OCD - Streptococcus Bacteria - NIMH study- Scarlet Fever- is Candida the link?????????????

Dr. Mercola

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is launching a study to see whether Streptococcus bacteria, which cause strep throat, scarlet fever, and other infections such as pneumonia, may also be responsible for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children.¹
According to NIMH statistics, OCD affects approximately one percent of American adults.²
People with OCD are beset with anxious persistent thoughts (obsessions), or feel compelled to perform certain rituals like hand washing or repeatedly checking things (compulsions).
For many people, the condition begins during childhood or the teen years. The Streptococcus bacteria create proteins that mimic human proteins, thereby evading your immune system. Once your immune system identifies them as "foreign invaders," it begins creating antibodies.
However, these antibodies can also attack human tissues such as your heart, joints, and brain.
Several years ago, evidence emerged suggesting that this attack on the brain can inflame brain structures, which possibly could trigger OCD (or OCD-like symptoms) in children. The NIMH now exploring what causes OCD, and will work on finding a treatment that might help reverse the syndrome.
According to the featured report in New Scientist,³ the Institute intends to find out whether an antibody treatment used to reduce autoimmune reactions might be beneficial.

The Gut-Brain Connection

From a proactive perspective, it's important to realize that you have the potential to take control over your health, including your mental or psychiatric health.
Psychiatric conditions such as OCD are primarily believed to be the result of chemical dysfunction in your brain, or in some cases hereditary and therefore out of your control. Many fail to realize that a) your lifestyle can override genetic predispositions, and b) your lifestyle can be a major underlying cause of that chemical imbalance or dysfunction.
So, there's plenty of reason to take a closer look at lifestyle factors such as diet and toxic exposures—whether you want to prevent a health condition, or treat it.
Some may object and say that a child hasn't had enough time to develop bad lifestyle habits, but when it comes to health problems related to the brain, the GUT is typically involved, and children are now increasingly BORN with damaged gut flora—courtesy of less than ideal lifestyle choices by the child's mother...
In a very real sense, you have two brains: one inside your skull and one in your gut.
While they may seem very different, these two organs are actually created out of the same type of tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system.
Your vagus nerve—the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen—connects these two organs together. Your gut actually produces more of the neurotransmitter serotonin—thought to play an important role in OCD, in addition to having a beneficial influence on your mood in general—than your brain does, so optimizing your gut flora may indeed have tremendous benefit for your psychological health. And there's plenty of evidence to suggest that this needs to begin from birth, or even, ideally, before birth.

Can You Reverse Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders with... Bacteria?

Increasingly, scientific evidence shows that nourishing your gut flora with the beneficial bacteria found in traditionally fermented foods (or a probiotic supplement) is extremely important for proper brain function, and that includes psychological well-being and mood control. The reason I am more fond of using fermented foods as a source of beneficial bacteria is LEVERAGE. You can typically consume more than 100 times the amount you would in typical serving of oral probiotics. You can get many trillions of bacteria instead of billions.
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride has successfully demonstrated the power and effectiveness of this theory. In her Cambridge, England clinic, she treats children and adults with a range of conditions, including autism, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, immune disorders, and digestive problems using the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) Nutritional Program, which she developed.
Her GAPS theory is an elegant description of how such conditions can develop as a direct result of gastrointestinal toxicity. How might your gut turn into a source of toxicity rather than nourishment? Many aspects of our modern lifestyle contribute to destroying your all-important gut flora, including: