Candida question

ok people, I am not in the best shape, and I don't think its lyme and co but good old CANDIDA

I have been battling Candida since before lyme, and now it is all so much worse bc of all of the antibiotics I took during treatment.

I was fine for a couple of months, but then last fall things got messy. I went to a Wedding and ate things I hadn't eaten in ages and was in agony for over a week. Headaches, palpitations, a skipped menstruation, insomnia.....

things calmed down but by reintroducing myself to foods I had missed, I continued to cheat on my diet. Things remained stable thru the winter, but then this summer it all hit me like a brick. I had graduation party after graduation party to go to and then there was the summer with beach snacks like pizza and icecream. Forget it. I ate ANYTHING I wanted to. June I started having major reflux issues and I was diagnosed with atypical reflux. I was having trouble swallowing certain foods like bread and rice and then other foods like grapes and cherries started to back up into my nasal cavity. Yes, I know, I did this all to myself. I could kick myself a thousand times for getting into this situation. But it was a combination of being too busy to take the time to prepare the correct foods for myself and just lack of willpower with all of the goodies right in front of my face.

So in June, when the reflux started, I decided to try nystatin tablets. OMG those were the BOMB. Nystatin really helped my reflux and stopped the food backing up into my nasal cavity - bc that was just the worst. Knowing that the nystatin helped, I must have a really really bad case of Candida in my gut as well as throughout my body. I also lost about 6lbs in 2 weeks.

As July progressed, i started getting issues with my arms again, like when I had lyme. Numbness came back and the "pulling feeling" from my elbows.

Another thing that happened, I stopped exercising. I was hitting it hard for months and just stopped bc I frankly did not have the time since I was traveling back and forth from NY to PA as well as working.

I also have constant congestion in my sinuses.....

My menstrual cycle is also very irregluar and I am having major PMS symptoms for most of the month. My mensturation starts and never really finishes and the PMS symptoms remain.

Insomnia is also playing a role, I am waking up numerous times a week in a panic for no reason (Actually thinking I am going to die) - this happened when I had lyme too

lastly, since the spring, I have had pain in my back in this one spot. The only time I feel it is if I tilt my head as far back as I can so that the bottom of my neck hits my spine. I never do that. I only do it to see if the pain is still there and to see how bad it is. This pain is a result of something going on in my spine which I am wondering if it could have something to do with the numbness in my arms. Could candida or lyme do this? I had alot of pain when I was sick but not like this. 6 years ago I fell on my tailbone and couldn't put my hands down bc I was holding my daughter, she was an infant at the time. Could it take 6 years for the injury to come out, or is it possible candida or lyme might be aggravating it or causing inflammation. It just feels weird. It does not feel like its from an injury. Its just a dull yet strong pain in one spot. I know you guys are not doctors, but this is the one mystery I have yet to unfold.

I am still functioning at 100% as far as physical strength goes, but I know I HAVE to put myself in an emergency treatment NOW before something else pops up.

So, I definitely have Candida. Has having Candida this bad brought back lyme too? I don't know....I could use some advice. My plan is to treat candida as aggressively as possible, and if as time goes on, not all of the symptoms go away, then I will reconsider treating lyme with herbs, but my gut feeling is that is not the case.

I don't have a doctor bc i dont have insurance and my amazing LLMD left her practice, so I am trying to do this on my own. I even got bloodwork done in PA to check my levels. Everything is normal except my estradiol is higher than it should be (400), and I know for a fact candida can definitely have an effect on hormone levels.

Right now I am taking vitamins, glucosamine, black seed oil (amazing stuff) and coenzyme Q. I stopped the nystatin bc i ran out, so I am taking digestive enzymes. And since I ran out of Nystatin, I gained the 6lbs back. Not a coincidence. I have candex in my hand, planning on starting that.

i also forgot to mention that I took diflucan for 10 days back in May bc i wanted to jump start my candida healing even back then, well, plan failed bc after i finished diflucan i didn't diet properly. My symptoms also seemed to worsen after I stopped it. Question though, if you start to treat candida with diflucan and then stop, can the symptoms get worse, like what happens with lyme? Bc as we all know, if you have lyme and take antibiotics and stop too soon, lyme comes back with avengence, does that happen with candida too? bc i am thinking of diflucan again, but i am not sure that is a good idea.

I obviously have to go on this diet strictly for a good long time. It is not going to be fun. At all. But I must begin this healing process or I will only get worse.

TIA for any input!!!

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 8/21/2017 7:33:18 PM (GMT-6)

Hi again I just read Raspberry swirls post tonight and its about a new protocol for candida.

You might want to check it out.


Jo

thanks goshawk and girlie

yeah, the pulling in my arms has me worried, but I am glad you agree, I think going after Candida first is the only way to know

But does anyone know if candida is like lyme in that if I take the diflucan and then stop that things can worsen? just trying to figure out if i should take diflucan and how - daily for 10 days, or every three days, or pulse 3 days on 4 days off.....? Maybe pirouette will have some insight....

also, thanks for saying it's not fair, but I kinda got what I asked for. I had some signs earlier on, but I didn't pull myself together enough and just kept off the diet. Darn my sugar cravings, they are IMPOSSIBLE!

Post Edited (Chapelle) : 8/21/2017 8:36:19 PM (GMT-6)

Chapelle- YES!!! Another Candida person! Please check out my brand new protocol for Candida. It's from my LLMD who studied under Dr. H, so he's really good.
They are all available on the internet and some in health stores or even Walmart.
He's going a more naturopathic on me this time because Diflucan and Nystatin were rough on me. Please let me know if you need more info. because he isn't starting me on all of the supplements at once. Best wishes!
Wow, it's so hard to stay on the Yeast diet!
Much love and prayers!

There are so many questions that it's hard to know what you want answered. Some of them can't be answered and one would have to speculate on them.

A couple of things to remember. Candida by itself, doesn't cause much harm unless in massive numbers. If you are taking black seed oil (I prefer the seeds), the terpinoids from Nigella sativa should be sufficient to reduce candida numbers. So that leaves the something else to deal with too. What is it remains the million dollar question.

The problem with Candida is that it often binds available metals. If you have another pathogen or pathogens (which we all do,) the acidic nature of inflammation often leads to extra electrons with can change the way aluminum binds various salts in the body. This, combined with eating acidic foods can also increase the absorption of aluminum and this would contribute to your problems. Both of these situations increase aluminum toxicity and candida binds this aluminum to lessen our immune response against it but also to reduce the oxidative stress free aluminum can cause. Lowering exposure to aluminum would be high on the list of things that would help.

While black cumin oil/seeds help reduce candida levels, the terpinoids contain maltol which has been shown to increase the release of aluminum that is bound to the candida. This increases tissue levels of aluminum in both nerve and bone tissue. This could explain some of the feelings you are having. Aluminum can also bind into salts called metalloestrogens. These can bind estrogen receptors and cause estrogen like effects through estrogen gene expression. This would be a major concern for increasing breast cancer risk but in your case, it is altering hormonal cycling.

So in essence, you have a candida problem but it is really an aluminum problem. The candida is trying to help by binding aluminum but you need to reduce your exposure and eliminate more of it. From my experience, you lose more metals through defecation than urination. Binders would be better so I guess that is why people like charcoal or cholestyramine.

Studies show that plant eaters have lower levels of contaminants than animal protein eaters. Maybe that is why I do so much better on plants. Whatever the case, to regain normal biological function, you need to reduce your exposure to whatever contaminants you have been getting, presumably aluminum but cadmium and some of the other transition metals can do the same.

Candida is opportunistic and it overcrowds the gut and system when lyme is present lowering the immune system. Additionally, if you're prone to having low amount of good bacteria in the gut, you can't stay away too long from probiotics. Before starting to treat lyme I would control many of my symptoms with probiotics. I've learned that even a low dose or small amount (in the case of foods with probiotics) is better than nothing. I seem to have it measured already, if I stop the probiotics, in around 2 months I start getting symptoms, and as soon as I get back on them, they resolve. Hopefully when I'm further into the lyme treatment my immune system will get better and I'll be able to control the candida problem from the root.

Chapelle - If a sign works for you, put it up!, it's worth the cause

Chapelle,

just read your post, and THE SAME THING happened with me this summer...got goosebumps reading...was feeling good from april 1st on....come june started pigging out on all the old comfort foods, gain lbs, noticed i was getting gassy and tired more than usual....after rashes and a realization i just put myself back in the same shiite, i started a candida diet aug 1 and copious amounts of coconut oil...then began getting rashes, fatigue, brain fog....THEN this wk realized my old lyme symptoms of sore neck/shoulders and aches in legs returned...

my theories are 1) same bad eating (sugar) that built the candida back re-stoked the lyme
2)the immune system/body fighting the candida left the door open for the lyme
3)the coconut oil and candida cleanse(which included Oil of oregano) is killing the lyme as well making me symptomatic

I have a rife machine, and when i killed lyme in the past, it would be followed by 8 days of lyme symptoms...which means, to me, that it is the body dealing with the toxins that brings the symptoms...if i left it alone it left me alone

ive decided to eat clean, and continue with killing candida naturally, until see regular md mid sept (stopped with llmd bc im done with abx), and if it hasnt calmed down by then i will ask for diflucan....which interestingly enough was prescribed to me in January by my LLMD as he feels it addressed neuro-lyme (based on a german report)...it WAS the drug that got me better (after a month on it), but i always suspected maybe it was the candida, even then, that was most to blame...as weird as this sounds, lyme has only bothered me when i have tried to kill it with abx/herbs...i originally had tested positive in march 2016, with all bands positive, so it had been lurking in my system without symptoms for awhile....then got the flu, still tired a month later, blood test=lyme, and the killing fest and bad symptoms resulted over the next yr....

sorry for rambling on, but i think candida is as damaging if not more so to me, so i want to fight it, restore immune strength, and hopefully the immune system can put lyme back in its place

dbwilco - very interesting! yes, i agree with you in that if candida is prominent, the immune system will be overwhelmed and lyme can resurface. that's what i think might be happening with me, except i am not in too bad of shape - I am still 90% better than what I was back in 2013 (thank God)!

and yes, nystatin is for GI candida, and diflucan is for systemic. I think I am going to hold off on those two for a little while longer to see how I do with all of this other stuff, including the probiotic - and yes, I will put a big note on my kitchen wall!! LOL (I forget about it all of the time bc I have to take it apart from all of my other supplements)

I hope you continue to move in the right direction!!

what do you mean they both showed up - in what scan? please inform - thanks!!

Chapelle said...
georgia - you are probably rolling your eyes at me as you know I said I was going to nip this in the bud like 3 months ago!! I appreciate your help, as always. Black seed oil I actually only started 4 weeks ago, and I herxed big time when I started it, and now I am on 2 teaspoonsful daily with no reaction. I am thinking of just staying on this dose for maintenance purposes.
Interesting about the aluminum. I am going to go after Candida anyway, and alternate herbs like I did last year, since it worked. Would you say that when I start leuricidin I should stop black seed or can i be on both?
I used to use psyllium husk, but stopped bc the gas issue was so bad it became embarrassing lol. I am going to attempt it again as per your advice, and take activated charcoal as well.

If your immune system can handle it, use both. As for psyllium, think about why it caused too much gas. You didn't have sufficient bacteria to break it down. That is often a bifidobacterium issue and potentially the root of your problems. Stated another way, you may not have a sufficient environment for adequate bifidobacterium numbers. Correcting this may reduce your candida as well. But why is your GI environment like it is? That's the great question.