Candida Overgrowth and Leaky Gut

The inner ecosystem of your digestive tract is a rich community. It is bustling with bacteria and yeast. As it turns out, these bacteria and yeast do more than help digest food and manufacture nutrients. The bugs in your gut also interact with your immune system, the chemicals in your brain, and your hormones. Candida albicans is well-known yeast that is naturally found in the mouth, the gut, and the birth canal.

It is opportunistic, which means that if it has an opportunity to grow and take over an environment—it will. What goes into your mouth (and into your gut) influences your inner ecosystem. Certain foods can irritate the lining of the digestive tract. Other foods feed disease-causing bacteria and Candida overgrowth. Once this happens, the gut wall—or the landscape of your inner ecosystem—becomes inflamed. An inflamed gut is a “leaky gut.” What major factors contribute to Candida overgrowth? A diet high in sugar, an imbalanced immune system, stress, bacterial overgrowth in the gut, oral contraceptives use, or an imbalance in estrogen

Candida has developed a number of ways to evade your immune system and manipulate its environment. This makes Candida particularly difficult to control. For starters, Candida has the ability to stick to your cells and invade them. It does this with proteins called adhesins, which are found in the cell wall of Candida. Adhesins act like double-sided tape. They help Candida stick to mucosal tissue. Adhesins also help Candida cells to aggregate—or form—sticky, gummy colonies.

Even more troubling is what happens to the tissue beneath Candida once colonies begin to form. In some cases, Candida yeast cells invade human cells and bud inside the cell—undetected and unnoticed. Other studies show that Candida may be able to do this because it turns “off” white blood cells that protect cells from invasion.

Your inner ecosystem is healthiest when it houses a wide range of beneficial bacteria and yeast. These good bacteria and yeast not only compete with Candida for resources, they also produce substances that curb Candida overgrowth.

For example, a 2012 study shows that lactic acid—which is produced by good bacteria—inhibits the growth of Candida. (9) Another study that was published in the Journal of Biomedical Science confirms that while Candida overgrowth activates inflammation, good bacteria (or probiotics) inhibit it.

In order to get Candida overgrowth under control, it is critical to harmonize the inner ecology of the gut. Good bacteria living in the gut work in partnership with your immune system, keeping Candida overgrowth in check.