Candida

Candida is a genus of yeasts. Many species are harmless commensals or endosymbionts of hosts including humans, but other species, or harmless species in the wrong location, can cause disease. Candida albicans can cause infections (candidiasis or thrush) in humans and other animals, especially in immunocompromised patients. In winemaking, some species of Candida can create potential faults in wines.

Laboratory characteristics: Grown in the laboratory, Candida appears as large, round, white or cream (albicans is from Latin meaning 'whitish') colonies with a yeasty odor on agar plates at room temperature. C. albicans ferments glucose and maltose to acid and gas, sucrose to acid, and does not ferment lactose, which help to distinguish it from other Candida species.

Clinical characteristics: Candida are almost universal on normal adult skin and albicans is part of the normal flora of the mucous membranes of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and female genital tracts which cause no disease.

But overgrowth of several species including albicans can cause superficial infections such as oropharyngeal candidiasis (thrush) and vulvovaginal candidiasis (vaginal candidiasis). Oral candidiasis is common in elderly denture wearers. In otherwise healthy individuals, these infections can be cured with topical or systemic antifungal medications (commonly over-the-counter treatments like miconazole or clotrimazole). In debilitated or immunocompromised patients, or if introduced intravenously, candidiasis may become a systemic disease producing abscess, thrombophlebitis, endocarditis, or infections of the eyes or other organs. Colonization of the gastrointestinal tract by C. albicans after antibiotic therapy usually causes no symptoms and may also result from taking antacids or antihyperacidity drugs.

Candida symptoms: Once Candida proliferates in the body, it wrecks havoc in many ways and is the initiator of many common maladies, conditions, syndromes and illnesses in our population.

Some of the most frequent Candida symptoms are:

• abdominal gas and bloating
• headaches
• migraines
• excessive fatigue
• cravings for alcohol
• anxiety
• vaginitis
• rectal itching
• cravings for sweets
• inability to think clearly or concentrate
• hyperactivity
• mood swings
• diarrhea
• constipation
• hyperactivity
• itching
• acne
• eczema
• depression
• sinus inflammation
• pre-menstrual syndrome
• dizziness
• poor memory
• persistent cough
• earaches
• low sex drive
• muscle weakness
• irritability
• learning difficulties
• sensitivity to fragrances and/or other chemicals
• cognitive impairment
• thrush
• athlete's foot
• sore throat
• indigestion
• acid reflux
• chronic pain

The brain is the organ that is most frequently affected by Candida Symptoms, but it also has profound negative effects on these systems:

• digestive
• nervous
• cardiovascular
• respiratory
• reproductive
• urinary
• endocrine
• lymphatic
• musculoskeletal

Candida symptoms can vary from one person to another and often move back and forth between systems within the same individual.  One day you may experience symptoms in the musculoskeletal system and the next day it could be the digestive system ,etc.

Alternative medicine therapies: Many practitioners of alternative medicine use the term Candida to refer to a complex with broad spectrum of symptoms, the majority of which center around gastrointestinal distress, rashes, sore gums and other miscellaneous symptoms. Candida is accorded responsibility for symptoms as specific as hay fever, as vague as "brain fog" and as common as weight gain or flatulence. These symptoms are attributed by some alternative medicine practitioners to the "overgrowth" of intestinal Candida albicans, which they claim leads to the spread of the yeast to other parts of the body via the digestive tract and bloodstream.

Use of the term Candida in alternative medicine to describe this complex is unassociated with its use in clinical medicine to refer to the fungus that causes vaginal yeast infections and thrush. This can be confusing for patients. No studies have proven that having intestinal candidiasis causes any symptoms of illness.

To treat what they refer to as Candida, some alternative medicine practitioners have recommended avoiding antibiotics, birth control pills, and foods that are high in sugar or yeast, ostensibly to "eliminate excess yeast" in the body. However, there is little clinically valid evidence that these "Candida cleanse" treatments treat intestinal candidiasis effectively, or cure any of the symptoms claimed by the proponents of the hypothesis.

The probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii has been shown to diminish levels of intestinal Candida in mice. This is therefore one of the specific probiotic strains often recommended by alternative medicine practitioners alongside a more general probiotic, for anyone on a "Candida cleanse" or "Candida diet".

A little talk about Tuberculosis

• Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection, primarily in the lungs (a pneumonia), caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is spread usually from person to person by breathing infected air during close contact.
• TB can remain in an inactive (dormant) state for years without causing symptoms or spreading to other people.
• When the immune system of a patient with dormant TB is weakened, the TB can become active (reactivate) and cause infection in the lungs or other parts of the body.
• The risk factors for acquiring TB include close-contact situations, alcohol and IV drug abuse, and certain diseases (for example, diabetes, cancer, and HIV) and occupations (for example, health-care workers).
• The most common symptoms and signs of TB are fatigue, fever, weight loss, coughing, and night sweats.
• The diagnosis of TB involves skin tests, chest X-rays, sputum analysis (smear and culture), and PCR tests to detect the genetic material of the causative bacteria.
• Inactive tuberculosis may be treated with an antibiotic, isoniazid (INH), to prevent the TB infection from becoming active.
• Active TB is treated, usually successfully, with INH in combination with one or more of several drugs, including rifampin (Rifadin), ethambutol (Myambutol), pyrazinamide, and streptomycin.
• Drug-resistant TB is a serious, as yet unsolved, public-health problem, especially in Southeast Asia, the countries of the former Soviet Union, Africa, and in prison populations. Poor patient compliance, lack of detection of resistant strains, and unavailable therapy are key reasons for the development of drug-resistant TB.
• The occurrence of HIV has been responsible for an increased frequency of tuberculosis. Control of HIV in the future, however, should substantially decrease the frequency of TB.