[OokieWonderslug (OP)]

Just curious as google searches prove fruitless. It forces your body to produce that paste, which stinks for some reason. Why? and what is that stuff?

[chris]

When Candida over-grows on a tissue surface, this is known as "thrush". The clinical appearance is of white blobs or a white coating across the mucous surface; if these are scraped away, the underlying mucosa is an angry red colour, which is a clue to the identity of the white material you ask about. These plaques comprise Candida cells and the fungal elements called hyphae that they produce as well as dead, desquamated epithelial (skin) cells, inflammatory proteins and dead immune cells. They are produced in response to invasive growth by the yeast cells into the mucosal surface, which triggers inflammation, immune incursion, cell death and extravasation (escape across the blood vessel walls) of various plasma proteins. Once the yeast infection is controlled, the inflammation subsides and the deposits slough off and the tissue returns to its normal appearance.