Positive Health Online

For as long as humanity has been around, yeasts have played an important role in our lives. We love our yeasts. We love the wine and beer that is formed when yeast converts sugars into alcohol. We love springy soft loaves that rise due to yeast's ability to convert starch into carbon dioxide bubbles. We either love or hate to spread on our breakfast toast that savoury brown by-product of the brewing industry.

Candida Image © Fotolia

Yeast (technical name Saccharomyces cerevisiae), is a microscopic single-celled fungus that occurs naturally in the environment. We find it on fruits such as grapes and plums, appearing as a whitish bloom. In fact, there are approximately 1,500 strains of yeast, some of which are highly beneficial to health and wellbeing, but others that can be extremely harmful under certain circumstances. One particular strain, Candida Albicans, can have a devastating effect on health.

Over a decade ago, just after I had trained as an acupuncturist, I learned about such yeasts the 'hard way'. The right - or possibly I should say the wrong set of circumstances came together and I found my health deteriorating in many unpleasant ways.

I was experiencing chronic fatigue, bloating, unusual bowel movements, increased sensitivity to pollen and pollution - and that was just the beginning. I developed 'restless legs' which is now so prevalent that it has been elevated to a 'Syndrome'. I had the most awful insomnia; even if I did manage to get a proper night's sleep I'd wake up feeling totally exhausted.

Through the help of a friend who is a Kinesiologist I was started on the road to recovery. She explained that my tendency to bloat after meals indicated that I was probably experiencing food intolerances. She did some testing and found that I was intolerant to a long list of foods. Once I started omitting those foods I started to feel somewhat better.

As a way of thanking my friend and helping my own patients, I would refer the most enigmatic of them to her. She found that many had multiple intolerances to foods and beverages and when they cut out those foodstuffs, they too started to feel better. The improvements were so impressive that I decided I would have to get myself trained in Kinesiology so that I could do my own food intolerance testing.

In the meantime, I was still feeling unwell, but not quite as unwell as before changing my diet. My weight was still increasing and I had extremely low energy levels to the point that I couldn't work for a period. It became apparent that I was still ill and that there was more I needed to know. I discovered that what I was experiencing had a label - Irritable Bowel Syndrome. There were many articles about it in the media but nobody seemed to know the causes or cures.

Then I had a really lucky break; I was in the right place at the right time. The right place was Bristol - I was attending a course under the tutelage of senior members of the Kinesiology Federation. The right time was the day that an experienced Kinesiologist was visiting the course and tested me, informing me that my problems were caused by something called Candida albicans.

On returning home after the course, I did quite a lot of research on Candida albicans. I discovered that it is a strain of yeast that normally exists in small quantities within the gut along with 2-4 Kg of beneficial bacteria.[1] I learned about the need to have a healthy colony of beneficial 'flora' to keep the gut working efficiently and that the balance of beneficial and non beneficial gut flora can be disturbed when we ingest chemicals in our food and drink.

Moreover, some medications (antibiotics, hormones, steroids[2]) kill off the beneficial bacteria but don't harm the yeasts. I also discovered that the overgrowth of Candida Albicans in the gut has many quite serious implications for the health. In fact everything that I read confirmed that my Kinesiologist friend was 100% correct in diagnosing Candida albicans as the root of my problems.

I read[1] that Candida albicans may, under certain conditions, change from being a single cell organism and start to bud and grow root-like structures[3] that can burrow into the lining of the gut. As the gut lining becomes increasingly perforated this creates a condition which has become known as 'Leaky Gut Syndrome'.

Once the lining of the gut is breached in this way, molecules of food can then pass into the bloodstream prompting the immune system to create antibodies. Subsequently, on eating that food, a reaction will occur and over time more intolerance responses (e.g. bloating and diarrhoea) will manifest.

Those who suffer from IBS know that there are a wide range of unpleasant responses including nausea, gas, abdominal cramps and urgency to evacuate. Over time the health can be yet more seriously affected causing chronic fatigue, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, toxicity related skin conditions, and general debility.

Looking at my own very strange pencil-diameter stools, I could see that they contained a lot of mucous. I read that this was secreted by my gut in order to protect itself from inflammation.[1] This mucous was also stopping me from absorbing essential nutrients causing poor healing, fuzzy head, thinning hair and low energy levels.[2]

I recently attended a seminar given by a stool testing company[2] who confirmed that Candida albicans creates toxins as it ferments within the gut. These toxins can be deposited in the joints causing 'arthritis like' aches and pains, and can also cause obesity through a compromised elimination system.

Fortunately I was also able to find out how to cure the above symptoms, many of which I was already experiencing. Using the information obtained through my research, I was able to reverse the process and slowly but surely I regained my health.

By then I was a fully qualified Kinesiologist and was able to start treating my own clients professionally. I had a steady stream of people coming to see me as the word went round that their digestive disturbances, so resistant to the efforts of their GP, could be helped and cured. Family members who had recovered would tell their relatives, office workers would tell their colleagues, and as a therapist it was very satisfying to get such consistently positive results from one's work.

Kinesiology is poorly understood in the West and consequently I have seen some very scathing reviews written by very ill informed critics. I was tempted to explain how it works here, but space doesn't permit in this article, so suffice it to say that it is a testing method based on Chinese Medicine principles, and far from being 'New Age', has been around for at least two thousand years.

I was astounded by the power of this method which enabled me to test my clients for food intolerances - essential in speeding recovery - with great accuracy. I'm grateful that with it I've been able to help many people to overcome IBS just as I did myself.

Being a recovered IBS sufferer meant that I understand the condition 'from the inside out'. I realized, when clients came with multiple complaints, that their symptoms were linked to a common cause - Candida albicans yeast. I also came to understand just how far reaching this problem is in Western society. Over the years of treating people I developed a simple and natural method to help my clients overcome IBS.

In 2011 I was contacted by an American publishing company who requested that I write books on natural healing topics for them. So in December 2011 my eBook, Curing Irritable Bowel Syndrome using Natural Holistic Therapies was published as a downloadable self-help guide which will hopefully take this essential and life changing information to a much wider audience. The link to this book is to be found on http://healingebooks.com/Curing-IBS.html .

Using simple non-technical language I explain how IBS occurs and how to cure it using natural low tech and inexpensive means. I have included an IBS Action Plan to help people to navigate their way back to full health. I have also described Kinesiology in detail for those who want to understand how it works.  Through using the information in the book, I am hopeful that many more people will conquer Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and will enjoy a better state of health both now and in the future.

References
1. Chaitow L. Candida Albicans (A non drug approach), Thorsons, London & San Francisco, ISBN (UK) 0-7225-3343-8and (USA) 9-780722-533437. 1999.
2. Lane, J., Biological Testing Services Course Notes, Higher Nature Symposium, Birmingham, UK. July 2010.
3. Some electron scanning microscope images of sprouting Candida Albicans: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC248672/pdf/jbacter00371-0298.pdf