Yeast is a unicellular fungus. Fungi are an organism that lacks chlorophyll the pigment which makes plants green. In the singular, it is called a fungus and examples are moulds, mushrooms, rust and mildew. One of its attributes is that it produces ethanol by fermenting sugars. Yeasts live in a multitude of diverse habitats, such as in soil, on the leaves of plants, and within flowers. Within mammals, they live in the intestine as parasites or by a process known as symbiosis. A parasite cannot live independently; they have to be hooked up, and supplied with food from another organism. Symbiosis means existing together, where there is either a mutual benefit or a benefit to one party.
Remember that Candida Albicans is an opportunist. Candida yeast numbers millions in a healthy gut but if it is not kept in a healthy balance it will invade every inch of the six feet long human gut. Candida yeast does no harm; it is a non invasive organism that ferments sugar. Once it crosses the line and become fungi it develops long root like structures or rhizoids. In fungi, these rhizoids grow as they feed on digested sugars. The rhizoids eventually penetrate the intestinal walls, causing leaky gut syndrome.
How Candida precisely works against your body does depend partly on your genes and your lifestyle, with the latter having a greater impact. If there is a strong genetic propensity that you will inherit a compromised immune system, that does not mean that you will have a Candida overgrowth. No symptom, disease or illness is caused by one factor alone. If you take care of your diet, drink moderate amounts of alcohol, exercise regularly and moderate your stress levels and get plenty of sleep you can overcome a genetic tendency. Unfortunately, for many people this is simply too much effort and they allow themselves to fall victim to an unhealthy body system.
Another factor which affects how the Candida yeast infection wor ks against our bodies is age and gender. It is a common misconception that men do not get yeast infections, they do, but compared to women theirs is not as severe. Seventy percent of sufferers are women and typically, they will have thrush or another vaginal infection.
Children are more likely to suffer from oral thrush, white sores in the mouth which are highly infectious. Small children are more at risk because of the fondness for stuffing anything and everything into their mouths. When a child places a toy that has been in the mouth of a child with oral thrush, they could get it too. The mouth offers a perfect host to yeast infections, it is warm and moist. It is also possible to catch Oral thrush at any age, it is common in patients with a seriously compromised immune system such as those that have Aids or are HIV positive.
Cutaneous Candidiasis is a fairly common skin infection generally caused by a Candida infection; again it targets the warm moist areas, such as the groin, and the armpit. The obese are more at risk because of the excess number of warm skin folds available for the yeast. It is also common inside a diaper in small tots. Candida can also cause onychomycosis, a fungal nail infection whereby the nail gradually works its way from the finger.