Candida Symptoms

Hi, I recently got my amalgam fillings replaced and felt like I was getting a lot better. However I noticed getting strange food craving - chocolate and crisps/potato chips and someone mentioned I may have candida as this is quite common with formely mercury toxic people. I did the candida-spit-in-glass-of-water-first-thing-in-the-morning test and it came postive.

So I started an anti-candida diet-eating only eggs, milk (i don't seem to be allergic), meat, vegetables and occasionally yogurt with probiotics.

Is there anything else I should be taking to kill off the overgrowth? Perhaps tablets of those probiotics or some anti-fungal medicin i.e. Threelax?

Thanks.


A few cravings for chocolate and potato crisps is not a particularly significant sign that you've got candida. Pathogenic Candida overgrowth symptoms include mind fog, massive fatigue, bloating, cholic, feelings of malais etc.
I would be very careful with special diets as they can very rapidly cause nutritional deficiencies, which will cause chronic illness
In addition, if you do have a Candida infection the so-called Candida diet in isolation is quite risky, as it 'pushes' the candida to switch phenotypes to become a more invasive, hyphae producing fungal infection that is far tougher to get rid of than the initial diploid budding yeast. Its a common falacy that depriving Candida of carbohydrates will starve it to death, but research shows that it simply switches phenotype and the fugal hyphae invade the blood capillaries in the walls of the gut thereby accessing a rich supply of blood glucose


What are the considered "effective" antifungals besides serious drugs like Nystatin and nizoral? If I can avoid them at all, I will. My doctor has me on a no-sugar diet and a weekly rotating dose of oil of oregano, garlic, and pau d'arco. Will this be enough to kill the yeast? I told her that I had not yet really cut out all of my starchy vegetables. She told me to not really worry about that because the main thing right now is cutting out the sugar. Did she tell me this because of Steve's explanation above? If I were to cut out these starchy vegetables, and only stick to brown rice and quinoa for carbs, will I be hurting myself because I am not really on a serious antifungal?


Hi Joy,

It's really hard and everyone will give you different answers. I have personnally learnt to balance everything and I still feel 100 times better than I did on it. I think it is better for your body not to cut out everything that nature intended us to eat as I feel your body will suffer more for it in the end. It is a case of testing things and learning how your body reacts.
I try to avoid normal potatoes but I sometimes have other root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and parsnips in small quantaties. I never touch wheat but I eat quite a bit of organic brown rice in the form of cereal and rice cakes. I also use buckwheat flour for cooking such as pancakes and with oats as a crumble topping!
I eat any meats and fish although I keep pork to a minimum because of the toxins and I try and buy organic whenever I can.
I also eat any vegetables but I try and keep the green veg as the higher proportion of my diet and I normally eat a large mixed salad every day.
I never touch sugar and I keep fruit and dairy to an absolute minimum. I have the odd half grapefruit, papaya, cooking apple, pomegranate and cranberries - never more than 1 portion per day. And I only have organic butter, goats yogurt and very occasional goats cheese.
I take natural antifungals now, like grapefruit seed extract, pau d'arco, oregano etc as directed and rotate them every coule of weeks. I also take a high multi vitamin supplement, extra vitamin c, liver support tablets and other supplements such as L-glutamine and molybdenum. I also take a high strength probiotic at least once a day and I have done a parasite cleanse and plan to do another soon.
I've been doing this since May. I started the diet more strictly for 3 months whilst on Niastatin with no carbs or fruit either and then I changed to natural antifungals and added the above gradually back into my diet. I was very sick at the beginning and had lots and lots of die off and depression and lost a lot of weight but everything has stabilised now and I am feeling much better! I intend to continue this way as maintenance probably indefinitely as I feel so much better for it! I still have to build my immune system back up as I still get knocked out by the slightest cold at the moment. I think it takes a long time for your body to repair.
Good luck and I'm sure you will get lots of support ftom this forum. :)

april


Where do you get the bulk of your calories from ?


Me?

I guess the bulk of my calories would come from meat and nuts. I also have organic extra virgin olive oil, organic pure butter and avacodoes which make up my calorie/fat intake.
I lost a lot of weight at the beginning and I am now trying to put some back on as I only weigh 7 stone.


Hmmmm.......

April, are you planning on living a long time.

I assume not based on your very toxic, acid forming diet full of dioxin laden animal fats, and low in essential phyto nutrients.

Who sold you on that plan ?

Atkins ? He died from Heart disease !


Thank you for responding April. I feel a little better with your reply. I was doubting everything I was doing. Thanks. Hey what are most of your symptoms with the candida? Do you too have serious female problems along with this? That is the case for me and is how I came to the conclusion that I have candida. Vulvoynia, bacterial vaginitis at times, stinging, burning, itching. If these are most of my symptoms, is this what I will experience when the yeast starts dying off? Hope to talk to you again.


Hi Joy,

No problem, I am always happy to try and be of any help I can although there are lots of people on here who have been fighting this for a lot longer than me! I think you start to learn a lot about your body though and what affects you when you start down the road of treating yourself. Or at least that is what I have discovered!
I had lots of symptoms for the past 10 years (I'm 28 now) which I never thought could be connected until things came to a head this year and I had to look into it more.
I was quite fortunate not to have too many womens related problems...the very occasional bout of thrush, some pain during intercourse and an annoying discharge at times. The other main problem I had in that region was my bladder - I had regular severe bladder infections which were persistent and intense and hard to treat, normally resulting in antibiotics which I now know would have only worsened the problem!! And I almost always had very cloudy urine which I assume now was the yeast and this is gradully clearing now!
The other main symptoms I had were with my stomach and my breathing. I had severe IBS type symptoms, inparticular very severe bloating and also constipation and sometimes pains. I also had bad breathing problems, allergies and difficulty breathing for no particular reason. One of the main allergies which I still get is to cigarette smoke - I could hardly go into a pub at one point without feeling like i was going to suffocate.
I also had fungal infections in my toe nail (which I lost!) and ringworm on my skin (which I could not get rid of) and foliculitis on my legs and stomach.
I was also getting sick all the time until I started taking high vitamin supplements which I figure now was because I was not digesting vitamins well from my food.
I'm sure there are other symptoms that I have forgotten for now but the good news is that all of them have gone or are going and I am really pleased with my progress.
You can expect any symptoms you do have to get worse in the first few weeks unfortunately but if you stick to it they will gradually disappear! You mustn't give in as it will make you feel like you are not getting anywhere to begin with as you will feel worse. I think from the toxins that the dieing yeast was producing, I got quite bad depression in the beginning and felt like I didn't want to carry on but I kept telling myself it was only temporary and I would feel better soon! I got through that and have not felt that for a few months now. A particular sign for me was that my ringworm that I had been unable to cure for almost a year got much worse for 2 weeks and then totally disappeared! :) That made me feel like I was doing something right!! :)

I hope this all makes sense!!

I am seeing an NHS nutritionist in 2 weeks, which I don't hold out much hope for and I also plan to see an alternative oriental medicine doctor who specialises in Candida soon to see what else I can do to make sure I do the best I can to get rid of this!

I was lucky that I can persevere, cook and like healthy food!! I'm sure you will be too! :)


,
Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply to your earlier further down under "Candida symptoms". We just had a Thanksgiving holiday here in USA and I just haven't had a chance to get back to you. Wow we are about the same age; I am 29. It is interesting hearing your story. I am so glad that you are getting better. I will tell you a little about what I am going through. Growing up I was put on antibiotics for different reasons.....UTI's, pnemonia. Then when I was in my early 20's, I went to the doctor because I was getting alot of headaches. Instead of just suggesting that I try an over the counter sinus medicine or allergy medicine like claritin, she prescribed me an antibiotic for a sinus infection. I then got colitis at the end of the antibiotic. She tried to fix that with another antibiotic. From there I started having female problems. Constantly itching before I was going to ovulate. Intercourse was painful at times, but bearable. I learned to live with the rawness and itching because the doctor said I just had a case of vulvodynia and I just needed to use alot of lubricants with my husband and relax. Then last year I got pregnant. I regularly saw the doctor because of the many appointments when one is pregnant. He gave me an antibiotic any time he found bacteria. Once I had our baby, I was put on 2 antibiotics in the hospital because I had more bacteria and an emergency c-section. When our baby was 2 months old, I got sick(possibly strep). I was put on another antibiotic. 3 months later, I came down with horrible itching, burning, stinging in the vaginal area. I also broke out with this itchy hive thing on my foot. I still don't know what it is. I went to the doctor about it and she said I had poison ivy. Poison ivy since MAY?? I still have it! My husband and I could not have intercourse because it was excruciating. I went back to the doctor and he treated me with 2 more antibiotics because he found more bacteria and blood in my urine. By this point, I was crazy. I have reoccurring athletes foot once a month, rectal itching, toenail fungus, gingivitis that won't go away on my gums, stingy eyes at times, weird raised circles(sorelike)on the back of my toungue, and waves of exhaustion that come over me during the day. I finally did some research on systemic yeast and decided to ditch my doctor. I always had a suspicion that I had it but it kept throwing me off everytime that I would go to the doctor, they would find bacteria. Well, now I am trying to get my body in balance again. I have to say this is so tough. I have been on this diet now for about 3-4 weeks and rotating natural antifungals. It is exactly like you said. It doesn't seem like it is getting better at all. I actually feel worse. My vaginal irritations are throughout the day EVERYDAY!! It is like living with a vaginal yeast infection daily. I think I am getting die-off because now I have developed a nausea, headache and achiness throughout the day. I have been trying to check out my stool but I don't think I see anything yet. Do you have any ideas when I should start seeing something? If you or anyone has any ideas about anything? How to deal with the itching and irritations? AHHH! How to help intercourse not be so painful............Any tips...please help!!! Thanks for your emails April. Talk to you soon.



Your symptoms sound just like my daughter.

In particular the foliculitis. I presume what you're talking about are acne-like symptoms on your stomach and legs.

In my daughter's case she had so called foliculitis for almost 10 years. It was very severe and even the best skin clinics in Germany couldn't help. The Heidelberg Clinic diagnosed it as incurable Acne Inversa.

In addition, like you she had weakened immune system, Candida infection and all the usual symptoms that go with it.

Being in the laboratory instrumentation business for the past 30 years I have many friends and acquaintances who own labs. In addition I had access to our own laboratory, which is equipped with all the latest in high tech gear, including gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometers etc.

I began to wonder if my daughter's problems couldn't be caused by some sort of environmental toxin, so I took samples from all the building materials, furniture and carpets in our house.
I found 3 pesticides in her bedroom furniture and carpet plus a very toxic dyestuff residue in the fabric of our dining room suite.

We removed all the furniture and carpets and within a month she had recovered and all the boils, which had troubled her for 10 years spontaneously healed.

We placed the offending furniture in the garage awaiting proper disposal. One day my daughter took the car (which for the first time had been parked in the garage) and after 20 minutes had to pull over and stop with acute tunnel vision. For the next 2 days she suffered severe anxiety, followed by depression. It turned out that even entering the garage for a few seconds was enough to trigger major mood swings lasting 48-72 hours.
The point here is that all the furniture and carpet were just regular, shop bought items. Something that thousands and perhaps millions of other people would have.
Once all this over, my daughter found she was very sensitive to toxic environments and could not enter furniture or hardware stores without developing symptoms like mind fog, headache and anxiety. Interestingly, when we moved back from Germany to the UK we visited over 30 houses looking for a place to live. In more than half she developed immediate symptoms!

Q. Since your symptoms first developed are you a. still in the same house or appartment or b. still using the same furniture or carpets? If so, your symptoms could be environmentally mediated.

Hi Steve,

Wow, that is an amazing story! It is crazy how many different things can cause all these conditions!! I am glad your daughter has been able to find out and resolve her condition!
Unfortunately it would be difficult to pin point for me as I have moved several times and I think have had all new furniture/carpets etc numerous times over the past 10 years. The only furniture I have had for any period which I still have is some Argos bedroom furniture but I have not had it for the duration of my illness either?!
I do hope at some point to be able to get some tests done for toxins etc in me which I hope would help to detect any problems but this is proving a difficult test for me to get. I am hoping to get a referral from the nutritionist I am going to see to get blood tests for vitamin/mineral and toxin levels but will see what they say! I don't hold out much hope as it is the NHS!
Yes - the foliculitis I get varies from small red marks to large painful spots that are very difficult to get rid of. Maily on my stomach, the very top of my legs and on and below my knees. The only way I have got rid of them is to cut into them with a pin and get out the offending hair, which is probably not very good for me! Otherwise they seem to take weeks and weeks for each one to gradually go?! The doctors diagnosed me with foliculitis and told me to use a loofah and antiseptic soap to try and prevent it which helped slightly but certainly didn't prevent it!

Thanks for posting though Steve, I will bare it in mind. I am also considering Mercury although I only have one and a tiny bit of fillings?!
I think I may have got it purely from getting Glandular fever at 18 followed by many numerous bouts of tonsilitus each treated with antibiotics before they finally removed my damaged tonsils!

april


Steve & April,

Wow! I think you just gave me an answer for what looks like acne on my daughter's torso and knees. So far, no one seems to know what it is. She has one other symptom you didn't mention. Hers are itchy. Did your foliculitis itch? I had her to the dr. last week because I thought she had hives. He said they weren't hives but didn't know what they were.

Oh and my knees were where it started and where it has mainly been the worse! I am always picking at them! But I also get it on my tummy, I think where my waitband rubs and get it below my knees on my lower legs and have also had it in the groin region!
This has all been much improved since I have been treating myself for Candida I am very pleased to say! :)


April,

She gets it at her waistband the worst, too. I noticed a flare after a recent bout with anti-biotics. It's got to be candida related. Hmmm. Thanks for sharing your symptoms and what helped clear it up.

Hi Grace,

Hmmm...it's hard to say if they actually itch as such but they do aggravate and can get sore/irritational?! For me it was mainly the unsightlyness that I hated!
The ones I had at the top of my legs/groin were the most uncomfortable, I think mainly because they got irritated by pressure from clothes and sitting.
You can try a loofah and antibac soap such as Cidal (grapefruit). These were recommended by my doctor and did help to keep the infections down a little.

Good luck to your daughter.

april


Yes I have aformentioned symptoms, they're very similar to mercury poisoning.

You're saying that simply reducing your carbohydrates won't kill the overgrowth?

So what will?

I was going to buy some acidophilus/lactobacillus tablets to try and kill the overgrowth.

Any information would be more than welcome.


Low carb may not be lab tested but is very popular with sufferers here. I found it to be very effective.

Contrary to some posts here fats are not converted into sugar but metabolised in the mitochondria in place of sugar! I found high quality good fats an excellent source of energy, and I do mountain bike racing (on a good day).

It amazes me the different stories and recomendations on here. I think it reflects the numerous underlying causes?

Personally I think probiotics are the answer to life the universe and everything! Max on Lactobacillus sporogenes and maintain diversity with others. Threelac? Great stuff but others are as good!

Steve,

This is pretty much what happened to me. However, I had started with Nystatin before diet change. Apparently, I was not on it long enough befor I started the diet or else it wasn't strong enough against the Candida. There were other issues like amalgams and environmental toxins I was exposed to at work and at home that all made my immune system dysfunction. But at least I know what to do about it now and in many ways I am better than I was back then.

Hi Steve, here is my opinion. No eggs or milk, Threelac doesn't work and be careful of yogurt, too much sugar even though it's natural sugar. I would find the strictest version of the candida diet online and stick to it for at least a year, then slowly add back foods one at at time. No cheating and you will get better. p.s. cultured vegetables are essential in my book. Good luck.


Steve,

I did the strictest diet for 18 months and think I hurt myself by not getting enough nutrients for such a long duration. I felt ill and seeing pictures of myself back then could tell I was very, very sick. I was not taking a good quality vitamin or supplements or essential fatty acids. All of these are very important. Balance is key. If you are not getting all the nutrients through your diet, you do need to supplement. Your body needs basic building blocks to restore and repair.

Great points Grace.

To this I would add that if you are losing weight fast, it means you are in all likelyhood releasing toxins and proaly TOO fast. This was a ig mistake of mine.

In retrospect I should have proceeded with the diet a little more slowly (ie I went way TOO LOW car) and needed more liver support.

B,

Absolutely true!

It's wise to use something to help mop up toxins: chlorella, saunas, activated charcoal, modified citrus pectin.

Also, to re-mineralize so you don't get too acidic on a high protein diet.