using a combination of chitin and proteins to make a tube that surrounds and protects the cells from your immune system ⁽⁵⁾. Chitin has no use in our bodies and is normally used by insects for making their exoskeleton ⁽⁶⁾. The hyphal tip of the fungus can produce enough pressure whilst growing to pierce through cell walls ⁽⁷⁾ creating uncompromising damage to your body as it grows in a similar way that tree roots are able to grow through concrete ⁽⁸⁾. Our bodies have no way of dissolving the chitin and protein exoskeleton of the hypha fungal candida because we only have proteolytic enzymes ⁽⁹⁾ in our digestive tract where they are used to break down our food ⁽¹⁰⁾.

Candida control seems to be a balancing act between acid and alkaline. You must keep your digestive system acidic ⁽¹¹⁾ and your body alkaline ⁽¹²⁾. This is how your body is supposed to work. Your blood is only slightly above alkaline and must maintain a narrow margin between pH 7.35-7.45 ⁽¹³⁾. Your lymph system ⁽¹⁴⁾ needs to be free flowing because it removes the carbonic acid ⁽¹⁵⁾ and lactic acid ⁽¹⁶⁾ that is produced by metabolic processes within the cells. Your heart pumps your 5 or 6 litres of blood ⁽¹⁷⁾ at a rate of more than 575 litres per hour ⁽¹⁸⁾ so it circulates over 2,000 times per day allowing it to be reconditioned by your kidneys and liver quickly and efficiently. Your lymph, however, consists of twice the fluid volume (6-10 litres) ⁽¹⁹⁾ but flows at a very slow rate of only 0.125 litres per hour ⁽²⁰⁾ during periods of rest and only increases to a maximum of 1 litre per hour during periods of vigorous exercise. Therefore, your lymph may only circulate once every day. This slow rate of circulation of the lymph can easily result in blockages from mucus forming foods ⁽²¹⁾ especially if the same foods are acid forming. If the acid foods you consume are not balanced with alkaline forming foods, the pH balance of your lymph system may become overpowered, causing a large enough change in acidity thereby allowing candida to transition from a single-celled yeast to a hyphal fungus. After which the hyphal fungal form of candida will then use the lymph system to spread throughout the body.

To overcome the attack from the protected hyphal fungal form of candida a proteolytic enzyme is needed to break down the chitin-protein shell. A good enzyme to choose for this job is serrapeptase ⁽²²⁾ because it is easily available ⁽²³⁾ and also has many other beneficial effects ⁽²⁴⁾. However, it should be mentioned, some have reported that it can raise blood pressure and therefore this should be monitored, particularly if a blood pressure problem already exists.

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