Bacterial/Yeast Overgrowth

“How does one overcome bacterial / yeast overgrowth in the gut? What herbs are good for treating yeast/candida issues? Thank You.
Vidhya P.”

Dear Vidhya: This is a really great question. I deal with this problem on a daily basis with almost every patient in my practice. This problem is one that is fairly easy to fix, but many people are having a hard time fixing it because they need to be under the care of someone who is familiar with the problem.

You really can’t take herbs that will fix this problem. Instead, you have to re-culture the friendly bacteria in the gut. This is not so hard to do, but I would refer you to one of the  SVA practitioners, so they can first get your history and then prescribe the correct remedies.

In general, however, if there is too much heat (pitta) in the gut or an acid pH in the system, the friendly bacteria that reside in the gut can die off. These friendly bacteria are responsible for preventing yeast and bacterial overgrowth in the gut. If you take any remedy to kill infection, such as oregano oil, pau darco tea, garlic (these are some of the remedies our patients have tried before coming in to see me) it won’t work. Even the pharmaceuticals, such as diflucan and flagyll don’t work, because what all these things do is kill infection. Once you kill the infection, it will grow right back.
So the real key to the problem is to re-establish the friendly bacteria, which will automatically kill the infection in the gut and prevent any future re-occurrence. Re-growing the friendly bacteria is just like growing seeds in a garden -­ you need something that acts like a fertilizer, a good seed (probiotic culture which is alive -­ all the yogurts in the supermarket have very little active cultures and most of the probiotics on the market are dead cultures). These friendly bacteria are very delicate, so when you process a probiotic or make yogurt and keep it on the supermarket shelf for days, the cultures automatically die off.

And finally, Dr.Mishra made a formula to fix the lining of the gut so the friendly bacteria can grow -­ like bringing new topsoil into the garden.

Then, if you combine this with an alkaline diet, the gut will be free of any pathogens.

I treat patients via telephone conferences around the world. If you want a phone consultation with me, we charge $3.00 a minute, and I can go over your history with you and see what your program will be to fix the problem. My telephone # is 856-786-3330. Most telephone consultations usually last about 20 minutes.

Dr.Marianne Teitelbaum
Cinnaminson, New Jersey