What is it?
Candida or Monilia is a skin rash caused by a yeast living on normal skin of 80% of all people. In most people, the presence of this yeast on the skin is not visible. In some people, for unknown reasons, the yeast grows more actively and causes a red, itchy, scaling rash. The yeast prefers warm moist areas and usually grows in the skin folds under the breast, stomach, and arm pits.

What causes it?
Candida is caused by a yeast called Candida albicans.

Candida infection sometimes occurs as a result of antibiotic therapy. People with diabetes are more prone to getting the rash of Candida, but the rash can occur in anyone.

How do I treat it?
A good treatment regimen is anti-yeast cream (Lotrimin) applied to the affected area twice a day followed by hydrocortisone cream (hydrocortisone 1% cream can be bought at the drug store without a prescription). These two medicines can be applied at the same time (okay to mix the two on the skin). Certain anti-yeast creams are only available with a prescription. Lotrimin cream is an over-the-counter anti-yeast cream that often works. Some doctors use pills to treat this condition. We only use pills for resistant cases because the pills have side effects.

Anything else I should check?
If you have recurrent Candida infections you should have a glucose tolerance test done to rule out diabetes mellitus.

If you are a diabetic and are frequently diagnosed with Candida infections, your blood glucose levels are probably not in the normal range. You should contact your family doctor and have your treatment plan reevaluated.