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Oxygen Kills Candida - Myth #7 I’d like to welcome you back today for another
one in our series of Candida myth videos. Today’s Candida myth is “Oxygen kills
Candida.” The best way to dispel this myth is just to
look at the basic physiology of the human intestinal tract. The small intestine is approximately
20 feet in length, and the large intestine is approximately 5 feet in length. Within
this 25-foot tube exists 100 trillion bacterial cells. These 100 trillion cells outnumber
human cells by a factor of ten to one. Within these 100 trillion cells, we know that 95
to 99 percent of them are anaerobic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria live in an oxygen-deprived
environment, and it takes an oxygen-deprived environment to create the ecosystem of the
digestive tract. Aerobic bacteria, which are commonly found
in the environment, live in an oxygen-rich environment. The air around you is an example
of an oxygen-rich environment, and the air in outer space would be an example of an oxygen-deprived
environment. When discussing bacteria, we wanna understand that there are bacteria that
are either obligate aerobes or anaerobes, or they are facultative aerobes or anaerobes.
Obligate aerobes are obligated to live in an oxygen-rich environment. Facultative aerobes
can live either in an oxygen-rich or an oxygen-deprived environment.
Now, this is true also for obligate anaerobes. Obligate anaerobes are obligated to live in
an oxygen-deprived environment; whereas, facultative anaerobes can live in either an oxygen-rich
or an oxygen-deprived environment. So when we’re discussing Candida, it’s important
to note that Candida is classified as a facultative anaerobe. That means it can live in an oxygen-deprived
environment, such as the intestinal tract and much of the human tissues of the body,
or it can live in an oxygen-rich environment, such as the surface of your skin or tongue.
An example of an aerobic fungal Candida infection would be thrush or some type of fungal skin
condition. Most of the initial research that was done
with Candida involved Candida in an aerobic state, so most people are aware of thrush
or fungal skin infections. And ask anybody who has a thrush infection; this is a very
difficult infection to get rid of. And many times, fungal Candida skin infections are
the same way. It wasn’t until later years that they started to actually investigate
Candida as a facultative anaerobe and looking into anaerobic environments, such as the intestinal
tract. So from the basic physiology, we can see that
Candida, as a facultative anaerobe, can live either in an oxygen-rich environment or an
oxygen-deprived environment. This alone dispels the myth that oxygen kills Candida. If we
take it further, we find that Candida is very adaptive, and almost instantaneously adaptive,
in its anaerobic environment in the digestive tract.
Some of our earlier videos demonstrate the effects of white blood cells in trying to
destroy Candida. When a white blood cell, such as a macrophage or a neutrophil, consumes
a bacteria – and we have videos that are on our site that demonstrate this – you’ll
see that within a few seconds, the bacteria dissolves inside the white blood cell.
© Copyright 2010-2011, All Rights Reserved, Dr. Jeffrey S. McCombs, DC Page 111 of 130
However, when these same white blood cells consume Candida, the Candida survives. So
it’s important to look at what’s happening in a white blood cell.
When a substance is consumed by a white blood cell, the white blood cell forms a little
sac around the bacteria, or the Candida, and then, inside the white blood cell, there will
be another sac that is filled with oxygen. These two sacs will meet, the oxygen will
be released into the sac containing the microorganism, and it’ll cause dissolution, or dissolving
of that organism, spontaneously. But when you see videos of Candida being consumed by
white blood cells, you see the Candida inside the white blood cells accumulate more and
more because the oxygen has no effect against the Candida.
Another place to look is back to the research. Candida contains a molecule called a quorum-sensing
molecule called farnesol. Farnesol enables Candida to survive high levels of oxygen if
it’s ever exposed to that within the digestive tract. A quorum-sensing molecule like farnesol
plays a role in determining whether Candida becomes a yeast form or a fungal form, and
that’s what quorum-sensing molecules do. They have an effect on the genetics and how
the genetics function inside the cells. So based on our understanding of the physiology,
based on what we know about Candida as a facultative anaerobe, and based on what research studies
continue to show us, it’s easy to see that Candida is not affected by oxygen, and, in
fact, seems to grow even hardier in an oxygen-rich environment.