One of the things that I see every day when I look at people with gut issues is yeast overgrowth. If you have yeast overgrowth, you can often have symptoms of gas, bloating, constipation, acne, skin rashes, a white film in your mouth or on your tongue, rashes, hair loss, and several other issues.

Now the question comes up as to how did you get these issues? You had an event, infection, or medical drugs like antibiotics. You ate food with antibiotics like chicken at a restaurant, but I often see this from psychological stress. Stress shifts your body to a completely different way of functioning.

This new way of functioning is called a sympathetic state or fight-flight. While in this state your body changes blood flow and thus oxygen to the arms and legs to either fight or run away from things.

This means that the blood, oxygen, energy are all moved away from the gut. If you are like this for an hour or so, you will be more or less fine. However, if you are stressed out all day or most of the day, that is bad news. If you are stressed out every day, we have a major problem. Not just with yeast, but let's stay there for today.

Your probiotics start to die first. Then, since there is now more room for the yeast that is always, and should be, it starts to take over in your gut. It spreads to all the areas where the probiotics used to be. Once this happens, there is no room for the weaker good bacteria to live. So even if you take probiotics, it will not normally help that much.

This is when you need to start by killing the yeast. And this can take a long time if it comes out of your skin or creates reoccurring issues like vaginal yeast or oral yeast issues. However, it is important to do if you want to have a high quality of life for a long period. There are a couple of ways to do this. Medically Diflucan or Nystatin are good choices; if you go the natural route, then I like black cumin oil and oregano oil. Now, if you are going to take oregano, I would recommend mixing it or emulsifying it with citrus oil so that it works more in the gut than in the mouth and throat.

Either way, these should start the process. It is important to note that if you have yeast and you start killing it, you will have to work on your detox organs as the dead yeast still has to travel out of the body somehow. So, watch your kidney packs and your liver clearance. Once you have killed the yeast getting in probiotics is going to be critical to preventing the regrowth of yeast.

If you have the stress every day, you will have to change a number of the things you do for your body but taking probiotics will be at the top of that list. That will allow for good gut health and prevent another yeast overgrowth.

Please send your questions to questions@chalmerswellness.com and we will answer all of them! 

Dr. Matt Chalmers