[Shawna]

Hey Pitlove,

I TOTALLY agree with you that the yeast will have an underlying cause – always. I think however that a candida infection can manifest as skin and coat symptoms – itching (without actually having yeast overgrowth on the skin).

When I was doing research for the Bright Mind discussion I found that medium chain triglycerides (which are in coconut and palm kernel oils) actually kill several strains of malessezia yeast. Here’s one of the papers.
“Medium-chain triglycerides and medium-chain free fatty acids are toxic for Malassezia species.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10507598

In this paper they mention eucalyptus oil causing a reduction of malessezia. “The volatile oil of Eucalyptus globulus significantly reduced the growth of M. furfur” http://www.e-ijd.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5154;year=2006;volume=51;issue=2;spage=145;epage=148;aulast=Vijayakumar

Interestingly, in my opinion, as I was also swayed by aimee’s comments, is that this article says the malessezia yeast “grew well in Sabouraud’s dextrose broth and agar medium containing butter followed by corn oil, olive oil, coconut oil, oleic acid and castor oil” same link as above. This brought up two questions for me.

1. what is Sabouraud’s “dextrose” broth and “agar” medium? Agar is “80% fiber, contains no fat, no protein, and only a small amount of carbohydrates.” Dextrose “is the name of a simple sugar chemically identical to glucose (blood sugar) that is made from corn.”

Sabouraud’s dextrose broth and agar medium is
“Sabouraud Dextrose Broth is a modification of Dextrose Agar described by Sabouraud.4
Sabouraud Dextrose Media are used for cultivating pathogenic & commensal fungi and yeasts. The high dextrose concentration and acidic pH of the formulas permit selectivity of fungi.5 Sabouraud Dextrose Broth is used for the determination of fungistatic activity in sterile and non-sterile pharmaceutical, food & beverage, and cosmetic products.” http://www.neogen.com/Acumedia/pdf/ProdInfo/7617_PI.pdf

So high in a form of sugar however they added, I didn’t notice how much, oils to the mixture to grow the malessezia yeast on. Interestingly, of the fats they used, it grew best on butter. Also noted, it grew on coconut oil so there must not be enough therapeutic amounts of MCTs in coconut oil, when also combined with dextrose and other factors needed for optimal growth, to kill the yeast. I wonder how coconut oil would do on it’s own? I’ve heard good anecdotal results but…..

Maybe I’m missing something about carbs (at least certain ones) not being usable by malessezia yeast?

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Shawna.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Shawna.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Shawna.
• This reply was modified 10 years ago by Shawna.