The Candida Cure

I was trying to write a comprehensive thread on Candida - but decided to just post an update to make it simpler, bc I have written so much already, and don't want to be repetitive. It was also taking too long for me to type, bc I kept wanting to add more information, but I don't want the initial thread to be too long - if anyone has any questions on anything I haven't addressed, please just ask me!
I titled this thread "The Candida Cure", based on a title of a book, written by Ann Boroch. This book is excellent. If you know you have Candida, you should read it, and if you think you may have Candida, you should read it. Basically anyone who has lyme should read this book, because most of us have been on antibiotics or herbs for an extended period of time, therefore, we all should be concerned about the possibility of Candida overgrowth.

This book is what helped me confirm what I was thinking earlier on, that I think I had Candida first, and for years, then got lyme, and I was so debilitated from lyme because I already had Candida. But then once I beat lyme, I still had Candida issues, and the confusing part is, alot of the symptoms overlap between the two. So, did I still have lyme or was it just Candida? That question still is floating in my head, but I am 90% sure that I did beat lyme, and that I am currently fighting Candida, and winning the battle so far!
On my last update, I had explained how Diflucan really helped me get back on my feet. Just to rewind a tiny bit - this past fall was really really rough. I kept on getting sick, I wasn't feeling well, had lingering issues that were getting worse, etc. So I took Diflucan and everything went away except for the tingling at the soles of my feet upon awakening, which went away within minutes. After i stopped the Diflucan, the symptoms came back, so I went back on, but I never completely got rid of all the symptoms again. So in January, I started the diet strictly. This is where the Candida cure book came in. It is the most rigid diet of all diets in combating Candida, but it works! It follows a 3 month program that can be stretched out if you are not ready to cold turkey some foods. It also includes a good chunk of recipes. The diet excludes the usual, and more. So i went totally gluten, sugar, dairy, carb free. I was eating only protein and veggies. This is an idea of what my daily food intake looked like:

Twice a week I cook scrambled eggs with coconut oil and have healthy, non nitrate turkey bacon on the side. The other days I drink Shakeology shake - the stuff is Awesome. I drink the vegan one because I am sensitive to whey protein. I mix it with coconut milk and it is the best. Traveler told me here are some ingredients in it that may cause herxes, but not for me. It gives me energy, and does not upset my stomach. Then I will have some fruit, then lunch will consist of either a meat and veggie or two "filling" veggies - I will make a whole pot of turnips (cooked then mashed with butter and tumeric added). And eat some everyday. So I will have a plate of spinach and turnips for lunch, or grilled chicken with advocado, or leftover beef with broccoli from the day before, etc. Then dinner would be chicken chili, minus the beans, or chicken soup, or brown rice pasta with tomatoes and garlic. I can go on and on about all of the different combos. I do eat brown rice, brown rice pasta, or sweet potato two times a week. For me, I had to cut out the sweets slowly, bc I knew I couldn't go cold turkey. So in the beginning, I gave up all carbs - cereals I used to eat for breakfast or snack, potatoes, bread, regular pasta, etc. I cut out all dairy and gluten, but I could not cut out the sweets right away. I had to have a little chocolate here and there, or a bite of a cookie. I still do that, I just can't resist, and if I do resist, I will want it more the next day......I have to have the stuff around bc my kids eat it. My Dr said don't view food as evil, and if you eat some things you shouldn't, you will just take longer to heal. So that is how I am looking at it. If I cheat a little just to satisfy my craviings, I will get to the finish line later, and I am ok with that. I found sunbutter to be an excellent substitute for my sweet cravings, so I will have a teaspoon or two of it by itself when I want something sweet. The chocolate shakeology really helps my chocolate craving - it does not have sugar, or gluten, it has natural sugars. For those of you going crazy not knowing what to eat. This also what I do. Sometimes I am hungry, and I just don't want a carrot or olives for a snack. I go nuts sometimes after eating healthy for too long a period of time, so I pick the lesser of the two evils. Yeah, if I have an apple that would be best, but if I want something "sweeter", instead of going for some icecream, I eat a banana, even though bananas are sort of a nono bc of the high natural sugar content, it is still better than eating icecream!

So where am I at now ? I am at a great place!! I have zero symptoms except for the stupid tingling at the soles of my feet in the morning, LOL> That just won't go away, but heck I have no complaints. I did this diet very strictly for about weeks. I caved around Feb 17th. I lost it. My son wanted pizza, I ordered it and ate a slice. Nothing happened. Before that, every time I ate something on the "no" list, I didn't feel good. I was like, wow, ok! So then I ate something again the next day, and the next. Nothing was happening. but I went right back to m diet bc I didn't want to mess things up. That week I ran 16 miles. I also was eating foods that work naturally against Candida - tumeric, garlic, kale. I herxed tremendously that week. I think the good herbs I ate, and the running, really helped. It felt like the running made me sweat out all the bad stuff, I am serious. My plan was to do the diet and take herbs against candida, but like I said before, I couldn't handle the herbs straight, so I decided to cook with them insead! After the tremendous herx that week, it all just stopped! I haven't had a herx or symptoms since.

However, I can't do the 1/2 marathon unfortunately . I was never a very good runner, and I got sick 2 weeks ago - my whole family did. I lost 2 weeks and because of that I fell behind and I don't have enough time to train. I haven't had a chance to do a long run yet. I am not worried - before now, never in my life could I say I ran 16 miles in one week. That alone is an accomplishment!! I will sign up for the next 1/2 marathon that comes my way, and will let you guys know when I do!!

My plan now is to speak with my LLMD on monday. I will update you on that conversation. In May I will get retested for Candida and for my Compliment C4A level, and see where I am at. That will really tell the tale as to whether or not what I have been doing is enough to keep me at this healthy level.
Well, this ended up being long anyway, LOL
I hope this info helps some of you.
The main focus here is the following:
- Adhere to the gluten free, dairy free, sugar free diet as best you can.
- Try to exercise if possible
- Drink Clover tea Daily, and bone broth if you can stomach it.
- My Dr said the following: Candida is smart, and will develop resistance more easily than lyme. So she told me to take lyme herbs on an alternating schedule. Garlic for 3 weeks, tumeric for 3 weeks, oregano oil for three weeks, then back to garlic and so on. I have been taking Lauricidin which is also excellent for lyme and supposedly has antiviral and antifungal properties. I am stopping it now and switching to something else. This one has to be titrated up slowly.
- Take probiotics, and alternate those as well
- I also was taking L-Argenine (an antioxident - which is supposed to be a good healer for the lining of your stomach), but my Dr suggested I switch to L Glutamine instead bc L-Argenine has the potential of bringing out the herpes virus.

There seems to be some discussion that fermented foods are good for candida, but I have read they are not - so I will be asking my Dr this question monday.

My cousin takes Candex when her symptoms flare up. That is something i will be researching.
This is all for now folks! Throw the questions at me! LOL I may not answer them til monday bc tmrw is Easter, but I will do my best to respond quickly! Thanks for those who have been patiently waiting for me to write this!!!

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 3/29/2016 6:59:41 AM (GMT-6)

"There seems to be some discussion that fermented foods are good for candida, but I have read they are not - so I will be asking my Dr this question monday."

Yes, interesting topic. I know yeast based probiotics seemed to elevate candida symptoms in me.

tillybear, did you do anything else for candida, or only eat fermented foods?? you posted this on the other thread, was wondering what type of test you took. was it a skin or blood test? started with a Z - can't remember! thanks!

Wow - thank you for the wealth of information!

I am wondering how to get tested for candida? What are the best/most accurate tests? Stool? Blood? I just had a stool test come back negative for candida, which I'm happy about, but it did show that my gut flora is totally wiped out (I think this is to be expected after 7 months of antibiotics, right?). So if I don't have candida horribly now, then it's only a matter of time.

I try to stick to a strict diet, though I do eat limited carbs (sweet potato, oatmeal, brown rice)- probably about 3/4c per day. I also cheated on Easter yesterday and made gluten, Dairy, and sugar-free muffins sweetened with a few tbs of honey, AND I had a few bites of coconut ice cream (sweetened with agave). Oops. It's too hard watching my husband and family drink mimosas and have all kinds of treats while I eat kale. I eat eggs almost daily for breakfast now because I don't like drinking my food. I will definitely try the shake-ology! I have the appetite of a sumo wrestler right now, are the shake-ology shakes filling?

I started to suspect candida may be at play after experiencing a vaginal yeast infection early on in my treatment. I went on flucanazole and it cleared up, but I have had discomfort for a few months. I ended up with another mild yeast infection last month and I have been on flucanazole 3x per week. It's still not cleared up! Unfortunately, the prescription is about to run out. I have noticed that since being on the flucanazole, my hands have no longer been going numb at night, which is interesting. I still have brain fog 24/7, so that is probably my lyme.

I tested for Candida thru a P/N test, it is a skin test run like an allergy test. If your levels are not high enough for that test, they can test your stool - since your stool test came back negative, that's good news!

My Dr said to be careful not to eat eggs every day. This is because eggs are difficult to digest, and so I follow her recommendation and only have eggs 2-3 times per week at most.

The shakeology shakes fill me up and I get hungry btwn 2-3 hours later. If you want to give it a try, email me, i will help you get some sample packets.

yes, diflucan helped me tremendously. some say it is actually a cyst buster for lyme. interesting stuff.

yes, i would like to know about tillybear's use of maple syrup???

interesting. i herx from probiotics though, so they must be doing something!

i agree - you have a very good point!

Reminder: why no eggs on paleo? Or did you test allergic to eggs?

For those of you that has confirmed Candida, would you mind sharing your symptoms?

Main symptoms when Candida was at it's worst (but not all at the same time) - brain fog, headaches, abdominal bloating, reflux, vaginal yeast infections, blurred vision, increase in PMS symptoms, and numbness in my big toe.

Great news Chap. It's amazing what the proper diet can do. Fluconazole can decrease beneficial yeasts in your GI tract like the Saccharomyces strains so Florastor may be something to think about. A lot of Lyme patients seem to lack these strains and may benefit from them once the Candida is reduced.

As for the foot, I have itching in my arch. I have always thought it was from neuropathy or from circulation issues. I lean more towards circulation issues dealing with copper levels. Our monocytes concentrate copper in an attempt to overwhelm pathogens through too much oxidative stress. This can alter copper levels which influences blood flow and coagulation. It's temporary as our liver attempts to adjust by releasing more copper and maintain our homeostasis. People with down regulated immune systems don't tolerate copper level increases through supplementation very well as the increased oxidative stress causes more problems.

If you have a biofilm producing pathogen, the foot would be a great spot for a biofilm because it's the farthest from the heart and the low pressure capillaries would be easier to create a colony. That may help create a Rouleaux situation which would help pathogens survive.

ok, thanks for the info georgia - and cd i will look into red root, i have heard of it.

georgia - i took florastor for a good while, and just switched to a different probiotic recently, since that is what they say to do every couple of weeks or so.

I forgot to mention, I take psyllium husk daily in between meals. I was doing this for detox reasons, but when I spoke to my Dr yesterday, she said I hit it right on and that foods rich in fiber are better than fermented ones. She suggested I avoid fermented foods, unlike Tillybear's recommendation.

she also said to lay off on the lauricidin, that candida gets used to the same herb, so I am stopping it for a few weeks, going to try taking tumeric straight (besides just cooking with it) and I will see what happens. As creativegirl mentioned, apple cider vinegar is another good one! I neglected to mention Lauricidin in my initial post. I am going to post edit it.

In addition, I also was taking L-Argenine (an antioxident - which is supposed to be a good healer for the lining of your stomach), but my Dr suggested I switch to L Glutamine instead bc L-Argenine has the potential of bringing out the herpes virus. - I post edited this as well.

kudos to you creativegirl!! so glad you picked up the book and are doing so well !!!

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 3/29/2016 7:01:25 AM (GMT-6)

oh and Nilrin, another major symptom of mine was severe cracking/peeling of the skin around my fingernails. And I never had acne, but I have had issues with breaking out in pimples from Candida too. When it was really bad, my forehead was covered with tiny bumps, I never knew what that was from, and now I know!

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 3/29/2016 7:53:23 AM (GMT-6)