Candida And Fibromyalgia

Candida And Fibromyalgia

Candida and fibromyalgia is, quite plainly, a stubborn condition. It's estimated that around 2 to 5% of the adult population develop this syndrome with women being the majority.

Unfortunately, the cause and treatment strategies involving candida and fibromyalgia are vague and no particular therapy seems to be effective in everyone.

The symptoms of fibromyalgia overlap with generalized candida symptoms are varied which include generalized pain, particularly around joints and ligaments, fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, chemical sensitivities, irritable colon, irritable bladder and neurological findings, such as numbness, lack of concentration and poor memory.

It tends to affect those between the ages of 20 through 50 years. Interestingly, there is a great amount of overlap between the symptoms of those who have candida and fibromyalgia and those with chronic fatigue syndrome and, in some cases, irritable bowel syndrome.

Almost any doctor will give you an opinion as to what causes candida and fibromyalgia and related disorders, many of which will be completely different from another doctor, or will tell you that there is no known cause of the condition.

Some research findings emphasize a psychological origin, while others feel it is due to an irregularity in nerve function or in some pain receptors. Still others recognize candida and fibromyalgia as a post-infectious condition-like developing a type of flu that never goes away.

What science has yet to clearly spell out, though, is the probability that candida, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome come from multiple origins that funnel into a set of physical complaints that, while being variable in cause, are a result of affecting the body systems in a similar way.

In other words, different agents such as infections, toxins or endocrine problems, affect the body similarly, resulting in nearly identical symptoms that, depending on the cause, result in a completely different set of treatment strategies.

So how can a candida yeast infection, a fungus living normally in several body areas, lead to symptoms consistent with candida and fibromyalgia? Actually, an infection with candida is quite likely to look like fibromyalgia.

The fact that women have fibromyalgia as a result of candidiasis more than men is also completely understandable, especially when you consider the following:

• Candida resides in our intestinal tract, on the skin and in the female vagina. Men have no corresponding degree of candida yeast infection on their genitalia.
  
• Women are more likely to have risk factors for candida, such as more antibiotic use (especially for bladder infections) and are far more likely to be using some form of hormonal birth control that promotes candida growth.
  
• Women experience more localized yeast infections, particularly vaginal candidiasis, than men who do not have a significant genital reservoir for candida nor are the conditions in the genitals that breed candida the same for men as for women.
  
  

In either gender, the overgrowth of candida anywhere in the body or the presence of certain risk factors for candida can lead to an overgrowth of candida in the intestinal tract. The resulting condition is known as intestinal candida. Some of these risk factors include immune deficiencies, steroid use, birth control pill use and the taking of broad spectrum antibiotics.

All of the risks for intestinal candidiasis interfere with the normal intestinal environment, which contains many healthy bacteria and a small amount of candida. The intestinal ecological disruption causes bacteria to be relatively diminished and candida to grow out of control and to change into its mycelial form which consists of root-like, pointed fungal organisms.

The result of intestinal candida is that the gut becomes less permeable (leakier), causing fungal organisms, toxins and products of food degradation to leak into the bloodstream. When this happens, the body responds in several ways:

• Diarrhea can be a common aspect of having an imbalance in intestinal flora.
• A person can feel ill and fatigued from the presence of candida and from the body's infection-fighting response.
• The presence of food by-products in the bloodstream causes the body to treat these molecules as foreign invaders; secondary food allergies can occur.
• If there is sufficient exposure to toxins, the liver can become stressed, the individual can feel neurological symptoms as a result of the toxins and a generalized immune response can occur. Candida alone releases over 79 different toxins.
• Because of the immune overactivity, infection and toxic exposure, those afflicted with candida, which has expanded to show systemic involvement, often hurt "all over", particularly in their muscles, ligaments and joints.
  
  

If compared carefully, there is little difference between the symptoms of fibromyalgia, those of chronic fatigue syndrome and of the symptoms just described of the effects of candida overgrowth of the intestinal tract.

It's possible that, in the quest to find a single etiology behind fibromyalgia and its related diseases, the concept of multiple etiologies, including that of primary candidiasis, has been overlooked.

Because it is impossible, as yet, to discern the cause of a given case of fibromyalgia, attention needs to remain on the possibility of different etiologies, including that of intestinal or systemic candidiasis.

In addition, since there are no diagnostic tests that absolutely confirm or refute the presence of candidiasis, the suspicion that candidiasis is behind a cluster of symptoms we call "fibromyalgia", must remain high.

The treatment of candida and fibromyalgia has been primarily focused on pain relief, relaxation and psychological support and, while somewhat helpful, do not address the cause nor affect a cure.