Yeast Infection How Do You Get It

Yeast Infection How Do You Get It

If you're bothered by vaginitis, vulvodynia, PMS or endometriosis, you've developed these problems because your immune system isn't as strong as it should be.

Other disorders that may bother you, including weight gain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, sexual dysfunction, sinusitis and asthma, also develop because your immune system has been weakened and a Candida albicans overgrowth may have occurred, resulting in what experts call dysbiosis. This is a state of imbalance in the microorganisms of the digestive tract that results in disease. Dr. Cass explains to her patients that dysbiosis means "The bad bugs in the gut have outnumbered the good bugs. The goal is to restore balance, i.e., get rid of the bad and increase numbers of good guys."

Yeast Infection How Do You Get It

 
Chemicals, molds and nutritionally deficient diets are other factors that play an important part in causing your problems. The most important of these factors are antibiotics. This includes not only antibiotics you've taken during your adult life, but also antibiotics given to you when you were a young child or a teenager.

Many different factors play a part in making you sick. I'm convinced that repeated courses of broad-spectrum antibiotics are the main "villains" These antibiotics cause yeast overgrowth in your intestinal tract and vaginal yeast infections. These infections set off disturbances that can make you feel "sick all over."

These antibiotics, often given unnecessarily, wipe out friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract, vagina and respiratory membranes. As a result, the usually benign yeast Candida albicans multiplies.
 
Candida yeasts aren't killed by antibiotics ... so they multiply and raise large families, each of which in turn raises its own large family. Candida overgrowth causes:

• A weakening of your immune system;
• Disturbances of the membrane lining of your intestinal tract, creating what is called a "leaky gut"

As a result, food allergens and toxins are absorbed into your circulatory system and reach every part of your body.
 
When your immune system is weak, you may develop repeated minor respiratory problems, including coughs, colds and sore throats. Although these minor problems are caused by viruses, you may be given an antibiotic that you and your physician hope will help you get rid of your symptoms sooner.
 
Most physicians today discourage the overuse of antibiotics, although they are necessary - even essential - in treating streptococcal sore throat, pneumococcal pneumonia and other serious and potentially life-threatening bacterial infections.
 
Regardless of the reason, when you take antibiotics a vicious cycle may develop. Repeated courses of antibiotics set up a cascade that leads to many other problems. Still, other factors play a role in making you sick or causing you to develop other types of problems, including:

• Sugar and other simple carbohydrates:

A diet rich in sugar and other simple carbohydrates literally feeds yeast and promotes overgrowth. In the late 1800s, the average American ate four pounds of sugar a year. A century later, our consumption of sugar was 160 pounds per person per year. And for the year 2000, projected intake of sugar was 200 pounds per person per year. This is a 50-fold increase in the amount of refined carbohydrates within 130 years. We're in serious trouble! Other "culprits" behind yeast overgrowth include:

• Hormonal changes associated with normal the menstrual cycle
• Birth control pills
• Pregnancy 
• Steroids by pill, injection or inhalation 
• Genital irritations and abrasions 
• Reinfection from your sexual partner 
• Diabetes 

Many of your yeast-related symptoms, including PMS, sexual dysfunction, headaches and depression develop because your immune system, your endocrine system and your brain are intimately connected, and although we sometimes forget it, every part of your body is connected to every other part.
 
On many occasions during the past 20 years, my friend and mentor Sidney M. Baker, M.D., a functional nutrition specialist in Weston, Connecticut, has said:
 
"Labeling diseases isn't the way we should go. When a person is tired and suffers from other chronic complaints, it's important for the physician to ask these two questions:

• Is there something that this person needs that she is lacking?
• Is there something that she is getting too much of that contributes to her problem?

If your doctor doesn't ask you these questions, take the bull by the horns and raise these issues with your doctor yourself."

Dr. Baker continued: Together, these two questions form the basis for detective work aimed at uncovering imbalances in people of all ages, with various problems. Things that you may lack include:

• a nutritious diet that features vegetables and a variety of other good foods
• nutritional supplements, including antioxidants, magnesium, B vitamins, zinc and essential fatty acids
• full-spectrum light, clean air and pure water 
• love, praise, touch and other psychological nutrients 
• exercise 

Yeast Infection How Do You Get It

The things you should avoid as much as possible are:

• pollutants in the air, food, soil and water (such as pesticides, tobacco smoke and odorous chemicals)
• nutritionally poor foods and beverages (such as packaged and highly processed foods loaded with sugar and partially hydrogenated fats)
• inhalant and food allergens
• harmful microorganisms, including yeasts, molds, bacteria, viruses and parasites. 

To find out more, you can check out Yeast Infection How Do You Get It.