February 11, 2012 at 7:23 am #73161
So i have came across different articles on candida albicans.. and a few of them have been contradictory saying that you should strive your body to be under a neutral/alkaline body PH.. as candida albicans thrives under acidity.
I had also read many general articles about Body PH and how your system is supposed to work more efficiently under a neutral one and acidity comprises it’s integraty and gives host to alot of health complications..
So.. which is it?February 11, 2012 at 9:12 am #73167
catlover345 wrote: … a few of them have been contradictory saying that you should strive your body to be under a neutral/alkaline body PH.. as candida albicans thrives under acidity.
As far as a pH balance of the human body is concerned, the only part of the body that you have to worry about is the intestines which is where the Candida cells grow and multiply. This balance is taken care of with the many different forms of probiotics that are necessary during the treatment.
But if you’d still like to read some information concerning the difference between acidic and alkaline in connection with the body, I wrote the information below in a post last summer in response to questions such as yours. It contains a couple of interesting facts that are not usually considered when debating which is more beneficial, acidic or alkaline, for a Candida infestation.
To understand the natural pH balance of the human body, first we need to realize that there’s a huge misconception about the acidic and alkaline balance which stems from the way our pH is normally tested. The way that’s done is to test the blood, urine, or saliva, and all three of these are normally more alkalized than acidic. So many people assume that the entire body is and should be more alkalized than acidic. But this is not necessarily true.
The only way to get a true picture of the alkaline/acidic amounts in the human body is to look at one section at a time, because some parts of the body are naturally more acidic than others, and some more alkaline.
So if you did a pH check on the individual parts of the body this is what you’d find:
The skin is naturally more acidic, and so is the vagina. In a healthy human, both the stomach and the digestive system have a more acidic environment. However, the blood is naturally more alkaline as are some other parts of the body. So this is why it’s so misleading to make a claim that the human body as a whole should have a certain pH balance, or that it should be more of one than the other because it really all depends on which part of the body you’re talking about.
The reasons that a more acidic environment is natural and needed in certain areas of the body are, for one, the skin needs to be more acidic because it has to protect itself from environmental factors such bacteria and toxins. This is also the reason that sweat and oils on the skin are acidic in nature.
The vagina also maintains an acidic environment for protection, and when the pH balance changes to alkaline in the vagina, that’s when yeast infections can be the result.
The stomach, digestive system, and colon are normally more acidic because the production of digestive acids are part of the process of digesting and utilizing the foods we eat as fuel; plus the acidic environment protects us from such things as fungal infections in the digestive system.
When the digestive system becomes too alkaline because of antiobiotics destroying the acid-producing bacteria or eatng too many alkalizing foods such as fruit, then yeast is sometimes allowed to grow and Candida is often the result. Of course, too many of the foods that the yeast live on such as sugar and simple carbohydrates can also cause a yeast overgrowth.
Below are a few facts to think about as far as the acidic/alkaline balance that which show that fungi cannot survive an acidic environment but will thrive in an alkaline environment.
Research has proved that pathogens are destroyed in an acidic environment and thrive in an alkaline environment (I’m referring to the stomach and intestines which are normally more acidic). On a normal basis Candida may not be considered a pathogen, but Candida albicans certainly is.
“Candida: Any of the parasitic imperfect fungi that make up the genus Candida, which resemble yeasts and occur especially in the mouth, vagina, and intestinal tract. Though usually benign, Candida can become pathogenic, causing diseases including Candidiasis and thrush.” Source, Online Encyclopedia
It’s recommended that anyone with a Candida infestation should take high doses of probiotics, and this turns out to be the main factor in sucessfully treating the infestation. It’s a well documented scientific fact that the beneficial flora in the intestines create lactic acid which balances the intestinal pH, they also produce short chain fatty acids as a by-product of fermentation in the intestinal tract which serve as food for the mucosal lining of the intestines and are indispensable to musocal health and its functioning. In other words, the beneficial bacteria produce an acidic environment in the intestines.
A question to consider is, if producing acid is beneficial for the Candida to grow and thrive, why are the bacteria, which cause an acidic environment, called ‘beneficial’ and why would we treat Candida with the probiotics? Logically, with the theory of Candida thriving in an acidic environment, we would constantly be increasing the population of the Candida with the various probiotics, kefir, and yogurt we obtain. So, logically speaking and according to the theory, anyone with a Candida infestation should avoid all fermented foods as well as probiotic supplements.
Why does the human body naturally produce HCL (Hydrochloric acid) in the stomach? The reason is that the hydrochloric acid kills most of the contaminating microorganisms in the stomach which in turn allows for easier digestion.
A statement made by another forum member, “A high alkaline diet will help to keep our bodies in the healthy, slightly alkaline state, rather than slightly acidic which is more common.”
If that’s true, why does only a very small percentage of the population have Candida infestations if ‘slightly acidic’ is more common? Considering the theory of an alkaline environment being needed, it seems that the opposite would be true.
Even though a lot of people believe that Candida cannot be contracted through sexual intercourse, the opposite is true, and once you know a few facts, it’s not at all difficult to understand.
The vagina normally has an acidic pH making the normal environment for the vagina more acidic, but semen has an alkaline pH; this is why having unprotected sexual intercourse often enough can produce an alkaline environment in the vagina, and adding to other aspects such as the normal American diet consisting of high carbohydrate foods and sugar, this makes it ideal for a Candida overgrowth or yeast infection.
So if the vagina is predominately acidic in a healthy female, and Candida thrives in an acidic environment, why do all women not have Candida overgrowth — all the time?
AbleFebruary 11, 2012 at 10:15 am #73174
I would come across sites like this one http://www.alkalinediet.org
promoting this ‘alkaline diet’ thing for restoration of body health/balance.
Is this all false science or what?
Also.. i had just started incorporating fresh lemon juice into my diet.. should i be worried that my body is getting too ‘alkaline’ ?February 11, 2012 at 11:08 am #73179
I would come across sites like this one http://www.alkalinediet.org
I couldn’t find any reference at all to a Candida infestation on the website you linked to. They’re promoting a diet which includes raspberries, watermelon, persimmons, tangerines, and nectarines. So I suppose if someone believes these foods will cure their Candida overgrowth, then that’s the diet they’re looking for.
promoting this ‘alkaline diet’ thing for restoration of body health/balance. Is this all false science or what?
In a manner of speaking it’s false for a Candida treatment, but then that’s not what they’re claiming.
Also.. i had just started incorporating fresh lemon juice into my diet.. should i be worried that my body is getting too ‘alkaline’
The subject matter of the link below is lemons; it explains why they’re allowed.
AbleFebruary 11, 2012 at 11:40 am #73185
No, i didn’t say that the site had any reference to candida albicans. They talk about how the body is at it’s healthiest in an alkaline state and that an acidic PH makes an environment suitible for spread of toxins/pathogens.. or atleast if it didn’t say that on that particular site there was other general sites that i came across that promote this idea. I can’t remember if they said anything specifically about intestinal PH but i figured they meant that as well given they were taking about general body PH/health. I should note that i wasn’t talking about sites that speicifcally referenced Candida Albicans but just general health promoting sites.
They promote that things with lots of sugar and heavily processed stuff all contribute to the body becoming more acidic.. i’m not sure if i read here somewhere on the forum that these things have an oppisite alkaline effect on the body.. can you just clarify this please? Obviously i know that the sugar feeds the candida i was just curious about the relation to the PH part.February 11, 2012 at 7:05 pm #73243
I feel there is a link but haven’t discussed it for awhile because I don’t know very much about the subject. However, my naturopath feels that I am too acidic and that my pH will balance in time while on the diet. I haven’t tested myself with a pH strip recently but my urine has been too acidic probably for years. It takes a long time to balance the pH if it is a problem, but I ate almost a completely acidic diet for years consuming large amounts of coffee and dairy.
-rasterFebruary 11, 2012 at 8:39 pm #73252
raster wrote: my naturopath feels that I am too acidic and that my pH will balance in time while on the diet … but I ate almost a completely acidic diet for years consuming large amounts of coffee and dairy.
Just to be sure it’s clear to everyone; the acidic nature of foods is not the cause of a Candida overgrowth, it’s the carbohydrates and sugar that are normally in acidic foods that contribute to the overgrowth. To put that another way, we don’t obtain the acids necessary to protect the intestines and stomach from acidic foods; these acids are supplied by beneficial bacteria in the intestines.
In order for the bacteria to produce enough of these acids, the population has to be plentiful enough. Creating the needed population of bacteria is accomplished by eating fermented food sources and prebiotic foods and taking probiotics, not by eating acidic foods.
The average pH balance of the body as a whole has nothing to do with the advancement of a Candida infestation or the fact that someone contracts it in the first place. What does make a difference is the pH balance of the intestines and stomach. An extremely low acidic environment in the intestines is beneficial to the growth of Candida and other pathogens; and the cause of this is a lack of the beneficial bacteria which produce the acids. Once you’ve rebuilt the flora significantly so that the bacteria can reestablish an acidic environment, that’s when the Candida overgrowth begins to decrease at a greater rate than when simply killing them with antifungals.
When a doctor obtains the pH balance of the urine, blood, or saliva, this is not going to give you a clue as to the condition of the intestines.
AbleFebruary 12, 2012 at 8:44 am #73269
raster wrote: However, my naturopath feels that I am too acidic and that my pH will balance in time while on the diet.
I think this is the key point really. An acidic blood pH is a sign of bad health, but that doesn’t mean you should be trying to “alkalise” yourself like the faddy pH diets suggest. Restoring your health will naturally restore balance to your body, including your blood pH. If you listened to the diets, you’d avoid some of the most beneficial foods for you like kefir and sauerkraut. It’s really not as simple as acid in = acid out.February 20, 2012 at 3:50 pm #73914
So it’s decided then. Candida and fungus produce acidity, and acidity is a sign of bad health.
If it is true that the stomach acid defeats pathogens, fine and well. But once you have a Candida infestation, what is the use of raising the acidity in your body or stomach when acidity is one of your symptoms?
So if the PH of the large intestine is, say, slightly acidic under normal cirumstances, and then very acidic when infested, then you would want to alkalize and raise your PH back to near neutral.
Taking alkalized water does not neutralize your stomach acid as I found from my doctor, he informed me that water is not absorbed in the stomach. A lot of water during a meal does slow down digestion, but this doesn’t mean that it is neutralizing your stomach acid necessarily. In between meals it looks like water just passes on to the small intestine where it is then absorbed by the body. Alakaline water would therefore naturally balance with the alkaline environment of the small intestine.
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