Fungus and yeast are opportunistic micro-organisms that can frequently produce troubling infections. The terms; "yeast", "fungus" and "mould" are often used interchangeably however yeast and moulds are types of fungi.

Some fungus feed off dead organisms, nature's garbage disposal, while other, parasitic fungus, feed off live organisms. These pathogenic fungus cause plant, animal, and human diseases such as athlete's foot, swimmer's ear, ringworm, dandruff, Valley Fever, fingernail and toenail infections, rosacea, and yeast infections.

Due to the similarity of the cell membrane of fungus and animals, there are few anti-fungal drugs that are safe for humans. Many substances that can damage a cell membrane of fungus are also destructive to human cell membranes. So, whereas there are dozens of prescription antibacterial drugs, at the time of writing there are only ten anti-fungal drugs available for internal use. Two drugs in common use are Nystatin and Diflucan.

Nystatin and Diflucan are given to patients who suffer from chronic fungal or yeast growth. The fungal yeast growth could be anywhere in the body, the intestines, genitals, mouth etc. The assumption is that the medicine will kill the fungus, it will go away and all will be well. Unfortunately all too often this proves not to be the case. Even if the the fungus is eliminated it often leaves an environment which is disturbed and prone to other infections or readily reinfects with fungus.

Many of the drugs are quite toxic and dangerous, they need to be monitored closely with long term use and they are known to lead to drug resistance in many strains of fungi. Nystatin is particularly known for causing drug resistance in different strains of Candida Albicans one of the most common of fungi that cause problem infections.

The normal healthy digestive tract is host to micro-organisms such as Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Bifido Bacterium, these are beneficial or so called "good bacterium" that play an important part in maintaining healthy digestion.

They help produce vitamins, help us digest and absorb nutrients from our foods and also protect us from harmful bacteria, parasites and yeasts which find their way into our digestive tract.

When medication such antibiotics, steroids, antacids, and immune suppressing drugs are taken these friendly protective organisms die-off. This condition is called "Dysbiosis". "Dysbiosis" is a state of imbalance where the harmful micro-organisms achieve an abnormal dominance over the good organisms. This allows a build up of toxins produced by the organisms and also disrupts normal digestion. Due to this, stomach acid and enzymes produced by the pancreas that digest foods (particularly proteins) lessen. This leads to incomplete digestion of proteins.

When you take drugs for fungal infections the harmful bacteria are unaffected and their presence can prevent the good bacteria from re-colonising the bowel, even if you are taking pro-biotic supplements.

Traditional herbal medicine such as Chinese Herbal Medicine has many herbs that are beneficial in fungal infections. Some herbs such as Radix Rehmania Glutinosae, Rhizoma Coptidis, Radix Sophorae, Cortex Cinnamomi, garlic and grape seed extract are known to be anti-fungal and frequently have antibacterial effects too. Other herbs such as Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae reduce inflammation and improve digestion while herbs like Radix Astragali improve the function of the immune system. Many of the herbal formulas that Chinese Medicine uses to treat fungal infection will combine these effects for a restoration of a normal healthy environment that is resistant to re-infection.

Herbal anti-fungal treatments have several advantages; they are very safe, there is little evidence that fungi develop resistance and they treat dysbiosis as well as the infection.