Everyone has yeast (candida) organisms in their bodies! Candida is everywhere - in the air, water, soil, foods and in our bodies. Don't worry this type of yeast is not aggressive and doesn't typically cause health problems if your immune system is functioning properly. We peacefully coexist with candida as long as our immune systems are OK and there aren't conditions that promote overgrowth of this usually innocuous organism. If, on the other hand, the peaceful balance is disrupted problems may ensue. Some of the more common situations that may foster excessive growth of candida include repeated use of antibiotics or immune suppressing drugs (such as prednisone), excessive sugar consumption or diabetes, and chronic stress. Stress is like being on prednisone - the difference is that your adrenal glands are making it without any doctor's prescription or help from the local pharmacy. 

Yeast overgrowth ("YO") has been blamed for a variety of symptoms and chronic health problems. Several books have been written on the subject but the medical community mostly thinks this is a bogus diagnosis. Medical school teaches us that there can be candida overgrowth on the mucus membranes (oral, intestinal or vaginal for instance) and we have both prescription and OTC medicines to treat this. We also learn that there can be systemic candida (throughout the body including the bloodstream) but in this case the patient is critically ill - typically in the ICU and not long for this world. The concept of people walking around with systemic YO is something most physicians reject. Doctors reject this diagnosis because it's frequently made by answering questions about seemingly unrelated, often subjective symptoms such as rashes, bloating, joint aches, fatigue, swollen glands, fevers, mood swings, etc. Many different things could cause these symptoms - leading to "false positive" scores on these questionnaires. The results of these questionnaires therefore aren't meaningful to most doctors. Physicians are even more skeptical of a YO diagnosis based on muscle testing, dark field microscopy or other unconventional means of testing not validated within medical circles. However, if there were an objective, reproducible test that could detect the presence of candida or of an overly vigorous immune response to candida then physicians would be more likely to believe in YO. 

There is in fact such a test! If you measure candida antibodies (IgA, IgG and IgM) in the blood through one of the local laboratories and the readings are much higher than normal you may have YO. If the antibodies aren't elevated you probably don't have YO - which means you wouldn't need to go on an extreme diet, or spend huge amounts on supplements or medicines to treat a condition you don't have. I didn't believe in YO until I started ordering the candida antibody blood tests in an attempt to prove patients wrong. Much to my surprise many patients who thought they had YO had elevated candida antibodies. Even more convincing has been the observation that treating these patients with diet, supplements, lifestyle modification and medicines often improves their chronic health problems and the antibody levels come down on follow up blood tests. There are appropriately skeptical physicians who question the value of checking candida antibodies since everyone produces them. "If everyone has these antibodies they aren't meaningful" - so the argument goes. This is true but its a matter of degree. Normal levels of candida antibodies suggest you have the upper hand or are at least in an acceptable balance with the ubiquitous yeast. Excessive levels of candida antibodies suggest that the balance is tipped in favor of the yeast and doing something to correct the imbalance may be worthwhile. 

We would all do well to reduce our stress levels, reduce sugar consumption and use antibiotics and immune suppressants sparingly. If you have YO it sometimes takes more than supplements, dietary changes, stress reduction and other natural methods of healing to help you regain the upper hand. If you have chronic health problems that you suspect are caused by YO and neither "natural" methods nor medical interventions have proved helpful consider having the candida antibody blood test. It could make a difference in the quality of your life.