For those of you that keep up with me, you know that I am currently on a gut and yeast hyper drive to understand the impact of yeast on the human body but more specifically, the female body. I wanted to talk about yeast-related problems that affect more women rather than men. The reason I will not address all yeast related issues is because this blog post would turn into an actual novel! I want to focus on this specific area of women's health and see if this information can help you!
Practitioners are concerned of the candida epidemic as it is impacting millions of people globally. Of course, some candida is normal in the gut there are actually 6 that have been found in the gut however, 1 in 3 people are affected by yeast overgrowth. Now, let's talk about the mycrobiome. The mycobiome is described to have around 100 trillion microorganisms within the human body which is completely incredible. Many of these microorganisms have a variety of functions and they contribute to metallic functions, protection against pathogens, and support the immune system. When this mycrobiome goes out of wack, conditions start to rise such as candida overgrowth. More healthcare professionals are encountering a greater amount of imbalances such as small intenstinal bacterial overwoth (SIBO) or even Helibactorerpylori. Most of the time, when doctors find these they will prescribe antibiotics which yes, will kill off the infection for the time being but will not entirely heal the issue. This is because antibiotics don't only kill off the overgrowth or bad bacteria but it also kills off that good bacteria leaving us with another risk of creating an inhabited habitat for our mycrobiome (Boroch, 2018).
Now, that you (hopefully) have a better understanding of what yeast overgrowth is, here are a few of the yeast-related conditions that affect more women than men.
Headaches
"More than 45 million Americans have chronic, recurring headaches, and 62% are chronic migraine suffers." A child is known to have a 50% chance of suffering from headaches if one parent suffers and if both suffer, that chance becomes 75%. An interesting fact, is that we often crave what we are allergic to and if we are allergic to something that we are constantly eating, our body and our gut are always attacking itself. Our guts constantly attacking itself leads a natural imbalance in our bodies and in the mycrobiome. Dr. Ellen Grant found that in her study of 60 migraine patients, that an elimination diet was essential to dealing with these migraines, that many of these patients had hidden allergies that they were not entirely aware of. Most of the most common foods were wheat, oranges, eggs, tea and coffee, chocolate, corn, cane sugar, yeast, and beef. Dr. Joseph Egger also found that 93% of 88 patients experienced relief once introducing an elimination diet (Crook, 2005).
Depression
Dr. William Crook reviewed his own patients and work and found that depression, fatigue and headache were the most common symptoms reported to him. 85% of these patients were female and ranged from the ages of 30-45.A doctor at the Loyala Medical School, he said that he got the same reported symptoms and that 28 of the patients ranged from ages of 18-35, 20 women and 8 men. They all told him that there symptoms set on usually after they ate a meal. Even a study done at the University of Tennessee, studied a group of women that were suffering from PMS and had a history of vaginal candidiasis (yeast infection). He also found that depression was often founded with those that have PMS. Additionally, measurable levels of of alcohol and acetaldehyde in the blood have been found in some patients that have been recorded to have yeast overgrowth. Acetaldehyde reads with the brain-chemical dopamine, it helps our body produce feelings such as depression, poor concentration, and anxiety (Crook, 2005).
Infertility
Infertility does not mean that someone can never get pregnant. It actually refers to two individuals that have been unsuccessful in conceiving after a 1-year of trying. It's not that they believe overgrowth of yeast causes infertility but they do think it is a component in making getting pregnant a bit more difficult. Dr. Resseger, from Ohio, stated, "I've treated dozens of patients with an infertility problem who, following a comprehensive treatment program which included anti-candida therapy, became pregnant." Dr. Brodsky, an Internist, shared information in regards to his work with several women who were able to conceive once had put them on a sugar free diet and an yeast fighting medication. Furthermore, researchers have also started to believe there is a yeast connection with endometriosis and endometriosis causes up to 40% of it's suffers to experience infertiltiy (Crook, 2005).
Autoimmune Diseases
"Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system becomes confused and attacks the body, targeting its own cells, tissues and organs." There are an insane amount of autoimmune diseases out there and majority of the women in my family at least suffer from one whether that is lupus, diabetes, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and they even believe that I may have Crohn's disease. Autoimmune disease affect millions of Americans but 75% of them are women. They are not saying that the key to curing all autoimmune diseases is addressing candida but they do believe that their is in fact a link and I agree with this personally. Even in the Book, The Candida Cure, by Ann Boroch used to be a suffer from MS until she addressed her candida overgrowth and was able to heal herself (Crook, 2005).
These are only a few of the yeast-related diseases that we are suffering from in today's age. But what is happening is continuing to increase in numbers but the positive is that they are coming up with ways to deal with yeast-overgrowth. One is by addressing your sugar intake by going on an elimination diet. I have no yet done this because I am waiting to get out of the holidays but I did go through a period where I cut out added sugar, meat, dairy, and alcohol for about 2 months and I was at my healthiest weight I had ever been, I never experienced a headache, I was pooping regularly, and my blood pressure was finally normal. However, there are several factors that may contribute to this such as I had been suffering from a parasite for 6 months that they were finally able to kill off, which means that I had been pooping the most I ever had in my entire life, clearing my body of constipation which I had suffered for years because of endometriosis.
Another way to address this is with a range of medications that I would recommend talking to a naturopathic doctor or D.O. about!
This is the first series I want to do on yeast-related diseases because I believe it is such an interesting topic and I'm always finding new people that also suffer from this issue including myself. If you suffer from candida overgrowth or know someone who has, what did they do to address it? Did anything work at all?
Xoxo,
Moonli
Boroch, A. (2018) The Candida Cure. New York City, NY: HarperCollins.
Crook, E., Crook, W. M.D., & Dean, C. M.D. N.D. (2005) The Yeast Connection and Women's Health. New York City: NY: Squareone Publishers.
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