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Candida Overgrowth and Heavy Metals

Last updated on July 11, 2019

candida-overgrowthI read an article about Candida Overgrowth and Heavy Metals. In it the author claims there is no link between a candida overgrowth and the presence of heavy metals. It’s a pity that this level of misinformation finds it’s way to the first page of Google search results.

The article is poorly researched, littered with grammatical errors and has a number of glaring errors. I disagree with it’s conclusions. The article excerpts are written in italics below.

Colloidal Silver

Firstly when talking about heavy metals there is the contention that and I’m paraphrasing here: “colloidal silver is a “heavy”, but non-toxic metal and is an effective antibiotic/anti-fungal. They state that the term “heavy metals” is inaccurate as it should be called “toxic metals. Mercury compounds are effective antibiotics/anti-fungals as well (that’s why they’re added to vaccines) but in concentrations found in our bodies, all they can do is slowly causing (sic) organ damage – they have little to no effect on the bacteria and fungi in and on our bodies.”

Colloidal silver can be toxic in high enough doses. Argyria is the term given for to the condition where the skin turns a blue/grey colour with prolonged use. The issue isn’t just with the amount of silver ingested. Ionic silver has been proven to kill 650 different strains of bacteria. The issue with silver solutions is their particle size – smaller particle sizes actually pass in and out through the bodies cell walls without becoming toxic to the body or “plugged” onto the cell wall (displacing health metals like chromium of manganese for example).

There is then the contention that mercury is an effective antibiotic! Yes, if you don’t mind killing the hosts own body cells in the process. Mercury does not have a no “No observable effect” upon cells – because even a minute amount of 1 mg will damage/kill cells… and any bad bacteria.

The reason that mercury and now liquid aluminium was/is used in inoculations is because of it’s ability to boost the immune response to the antigen that is used in the inoculation. The antigen – minute strains of a virus or bacteria for example – is used in the inoculation to help build up anti bodies against the bacteria or virus introduced.

Candida Overgrowth and Biofilms

The article goes on to state: “but the significance of heavy metals’ connection to Candida is greatly exaggerated”. The author then recommends avoiding detox products as they are questionable, avoiding mercury rich food (as if that is the only source of heavy metals one is ever likely to be exposed to) and suggests moving out of a mercury rich environment…. the only sensible advice comes in the form of recommending that you get your mercury amalgams replaced. No mention is made about addressing the past toxicity of the long term minute exposure to mercury from the amalgam fillings.

The author then states: “There is no evidence that mercury has the slightest influence on Candida growth.”

Wrong. Mercury does affect candida overgrowth – in fact the candida responds to the attack by creating a tough biofilm to protect it. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1951024/”

Metal Ions May Suppress or Enhance Cellular Differentiation in Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis Biofilms:- At the level of the microbial community, metal exposure thus resulted in specific biofilm structure types. In other words, C. albicans and C. tropicalis differentiated in response to metal ions to form biofilms with distinct spatial arrangements of cells.

“Mercury bound to Candida would be totally harmless, as it cannot bind to the body’s molecules any more.”

The current alternative health theory is that mercury or any toxic metal binds with candida yeast organisms inadvertently protecting the body to exposure from toxic heavy metals. The idea is that candida overgrowth wouldn’t occur without a toxic environment in the first place and that the bodies own immune response would keep the naturally occurring candida in check.

The author mentions that “candida bound mercury is no more dangerous than brain bound mercury…” Regardless of the binding characteristics of metals and candida – the theory is that parasitic organisms feed off toxic metals – candida yeast releases mycotoxins. These toxins enter the blood leaving the person with a range of unpleasant symptoms from feeling permanently fluey, lethargic, and fatigued to aching joints, inflammation and other associated symptoms like brain fog.

“Healing Candida is possible by detoxifying heavy metals. Unlikely.”

Heavy metals create the ideal environment where an opportunistic fungi such as candida yeast (or any other pathogen – bad bacteria, virus or parasite – could get a foothold. Heavy metals compromise central nervous and immune system functioning through interference with the livers phase I and II detoxification pathways, weakening the bodies resistance against pathogens such as those mentioned above.

Again the author seems to be focused only on mercury amalgam fillings to the exclusion of any other toxic metals that a person could be exposed to and which will create an ideal environment for an opportunistic pathogen to get a foothold. “Ordinary people with mercury fillings do not easily get Candidiasis. There seems to be no firm relationship. People without amalgam fillings do get Candida infections, and people with mercury fillings usually don’t have Candida infections.” Interesting logic….!

“When you kill Candida, it releases heavy metals that make you sick”

The author states: No, and that mercury is bound to the candida cell wall and when anti-fungals kill the candida overgrowth the mercury isn’t released because it’s remains inside the burst cell wall, to be then eliminated through the bodies usual channels of excretion.

No possible mention is made of the fact that mercury will come into contact with the bodies own cells as it is eliminated through the body, often being reabsorbed into the blood/tissue. The article goes on to state that there is an “element of truth” that “heavy metals damage the part of the immune system that fights candida” “but this concept is exaggerated due to commercial motives.”

They also believe that the body will always eliminate toxic metals itself over a few years… This is incorrect. The the body may not excrete heavy metals for any number of reasons including, but not limited to: health, age, vitamin and mineral status, level of pathogen toxicity, the level of chemical and heavy metal toxicity, genetics, liver and or kidney damage.

Further nonsense in their article isn’t worth mentioning (or reading). Their last contention is to refute the idea that: “the body allows candida to proliferate as a defence mechanism because candida binds the mercury to it’s cell wall” due in their mind because the body knows that the risks of a candida infection are much higher than the risks of mercury poisoning….! More flawed logic with the idea that mercury exposure only came about because of the industrial revolution despite the fact that although not typically freely available in nature, people were exposed to mercury as long ago as 3,500 years where it was discovered in Egyptian tombs. Mercury is derived from the natural mineral, cinnabar.

The theory in alternative health circles is that candida protects the body from the toxic effects of heavy metals. “Allows” is the wrong word. A candida overgrowth occurs in people with compromised immune systems. Full systemic candida overgrowths would require hospitalisation.

Candida Metabolytes INCREASE as Heavy Metals are Removed

To make your own minds up I’ll leave you with the findings of a micro biologist who had a candida overgrowth and heavy metals toxicity. It has been mentioned in another blog post of mine but it is worth repeating. He phoned me up one day to congratulate me on the book as his own self administered blood test results (after undertaking a course of heavy metals chelation) mirrored exactly what I had written about in my book. This is a copy of an email I send out explaining the Candida Overgrowth and Heavy Metals Connection:-

Heavy metals restrain the activity of pathogens – viruses, bad bacteria, candida yeast, parasites. So for example as you remove the metals the metabolite activity from candida will actually increase.

I have had this now confirmed by a micro – biologist who measured his metal and yeast activity in the blood after doing a very heavy I.V. EDTA chelation over 18 months. (NOT RECOMMENDED)

He found that after each I.V. he would initially see lower metals and higher yeast activity in the blood – the lower metals levels would be expected but note that the activity of yeast increases as heavy metals were extracted. This would then reverse over a few weeks. The yeast activity would subside and the metals levels would increase until he realized he needed to do another I.V. — in the end he did 25 I.V.’s — by this stage his mouth was so full of ulcers from the metal release and he couldn’t eat for a week. The EDTA was too aggressive, and made him feel very ill.

The phos chol and enemas aid the release of metal ions that attach themselves to the bile in the gall – bladder, along with cilantro and chlorella. It may take a bit longer but it won’t stress the body so drastically as I.V. synthetic chelators, plus the phos chol repairs the cells in the body and more specifically the liver and the gall – bladder aiding further toxin release.

Minerals are also important along with the high protein low glycemic index diet because they all aid the metals detox.

Recently the nutritionist I had seen, switched to using The Finchley Clinic’s: “Orea” heavy metals chelator rather than EDTA (please see link below). She thinks it is one of the best products she has come across in the past 30 years. There is a lot of research on the web site link given below. This is also because some people may find EDTA and DMSA chelation too strong and draining even at lower doses.

Click here for more information on Orea – Clinoptilolite Zeolites

Click here for detailed advice on How to Chelate Heavy Metals.

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13 Comments

  1. Sazy Sazy July 25, 2015

    Hi how long did it take you to reduce your heavy metal load so candida could be brought under control?

    I have been detoxing heavy metals for 2 years I’m now on nutritional balancing science, most of my health issues are gone, but I still have chronic yeast infections. For ages I wasnt using any Chelator my body was just detoxing it all naturally. I’ve had loads of healing crises. But I’m getting fed up with these yeast infections, Id like another option. I do probiotics anti fungals low glycemic no sugar diet. is there a point after detoxing for years when the levels are low enough that the candida just goes away?

    Thanks

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | July 28, 2015

      Hi Sazy, I did the diet for 5 months very strictly whilst taking the metal chelators I wrote about it the ebook. However I noticed the brain fog drop off markedly within the first few weeks of doing the detox protocol. Tests still showed heavy metals many years after initially starting the detox although albeit at markedly reduced levels and the lead that had been literally “off the charts” was now at very low levels as was the mercury.

      The fact is as toxic metals are pulled from the system, blood heavy metals levels would naturally, as expected, fall whilst candida metabolites activity actually increases. This implies the toxic metals actually in some way dampen down the activity of yeast (and parasites, bad bacteria and viruses) and then over the week/weeks the candida metabolite markers subside in the blood and the heavy metals increase again as your body detoxes naturally or is aided by a low carb/glycemic diet (which burns fat cells where the metals are predominantly stored).

      The chelation process goes through theses cycles of higher metals and lower candida metabolites and vica versa – until you do another chelation procedure. This was the evidence a microbiologist phoned me up with after he discovered this when he monitored his own blood as he was doing synthetic chelation over an 18 month period every few weeks. Finally the toxic metals levels remained below toxic reference ranges and the candida metabolites also fell into normal reference ranges too as the majority of us have naturally occurring yeast in our bodies.

      I wouldn’t advise doing synthetic chelators as they can be too powerful for many people and in this case the microbiologist explained to me how by the end of the process his mouth was so full of ulcers from the metal release that he couldn’t eat for a week. The EDTA was too aggressive, and made him feel very ill. Taking the natural chelators I have written about on this site are just as effective and gentler. It’s occurred to me now as I write, that it maybe beneficial to adopt a similar approach to using these natural chelators and take them eg: 1 week on 1 or 2 weeks off so as to not continually be experiencing high candida activity.

      Having a well established mineral base is also critical in allowing the body to release (detox) heavy metals. Most toxic people however will not have the correct mineral status (which can take a long time to re-establish) due to the heavy metals “knocking” the good metals (chromium, manganese etc) off the cell walls.

  2. Linda Linda August 6, 2015

    Is it always important to address the heavy metals first before the yeast overgrowth? My practitioner prefers to do it the other way around. She recommends killing as much yeast as possible first and then testing for heavy metals and doing chelation if necessary. I have heard conflicting recommendations, which causes me to question. Thanks.

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | August 11, 2015

      Hi Linda, For some people, “chasing candida” won’t remove the root cause of a candida fungus overgrowth because candida is a symptom and result of the toxic metals not the other way round, hence the need to do a heavy metals detox.

      Other factors for candida build up (with the absence of any marked toxic metals test result) are: stress, acidity, poor vitamin and mineral balance, prolonged anti-biotics or steroid use, high glycemic index diets). Please re-refer to my comment below in the 28th July to Sazy.

  3. Kristine Kristine July 26, 2017

    I have chronic fatigue fibromyalgia, mthfr, etc. My husband has IBS and other undiagnosed conditions. My 3 year old has sensory processing disorder and is speech delayed. We have been taking Colloidal Silver with good results (at least we are herxing) and colloidal gold. After we are done with the silver I would like us to try cilantro, chlorella, and bentonite clay liquid. Will that remove the colloidal gold and make it obsolete if I continue to take it at the same time?

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | July 26, 2017

      I would use a zeolite for metals removal like OREA by NutraThera. Also you will need to take liquid minerals to replace those good metals that have been displaced from the body by the toxic metals. Chlorella – if organic is also effective but much slower at removing metals than the zeolites.

  4. Deana Lawrence Deana Lawrence June 25, 2018

    I haven’t Argyria (worse in face/hands) from taking Colloidal Silver to heal from Lyme Disease. Are you aware of anything that will help detox the Silver and return my skin to normal color?

    • Deana Lawrence Deana Lawrence June 25, 2018

      Sorry post should read “I have Argyria…”

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | June 29, 2018

      Hi Deana, Have you tried using a high quality clinoptilolite zeolite before and/or a high protein, high fats, low carb detox?

  5. Nyali Nyali November 8, 2020

    Hi Ian….just left a comment with my entire name visible. Wondering whether possible to edit it simply to show my 1st name. Alternatively, if we keep the text, decline going live with original and I can repost with amended name.

    I look forward to hearing back.

    Thanks

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | December 22, 2020

      Hi Nyali, please check your email, I’ve replied there, Cheers, Ian

  6. Nicole Nicole January 21, 2022

    Hi Ian ,
    I was in fluconazole for about a month for Candida overgrowth and I became extremely constipated with a complete change in bowel habits and extreme trapped gas. I switched to Nystatin and it’s been more of the same. Could I be releasing Mercury into my GI tract causing inflammation there? It is slowly improving but it’s been really difficult. Thanks!

    • Ian Solley Ian Solley Post author | February 10, 2023

      Apologies for the delay in replying, due to a family bereavement, it’s more likely that you will be killing off friendly gut bacteria which will alter you gut biome. I would recommend taking prebiotics and eating beneficial bacteria in the form of foods like kefir and live yogurts and taking a good quality probiotic supplement like BioGaia: I’d try Googling: “BioGaia, Gastrus For Optimal Gut Health, Mandarin, 30 Tablets.”

      Better still in terms of cost effectiveness, buy a Luvelle Yogurt Maker and crush the BioGaia tablets into it. This will create even more beneficial bacteria than available in each individual tablet due to the 36 hour fermentation process.

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