Yeast, Weight, And Depression

Dr. Carolyn Dean MD, ND

I just got off the phone with Edith, a friend I haven't talked to in a long while.

I was surprised to hear that she was struggling with a weight problem and sounded depressed. Because she was always so vivacious and energetic and is also a health professional, I assumed she knew what to do to stay healthy. Instead, Edith said she had been in an “English muffin and sugar-induced comatose state” for the past several years! She added that she had tried many of the popular weight loss diets on the market but nothing seemed to help. Edith said she didn’t realize how far she had slipped until a few days before when her doctor gave her a prescription for Prozac.

Edith told me that having a prescription in her hand finally shocked her into wanting to change her lifestyle but she didn’t quite know where to start. With my work as medical advisor to yeastconnection.com, and knowing that weight and yeast are intimately connected, I asked Edith seven basic questions that relate directly to yeast overgrowth and found an interesting pattern:

1. Edith had taken about several months of antibiotics over the previous three years for a succession of dental abscesses.

2. The smell of damp moldy places drove her crazy, making her very irritable and irritated in those environments.

3. She craved sugar and bread.

4. She felt very drained to the point of exhaustion.

5. Edith had symptoms of intestinal gas, bloating, and cramping (IBS).

6. She was troubled by constant vaginal infections.

7. She was bothered by itchy burning eyes

Edith asked me what I was getting at. I told her that from her answers she likely had a yeast overgrowth, which was driving her sugar cravings, making her depressed, and causing her inability to lose weight.

I explained that antibiotics are liberally used in the beef industry for the specific purpose of putting weight on cattle and it is little recognized that antibiotics can do the same to humans!

Also unrecognized is the simple fact that antibiotics kill off good and bad bacteria in the intestinal tract leaving room for yeast to flourish. As they grow into new territory yeast mutate from a bud to a thread-like mycelium that irritates the lining of the intestines causing a newly discovered condition of micropunctures in the intestine called “leaky gut”.

If that wasn’t bad enough, yeast produce up to 180 different toxins that don’t just stay in the gut, they are absorbed through a leaky gut into the blood stream setting off widespread inflammatory and allergy reactions. Many of the toxins like aldehyde, alcohol, zymosan, arabinitol, and gliotoxin have been named. They impair the immune system and the central nervous system. Others block thyroid function, impair female hormones and cause symptoms of PMS and aggravate menopause but haven’t yet been properly studied.

The protocol that I suggested to Edith that helped her drop her excess weight and her depression is the 6-Point Yeast Fighting Program found in The Yeast Connection and Women’s Health (Crook & Dean 2005). It incorporates:

• Diet: avoid sugar, wheat and dairy as well as fermented foods, and alcohol.
• Probiotics (good bacteria): the best ones are acidophilus and bifidus. Obtain products that guarantee 2-10 billion organisms per capsule.
• Antifungal supplements: garlic (eat one or two cloves a day), oil of oregano (take 2-3 capsules per day) and grapefruit seed extract (take two to three capsules per day) or take a formula that also includes caprylic acid, pau D’Arco, black walnut, beta carotene, and biotin.
• Exercise to move the lymph circulation that clears toxins from the body.
• Stress release to reduce the amount of natural cortisol that creates yeast overgrowth.
• Work with a caring physician-download a physician packet from yeastconnection.com.

Original Article: Alive Magazine, Canada, Aug 2006

Carolyn Dean MD ND has been in the forefront of health issues for 30 years. She is the Medical Director of VidaCosta Spa el Puente, a health spa in Costa Rica opening in 2011. Dr. Dean is President of Hallmark-Dean Academy, U.S., a licensed school that trains Laboratory Technicians and Wellness Guides in a unique, licensed, functional, computerized, urinalysis lab test. Dr. Dean is the author/coauthor of 16 health books including The Magnesium Miracle, Yeast Connection and Women's Health, IBS for Dummies, VidaCosta Good Health Ecyclopaedia eBook.