If you’re experiencing bloating, brain fog, chronic fatigue, and frequent migraines or headaches, it might be wise to ask your doctor to test you for candida yeast overgrowth. Not sure what candida is? Or why it’s a leading suspect in these and other conditions linked to chronic disease? That’s what today’s post is about.

Candida albicans is a microscopic yeast that lives within and around us all. Like many microorganisms, it doesn’t cause a problem until an imbalance occurs in the community of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that populate the body. Then, it can cause all sorts of illness, from obvious conditions, such as thrush and vaginal yeast infections, to a wide range of illnesses with more mysterious symptoms. These include fatigue, headache, food sensitivities, rashes, and digestive issues. In addition, Candida yeast overgrowth can trigger and contribute to numerous autoimmune disorders, including arthritis, allergies, gastric ulcers, colitis, and Crohn’s disease.

The medical community recognizes and provides treatments for the obvious, acute medical conditions caused by Candida yeast overgrowth, including thrush, vaginitis, frequent urinary tract infections, certain skin and nail infections, and severe systemic infections that affect the blood, heart, brain, eyes, bones, and other parts of the body. But that same community has been slow to recognize the role Candida plays in chronic medical conditions.

In fact, for the last half century and even today, most conventional medical practitioners continue to push back against any suggestion that Candida yeast plays a role in chronic health conditions. They are skilled at identifying conditions that are relatively easy to diagnose and can be treated with pharmaceutical-grade antifungal medications. But they tend to overlook Candida infections that fly below the radar.

Tracing Symptoms to Causes

To be fair, the connection between Candida yeast overgrowth and chronic health conditions can be elusive. Candida overgrowth is typically just one link in a chain reaction of causes. For example, overuse of antibiotics can cause an imbalance in gut flora that triggers an overgrowth of Candida. That can lead to leaky gut that promotes an overactive immune system that attacks the joints, resulting in arthritis. In this complex case, conventional medicine would simply treat the symptoms of arthritis without ever addressing other links in the chain reaction.

In contrast, the functional medicine and integrative healthcare providers here at PROVOKE Health take a different approach. Like curious children, we keep asking questions until we have a complete picture of what’s going on: Continue reading…