By Kurt Woeller, DO
Various candida organisms can be a normal inhabitant of the digestive system and part of our microbiome in low levels. However, candida has the potential to overpopulate the bowel leading to various symptoms of bloating, gas, constipation, etc. Candida can also become invasive within the digestive system leading to leaky gut increase immune activity and systemic reactivity. This lecture will highlight unique aspects of candidiasis, including certain pathogenicity mechanisms, laboratory tests, and treatment interventions.
The full webinar can be viewed here:
During the course of the Webinar, individuals were able to ask questions of the speaker. Because of time constraints, not all the questions were able to be answered in real time. We are happily able to answer those questions below:
Q: One of the slides about vulvodynia mentions adding oral calcium citrate. I have two questions:
1. How does adding calcium reduce oxalates? I thought the oxalate combines with calcium to cause the calcium oxalate crystals, which can cause vulvodynia.
2. Are other forms of calcium also effective such as calcium magnesium or maleate?
A: The calcium citrate helps with oxalate binding in the digestive system preventing it from being absorbed. Once the salt is formed in the gut it doesn’t get absorbed. Instead, it is released out of the body in the stool. The citrate component helps with moving more oxalate out of the digestive cells into the lumen of the gut where is can combine with the calcium. This, along with a low oxalate diet, lessons the total body load of oxalate. Therefore, there will be less to react at the tissue level. Other forms of calcium and magnesium do not appear to be as effective as calcium citrate and magnesium citrate.
Q: Will a plant based diet make candida worse? Is coconut oil bad for candida? Heard it increases leaky gut.