Prostatitis and Candida

Prostatitis is an inflamed prostate. Most of the time, the inflammation is not due to an infection. Most of the time, there is pain. However, sometimes there is a misdiagnosis, and the pain is actually a referral pain due to an irritated bladder. (See interstitial cystitis.)

Excess estrogen probably contributes to prostatitis. To reduce the effects of estrogens, some people recommend taking phytoestrogens. In small quantities, these can block the effects of the stronger estrogens. However, phytoestrogens are dangerous. If you take too much of these, you will experience increased estrogenic effects. In fact, prostatitis can be induced in rats by giving them soy phytoestrogens.

Excess estrogen also contributes to benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. Look up the work being done by John Lee, MD, with men who have prostate cancer. Eliminating all sources of estrogen and using natural progesterone has brought 10 cases of prostate cancer into remission. The protocol includes avoidance of pesticides, plastics and lacquers because these have estrogen-like substances in them.

An often ignored source of estrogen is from intestinal yeast. Yeast make estradiol, the strongest of the human estrogens. However, yeast isn’t the only intestinal problem that contributes to excess estrogen. Candida overgrowth interferes with the body’s ability to eliminate estrogen. Bacterial overgrowth in the small intestinal will increase the recycling of estrogen. The liver dumps estrogen into the intestines in a conjugated form, which does not get absorbed from the intestines. Bacteria deconjugate the estrogen, making it available for reabsorption. Thus, when there is a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, the liver will have to dump the same estrogen into the intestines over and over again. Another way that Candida interferes with the elimination of estrogen is by reducing the body’s supply of sulfates. The inflammation caused by Candida leads to increased loss of sulfates. This interferes with the body’s ability to eliminate estrogens in their sulfate form. There is yet another way that Candida interferes with the elimination of estrogen. Candida can cause hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism reduces the liver’s ability to get rid of estrogen.

1.    Karlovsky M, Pontari M, “Theories of Prostatitis Etiology” Current Urology Reports 2002, 3:307-312

2.    Kwon SM, et al, “Development of rat Prostatitis model of by administration of isoflavone and its characteristics. Yonsei Med J. 2001 Aug;42(4):395-404.

3.    Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Meyers, Our Stolen Future. Plume, Mar 1997 pg. 179, referring to the work of Shuk Mei Ho, who found that chronic low doses of estrogen can induce prostate cancer in rats.