Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 1998; 3: 186–7
Fear of candida-associated diseases can result in extensive treatments. Is this justified?
From 11 general practitioners, who are mainly engaged in complementary medicine, 318 random patients were recruited. They filled in a questionaire. Their stooles were prepared by a standardized method and analysed for intestinal candida colonization (ICC) in one single lab. After three weeks the candida positive patients were randomized for a further three weeks period without treatment or with administration of Saccaromyces Boulardii (SB), a tropical yeast, 250 mg/day twice daily. Statistics: Pearson’s and Mantel-Haenszel’s chi-square test.
ICC was present in 117 from 308 valid cases. There was no correlation to so called typical symptoms such as abdominal complaints, allergies, infections, general weekness and skin problems. Eating brewer’s yeast seemed to prevent from ICC (negative correlation, p ≤ 0.05). No one of this group suffered from diabetes, reduced immunefunction or received antibiotics. Treatment with SB did not influence these results (n = 57). Even in a subgroup (n = 34) with additional signs of high candida contact (several types of candida, colonization of the throat, positive controls, positive specific IgM) neither correlations with typical symptoms nor with intake of yeast could be found.
Candida-associated diseases seem to be very rare in immuncompetent, non diabetic patients without antibiotic treatment. Therefore the present of ICC alone doesn’t justify any treatment.
