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Candida Overgrowth: How to make it disappear (Part 2)
In part 1, I gave you an idea about how Candida works. In this part, I will focus more on how to make smart and targeted food & supplement choices to help you deal with a Candida overgrowth.If you didn’t read the previous part, I do recommend you do this first!
How do antifungals against Candida work?
Antifungal medications, supplements or foods can intervene in several mechanisms, for example-
Mechanism 1:
Some antifungals make it hard to transform Canida Albicans from the ‘innocent’ one-cell yeast form to the invasive Hyphae form. -
Mechanism 2:
Some antifungals can damage the cell walls of this yeast. -
Mechanism 3:
Candida, in the hyphae form, can also form networks with other Candida hyphae cells making it even harder to eradicate Candida. Some antifungals inhibit network formation between the yeast cells. -
Mechanism 4:
Some antifungals inhibit/destroy biofilm formation.
The art of choosing the best combinations of foods & supplements is understanding what food/supplement intervenes in what mechanism.Here are some foods & supplements which we believe have antifungal properties, inclusive of what mechanisms we think they target.Virgin Coconut oil
Coconut oil… who doesn’t love it? There is a lot of evidence pointing in the direction that coconut oil has some antimicrobial properties. Specifically, components of coconut oil intervene in mechanisms 1 & 3Coconut oil contains short-chain fatty acids (SFCA) lauric acid & caprylic acid. This study compared lauric acid & caprylic acid with the antifungal medications clotrimazole & fluconazole. Ok, this study was done in a petri dish, which is not the same as testing on humans… But the results were promising. Clotrimazole was the most effective of the four, but caprylic acid killed the Canida Albicans slightly better than fluconazole. Lauric acid worked slightly less effectively than fluconazole, but was still effective!
Coconut oil can inhibit biofilm formation
The caprylic & capric acid in coconut oil also made it hard for the yeast form to transform into the invasive hyphal form (see part 1). This study also found evidence that biofilm formation was inhibited by caprylic & capric acid.How much Caprylic & Lauric acid is in coconut oil?
Lauric acid accounts for 45%–53% of all fatty acid composition in coconut oil. Caprylic acid accounts for 25%–30% of all fatty acid composition in coconut oil. It has the greatest antibacterial activity of all medium-chain aliphatic fatty acids.Oregano Oil
Oregano oil has three naturally occurring antimicrobial agents: Carvacrol, & Eugenol and Thymol. In this study, the antifungal properties of Oregano oil were compared with the medications nystatin and amphotericin B. They found that oregano oil was able to completely inhibit the growth of C. Albicans (again in a petri dish).Oregano oil also inhibited the transformation from the more innocent one-cell yeast form to its invasive Hyphal form (mechanism 1). In the same study, they also found that oregano oil inhibited this network formation (mechanism 3).
In this and other studies (for example this one), they showed that Carvacrol was one of the most potent compounds found in oregano against Candida. Carvacrol is also found in essential oils of thyme, black cumin, pepperwort and wild bergamot (click here).
Oregano oil & mice
In the same study, they infected 2 groups of 6 mice with Candida. I know this is a small group, but think of all those poor mice! They treated one group with oregano oil, while the other group didn’t have the treatment. The group without treatment died in 30 days. 5 mice of the other group survived.Other studies also showed promising results in rats, dogs, monkeys and other animals. However, human studies are hard to find. Possible because infecting humans with Candida is considered unethical. Another reason is that testing the microbiome is hard because it is hard to reach.
Undecylenic Acid
Undecylenic Acid is an unsaturated fatty acid derived from castor oil which was discovered in 1877. It helps disrupt the biofilm (Mechanism 4). It’s also believed to inhibit the formation of the Hyphae form (mechanism 1). See this study here for more information.Garlic
Garlic contains the powerful antifungal agent ajoene, an organosulfur compound that has been found to kill off a variety of fungal infections. How garlic does this, is still unclear. Scientists think that garlic can penetrate the cell walls of Canida (mechanism 2). Garlic might also disrupt biofilm formation according to this article (mechanism 4). We also believe that fresh garlic works better than the powder form (according to this article).Grapefruit Seed Extract
Grapefruit seed extract is useful as an all-round anti-microbial (according to this article). But with Candida, it looks very promising: a 5-minute treatment of Canida Albicans with Grapefruit Seed Extract inhibited the biofilm formation even after 24 hours (mechanism 4).
Berberine
Berberine is known for its blood sugar-lowering effects, but it has also potent antimicrobial activities against a range of pathogens that include bacteria, viruses, fungi and yeast. Berberine, with Candida, weakens the biofilm (mechanism 4 – see this study). Berberine can also damage the cell wall of the Hyphae form of Candida Albicans under an electron microscope (mechanism 2 – Look at this study here).Final Thoughts
Candida is smart. It starts to outsmart antifungal medications and this is becoming a problem. Getting to know how foods & supplements work can help you make tactical supplement choices to outsmart Candida.Hopefully, this article was helpful and as always,
Stay healthy!
Daniel
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Mechanism 1:
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2 Replies
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Hi Daniel,
Thanks for sharing all this information. I had a few questions:
1. Does a coated tongue always mean candida especially if there are no other symptoms pointing towards candida? Or could there be other reasons too?
2. I’ve also heard of boric acid being used to disrupt the biofilm. What are your thoughts on this?
3. For someone with really bad recurrent yeast infections, how long would you recommend using the Great Plain Laboratories protocol (while also addressing underlying issues that you highlighted in the first post) for someone who cannot get the Organic Acids Test or Microbial Organic Acids Test? Would it be until symptoms resolve or 90 days? -
Hey ,
Coated Tongue
A coated tongue could indicate several issues. A white tongue can be caused by a condition called ‘geographic stomatitis’ or a ‘geographic tongue’. This looks like uneven red patches surrounded by white borders. It looks often like red continents in a white ocean on your tongue – that’s why the name is geographic tongue.Oral Lichen Planus is an ongoing inflammatory condition that affects the mucous membranes in your mouth, causing a white tongue as well, although more often this condition causes pain as well.
A white tongue can also be caused by a dry mouth, a build-up of bacteria, or food trapped in your papillae. Good oral hygiene can prevent this. I’m not only referring to brushing your teeth & tongue but drinking water during the day and sleeping with a closed mouth is part of this as well.
Candida overgrowth can be asymptomatic, which makes it hard to diagnose. Besides that, complaints, like feeling tired, craving more sugar, UTIs, joint pain, and skin & nail fungal infections, are often not recognized as possible indications of a Candida yeast overgrowth
Boric acid
There has been some research showing that boric acid can help with vaginal yeast infections including candida. Research is a little mixed, but this can be because of a lot of reasons like, what strains are there, how much there is to begin with, etc. Boric acid showed also to work on Candida glabrata, which is a more resistant strain of candida yeast.Boric acid in the vaginal tract can disrupt biofilm formation & hyphal formation (click here for example)
So I believe it can be effective, but with candida & yeast, I like to use a mix of antifungals. Different strains might react differently.
Really bad recurrent yeast infections
If you are referring to yeast infections in the gut: the only way to know if you are dealing with yeast is by testing. Complaints in the GI tract caused by for example Clostridia need a different approach because the bacteria can change into a ‘spore’ form. In the spore form, anti-microbes aren’t effective and reoccurrence is much more likely and a pulse treatment would be more efficient.The botanical antifungals (which are also antibiotic/antimicrobial in nature) stimulate the growth of a healthy microbiome, but there can be a die-off effect or ‘herx’ reaction making people feeling more sick because pathogens die creating endotoxins. Even using binders like GI detox can’t always prevent this detox type from feeling sick.
With really bad yeast infections I would more likely go for 90 days
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