Candida Albicans: Yeast and Your Health

212 Pages·1994·6.625 MB·English

by  Gill Jacobs

CANDIDA
ALBICANS
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Yeast & your health
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GILL JACOBS
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Gill Jacobs is a writer and sociologist with a background in
research. She also teaches health education, relaxation and
stress management. This is her first book.

CANDIDA
ALBICANS
YEAST AND
YOUR HEALTH
GILL JACOBS
An OPTIMA book
© Gill Jacobs, 1990
First published in 1990 by
Macdonald Optima, a division of
Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
A member of the Maxwell Macmillan Pergamon
Publishing Corporation pic
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means without the prior
permission in writing of the publisher, nor be
otherwise circulated in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published
and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Jacobs, Gill
Candida albicans: yeast and your health.
1. Man. Pathogens: Candida
I. title
616'.015
ISBN 0-356-18685-7
Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
Orbit House
1 New Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1AR
Photoset in Century Schoolbook by ^ Tek Art Ltd
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd., Guernsey, Channel Islands.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Digestion 7
3 U nderstanding immunity 15
4 Jessica 19
5 What Candida does 24
6 Allergies and food intolerance - paving the way 40
7 The Candida war 46
8 Patterns of denial 57
9 ME in the media 67
10 Candida and ME: working in partnership 79
11 Stage by stage 84
12 Case histories - overload 88
13 Case histories - Candida, tranquilliser addiction
and antibiotics 94
14 Case histories - one symptom at a time 104
15 Case histories - turning points 111
16 Case histories - moving on 128
17 Case histories - men 135
18 Diagnosis and finding help 143
19 Rooting it out 147
20 Letting go of anger and fear, and taking control 168
Information, support and advice 177
Bibliography 185
Index 187
But where danger is
Salvation grows as well.
Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843)
PREFACE
My initial motivation to write this book was a mixture of anger
and curiosity. I wanted to find out whether a friend’s
harrowing experience with conventional medicine was an
isolated one. Three years later, after talking to many other
sufferers of candidiasis, I hope to demonstrate that it was not.
Stephanie, after a long and painful search for a diagnosis,
eventually satisfied herself that she was suffering from a yeast
condition known variously as Candida or candidiasis. Her GP
and the numerous consultants she had seen had not been able
to help her, and this had caused whatever health problems she
had to intensify. Eventually she recognised herself when she
read an article on Candida by the well-known naturopathic and
osteopathic practitioner, Leon Chaitow.
At about this time I learnt that a relative had just discovered
that Candida was the cause of several years of extreme fatigue
and debilitating health. Stephanie and I decided to find other
Candida sufferers and publicise their difficulties in order to
increase awareness about the condition. Our first attempt - an
advertisement in a local paper - produced only one reply.
However, that interview convinced us that we were right to
carry on, so we subsequently placed a request in the Action
Against Allergy newsletter for sufferers to contact us. Within
a week seventeen women replied, and over the next few
months a few more, including one man. At this point my friend
left the project to concentrate on other work, but she remained
in the background with advice and support.
My previous experience as a sociologist had included a
period interviewing school-leavers and their parents, using a
method known as collaborative interviewing. Instead of ques¬
tionnaires, certain areas were defined, but for the most part
the respondents were allowed to bring up what was relevant
in whatever way they chose. This became my approach to
interviewing Candida sufferers. It had the added advantage of
giving me the chance to learn from others by letting them
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PREFACE
speak in their own way. It was only later that I realised how
important that decision was. Many of the interviewees had
suffered from not being able to talk about what was relevant
to them, and the fact that interviewees were given the
satisfaction of knowing that whatever they felt they needed to
say was important to their story, proved of incalculable value.
Over the next three years I worked my way through the
interviews, learning as I went along. In the beginning I was
only interviewing women. Rapport seemed to come easily;
although I didn’t share their problems with candidiasis, there
was an unspoken understanding between us as women about
what it was like to be misunderstood or not listened to.
Later on when I interviewed male sufferers it was clear that
medical failure to treat their candidiasis appropriately was
equally devastating. A separate book needs to be written on
the problems of candidiasis in children.
My biggest regret is that I have not been able to include all
the material given to me. Each story had something to teach,
and I have done my best to include all the lessons they
provided.
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