My Take on Candida in CF Community

So here, in a non-elequent nut shell is my take on candida in the CF community.

The reason why I have been posting extensively on my blog and on the board about candida is because I think it IS common. Mandy (dramamama) is the one that first mentioned it to me but I didnt 'get it' until just recently when I had the need to I supposed because things were getting worse and I was reading more and searching for answers.


I believe that it is VERY common in CF'ers, if you look at what the typical CF'er has to put in their body it just makes so much sense. If you look at common side effects: pain, inflammation, allergies, and anxiety/depression.....hello all typical things in CF as well. I believe candida symptoms, just like allergies, are easy to attribute to typical progression of CF.

Of course right now I have nothing to back this up. My hope is that by talking about it more people will, over time, be interested in having it checked out. So far we have had two CF'ers on the boards start treatment for it in addition to me, in just a short time.

I really think this has the potential to be huge in our community. Now, that being said, finding a doctor who agrees may not be. Not all CF'ers are going to have it (thankfully) of course but with high calories diets often be supplemented by sugary drinks and lots of junk food + antibiotics repeatedly.....and sometimes throw in steroids plus for most CF women birth control pills=a perfect recipe for candida overgrowth. If it is going to occur in anyone, I think CF'ers are one of the highest risk populations next to AIDS/HIV, cancer, etc.

Interestingly enough there are studies out there, I havent looked up full articles yet, showing candida is a problem in neonatal CF'ers and it can cause death. I am hoping to find that SOMEONE is looking at this in adult, otherwise it may IMO be a big blind spot in our treatment. Much like the change from high calorie whatever junk you can get in to get your calories to the progression of recommending mediterranean style diets hopefully it WILL slowly be reckognized.

Just my 0.02.