Q. Is there something that can be bought locally to treat Candida? I read about some stuff called “ThreeLac” but it is mail-order and quite expensive.
A. ThreeLac is the trade name of a blend of probiotics distributed in North America exclusively by Global Health Trax. Probiotics are those substances that encourage the growth of friendly bacteria in our intestinal tract. ThreeLac is the product of a Japanese pharmaceutical company and consists mainly of three friendly intestinal organisms. It is designed to be used in combination with reduced sugar intake to rebalance the bacterial population of the gut when there is uncontrolled growth of the organism known as Candida albicans.
Many health care providers denied even the existence of a “Candida problem” when Dr. C. Orian Truss first published a series of articles in the late 1970s describing the devastating effects of Candida overgrowth. After years of misunderstanding and misinformation, the nature of the organism is coming to light. Along with greater understanding of its nature comes a better understanding of how to control it.
Candida is able to exist in two distinctive forms. One is a yeast form that poses no problem for us, while the other is a fungal form that produces long rootlike structures able to penetrate the lining of the gut. Candida in its yeast form is actually beneficial as long as the population is low, and we all have some of this form of Candida in our bodies. A healthy immune system will prevent this yeast form from transforming to a fungal form.
When our bodies’ immune defenses drop, the organism can change into the fungal form, capable of penetrating the gut lining and breaking down the protective boundary of the intestinal tract. This allows partially digested proteins from food to migrate into the bloodstream, where the immune system is required to deal with them as though these food remnants were invading bacteria. The result is an overstimulated immune system that is damaging to completely normal tissue.
Ideally your physician would give you a firm diagnosis of Candida overgrowth before you go through the trouble and expense of treatment, but unfortunately the available tests for the condition are expensive and not entirely reliable. Many health care providers rely on a symptom questionnaire alone, while others combine symptoms with blood tests for certain immunoglobulins or for urinary beta-alanine, an organic acid made by Candida and other unfriendly intestinal organisms. Since the anti-Candida diet, by limiting many “empty-calorie” foods, is probably superior to the average American diet, some health care providers simply recommend a few weeks of this diet to see what happens. Improvement while on the diet is a good indicator that further efforts to control Candida overgrowth are worthwhile.
While ThreeLac may not be available locally, a similar product from Essential Formulas, Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics 12 Plus with 12 friendly species of intestinal organisms, is available from Vitamins Etc. here in Austin. It is no accident that both the products were developed in Japan. Perhaps related to their past farming practices, the Japanese for decades have battled a wide variety of unfriendly intestinal organisms.
This article appears in August 13 • 2004.