Society and Culture

Some alternative medicine proponents postulate a widespread occurrence of systemic candidiasis (or candida hypersensitivity syndrome, yeast allergy, or gastrointestinal candida overgrowth). The view was most widely promoted in a book published by Dr. William Crook that hypothesized that a variety of common symptoms such as fatigue, PMS, sexual dysfunction, asthma, psoriasis, digestive and urinary problems, multiple sclerosis, and muscle pain could be caused by subclinical infections of Candida albicans. Crook suggested a variety of remedies to treat these symptoms, including dietary modification, prescription antifungals, and colonic irrigation. With the exception of the few dietary studies in the urinary tract infection section, conventional medicine has not used most of these alternatives, since there is limited scientific evidence to prove either their effectiveness or that subclinical systemic candidiasis is a viable diagnosis.