Digestive enzymes are the unsung heroes of gut health. These protein molecules break down food into absorbable nutrients, and without sufficient enzyme production, even the healthiest diet can lead to malnutrition, bloating, and gut dysfunction.

Types of Digestive Enzymes

Amylase: Breaks down carbohydrates and starches. Produced in the salivary glands and pancreas. Low amylase can cause bloating after starchy meals.

Protease: Breaks down proteins into amino acids. Insufficient protease can lead to undigested protein reaching the colon, causing gas and inflammation.

Lipase: Breaks down fats into fatty acids and glycerol. Insufficient lipase leads to fatty stools and poor absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K).

Cellulase: Breaks down plant fiber (cellulose). Humans don’t produce cellulase — we rely on gut bacteria or supplemental enzymes to digest fibrous vegetables.

Lactase: Breaks down lactose (milk sugar). Lactose intolerance affects 65% of adults worldwide.

Why Enzyme Production Declines

As we age, our natural enzyme production decreases. Chronic stress, poor diet, gut infections (Candida, SIBO), and medications (PPIs, antibiotics) further impair enzyme output.

The Connection to Candida and Gut Health

Candida overgrowth damages the intestinal lining, including the brush border enzymes produced by enterocytes. This creates a vicious cycle: Candida causes malabsorption, and malabsorption weakens the body, making it harder to fight the overgrowth.

Supplemental digestive enzymes can help break the cycle by improving nutrient absorption while the gut heals. Look for broad-spectrum enzyme formulas containing protease, amylase, lipase, cellulase, and lactase.

For digestive enzyme and gut health supplements: https://www.gethealthyagain.com/

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Autoimmune conditions occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. Over 80 autoimmune conditions exist — from Hashimoto’s and rheumatoid arthritis to lupus and multiple sclerosis. While each has unique symptoms, they share common underlying drivers: gut dysbiosis, chronic inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, and immune system dysregulation.

The Gut-Autoimmune Connection

Leaky gut is a primary driver of autoimmunity. When the intestinal lining becomes permeable, undigested food particles, toxins, and pathogens enter the bloodstream, triggering an immune response that can cross-react with body tissues — a process called molecular mimicry.

Key Nutrients for Immune Modulation

**Vitamin D:** The most critical nutrient for autoimmune regulation. Vitamin D modulates both innate and adaptive immunity. Low vitamin D is linked to nearly every autoimmune condition. Optimal level: 60-80 ng/mL.

**Omega-3 Fatty Acids:** EPA and DHA reduce inflammatory cytokine production. Aim for 2-4g combined EPA/DHA daily from fish oil or algae oil.

**Zinc:** Supports T-cell function and gut barrier integrity. Many autoimmune patients are zinc deficient.

**Magnesium:** Involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions including vitamin D activation and immune regulation.

**Curcumin (Turmeric):** Potent NF-kB inhibitor that reduces systemic inflammation.

Dietary Approaches

**Anti-Inflammatory Diet:** Focus on whole foods, omega-3s, colorful vegetables, and fiber. Eliminate processed foods, seedseeds, nightshades, eggs, and dairy. Reintroduce systematically to identify triggers.

Gluten-Free Trial: Gluten triggers zonulin release, which opens tight junctions in the gut. A 30-day gluten-free trial can identify sensitivity.

Lifestyle Factors

Sleep: 7-9 hours quality sleep. Cortisol dysregulation drives autoimmune flares.

Stress Management: Chronic stress elevates cortisol, depletes nutrients, and drives inflammation. Meditation, vagus nerve stimulation (cold exposure, humming, gargling), and gentle movement help.

Exercise: Moderate exercise reduces inflammation. Avoid overtraining, which can trigger flares.

For autoimmune and gut health support: https://www.gethealthyagain.com/

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.*

Leaky gut, or intestinal permeability, occurs when tight junctions in your intestinal lining loosen, allowing toxins and undigested food particles to enter your bloodstream. This triggers systemic inflammation linked to autoimmune conditions, food sensitivities, brain fog, and chronic fatigue.

What Causes Leaky Gut?

Chronic stress, poor diet (processed foods, sugar, alcohol), gut infections (Candida, SIBO, parasites), NSAIDs and medications, environmental toxins, and dysbiosis.

The Four-Step Repair Protocol

Remove: Eliminate inflammatory foods — gluten, dairy, sugar, processed foods, alcohol.

Replace: Support digestion with hydrochloric acid (betaine HCl), digestive enzymes, and bile support.

Reinoculate: Rebuild beneficial bacteria with probiotics and prebiotic fiber.

Repair: Provide specific nutrients to heal the gut lining.

Key Gut-Healing Nutrients

L-Glutamine: Primary fuel for enterocytes (gut lining cells). Zinc Carnosine: Supports tight junction integrity. Collagen/Bone Broth: Provides glycine, proline, and glutamine. Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice (DGL): Soothes mucosal lining. Slippery Elm: Forms protective barrier. Aloe Vera: Anti-inflammatory. Quercetin: Stabilizes mast cells and reduces gut inflammation.

The Candida-Leaky Gut Connection

Candida overgrowth directly damages the intestinal lining. When Candida hyphae penetrate the gut wall, they create openings that allow toxins into the bloodstream. Addressing Candida is essential for healing leaky gut.

For gut healing supplements: https://www.gethealthyagain.com/custom-elixir-sibd-i-99.html

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

To understand why getting rid of candida can be so much harder than knocking out a bacterial infection, you need to know how candida yeast overgrowth manifests in your body.

About 80% of the time, candida yeast infections occur when medicines, primarily antibiotics — but including birth control pills and other drugs — kill the friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract. Approximately 10% of the time candida overgrowth is caused by long term exposure to candida and its spores from your family or spouse. It can be transmitted orally through food sharing, kissing, or similar activities, and candida spores can be breathed in.

About 10% of candida overgrowth cases happen when babies pick it up from their mothers when they are born. At birth babies have no immune system and little to no friendly bacteria, so exposure to candida from their mother always results in overgrowth. The good news is that you will find the process of fighting candida much easier when adding our supplements to your regimen.

The bad news is that candida overgrowth has grown to epidemic proportions after several generations of antibiotic use — leading to a large increase in the amount of mothers with candida infecting their children at birth. This combined with the ever increasing amount of vaccines being given infants, may be fueling the epidemic of autism that our children are suffering. Read more about this at health-reports.com/autism/html.

When much of your friendly flora have been destroyed, and your immune system has weakened, the oxygen-loving candida yeast begin to flourish, morphing into anaerobic candida fungi. No longer needing an oxygen-rich blood supply, the fungi are able to exist anywhere in the body.

Initially, candida fungi are overgrown in the intestinal tract. There, the toxic waste they chemically produce (acetylaldahyde, the same chemical that causes a hangover), irritates and weakens the intestinal wall. Candida fungi have tiny “legs” which, as the intestinal wall becomes damaged, are able to “drill” holes in the intestinal wall, leading to poor digestion and “leaky gut syndrome”.

These holes enable candida to travel throughout the body, over time establishing themselves systemically. They can colonize organs, your brain, or any place that may have a weakened environment making it an easy target to colonize. Depending on where these weaknesses are, candida produces different symptoms as it colonizes different areas in each person..

As they don’t need oxygen, they can move out of the circulation system to spots where the immune system, herbs and other candida killers cannot get to. This protects them from candida killers which may reduce candida overgrowth in spots with good circulation — and enable candida to spread back into those spots once you stop the candida killing program.

It’s The Environment Inside Your Body That Must Be Brought Back To Health

The toxins candida produce cause your body to become more acidic. This results in poor oxygenation. The immune system becomes weaker as it fights an ongoing and losing battle against candida overgrowth. Plus it is also responsible for helping to eliminate toxins, so becomes overworked in yet another way.

The candida have created an environment in the body that ensures their survival. It doesn’t help that the typical foods we eat create this same, too acidic environment, with low oxygenation. And feed candida to boot. Or that all the toxins and chemicals we are exposed to do the same. They may not feed the candida, but they create a candida favorable environment.

So it doesn’t usually do much good when you take a candida killer, or a bunch of them. Or even probiotics. Unless you are also working to repair the environment, to get the immune system working better. Those herbs or drugs kill a bunch of candida, but don’t change the environment, and the remaining candida, the ones hiding out — out of circulation and the oxygenation zones in your body — grow back into the same spots where the candida had been killed.

The relief to the immune system when a bunch of candida have been killed may be enough to keep the candida in check for some time. Maybe not. But even if it is, down the road it will weaken from its constant battle against candida. And your candida symptoms show up again, and will be harder to get rid of the second or third time around.

You’ve got to be working on the overall environment, supporting the immune system so that it can stay on top of the candida, you need to be dealing with the candida in those hard to get at spots, and you need to be dealing with candida spores so that they don’t bloom again when the time is right.

Candida Can Cause Leaky Gut Syndrome Which May Lead To Food Allergies

The leaky gut caused by the candida fungus as they start their journey throughout your body, allows partially digested food to enter the bloodstream. before it is supposed to. This food is not able to be used by your cells, so your immune system must get rid of that food. Over time, this causes the development of food allergies, as your immune system begins to over-respond to those foods in an inflammatory response. Food allergies are a sure sign of having a leaky gut, and thus, of candida overgrowth.

Folks with serious, long term candida overgrowth may be allergic to most foods.

As the immune system becomes more and more out of balance and sensitive, it starts to respond to many other chemicals with an allergic response, and multiple chemical sensitivities develop. That’s when you find it hard to leave the house because everything effects you, or so it seems.

Chronic Candida Overgrowth Have Been Linked to
Adrenal Fatigue and Low Thyroid Function

Candida yeast loves sugar, excreting chemicals that cause you to crave sugars and all types of carbohydrates. Of course, as the yeast digests the food sugars before your body can use them, your cravings can also be caused by low blood sugar levels.

During the nighttime, when you are fasting, the candida have plenty of time to be consuming your blood sugar. To compensate for this lack of sugar, your adrenals have to work extra hard, eventually leading to adrenal fatigue. (The acetylaldahyde candida produce also causes fatigue.)

The thyroid gland is linked with the adrenal glands. As the adrenal glands wear down, the thyroid gland also starts to perform poorly, leading to decreased temperature regulation and low metabolism.

Next: Why Women Have So Much More Serious Candida Overgrowth Than Men

THE TEST: In the evening, put a clear glass of water by your bed. First thing in the morning, briefly rinse your mouth, swallow, then gather some saliva in your mouth and spit into the glass of water (be sure to spit out saliva, not mucus). Keep an eye on the water for half an hour — especially the first few minutes. If you have candida overgrowth, you will see one or more of the following:

1. Strings (legs) hanging down from the saliva.

2. Heavy-looking saliva at the bottom of the glass.

3. Cloudy specks suspended in the water.

If, within three minutes after spitting into the water, you see “strings” hanging down, cloudy specks showing up in the water, or “debris” sinking to the bottom, you most likely have extensive overgrowth, which will require more candida-fighting action on your part.

If it takes longer than a few minutes for anything to show up, the candida is not as serious.
If the saliva just floats on top and the water stays perfectly clear, you most likely don’t have candida overgrowth.

How Does The Candida Test Work?

The logic behind the Candida Spit Test is simple. If you have candida overgrowth, it will show up in the saliva, a friendly environment for yeast. When you spit into the glass, the aerated saliva is lighter than water. However, candida is heavier than either. Whether it sinks as “legs”, falls to the bottom, or floats around in the water, all are indications of candida. The more you see, and the faster you see it, the more systemic the infection.

Candida concentrates in saliva overnight, so this test is most accurate first thing in the morning. I suggest rinsing out your mouth first, because, if you happen to be sleeping in a room with mold, you may have mold in your mouth from the room, and that could show up in the saliva too.

Some people claim this Candida test is not accurate, but that has not been my experience. Out of the thousands of times I’ve suggested that someone do the spit test, just to confirm that they had candida, only once did someone tell me that their test showed clear water and no debris, that they did not have candida, when it was obvious from all their symptoms that they had candida overgrowth. And….

Among the many who tested positive that I’ve spoken with, ALL have had candida symptoms.

I’ve heard more often, though still only rarely, from people who said their blood test or stool sample test was negative, even though they were clearly suffering, based on their symptoms and the spit test, from candida overgrowth. So this candida spit test is at least as accurate as expensive tests available from doctors.

So let’s assume that you’ve got a Candida Yeast Infection. If you’ve ever tried to eliminate your candida infection before, then you know how hard it can be. But why is that?

Next: How To Get Rid of Candida — Why Is It So Hard?

About 70% of all candida overgrowth occurs in women (if we consider the population of people over 15 years of age). As both men and women are equally exposed to antibiotics, this increase lies somewhat with the use of birth control pills, and primarily with candida’s fondness for progesterone.

Candida likes to eat progesterone. So what does it do?

Candida blocks estrogen receptors so that estrogen can’t lock into them, further disrupting the endocrine hormone by binding to estrogen, preventing it from being used properly by the body. Why does candida do this? Because estrogen and progesterone “teeter-totter” — low estrogen levels cause high progesterone levels. So by creating low estrogen levels in your body, candida causes progesterone levels to be elevated, providing more and more fuel for itself.

Women often have flare-ups coinciding with their period — a time when progesterone levels are higher. By the way, there are two types of estrogen — alpha estrogen produced by the female organs, and beta estrogen produced by the adrenal glands. Both men and women need and produce beta estrogen and not only are these estrogens inhibited by candida, but the adrenal fatigue caused by the candida overgrowth will result in even lower beta estrogen production.

So male hormones will suffer too, with low beta estrogen and low testosterone. These imbalances need to be corrected, but as men naturally produce much less progesterone than women, they do not supply such a readily available food source for the candida. Thus, out- of-control candida overgrowth affects many more women than men.

Next: Food Allergies and Candida

Candida yeast infections cause many different symptoms depending on what parts of your body the candida overgrowth has colonized. When you have most of the symptoms covered below, candida has been in your body a long time, and it’s just about everywhere.

If you are not sure if you have candida yeast overgrowth, take this simple candida test. It is very accurate, and won’t cost you a penny. My experience, from talking with literally thousands of people over the last ten years, is that this simple test is at least as accurate as blood tests and stool samples. Once you’ve taken it, you’ll know for sure if you have candida overgrowth and to what extent the overgrowth may be.

If you are experiencing even a few of these symptoms, you quite likely have Candida yeast overgrowth:

List of Candida Yeast Infection Symptoms

• Recurring Vaginal Yeast Infections
• Oral Thrush (accumulation at the back of the throat and white coated tongue)
• Migraine Headaches
• Sinus, Ear or Eye Infections
• Toenail Fungus
• Skin Fungus
• Rashes Including Jock Itch
• Food Allergies
• Brain Fog
• Depression
• Just Plain Feeling Whacked Out and Irritated
• Low Sex Drive
• Fatigue
• Low Thyroid
• Low Adrenals
• and More

If you have just one or two of the following symptoms, and you are not sure you have candida yeast overgrowth, take this simple candida test to see if you might have candida overgrowth that’s been troubling you all this time.

Next: Candida Test – How To Tell If You Have Candida

Robert Harrison – I’ve spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women over the last ten years, describing their lack of energy, inability to think clearly, onset of food allergies, decreased hormones and sex drive, recurring sinus infections, poor skin conditions, chronic poor digestion, acid reflux — the list goes on. These people had sought help from numerous doctors and alternative practitioners for years, trying to get rid of their candida, and often resulting in little to no improvement and, in some cases, worsening conditions.

Even those fortunate enough to speak with a doctor who recognized that candida overgrowth was the source of their problems, often had little success in getting better. Anti-fungal medications, probiotics, herbal supplementation and candida diets would temporarily bring their symptoms under control. Unfortunately, in almost every case, when the medications or diets decreased, the candida and it’s associated candida symptoms immediately returned. Many people have told me they’ve spent thousands of dollars on candida medications and supplements, while at the same time eating a low-carbohydrate candida diet, only to find the symptoms returning in full force once they stopped the treatment.

The first thing you need to know, once you’ve determined that you DO have candida ( go here for an easy self-administered candida test ), is…

Getting rid of candida can be EXTREMELY challenging. Only a few candida sufferers have, over the years, told me that they were able to return to a healthy balance with ease. Once the yeast overgrowth has spread throughout your body, it becomes much more of a challenge to correct.

Candida yeast infections are not just a female issue, even though we commonly think of it this way. They become systemic infections when the friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract gradually, or rapidly, are destroyed by antibiotics, medications, birth control pills, drinking chlorinated water, stress and simply by growing up eating a Western diet. The candida yeast fungi, which are stronger than the beneficial bacteria, survive the antibiotics or stressful conditions, and begin to thrive.

Candida is supposed to make up a very small part of your intestinal flora, necessary and beneficial when in balance. When too many of your friendly bacteria are killed, they are no longer able to keep the candida yeast in check. Candida yeast then explode in a growth frenzy filling into the space that was once inhabited by your friendly bacteria. They are stronger than the friendly bacteria and will overwhelm the remaining bacteria. Eventually this overgrowth of candida damages the intestinal wall and causes a leaky gut. Once this happens it spreads throughout your body.

Whether your symptoms are mild or overwhelming, depends upon how strong your immune system is, how long the candida overgrowth has existed, and the quality of your diet. Even mild cases can be a challenge to correct. Tough cases become almost impossible to deal with. Many people suffer tremendously, with their lives virtually wiped out, from extensive and chronic candida overgrowth. Get rid of your candida overgrowth before this happens.

Next: Symptoms of Candida