o Candida albicans is a type of fungus93 that causes infection in people (pronounced can-dee-da as in Dawn's song "Candida"). Older names for this fungus are Oidium Albicans and Monilia Candida.
o The study of fungi (the scientific plural for fungus) is Mycology, which comes from the Greek word mykos, meaning mushroom.
o Fungi are distinct and different from bacteria. They are more plant-like. They all are quite advanced organisms, some showing specialized cellular structure.
o All fungi need oxygen to survive.
o Most of the weight of a fungus is its outer cell wall, which is made up mainly of special sugars combined to form types of cellulose.
o Although a fungus is a living, plant-like organism, it does not have roots or leaves. It does not use the sun for photosynthesis. Instead, it takes all of its nutrients from its environment.
o The natural place for a fungus to live is in water, soil, and decaying debris.
o A fungus survives by secreting enzymes which break down substances in its environment so that the fungus can absorb them as nutrients.
Are you still with me? The description of how a fungus lives is one of the first things you need to know to begin to defend your body. You want to create an environment that is hostile to the survival of that fungus that is making you so miserable.
There are about 100 different types of Candida. The one usually causing a yeast infection is Candida albicans. Given that there are about 100,000 types of fungi, we should look on the bright side and consider ourselves lucky that only about 100 can cause infection in people. Of these 100, fewer than a dozen types cause about 90% of illness.
Yet knowing all this does not bring comfort when one of the little beasties has latched on to us.
What is comforting to know is that fungi can grow into yeast forms and mold forms -- both of which we can control and destroy. Yeast refers to single cell growth. Mold refers to multicellular colonies. When it is in a yeast form, Candida albicans does not generally cause us problems. The problems begin when Candida albicans take on a mold form. Your infection has occurred because the living conditions for the fungus were right to turn the yeast form into the mold form. In my next artcle Yeast Infection And What It Does To Our Body, you will get a description of what is taking place in and on your body caused by the yeast infection.
