CANDIDA!! THE MUSICAL: No Not Really, But It's Time For Things To Change

Ooohkay. This was the spring of yeast, and I don't mean the nutritional kind. I have had a lot of people contacting me with intestinal Candida issues, asking me for advice.

Not sure why this was - perhaps some of the airborne fungus from Oregon drifting South (no I am not shi**ing you, it killed two people already), or perhaps it is just the outreach of living in particularly chaotic times that are demanding that we change in ways we perhaps never thought possible or necessary.

(Or maybe it's our crappy American diet that seems to be made of flour, sugar and caffeine - never!! Unhand my eclair!!)

The larger way to view a yeast overgrowth or Candida issue is that it is a problem that develops where there is phelgm. Phlegm is-in a Traditional Chinese Medicine sense-the stuff that is produced and accumulates in parts of the body where chi is "stuck" or not flowing through. So this phlegm represents stagnation. Whether this stagnation is the result of physical stasis or emotional resistance, doesn't matter. It isn't a good thing.

Most of us have phlegm, because most of us are stuck in one way or another - on an idea, a habit, a pre-conceived notion of how our lives are supposed to be or what we ourselves are supposed to look like.

Less metaphysically, most of us eat and drink things that we know our bodies don't react well to, and we continue to do it because we believe it's our god-given right as Americans to eat french fry nachos with extra sour cream.

There's a lot on the web about yeast, some of it written by highly paranoid nut jobs who seem to have made fighting their yeast problem a full time job and are now on a crusade to make you as paranoid as them. But here's some suggestions on how to keep it simple. I'll get more detailed later on.

1.) Whatever you were eating while this problem developed - especially the things you eat everyday - it's better to take a vacation from them now. Don't think of it as cutting something out as much as making room for new things to be invited in.

2.) Sunlight is good! Not excessive of course, but sunlight is particularly healing.

3.) Vary your habits. Whatever they are. It's a good time to alter whatever rut you are in.

4.) Clean house of all unnecessary chemicals. Switch your cosmetics to things that have ingredients you recognize. Put as little strain on your immune system as possible.

More specific suggestions next time.