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Candida and Virgin Coconut Oil
By Bruce Fife, N.D.
2001 Reprinted with permission of the author.
When people take antibiotics, the good bacteria are often killed along with the disease-causing ones. This leaves yeast, such as Candida which is not affected by antibiotics, to grow unrestrained, proliferating and overrunning the intestinal tract. The consequence is a yeast overgrowth or infection. Such infections can last for years causing a wide variety of symptoms ranging from headaches to digestive problems. Often people have systemic candida infections without even knowing it. This is why antifungal medications or probiotics should be taken whenever antibiotics are used. A probiotic supports the growth of friendly bacteria but not the disease-causing kind.
One of the good things about lauric acid in virgin coconut oil is that it kills lipid-coated bacteria but does not appear to harm the friendly intestinal bacteria. The MCFA (medium chain fatty acids) in coconut oil also have antifungal properties so not only will they kill disease-causing bacteria and leave good bacteria alone, they will also kill candida and other fungi in the intestinal tract, further supporting a healthy intestinal environment.
YEAST AND FUNGI
Norma Galante, a Boston college student, went to her local medical clinic complaining of vaginal itching and a slight discharge. The physician took a culture of the discharge and examined it under the microscope. He diagnosed a mild bacterial infection and prescribed an antibiotic.
When Norma took the medication, however, it only made the symptoms worse. She went back to the doctor and he gave her another antibiotic. It didn't work either. She tried again, and again, but he couldn't find a medication that would help. "I kept going back to the clinic, and the doctors kept prescribing different antibiotics," Norma says. Out of frustration, the physicians finally prescribed a topical anti-candida cream to see if that would be of any help. While Candida is not affected by antibiotics it can be treated topically with anti-fungal creams and suppositories. Her symptoms subsided. She felt relieved. At last she thought her problem was solved.
Yeast infections are persistent and often recur. This was the case with Norma. It wasn't long before she had another infection. The medications she used seemed to relieve the symptoms, but within a few months they would flare up again. Before long she began to develop other fungal infections like athlete's foot and skin rashes (ringworm). Fungal infections of one sort or another became an ongoing nuisance. She felt chronically fatigued. Everything she did seemed to tire her. She became depressed. "The doctors didn't have any answers," she recalls. "To them I had a minor problem, but I was living with the itching and the fatigue every day; it wasn't a minor problem for me."
After receiving little help from her doctors she began searching for an answer herself. She scoured health food stores for books and information on yeast infections. After studying these materials she realized she was suffering from a systemic or entire body candida infection. She cut sugar out of her diet and began taking a dietary supplement derived from coconut oil called caprylic acid. It worked! Both the vaginal yeast and skin infections healed. Without the constant strain of fighting the infection her energy returned. She was able to function normally again without feeling constantly fatigued. "I was so relieved to find something that brought my energy back," she says.
More information available in The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil by Dr. Bruce Fife, ND.
