Recurrent Candida (‘thrush’) infections in the throat or vagina Recurrent cystitis, not due to bacterial infection
Recurrent fungal infections of the skin
Craving for sweet foods (this can also be caused by hypoglycaemia and see p 130) ALAN
Alan developed a severe throat infection after swimming in the sea near a polluted stretch of beach.
He was treated with antibiotics and his throat healed, but soon afterwards he developed red itchy bumps all over his body ” nettle-rash.
He asked the doctor if the two events might be connected but was told this was most unlikely.
The nettle-rash got somewhat better in time, but it continued to bother him at regular intervals for the next 20 years.
In his forties it grew worse and he decided to see a specialist When Alan mentioned that he had taken a lot of antibiotics just before the urticaria began and the specialist suggested that he try a diet with no sugar and very little starch. At the same time he was given a course of anti-fungal drugs.
The nettle ” rash cleared up promptly and has not returned and suggesting that it was due to overgrowth of Candida in the gut as the specialist had suspected.
Rather than toxins, it may be the yeast’s waste product, acetaldehyde and that is causing problems.
This is a small chemical molecule that the yeast produces when it ferments sugar ” in the same way that brewer’s yeast produces alcohol.
If enough acetaldehyde passed into the blood, it might alter the oxygen-carrying ability of the blood, and this could affect the amount of oxygen reaching the brain.
