The leading cause of Canddia appears to be none other than antibiotics. When a person takes antibiotics with the intent to kill "bad" bacteria it has the unintended consequence of creating collateral damage at a mass extinction level wiping out countless "good" guys as well. When the good guys are temporarily removed it can create the ideal condition for candida to thrive. The friendly bacteria presence are what create ecological conditions in your gut such that Candida can't grow in the first place. They do this primarily by lowering the ph of the stomach and intestine which makes the environment slightly more acidic. In an acidic environment candida will switch from its pathogenic
hyphal form into it's non-dangerous unicellular form. (
reference)
Every person has candida in them along with E.coli and many other potentially pathogenic microbes. Thus it is impossible to totally kill every last candida cell. The difference however is the degree of proliferation and this is mediated by the ecology of the entire gut biome.
When a person take antibiotics it causes major shifts in the gut biome. Antibiotics are specifically designed to kill bacteria NOT fungi. Thus when taking antibiotics the bacterial competition is eliminated and fungi such as candida has the opportunity to thrive. This is well known in Russia where doctors often give anti-fungals along side antibiotics in hopes of preventing a fungal overgrowth. Sadly western doctors don't do this as a standard practice when merrily giving out antibiotics.
As a n=1 personal anecdote I struggled to eliminate candida using the many strategies on this page. While they all worked to some degree the greatest step forward I found was using
Resistant Starch(click) as a powerful prebiotic. What RS does is create a radical beneficial transition back to a more healthy ecology where it feeds and cross-feeds many beneficial bacteria (bifido and Lactobacillus) that produce beneficial acidic compounds such as lactic acid, acetic acid butyric acid and propionic acid. These acids serve many beneficial purposes such as helping digest your food and providing energy to the intestinal cells. They also help tighten up the junctures in the intestinal lining preventing leaky gut. They also commensurately feed the good guys which then will outright kill candida for you.
It is said the best defense is a good offense and this could be no more true than here. Many people while having initial success with anti-fungals or various other anti-candida strategies will often relapse because they simply are not feeding the good guys adequately. This is why int the last year the
re-newly discovered prebiotic compound
Resistant Starch has become perhaps the most powerful way to combat candida permanently.
