Candida & Chronic Infections
In a healthy person, the immune and digestive systems both do a great job of preventing infections from taking hold. Healthy levels of stomach acid neutralize most microbes, and the immune system and gut microbiome tackle whatever makes it past the stomach and deeper into the digestive tract.
But if any of those mechanisms have been suppressed for any reason – stress, inflammatory foods, antacids, antibiotics, autoimmunity – it paves the way for unfriendly species to make their way into the gut and become dominant. The culprits may be bacteria, parasites, or fungus, and as they grow, they can overwhelm the helpful bacteria in your digestive tract.
These harmful visitors can cause real damage when they overstay their welcome. Just like you, they also have to eat, so they begin to steal the nutrients from the foods meant to nourish you. Also like you, they produce waste after every meal, and the byproducts they create are toxic to the human body.
Are uninvited guests ruining your day?
Bacterial and fungal overgrowth have been linked to a variety of serious conditions.
How Chronic Infections Begin
A healthy human digestive tract contains approximately 100 trillion bacteria – about 10 times the number of human cells in the body. Diversity is key, and a healthy gut microbiome features over 1,000 different species of helpful bacteria.
These friendly flora help you digest your food and absorb nutrients, and they produce byproducts that are nourishing to the gut. They also play a crucial role in healthy immune function, helping to defend against potentially harmful invaders. In fact, around 70% of the human immune response begins in the digestive system.
As if that wasn’t enough, your gut microbiome is also responsible for regulating how much fat you store and maintaining your energy, so you make good use of the sugars you eat. Helpful gut bacteria also support your mental health by generating the building blocks of the chemicals that help you handle stress and prevent anxiety and depression.
In short, your digestive tract is full of trillions of little friends who quite literally make your life possible. But like every living thing, they are also vulnerable to attack.
Opportunistic bacteria and fungi are just waiting to take over.
There are a number of little bad guys who love to get their foot in the door and never leave. They include:
Candida yeast
H. pylori
Parasites & worms
Bacteria like Streptococcus or Staphylococcus
Borrelia & other Lyme infections
Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)
Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
And modern life offers them plenty of opportunities! A stressful day at work followed by a cheeseburger and fries? Open door. Acid blocking medication or a round of antibiotics? Another automatic invite. Late nights finishing up that big project, followed by cocktails and dessert to celebrate? You guessed it – harmful bacteria, viruses, and fungi just love that stuff.
Many of these guests already live in your gut in small numbers without any negative effects. But chronic stress, medications, or highly processed/high-sugar foods can all weaken the healthy flora in your gut microbiome, while simultaneously nurturing toxic visitors who cause real harm. Research by Harvard, Stanford, and the National Institutes for Health links SIFO and SIBO to an increasing number of more serious conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and allergic reactions, and vitamin deficiencies.
Once a chronic infection takes hold, it can be almost impossible to eliminate without a holistic approach.
Chronic infections of the gut are often referred to as small intestinal fungal overgrowth (SIFO, most often caused by Candida yeast) or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Even without infecting other organs, chronic overgrowth can damage your digestive system and exhaust your immune system.
When you think of all of the important tasks your healthy gut flora perform – nutrient absorption, immune function, metabolic regulation, mood support – it’s no surprise that signs of bacterial or fungal overgrowth aren’t as simple as an upset stomach. The most common symptoms include:
Fatigue or brain fog
Joint pain, muscle aches, or headaches
Irritability, anxiety, or depression
Frequent thrush, jock itch, or vaginal yeast infections
Rosacea, hives, or eczema
Bloating, diarrhea, or constipation
Nausea, heartburn, or vomiting
Abdominal pain or cramping
Unintentional weight loss or stubborn weight gain
Nutrient deficiencies
Just as chronic gut infections start because of a combination of lifestyle factors, it requires targeted changes in multiple areas to restore the gut microbiome. Ann Arbor Holistic Health practitioners specialize in creating custom wellness plans to help you reset and replenish your system.
Advanced Testing
Comprehensive Gut Health (GI-MAP) and Food Sensitivity (IgG) testing provide insight into the exact causes contributing to Candida or bacterial overgrowth and other chronic infections.
Nutrition & Lifestyle
Learn from our experts about how you can feed the right bacteria and reduce stress on the body for a profound impact on wellness.
Targeted Supplements
A personalized and targeted supplement protocol can aid in keeping harmful bacteria, fungi, or viruses in check to help restore overall health.
When Eating Healthy Isn't Enough
At 30 years old, Natalie didn’t know what healthy eating was. She only knew how to stab the cellophane and toss her frozen meal into the microwave. But her list of symptoms was long enough to fill 3 full sheets of paper. She wasn’t living, she was simply surviving, and she knew she needed help.
So Natalie took a stand for herself and radically changed her diet. She went from pizza delivery and packaged pasta to cooking at home from scratch, including veggies she didn’t even know the names of before. Within a few months, her health was very different. Her energy increased, her diarrhea stopped, her belly was no longer in pain, and she slimmed down.
But she quickly hit a plateau. No matter how well Natalie continued to eat and take care of herself, she couldn’t lose the rest of the weight, couldn’t fully resolve her tummy problems, and she still had a lot of aches and pains.
When she ran a GI-MAP gut health test, she discovered that she was full of parasites and other unfriendly microbes. No amount of healthy, gut-loving foods were going to eliminate her infections. This was the puzzle piece she was missing! She worked with her Ann Arbor Holistic Health practitioner to eliminate her infections and instantly hit a new level of health. She lost more weight, her belly problems disappeared, aches and pains diminished, and her headaches went away.
This is the power of the right testing and support.
If you suspect SIFO, SIBO, or another chronic infection, contact us now to schedule your free Consultation & Evaluation. We’ll spend 45 minutes asking smart questions and genuinely listening to your answers, then give you insights into which testing and next steps might be helpful.
The right testing offers great insight into your microbiome, so you can help your gut repair itself, maximize the nutrients you’re getting from food, have healthy poops, strengthen the immune system, and minimize inflammation.
Digestive disorders like leaky gut can cause a cascade of symptoms and health issues. Understand why and find out the most common causes.
Do you know how food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities affect your health? Learn the important distinctions between these 3 types of food reactions and how they affect your immune system and gut microbiome.