Candida o. Monila albicans Anhängsel b
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡
Frei
nach: Karl-Reinhard
Kummer
In recent
years, a number of authors have referred to intestinal Candida mycosis as a
distinct syndrome. A whole range of symptoms: alternating diarrhea, flatus,
lowered resistance to infection,
asthma,
eczema, neurodermatitis and psychological symptoms such as lack of drive,
depression. Generally speaking Candida albicans is said to be the main culprit.
Can Candida in the intestinal flora be ignored?
Many
authors hold the view that the presence of Candida in the intestines of healthy
subjects proves that Candida is part of the physiologic intestinal flora. A
basic problem is that they do not
define
"health or indeed consider its nature. Dumrese and Ehrhardt-Schmelzer did
at least establish that more than 50% of subjects shown to have Candida
albicans in their stools did not feel well.
The number
of organisms in the stool correlated with the IgG titer for Candida albicans.
It will clearly be necessary to give more thought to the definition of health.
Others
consider the presence of Candida albicans in the intestines to be a secondary
phenomenon when the intestinal milieu is abnormal (a case of food intolerance).
Many authors refer to the role
of
intestinal candidiasis in neurodermatitis and urticaria. Others only accept
infection with a confirmed physiologic correlate as pathological candidiasis.
The absence of confirmed infection
parameters
does not, however, permit the conclusion that Candida in the intestinal flora
is of no significance. Low-grade infections may exist (intestinal mycosis) is
often symptomless.
Some
patients actually only realize that they had not been well before once they
have been treated. Some authors assume that the absence of inflammatory changes
is actually a characteristic
of the
syndrome. We thus also have to ask how "healthy" individuals with
Candida in their flora will feel in a few years' time.
Is Candida albicans a physiologic
part of the intestinal flora?
Some
authors maintain that Candida albicans is part of the physiologic intestinal
flora. Male disputes this, despite the fact that he takes a critical view of
the so-called "Candida syndrome" or
of it being
taken to extremes. In his view, intestinal fungi were much more uncommon before
antibiotics came in, and also in primitive peoples. He also speaks of the role
played by excess nutrition
(infants
fed with formulas instead of mother's milk). Candida is not part of the primary
flora developing in the intestines of the newborn. Most authors who consider
intestinal Candida mycosis to be
pathological
believe there to be a connection with a disorder of intestinal homeostasis.
Only yeasts and Bifidum bacteria remain when antibiotics reduce the normal
bacterial flora.
Proliferation
of yeasts in the intestine may cause vitamins to be withdrawn. No evidence has
thus been brought that Candida albicans is physiologic in the intestine.
The
pathogenic Candida factors causing infection are well known adherence,
development of mycelia which may be invasive, enzyme production. It is not
clear, when and why saprophytic growth
becomes
pathologic. The secretory activity of immunoglobulin A, acting as a mediator
between mucosal cells and the inner intestine, is inhibited. It has been shown
that Saccharomyces boulardii yeast
can be
taken up into the intestine like particles derived from lifeless nature. The
situation may be expected to be similar with pathogenic yeasts. Authors agree
that fungal infections indicate an
area of
least resistance in the host. It is also known that small amounts of alcohols
are produced in cases of intestinal Candida mycosis. Treatment of intestinal
Candida reduces the blood alcohol levels, which are low in any case.
How reliable is current knowledge?
Investigation
of the intestinal micro ecology presents considerable methodological problems
(the anaerobic organisms that make up the greater part of the intestinal
flora).
According
to Sonnenbom and Greinwald, a complete analysis of a single individual's
intestinal flora done at a specialist institute would take a year! Positive
tests for Candida in serum, stools or biopsy material do not correlate with
identifiable pathologic conditions, which makes it difficult to evaluate the
results. It is also difficult to establish in which part of the intestine the
yeasts are growing.
Not much is
known about possible symbiosis of yeasts and the human intestinal mucosa. More
data are available on therapeutic exhibition of Saccharomyces boulardii.
Gibson,
Savage, Sonnenbom and Greinwald report on treatment with probiotics.
Abnormalities
in the intestinal flora may even induce premature births. This does, however, require
fuller investigation. Lack of knowledg is confirmed by Gibson, Stremmel and by
Wedding et al. Stremmel does refer to the many investigations stored under
"Candida" in databanks, but not on intestinal mycosis. The Medline
Databank has no record of work on mycotoxins and on alcohol production by
Candida or
yeasts in humans for the years 1991-1996. Thus the effect of yeasts on the
mucosal surfaces of the intestine or of enzymes secreted into the intestinal
lumen is not yet known.
There
appears to be particular ignorance in the German-speaking areas. Barnert and
Wienbeck(4) make no reference to the possibility of dysbacterial conditions in
their review, though its effect appears to have been established.
When is treatment required?
Basically,
evidence of yeasts in the intestine or stools does not call for treatment. In
children in particular this may be a passing phenomenon. Minor infections may
quite often be followed by
short-term
fungal growth in the intestine and this is spontaneously reversible. With food
allergies an elimination diet often reduces even massive yeast levels.
In the view
of those who consider intestinal mycosis to be a definite syndrome, it involves
chronic changes that are difficult to detect. One thus gets a varied picture of
absent or mild
symptoms
and is not sure whether to treat them or not. As fungi tend to be parasitic or
saprophytic, their existence goes largely unnoticed. In this respect, too, they
behave differently from
pathogenic
bacteria which as a rule evoke inflammatory defense reactions. Asymptomatic
bacteriuria is thus the exception, lack of symptoms with intestinal mycosis the
rule.
Many people
say after successful treatment that they feel a great deal better.
Unidentifiable abdominal problems with fungi found in stool cultures may be an
indication for ex iuvantibus treatment.
It has to
be considered that the detection of fungi in stool smears may also give falsely
negative results.
Unless we
have a concept of "health", with criteria for "well" or
"ill", we can only have opinions. The essential nature of the human
being has to be considered as a whole, including soul and spirit,
to know if
one is dealing with states of health or illness.
The nature of fungi
Simonis has
giving a loving botanical description of the fungi as seen by a physician. He
calls them retarded life forms that still have an echo of the ancient Saturn
period of human and earth evolution
and have
been unable to relate to the more recent development of the Sun period. In
terms of earth evolution they may be considered to belong to the Moon period of
earth evolution known as Lemuria. Schoeffler on the other hand considers above
all the points of view and way of thinking that have led to the use of
antibiotics.
Variety and adaptability
The
systematics of fungi cover many categories. A role in medicine play:
Epidermophytes (Microsporum, Trichophyton),
Molds (Mucor, Fusarium, cephalospores,
Aspergillus, penicillin, cladospores and alternaria),
Yeasts (blastomycetes) such as Candida,
Cryptococcus, Saccharomyces, Trichosporum, Geotrichum,
Dimorph fungi (Blastomyces, Histoplasma,
Coccidioides, Sporothrix), etc.
About 180
species have been found to be potentially pathogenic to humans.
R.S. and
Simonis referred to fungi as life forms living in the Moon region of the earth.
They originate in the element of warmth, like pollen, but then go into the
sphere of decay as saprophytes.
Their
fruiting bodies face the soil and not the light as in higher plants. R.S. spoke
of the way algae and fungi strongly absorb the astrality of an environment.
Fungi may
really be considered to be unicellular. They are eukaryotic and without
chlorophyll and therefore have to depend on nutrients in organic matter as a
source of energy. On the other hand
they are
also capable of living under exclusion of light. Fungi can specialize and
elongate, sprout and produce hyphae. These may form networks called mycelia.
Deriving from a single cell these are
called
thalli, and if loosely structured colonies. Fungi are able to bud or grow spores
to produce conidia, some of them mobile. The spores may be sexual or asexual.
Some produce hyphae which then produce mushrooms, as they are commonly called
(boletus, fly agaric). The spores are shed in autumn, similar to the pollen of
flowering plants.
Fungal
spore allergy in autumn is the counter image in time of the seasonal pollen
allergy in spring.
Fungi do
not produce fruit in the proper sense. Their fruiting element are the asexual
spores (Aspergillus). Sexual reproduction of spores involves reproduction from
the thallus itself with the
aid of
sexual mechanisms and heterosexual reproduction from different kinds of genetic
material. There are fungi where such structures are not known, and also
parasexual exchanges between different fungi.
Many fungi
produce surface pigments to face the light (Agar). Their actual growth sphere
is colorless. In this they differ fundamentally from many higher plants (those
producing pigments in the root). We might go so far as to say that fungi do the
opposite of higher plants when it comes to color. A rose producing red in its
leaves seeks to fend off astralization.
In
pigment-producing fungi the color is part of the astrality they seek to absorb,
especially in the case of toadstools and mushrooms. R.S. referred to diphtheria
as fungus-like and suggested
treating it
with cinnabar red, saying that this would tie up the astral body more closely
with the ether body. The same applies to Agar.
In many
respects fungi hold a half-way position in nature. Their skeletal matter is the
chitin of insects (not in the case of yeasts, however). In their great variety,
the alternation of spore, resting
stage and
shoot form they are close to the algae. R.S. stressed this: "... and so
everything that is fungal by nature has a close relationship with the lower
animal world, bacteria and similar
creatures,
and particularly with harmful parasites“. Fungi may thus be said to be a kind
of chameleon in lower nature, adapting to any given situation.
Fungi and temperatures
Fungi grow
at widely differing temperatures. In the human body they thrive at 37° C (also
at lower temperatures). They are at home in a cool, dark space. But they do not
shun humid warmth either.
Some
specialists among them thrive at quite high environmental temperatures. Spores
in particular may be extremely heat resistant whilst they also tolerate very
cold temperatures, retaining their
germinative
power for a long time.
Fungi live
in a sphere of warmth that is as yet undifferentiated and in an excess of
organic matter. Harking back to earlier stages of earth evolution they have a
relationship to the ancient nitrogen
and cyanide
atmosphere. They do not as a rule generate heat energy in their quite
considerable metabolic processes but consume it. They will thus often maintain
coolth. Bacterial processes on
the other
hand tend to generate heat, as in the spontaneous ignition of hay. Fungi often
produce gases and relate more to the watery and airy rather than the heat
element. This preference for the watery and airy elements may be the reason why
they preferably attack the lungs and intestines in human infections.
Symbiotic
union of fungi and the roots of plants produce mycorrhiza, a borderline region
between organically structured plant matter and the completely lifeless mineral
soil.
Such
mediation between plant and soil prefigures life, providing excess nitrogen is
present.
Substances
produced in the mycorrhiza have a deadening effect on the surrounding area.
Substances from bacteria inhibit fungal growth and vice versa (griseofulvin
from penicillin). Most
modern
antibiotics derive largely from fungi, or were originally derived from their
substances. 2) thus also refer to tumor-active substances in fungi. R.S.'s
abovementioned comments may be taken as a spiritual scientific pointer to
possible antibiotic actions; which is what Simonis thought. Nystatin has
however been isolated from Streptomyces strains capable of producing both
antibacterial
and antimycotic substances. Toxin production thus seems to be a characteristic
of the whole group of fungi, and this no doubt also includes Candida. Nothing
of any account has however been published on Candida toxins in recent years.
Relationship to light
Whilst
bacteria relate more to warmth, algae differ from fungi in that they show a
definite orientation towards light. With their chlorophyll they draw the light
down into the water, using it to produce matter in photosynthesis. Binding of
iodine by algae also relates to the light.
Fungi do
not have these important faculties, being unable to open up to light. They
actually prefer the lightless sphere of humus and the roots of higher plants
and thrive best under light exclusion.
It is only
occasionally that they send the fruiting bodies we know as mushrooms and
toadstools up into the air from the damp rotting soil. This would seem to be to
seek the air, rather than the light,
so that
their spores may spread.
The basic
shape of fungi, the spore, is spherical. We thus have a plant in the plant
world that consists entirely in a kind of head. Fungi do not develop the leaf
sphere which is so much the essence
of plant
nature. They therefore also do not relate to the rhythmic processes connected
with leaf development. Instead they produce a "flower" at ground level,
as R.S. put it, also saying that their development is peculiarly astralized.
This would explain why they do not relate to the human intestinal system, which
is based on plant leaf-type principles, but may become pathogenic in it,
similar to
the lung.
R.S. also
spoke of the soil itself being the basis for fungal life, with fungi not rising
above its sphere. It is different with trees. The powers of the earth make them
grow beyond the soil, taking them up into the light. Fungal metabolism thus
also relates little to light, unlike that of intestinal bacteria.
Putrefactive
bacteria convert matter into bound heat and light energy in their high-energy
metabolism. Their heat and light processes integrate in the organism. This is
not the case with parasitic fungi. They generally use only partial stages of
metabolism, leaving the rest to putrefaction. Their metabolism thus does not
submit to the principles that guide the human organism, which relates strongly
to light.
Relationship to matter
Fungi play
an important role in dealing with dying matter in the soil. They show a
preference for residues from living organisms that contain nitrogen, thus
facilitate nitrogen metabolism for plants.
Fungi also
contribute a great deal to carbon conversion in the world.
Their
capacity for converting large amounts of substrate makes them an ideal means of
conducting metabolic processes in an industrial context. They also have the
advantage that they do not on the whole bring about complete lysis but perform
only part stages. Another important advantage is that they finally yield the
original substance again, either as a substrate or as a gas such as CO2.
Bacterial metabolism on the other hand not only converts matter to heat energy,
as mentioned above, but this energy is often converted to high energy matter
and stored in the bacterium. Fungi thus are selfless in their metabolism,
releasing the substance they have been processing. On the other hand they are
also toxic, releasing their metabolic products unprotected into the environment.
Large scale
industrial utilization of fungi started in the late 1920s. Citric acid is
almost exclusively produced with the aid of fungi, annual production being more
than 100.000 tons. It is unlikely
to be any
field in the food and chemical industries where fungi do not play a major role.
The numerous enzymatic processes used in the food industry also imitate fungal
metabolism.
R.S.
characterized their growth, with degradation, decomposition and excess of
matter as dying life. Compared to bacteria, fungi appear to take the
degradation of matter only to a certain level.
Thus
fermentation, a self-limiting process with a relatively low energy yield, is
one of their characteristics. They limit their activity in the conversion of
matter, letting others take the process to completion. Constructive metabolism
is taken care of by plants in the soil and by intestinal bacteria in the human
intestine, in either case with the aid of light processes. It may be assumed
that the attachment to dying processes seen in fungi means that humans
suffering from mycosis are confronted with increased levels of toxic
decomposition products.
This
behavior towards matter, with retardation of a whole digestive process in favor
of part processes, concerns an aspect of fungal pathology that has so far been
given little attention. Fungi prevent the complete digestion necessary for the
human organism. Humans need to convert all matter into a form that is their
own. "Anything taken in from outside (into the human organism, author) must
either merely be something that enables it to develop its own activity; or it
has to act in such a way in the body that the foreign activity does not differ
from one of the body's own inner activities once it has entered into the body“.
Fungi not only remain parasitic foreign bodies in man but also provide their
host with a parasitic metabolism, at least in the intestine.
It has long
been known that fungi grow more actively in sugar solutions. Vaginal mycosis
thus develops quite often during pregnancy with its tendency towards
pre-diabetes. This still calls for more large-scale studies. It seems that
one-sided excess of matter with high-level sugar consumption favors fungal
growth.
Behavior of I-organization and
astral body
As one
would expect, medical nomenclature tends to obscure the situation rather than
clarify it. It is difficult to know if a fungus is
Commensal = "just there";
Borderline being pathogenic =
"mutualist"
Takes away important nutrients =
"parasite"
Producing toxins/by means of invasive infection
= directly pathogenic.
The basic
process we find in humans with intestinal mycosis has to do with conditions
R.S. described under the heading of neurasthenia. Pathological processes may
develop if the upper and lower
activities
in the human organization are not sufficiently in accord with each other, with
the upper not intervening adequately in the lower, and head processes staying
among themselves. The digestion
is weak as
a result, unable to assimilate foreign food matter adequately. The individual's
attention is too much on the outside world, allowing foreign processes to enter
to excess and meeting this with an excessive secondary reaction. These
processes, which one also sees with allergies, were described by Rudolf R.S.
Weakness of
definition may also be due to the opposite condition, which is the kind of
hypersensitivity one sees with hysteria. Metabolism makes itself independent,
and wounds may be caused.
An example
of the overweening metabolic activity described by R.S. would be candidal
diaper rash of short duration when infants are teething. It generally ends when
the teeth erupt.
Relationship to allergy
Allergies
arise because foreign processes are not properly perceived. One often sees food
allergies in conjunction with intestinal mycosis. The intolerance often only
shows itself with a careful elimination
and
re-exposition diet. The human being is not able to register the foreign nature
of the food nor the foreign fungal flora. In the author's experience people
allergic to milk protein, hen's egg white, almond
and soya
tend to attract Candida rather than other yeasts. These are often people with
an overweening metabolism who are more inclined towards hysterical disorders.
Aspergillus
in stool will often show a neurasthenic component and have cereal grain
allergies.
Fungal
infection might be seen as a barometer indicating that the I-organization is
not intervening adequately in the organism. Humans differ from animals in that
foods must be thoroughly killed off and then built up again in a completely
individual way. With both allergy and intestinal mycosis we may assume that the
origin lies in a neurasthenic constitution. Metabolic predominance and
hysterical wounding
are then
secondary phenomena. It seems likely that such foreign processes also appear
temporarily in the course of acute diseases that weaken the constitution as a
whole.
It is
possible that fungi with their foreign substance are in themselves an allergen.
It may also be possible that their presence "triggers" the actions of
other allergens. Some patients with neurodermatitis
do not
improve with diet and constitutional treatment but only when their intestinal
mycosis has been dealt with.
Fungal
growth in the intestine has its own dynamics. The I or the I-organization
cannot integrate them into its own growth principles. The result is that an
area in the organism which is not under control is occupied by other life forms
with foreign activity. In connection with the "bacillus theory", R.S.
repeatedly said that it was the soil which mattered and not the bacillus. Fungi
also work against the I-organization in another respect. They produce alcohols
from higher fatty acids. These not only cause destruction and toxic effects but
also make people sleepy, weakening the human I-organization.
The
activities of the I depend on warmth and light. Abnormal fat absorption may
cause too much (gets pathological heat foci) or too little fat to enter the
organism (= malnutrition).
Post's thermography shows intestinal areas
subject to mycotic changes to be colder, possibly because the fungi act against
the warmth organization. This would be another possible explanation of their
negative effect on immune defenses.
Aspects relating to the treatment of intestinal
mycosis
The main
aim of treatment based on the anthroposophical view of the human being must be
to give the I or I-organization and the astral body better access to the lower
human being and intestine. Actual treatment of the mycosis is of secondary
importance. The suggestions made below can, in the author's view, only be
general. Treatment has to be individual to each patient. An attempt will also
be made to consider the treatments suggested in the literature and find the
rationale for their actions in the light of anthroposophical physiology.
Eurythmy therapy
Aims to
support the I-organization in its actions in the body. This calls for general
treatment to promote health in soul and spirit, to support the human being in
his activity.
R.S. had a
great deal to say about the digestion, devoting the whole of the 4th lecture in
the eurythmy therapy course to it. Eurythmy therapy is therefore the method
that does most to strengthen the I-organization, for it directly addresses the
activity of the human individual.
Nutrition
Many
authors refer to the importance of the diet. The negative effect of refined
sugar is stressed by all. This is understandable, for the preparation of sugar
is one of the central functions of the I-organization. Taking too much refined
and processed sugar, one relieves the I-organization of its function and thus
weakens it.
A special
diet always addresses a person's will. R.S. thus also spoke of the helpfulness
of a diet chosen of one's own free will and of the way activity is reduced by a
diet taken in a purely passive way.
Many of the
diets suggested in the lay press unfortunately ask people to follow the advice
of others blindly. One also suspects that some have no proper foundation. Thus
it is difficult to see how a fungus
can be
"starved out". The opposite view, that a low-sugar diet to
"starve it out" would give the fungus an extra appetite for the
intestinal wall, is equally difficult to understand. Many of the measures
recommended in the literature weaken patients rather than strengthening them.
Special diets are always "asocial" and egotistical by nature, as R.S.
made very clear.
They should
therefore only be of limited duration.
A sudden
change to a wholegrain diet which is difficult to digest may also prove
harmful. High proportions of roughage containing cellulose may induce
fermentation with negative consequences.
The foods
relate to some degree to organs. Foods influencing the liver (bitter yxc) are
recommended. A root diet with its mineral content strengthens the astral head
powers
in the
upper human being, with the result that he no longer has to be active in
metabolism. Lactic fermentation products such as sauerkraut or yogurt
strengthen the astral body.
Strengthening the I-organization medically
Medicines
based on quartz or silica serve this purpose. According to R.S., "silica
is the external correlate, outward directed activity for the
I-organization" or "the physical basis for the I-organization“.
Treatment with Cichorium also comes under this heading, for instance as
Cichorium/ Pancreas comp. pilules (Wala). Stibium supports delimiting processes
in the intestine/if the basic problem is an allergy Antimonite w. Kalium aceticum compositum w
Plumbum D 1/Stannum D 14 w
facilitates I-organization intervention or its delimiting function. All mercury
preparations help the mercurial process in
which the
I-organization is active in the small intestine. Respiratory function in the
lower human being can be encouraged with an iron silicate preparation
(Nontronite 12x w). Roots containing
pigments or extracts of these would also go in this direction carrot juice,
beetroot, aloes.
Phosphorus and sulfur based
medicines strengthen the lower abdomen
The
relationship between phosphorous flowering processes and the lower abdominal
organs was shown by R.S. All medicines based on flowering plants have this
effect, wormwood for example, with the flowering green part of the plant used
(Absinthium 1x dil., w). Treatment
with Aloe (1x dil., w), Resina
Laricis 1x dil. w, propolis extract,
evening primrose oil (= Verbascum o. Nachtkerzenöl),
Gammocur or
similar), borage oil, garlic (Allium sativum 1x dil., w) or onion (Allium cepa 1x dil., w) or Myrrhinil intest (chamomile flowers, birch charcoal and myrrh).
Digestodoron (Fern and bracken spores) or Aquilinum comp. pilules (Wala), have
the sulfurous character of the spores as their active principle. R.S. referred
to their action as strengthening the catabolic principles in the digestive
tract.
The effect
pigments have on the astral body is also an important aspect of diet beetroot,
carrots, roots, leaf vegetables. The common aspect to this treatment is that
the powers of light are enhanced in the intestine.
Suggested
treatments for intestinal mycosis thus resemble those for warts or worms, where
the weakness of the astral body towards external influences is increased. Also
Thuja.
The
phosphorus process exists also in the antimycotics used in conventional
medicine. These contain either pigments such as gentian violet with its surface
action, or they may be regarded as pigments,
azoles, for
instance (micononazole, ketokonazole, fluconazole), or may be chemically
converted to pigments. Tonoftal is not a pigment, a antibioticum. As their
action is purely physical, the effect often lasts only for as long as they are
given. Etheric activity has to take over. If this does not happen, or we do not
aim to make it happen with treatment, the danger of resistance developing is
great also with fungi,
though this
was not considered possible in the past. Instead of giving chemical
antimycotics one may also try relatively high vitamin C doses, 1/2 tsp t.i.d.,
starting low and gradually going up to this.
Sandthom
(sea buckthorn) original or "low sugar" elixir (Weleda) have a
similar effect.
Insufflation
of ozone into the intestine is another sulfurous type of treatment. About 200
ml are produced using a generator and insufflated into the rectum using a
syringe and catheter. The ozone is bound to break down pretty quickly at body
temperature, and its effect as a substance probably does not go beyond the
sigmoid, yet convincing results have been seen in treating severe
neurodermatitis with
Candida
confirmed in the stools.
Sugars, bitters, tannins
Roots with
their sugars, bitter principles and tannins directly stimulate I, astral body
and physical body activity (GA 319). This strengthens the totality of the upper
human being's activity in the digestion. Instead of a pathological
head-development in the lower human beings, as in the case of malnutrition, one
has penetration of the digestive functions. (Gent-l. w/ Gentiana comp. pilules, Wala) or Geum urbanum Rh D 3 w.
In the
author's experience there is a point to focusing on particular organs in
treating different forms of intestinal mycosis. In his experience, treatment
with the emphasis on the liver is effective with Candida mycosis, giving
Hepatodoron, Chelidonium, Taraxacum or Cichorium, for example. Aspergillus
mycosis appears to be more of a kidney problem, and Carbo Betulae or Equisetum
may be considered, possibly in form of Equisetum cum sulfure tostum 6x trit.
(Weleda).
Pancreatic
extracts or bitters to encourage secretion are also helpful, Pancreas 1x trit. w, for instance. Cichorium/Pancreas
comp. pilules (Wala) or Cichorium Rh 3x w
may also be considered. Treatment with pancreatic enzymes may sometimes serve
the purpose, possibly in combination with bile acids, or also gastric acid
substitution.
Antagonism between bacteria and fungi
Another
approach to treatment involves substitution and promotion of the physiologic
intestinal flora. R.S. spoke of antagonism between bacteria and fungi in 1924.
A wide range of preparations is now available that contain Bifidum bacteria,
lactobacilli, Bacteroides or Bacterium subtilis. Though widely used, data are
not really adequate in this field. Many preparations contain lactose or milk
protein, which has to be taken into account if there are allergies in this
direction. Treatment has to be long-term, which means it is more costly. If the
choice of substitution is right, the method does, however, frequently prove
effective.
Guided
symbiosis is said to influence immune functions. Again it has to be continued
for some time.
3. try
substitution with Coli bacteria to restore the milieu, e.g. with Symbioflor 2
or Mutaflor. Others recommend Coli substitution only, to match the development
of the first flora in the newbom.
Some laboratories specialize in producing
individual symbiont preparations based on an analysis of the intestinal flora.
These methods, too, are often effective but costly.
A principle
R.S. mentioned in the Agriculture course probably has not yet been
systematically applied to clinical treatment for humans. He suggested river or
wetland meadows among the fields. "For if we manage to have not only
woodlands (birds live above all in softwood trees, mammals in shrubs and
bushes, author) but also river or wetland meadows suitably close to the farm,
these
meadows will prove particularly helpful to farming in that they provide a good
soil for fungi. And one should see to it that the soil of those meadows
contains fungi. You will then make the strange discovery that where you have
wetland meadows, meadows rich in fungi... close to a farm, these fungi will
because of their relationship to bacteria and other parasitic creatures keep
such creatures away from others. ... The right balance and placing of woodland,
orchards, shrubs and bushes and wetland meadows with a certain natural fungal
culture is so much the essence of a good farming situation that one may even
have to reduce the area utilizable for agricultural purposes to some extent..“.
Displacement treatment using
apathogenic yeasts
This has
been used in a particular section of natural medicine in recent times. The
yeast referred to as apathogenic which is generally used is Saccharomyces
boulardii.
Nosodes out with the old
Finally
nosodes or similar preparations are used to influence the retarded development
aspect. As fungi are connected with the ancient Moon stage of earth evolution,
man must let go of that aspect and take his evolution forward. This may be the
rationale of Monilia albicans 30x pilules (Staufen) or Albicansan 5x dil./
Nigersan 5x dil. (Sanum Kehlbeck), for example.
Prospects
Candida
infections are on the increase, above all in patients with immune deficits, in
premature infants, and indeed with epiglottitis. Fungi are also getting
resistant to antimycotics, probably by selection of resistant strains after
antimycotic treatment.
Unfortunately
the issue of an abnormal intestinal flora, e.g. "dysbacteria" or
"overgrowth syndrome,” mainly discussed by physicians working with natural
medicine. This should not be a matter for division between conventional and
natural medicine but for more intensive basic research. Koletzko and
Baumler-Meri are right in asking that the discussion should be more objective
and not emotive.
This would
also mean that patients' feelings of being unwell must be taken seriously.
It may be
justifiable to refer to psychopathologic phenomena in many instances. But these
only apply to a small proportion of patients. If both physician and patient are
realistic in their expectations,
the risk of
aggravating any hysterical and depressive desire to be sick, with "fungi
in the intestines," is low. On the other hand there is no reason to put on
airs and declare that this disorder does not rank as a disease at all.
Modern
medicine clearly is still only beginning to get somewhere with fungus research.
The literature relating to industrial uses is vast. But the last investigation
of fungal infections in German swimming baths is more than 10 years old. The
simple treatment of oral candidiasis is also less effective than is often
thought. Nor are people in the habit of giving much thought to the matter of
intestinal homeostasis, as may be seen from a paper by B. Koletzko, who denies
the existence of problems due to the wrong bacterial flora. Patients experience
a lack of understanding, with the result that attempts at lay
treatment
are common. The modern school of medicine must be challenged to pay attention
to these syndromes and not deny their existence.
To date,
then, Candida mycosis is not an accepted disease entity, and work has not gone
beyond the description of individual cases. The uncertainties that exist in
relation to diagnosis and treatment have to be accepted. They make it possible
for practitioners to refuse to accept intestinal mycosis as a syndrome or to
include it in their own critical review of potential treatments. Until firmer
data are available, the positive results of a treatment must be accepted
"ex iuvantibus". It would not be the first time that new perspectives
have arisen in medicine by humbly taking note of existing uncertainties.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum