Date:    Sat, 24 May 2003 12:23:11 -0500
From:    Barbara Wilson-Clay <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: "yeast"

I doubt that it is yeast.  If the mom needed clindamycin, she must have had
a rip-roaring bacterial infection.  Sometimes these can be quite persistent.
She may also have had scar tissue formation as the result of the mastitis
that is impacting (in an on-going way) the drainage patterns of the affected
breast.  If the breast repeatedly plugs, the resultant inflammatory mastitis
in a breast still recovering or harboring a lingering low-grade bacterial
infection, would flare everytime milk stasis occurs.

I appreciate the fact that the issue of elimination of sweets has been
around for a long time in terms of the ideology of yeast infection.  I am
still awaiting a definitive research link to support this particular belief.
Another possible explanation for the sugar craving may be the fact that many
postpartum mothers have protein deficits. From the Children's Nutrition
Research Center (a US Dept. of Agriculture facility) newsletter, Nutrition
and Your Child, 1992:  "...CNRC sesearch shows that even the recommended
protein intake for nursing mothers is too low..."  I suspect that harried
postpartum moms who aren't cooking or eating normally crave sugar because
they are craving quick energy fixes.  I wonder if the effect of dietary
sugar restriction is that it forces them to eat other (probably healthier)
things, and this improves their general enegy level and sense of well-being.
I'm all for less consumption of empty calories --esp when sugar/carb
calories contribute to blood sugar drops which probably also contribute to
mood swings.  However, I feel a certain reluctance to categorize all this as
being about "symtoms of systemic yeast".  Doesn't one have to be pretty
immunocompromised for systemic yeast to occur?


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com


Date:    Mon, 26 May 2003 08:19:36 -0500
From:    Patricia Gima <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Immune systems/yeast

> >  Doesn't one have to be pretty
> > immunocompromised for systemic yeast to occur? Barbara WC


>Yes.  People with systemic yeast infections are *very* sick and are usually
>found in intensive care units. Barb S


There are people with healthy immune systems and there are people with
seriously compromised immune systems (who are hospitalized).  And there a
lot of people in between.  A virus can hit an office and 60% of the people
will become sick with it and will miss work.  But 40% of them will not get
the virus.  The difference is the quality of the health of the immune system.

We in breastfeeding promotion know this well. We talk often about the
healthy gut (with its protective cilia) in the breastfed baby and the
immune protection offered by breastfeeding.  We know that even one bottle
of formula or "one tablespoon of pears" will change the intestinal flora.

The intestinal tract is the "center of health."  There is a natural,
healthy balance of bacteria and yeast there.  There are many things that
can disrupt that balance and cause one's immune system to be
"compromised"--not as in AIDS or Chemo treatment,  but as in
lowered  resistance to bacterial and viral and fungal infections.

One of the problems with some LCs and the yeast issue is probably with the
use of the word "systemic." The dictionary says that systemic is pertaining
to the entire body.  If there is yeast imbalance in the GI tract, in the
breast, the nipples, and perhaps the throat, that is not the entire
body.  But I do have clients on occasion who have skin and nail yeast
problems along with their breastfeeding-related sites.

However I believe that if we have a yeast/bacterial imbalance, our entire
bodies will be more vulnerable to many kinds of infection. I see the body
as an integrated system and any area that is "off" affects the whole.

One reason that it is so difficult for some women to resolve their yeast
overgrowth is that they use Diflucan to kill the yeast in the breast and
nipples but do not do anything to increase the healthful bacterial count in
the intestines. So as soon as the antifungal is stopped, the yeast takes
over again. Restoring the gut to health is essential.

Antibiotics, particularly the broad-spectrum ones, destroy the "good"
bacteria along with the "bad," thus creating an intestinal tract that is
out of balance.  Any time one takes an antibiotic she has a weaker immune
system until health is restored to her intestinal tract. A very good diet
will assist her body to heal. [Now that the AAP is stressing that children
with ear infections *not* be given antibiotics, there will be fewer repeat
ear infections.]

A healthful diet in infants (breastmilk) supports a healthy immune system
and it does so in children and adults too. So when a mother has a yeast
infection (or overgrowth) she needs help in reducing the population of
yeast, but she also needs to restore her intestinal tract to health.  What
she doesn't need is sugar which yeast thrives on.  (Ever bake yeast bread?)

I was a teacher in my former life and I knew that after Halloween and
Valentine's Day children would be sick for a while until their systems
recovered from the candy binge.  We also see it after Christmas and New Year.

I work with a lot of clients with nipple/ductal yeast.  The ones that have
had a history of infection that was treated with antibiotics and the
resultant yeast overgrowthhave a difficult time resolving their current
yeast problems.  They know that they have had trouble with yeast for
years--vaginal, toenail, skin, mouth. They tell me that they have always
known when they had a yeast infection even before symptoms because they
began craving sugar.  This is from women with much experience.

When my clients recover from their nipple/ductal yeast and all is well with
breastfeeding I ask what was the part of the treatment that they felt was
the most helpful.  The answer is most often "Diflucan, regular acidophilus,
and very low sugar intake." They went through periods when they did not
limit sugars and there was always a return to the yeast problem after
stopping the Diflucan. They finally got serious about diet and were able to
return to health.

I have  experiential evidence to support the concept of a healthful diet's
being integral to a successful yeast treatment plan and experiential
evidence to support the negative effect of sugar on a gut that has an
overgrowth of yeast.

In conclusion, my practice is based on my acceptance of a healthy immune
system as the best prevention of and cure for a yeast imbalance.  A woman
with a healthy immune system can eat some sugar as a part of a good diet
and not see any untoward effect.  A woman with a yeast infection needs to
do everything that she can to help restore her immune system to health.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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