Treating Lyme and Candida Simultaneously?

So, I've been on AB Treatment for Lyme and co-infections for just under 3 months now...and unfortunately the 'yeasty-beasties' have well and truly taken hold, despite my best efforts with daily pro-biotics (both capsules and in food) and an extremely clean diet (no sugar, no gluten, no dairy and low-carb). It's actually the most troubling issue for me right now, so although I know it's kinda counter-intuitive to attempt to treat a candida problem whilst still taking ABs, is it possible to treat it simultaneously? Any advice would be most appreciated.

Post Edited (Reicheru) : 9/8/2016 10:28:24 PM (GMT-6)

Hi Reicheru

Most people cannot have a successful treatment w/ abx or herbs for very long w/out also treating for yeast/fungal overgrowth, preferably from a preventative approach. LLMDs and MDs and NDs are woefully and ignorantly placing patients in a huge mess w/out focusing specifically on this. My own LLMD was the same and had I not walked into her office w/out a lot of info about it, I would be in much worse shape. Once a yeast/fungal overgrowth takes root (literally), managing it can be achieved but eliminating it is nearly impossible.

Y/F overgrwoth
You didn't mention your sx but there are two ways y/f overgrowth can occur and sx easily point to which you need to treat. It usually starts in your gut, because we take abx/herbs orally, which wipes out ALL bacteria, even the good beneficial bacteria required for proper digestion and maintaining balance in your gut. W/out good bacteria, y/f can overgrow (and it happens exponentially, in a matter of hours after each dose, which is why you have to constantly replace good bacteria w/ probiotics).

Leaky gut
When y/f is allowed to overgrow in the gut, it begins to literally grow roots into your intestines, penetrating the mucosal lining of your intestines. Fecal matter, yeast and other toxins then leak out into your blood stream, causing a whole host over other serious problems (the food in fecal matter can't be recognized by your immune system, which then starts to produce antibodies and food sensitivities/allergies begin to develop to everything you eat), yeast then travels throughout your body and systemic y/f problems begin (sinuses, eyes, skin, vaginal or rectal problems), not to mention brain function.

Immune dysfunction
Another significant risk you run w/ leaky gut, particularly for those of us struggling to heal from lyme & co is that 70% of your immune system lies w/in your intestines. And with damage to your mucosal lining, you are not absorbing nutrients or medication/supplements like you should, which exacerbates problems w/ healing.

I suggest you do the following steps, in this order:

1. Make sure you are taking at least 500 billion good, fresh, mutistrained probiotic every day 2 or 3 hrs after your last abx course for the day.

2. Ask your LLMD to write an Rx for "Pure Nystatin Powder 1,000,000 units". He/she will want to give you the Nystatin capsules/pills but push hard for the powder (it's cheaper, significantly more effective and doesn't have the fillers). Most regular pharmacies don't carry it because they make more $ from the manufactured stuff so you'll need to find a compounding pharmacist. Since many smaller areas of the country don' have one, most have websites and ship all over the country. Mine is awesome, great customer service and ships for free so let me know if you'd like his info.

If your y/f sx are mainly "local" or your systemic problem is still early, (and remember that y/f in gut can cause many neurotoxins in the brain) you will make good progress only w/ the powder, your gut can heal well and the systemic problems will stop.

Dosing for the powder can be found here.
www.drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Nystatin_-_how_to_take_it
Start slowly as it is powerful keep increasing up to 1 teaspoon/day. If at that dose you don't continue feeling relief keep increasing and contact your LLMD about increasing dosage per this chart and ask for another Rx. If you can't get then to increase your dose, continue increasing up to max amount. alk w/ LLMD again, keep pushing for more:

3. If you are also having systemic problems in areas outside your gut, start on a systemic anti fungal (Diflucan/Fluconazole, Ketoconazole), which is very hard on your liver. Increase detox and introduce Burbur, Burdock Root to support your liver and get your liver enzymes tested once a month (bloodwork). Your LLMD should monitor this closely and you should not remain on the systemic anti fungal more than a couple of months.

4. Once you are on antifungals, you need to increase detox as best you can. You're killing yeast/fungus and you need to escort that stuff out of your body as efficiently as possible or your body will continue to react it.

You can continue taking the powder for as long as you need as it is naturally derived from the earth and not harmful. I've read in my research that some people are predisposed to y/f overgrowth and once a significant problem enters the picture, they may need to keep it in check the rest of their lives, the damage it does to your gut is serious.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have more q's.

p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/24/2015 8:58:01 AM (GMT-6)

First, I want to let you know I amended my previous post to be less absolute and clarify that MOSt people (not all) need antivirals along w/ abx. I feel many MDs do themselves (and their patents!) a disservice by not explaining anything about the need to replace the good bacteria and warning them what will happen if they don't and to be on the lookout for y/f overgrowth. If they did this, there would be a lot less panic over the detrimental affects of abx we take… and also, people wouldn't be misinformed that herbs don't also eliminate good bacteria (although it is less of a problem w/ herbs).

Anyway, in response to your question:

I think you should skip the clinic and start on the antivirals and wait to see what happens. A systemic will affect a vaginal yeast infection effectively.

For me, I am very prone to vaginal yeast overgrowth when I drink wine. Not every time but usually. I don't know why wine is a trigger but nothing else, not even abx gives me that reaction and I have had a lot of systemic sx of yeast overgrowth and no vaginal infection except w/ wine. My hunch is that there are many different strains of y/f that have different triggers.

I'll also share that back when I was in college, I had a very strange infection take over my life and no one could diagnose it and nothing they did helped. I went through 4 different gynos before one of them finally painted me w/ gentian violet. Problem solved. So, what seemed like a bacterial infection turned out to be a yeast infection. Or, I'm now wondering if it was a biofilm.

And then, more recently (before I started on my lyme & co tx,) I had been taking abx for chronic bronchitis and sinusitis (w/out any probiotics or antifungals, thank you MDs) and didn't have significant sx but during a routine checkup, my gyn tested me and it showed another yeast infection. But she prescribed a Monistat suppository which was so horribly painful I had to jump in a bath to wash off the meds. So, I don't know what it was but it was not a typical yeast infection. But all the abx I was on that year stirred up a lot of specific lyme & confections symptoms at that time, which actually helped me figure out it was lyme & co. Anyway, the antifungals helped in that situation.

So… about HBC, these can cause y/f overgrowth but I don't remember why. When I went off it awhile back, I had a pretty quick transition back to normal, and some added benefits of feeling more even keeled emotionally, and more clarity, psychologically. If I knew then what I know now I'd never have started taking them. If I were you I would finish your HBC cycle and then after your period, just stop taking them, that way you're not disrupting your cycle.

I hope it all goes well for you. Let us know how you're doing!

p

Post Edited (Pirouette) : 5/25/2015 5:11:07 AM (GMT-6)