I don't know about mercury and yeast overgrowth but I do know about iron 
supplements and thrush.  Iron feeds yeast.  A speaker at the ILCA 
conference last summer presented a session on culturing human milk to test 
for yeast.   She found in her research that it doesn't culture because of 
the antifungal properties in human milk which will destroy the yeast after 
pumping.

The only way that she could grow yeast in the milk of mothers who she knew 
for certain had nipple/ductal yeast was to add enough iron to over-ride the 
lactoferrin.  She said that to try to culture yeast in pumped human milk 
was pointless unless one seeded the culture with additional ferrous sulfate.

I had a lot of yeast cases a couple of years ago from mothers who delivered 
at one hospital in the area and who did not have risk factors for the 
overgrowth.  I discovered that the OBs were prescribing high levels of 
ferrous sulfate to all mothers without testing for a need.  When the ILCA 
speaker presented her study I felt that I had been right in surmising that 
the cause of the yeast overgrowth was the iron.  I talked to her after the 
session and she agreed that it was was consistent with her findings.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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