Yeast intolerance

Yeasts in food and intestinal flora
Quite popular among the proponents of various alternative medicines, practically absent in the official medicine textbooks, we are talking about yeast intolerance, a generic expression to indicate a dysbiosis of the intestinal flora with overgrowth of the fungal component, in particular of Candida albicans yeast.

We begin by saying that often the terms fungi and yeasts are used as synonyms, since the yeasts represent unicellular mushrooms of microscopic dimensions. Yeast intolerance In addition to the genus Candida, in the intestinal bacterial flora of man there are also fungi belonging to the genus Saccharomyces, Aspergillus and Penicillium. Going to analyze in detail the metabolism of these fungi, we realize that the ideal environment for their proliferation is generally particularly rich in sugars or more complex carbohydrates, which reach the level of the colon through food residues not absorbed at the level of small intestine.

The intestinal bacterial flora can be considered a sort of genetic imprint, different from individual to individual and influenced above all by the diet, which tends to favor some microbial species compared to others. Very important, in this sense, is the functionality of the digestive system that - with the same diet - can diversify the amount of ingested or poorly digested nutrients that arrive in the colon. Also some drugs, first of all antibiotics, corticosteroids and hormonal therapies (contraceptive pill, oral replacement therapy), can interfere with the microbial flora generating disomy pictures.

Although the alterations of the intestinal microbial flora find limited space in the textbooks of official medicine, more and more experts and empirical experiences hold them responsible for disturbances all in all not invalidating, but rather widespread in industrialized countries: from food intolerances to immune system imbalances and related consequences (increased susceptibility to infections, allergies, autoimmune diseases etc.), from fungal diseases (especially candida) to disorders of the alve (diarrhea, constipation, meteorism, flatulence, abdominal cramps, etc.), genital and urinary infections to nutritional deficiencies (especially vitamins and minerals), from predisposition to colorectal tumors to low physical efficiency, with migraine and a sense of weakness.