This page is based on Dr. Bruce Semon's clinical experience and research. This page
discusses how yeast can affect skin conditions, including psoriasis, eczema, and rashes. For detailed explanations, including an
more case studies, and how you can treat these skin conditions--we recommend that you read An Extraordinary Power to Heal.
Dr. Semon is available to see patients and for consultation. For more information about his medical practice, call 1-877-332-7899, or click here.
The following is a description of a woman with severe generalized itching whose symptoms were treated by safe effective therapy of a change of food choices described in our books An Extraordinary Power to Heal and Feast Without Yeast:4 Stages to Better Health and the non-absorbed anti-yeast medicine nystatin. I explain how to take nystatin in An Extraordinary Power to Heal. After the case, a brief explanation of why this treatment works is presented. I explain how yeast causes skin problems and how you can treat it thoroughly in An Extraordinary Power to Heal.
A case of severe generalized itching treated with anti-yeast therapy
Joan, 54, came to me and told me she had generalized itchiness on her neck, arms and chest. This itchiness went back to her childhood and had worsened four years previously. She had had eczema as a child. At the time of the visit she also had itchy eyes and eyelids. She had scaling of her scalp at the back, and inflammation of the skin of her elbows, upper chest and at the waistline of her back. She had seborrhea (fatty secretions on the skin). She was using a tar shampoo to control scaling. She had low energy, but this had improved some. She had been tried on homeopathy for one year but nothing had helped the itchy skin. Four years previously she had received a small amount of nystatin and some itching on her back had cleared. In addition she had hay fever and fibrous breasts. She was having hot flashes. She had used oral contraceptive pills in her late thirties and she had used antibiotics throughout her life. She was not taking any medications.
Joan started nystatin and the anti-yeast diet.
She came back three weeks later and said that she was taking 1/2 tsp. of nystatin three times a day. She complained of itching at the hairline of her neck and face. Her eyes were better. Her hot flashes had disappeared. She stated that her energy level was much improved. However, her scalp was still flaking. I observed that the inflammation of the skin of her elbows was nearly resolved and her eyes were not swollen.
She came back three weeks later and noted that her energy was still good. The itching on her body was better, but her neck and face were still bothersome. The scalp was less itchy. She could have sex more easily. Energy was still good. Her face appeared clear to me.
She came back three weeks later and reported that she was feeling much better. She still had a little itchiness in the morning, but it was mild. She stated that she felt 95% better overall. She noted that her itchiness would recur if she ate the wrong foods. Her hot flashes had come back, but they were not as often or as intense. In a later appointment she stated that the hot flashes would reoccur when the itchiness recurred.
I followed this patient for another five years. Joan found that her symptoms of itchiness would come back if she ate the wrong foods, such as vinegar or malt. The problem would disappear if she went back on the diet and continued to take nystatin. Otherwise she was free of her itching.
Explanation
Eczema, psoriasis and chronic rashes plague many people.
They can be treated successfully with anti-yeast treatment
including dietary change and using the anti-yeast medication nystatin.
The diet for Candida problems consists of removing fermented foods from the diet.
The worst offenders are alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic beer, vinegar, barley
malt, chocolate, pickles, and aged cheese. I explain the diet very thoroughly, including
how to implement the diet for children, in An Extraordinary Power to Heal and Feast Without Yeast:4 Stages to Better Health. Feast Without Yeast has more than 225 recipes that are easy to make and taste great! Our new cookbook, Extraordinary Foods for the Everyday Kitchen contains more than 125 additional new, original recipes and more than 60 menus to help you plan meals.
To understand how the yeast Candida
albicans causes skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis, first a brief overview of
the body's immune system and its interaction with Candida will be presented.
The best way to look at the immune system is to understand that the immune system has both defensive and offensive weapons. The main defensive weapon is inflammation. Inflammation is like putting up a wall, a hot wall, which makes it difficult for invading foreign microorganisms to get through. Inflammation will occur anytime the immune system contacts a foreign invader. But as you know the inflammation is painful. Along with the inflammation, should come the offensive weapons which kill the foreign invader. The problem is that Candida has many tricks to evade the offensive weapons of the body's immune system.
Candida is a very difficult organism for the body's
immune system to clear.
Why?
Candida has a number of tricks to evade the body's
immune system. One of these tricks is to change its outside. The
immune system recognizes the outside receptors of the invading organism
and then sends out signals to start an immune response. Some of
the immune responders then look for cells with those receptors.
Candida albicans can change the receptors which it is displaying, making
it difficult for the body's immune cells to react appropriately.
In essence, Candida albicans is a moving target, which changes
its form.
The most important thing to know about
Candida is that Candida albicans can make factors which suppress the
immune response to itself. These factors can be found in the circulation
of people with significant Candida infections. When these factors
are purified and placed in cultures of immune cells, these immune
cells do not develop the responses to
Candida which they are supposed to develop. In other words,
Candida can make factors, which prevent the body from reacting to and killing the
Candida. These factors prevent the total eradication of
Candida from the body.
The Candida can suppress the offensive weapons of the body's immune system. But the inflammation will still be generated because when the immune system detects a foreign invader, there will always be inflammation. The problem is that the foreign invader, the Candida, is not going away, because the immune system's offensive weapons are suppressed. The inflammation will remain and inflammation is painful and on the skin is not attractive.
Let us look at some research on Candida and skin.
Candida and disorders of the skin
