Mangaka
I was going to agree that you should follow DB*'s posts about
the dosing and forward the dosing link to your LLMD. You are likely not on a nearly high enough dose. And then I saw your last post — YAY! I mean, I'm sorry you're feeling the herxing, which is not fun but it means you are impacting the y/f. Please make sure you're detoxing effectively to remove all the dead y/f debris, otherwise it can make you sicker.
One of the many benefits of the pure powder Nystatin:
I love that your pharmacists told you this - "the Nystatin coats your digestive tract and then kills the yeast, and if you eat or drink after taking the Nystatin, then the Nystatin will be washed out of your system too quickly." GREAT advice, not many understand that coating your entire alimentary canal is one of the great differentiators the powder has over the pills and capsules (plus, it is a much higher dose because it does not have all the expensive fillers added).
And a few responses to this:
"More updates: I still have not herxed. It seems that the candida is simply getting worse! My Naturopath said that the yeast may be resistant to Nystatin, and that I should try fluconazole instead. I don't want to try fluconazole, though, because from what I've researched, it looks like it has side effects. I am going to keep taking the Nystatin for now, and hope that it starts working. I am also going to try more natural anti-fungals, like black walnut."
I know you've already increased dosing and have made some progress, but for the sake of sharing information I felt compelled to respond to this statement:
Local vs. Systemic Antifungal
First, the nystatin and the fluconazole focus on different parts of your body and I am hoping that with patient education, we can get more MDs and NDs to understand this and treat us more effectively. Nystatin is a LOCAL anti fungal and in the pure powder form, can hit nearly all the parts of your digestive system (from mouth to anus) that pills have absolutely no way of even getting near. There is simply no comparison or more effective way of doing it.
But also, the Nystatin doesn't cross the mucosal GI barrier, which is why it's a local anti fungal and deemed one of the safest Rx you can take (plus it is derived from the earth). Yes, you could have a nystatin-resistant form of y/f but if you have never used the nystatin powder (not the pills, but the pure powder) at the appropriate doses, it's more likely that you are not taking enough. MDs and NDs are very trepid in their dosing, mostly because of unfamiliarity with the powder and inexperience in understanding the yeast/fungal world. You need to hit yeast FAST AND HARD. A slow attack only gives y/f time to adapt. Now, the dosing does titrate up in small increments, which, if you're detoxing effectively you should be at max. doses quickly.
The Fluconazole (or Diflucan, and there are other brands, usually the "-azoles" are SYSTEMIC antifungals. "Systemic" typically means that when you ingest it in pill form, it crosses the mucosal GI barrier and gets into your blood stream, which then takes the anti fungal throughout the body to hit the areas where it's growing (indicated by nail or skin disorders, maybe joint or muscle pain). It is also a very harsh drug and very difficult for the liver to process and if you are on ANY systemic anti fungal you need your liver enzymes checked monthly. Burdock root and milk thistle seed can help control the enzymes.
So, which do you need?
But most y/f overgrowth starts in the gut (primarily because good bacteria naturally keeps y/f in check, and as a culture, we destroy the good bacteria with just one dose of antibiotics but also with poor diets and there are also genetic predispositions of low good bacteria). The general rule is that unless you have NO Gi symptoms and all you have is fungal growth in a toenail or some dandruff, you always treat the gut. Although gut y/f overgrowth can cause MANY problems that may seem systemic and not gut related (brain fog, mood, cognition, blurry vision or floaters, ear or throat ache, sinus infection, mouth thrush or discolored tongue, etc… so diagnosing is very specific) but actually originate in the gut (it's all interconnected inside!)
In fact, even with systemic symptoms, unless they are severe (mine were) I'd start with the pure powder for the gut and only after giving yourself some time to react and get to your max dose, if you still have systemic problems then you ADD a systemic anitfungal. You'll need to stay on the local pure powder for awhile.
Choosing a systemic anti fungal can be tricky. The best way to do it is to get a Doctor's Data stool test and hope that it will pick up the y/f strains you have, because it also indicates which natural remedies AND Rx are effective/resistant to it. Helps eliminate precious guessing time… But darn it if some MDs and NDs simply assume you don't have candida because the test didn't find any. How can they administer these tests w/out understanding their limitations? There are many strains of many things that tests are not designed to detect. Simple science. So, an absence of y/f overgrowth on a stool or blood test may not rule out y/f overgrowth… symptoms are KEY.
So, if you're not up to the $300-400 cost, or if it doesn't pick up your strains, you're left to trying out a few. And unless your y/f overgrowth is severe, I'd pick 4 natural antifungals (like raw garlic, Grapefruit seed extract, coconut oil and black walnut) and take one for a week and rotate to another one, do this with these 4 antifungals for a couple of months and rotate new ones in.
If your y/f overgrowth is severe, I'd start w/ the Rx and give it a couple of weeks—if you don't have any reactions to it (increase or decrease in sx) immediately switch to another.
Hope this helps clear a little confusion about
the antifungals and I really hope the powder does it for you!
-p
Post Edited (Pirouette) : 7/5/2015 12:31:00 PM (GMT-6)