3 weeks into anti candida plan

[Nellymay]

Hi I'm following a plan with supplements and diet to hopefully rid myself of candida - no sugar no yeast based products no wheat no preservatives or msg type flavouring.

Candida has blighted my life on and off for most of my adult life it's embarrassing up dignified and debilitating
I've worked out a plan, I've been seeing a nutritionist, I've read books and researched it online.

If anyone want advice or wants to join me - I'm here. :)

Are you feeling better yet?

What sort of food have you been eating.

Yes please, advice on this would be great.

I had just this second come online to google it and I saw your thread.

I would really like to shift mine for once and for all. Have had courses from the GP but they seem to sort it for a bit and then it comes back agin.

It always seem to flare up bad when we have lots of sex, which as I'm ttc is fairly regularly, and bloody annoying!

Have you noticed any improvement yet op? How have you overhauled your diet?

Hi Claire, sonly and endofthe I am starting to notice a difference, I'm clearer headed for one! Also my ibs seems calmer. AND I've lost 7 lbs so far without feeling very hungry

I'll write up what I've been doing tomorrow and post it for you - I'm not an expert but I've researched it quite thoroughly cause I need to shift it once and for all to get my life back. :)

I did this in 2011 for 6 months ( timeframe recommended by nutritionist) and felt great, lost loads of weight... But found it extremely hard to sustain long term.

Should really do another full detox but I'm breastfeeding, so as part of my losing pregnancy weight plan I'm cutting back on all the things and it's already helping ( 2 weeks in)

Thank you I'll look forward to reading that. I eat far too much bread and sugar.

Thanks nelly i shall look forward to reading that later

I did this under Erica White (she has a good book) many years ago and am seriously considering doing it again. When I describe how well I felt after just one week - it felt like a was reborn! - people who don't suffer from it simply do not have a clue. It was like a cloud had been lifted from my brain. I could think clearly, listen to and remember what people were saying to me. From being a person who had to leave work early to come home to sleep for a couple of hours before my husband came home and then going to bed early and waking up knackered, I could stay up until midnight and wake up refreshed. I lost 10lb in 5 days. I didn't have to put a dressing gown on after eating my evening meal due to bloating. It was completely transformative. I remember thinking - "is this what normal people feel like all the time?" Erica has retired now, but her practice is still running with other practitioners, so am working myself upto it.

It is very difficult to sustain long term, especially eating out. However, the results, IMO, are so so worth it. Good luck.

I'm having to post this in sections as it won't take it won't take long posts
Ok here goes: remember I'm not an expert but I've researched the subject a lot.
I read these books: beat candida through diet by gill Jacobs and Joanne kjaer,
Candida albicans: the non drug approach by Leon Chaitow
Beat candida cookbook by erica white. Plus a few others not so comprehensive
I used these websites - all googleable
Erica whites but she won't tell you what supplements to use without coughing up money - I went for the cheapest option and downloaded stuff.

Lisa Richards - American so some of the terms are not uk. Detailed info, good! You can sign up for free and get daily info updates on the programme but it's all on the website anyway. She pushes for you to buy her guide.
Kathryn marsdens site - good but she goes on a bit
There are others I found but these are the best

I went to see a nutritionist in a health shop I'd been recommended and she took a case history off me and said I'd almost certainly got candida and told me to do the saliva test in the morning which showed I'd got it - I knew I had from my symptoms. She gave me a diet sheet and told me to stick to it for 3 weeks - I wouldn't have done it if she hadn't told me to - I'd have cut out some things and not others, myself. I now tell people that I've been advised by a nutritionist to do this and they seem to accept it better. The nutritionist told me to go back to her in 3 weeks but now I've worked out my own plan I won't bother

Basically it's the ant candida diet supported by milk thistle drops and L glutamine to support the liver and pancreas as bad bacteria start to die off
Two weeks in I started on probiotics - strong ones from biocare sorry I don't work for them but their name has cropped up quite a bit in my reading and they will answer your questions.
You also need a good multi vit and mineral plus oil supplement as like me you are probably run down
In a weeks time I will start to take antifungal supplements as well but if you do this too quickly you will experience die off symptoms as your liver etc struggle to cope that is why it's important to build yourself up and start to heal the inflamed gut etc
I've got caprylic acid - coconut, oregano oil, grape seed extract and garlic and you rotate these. All from biocare (sorry)

It's expensive and time consuming - but if you want to get your life back I think it's worth it
MORE to follow .........:)

Not ant but anti candida diet :)

Beachy - very true!!

I didn't realise the extreme tiredness and bloating I suffer I from was all linked to candida. Now I've sat and thought about it there's def a pattern When I look back on it.

My GP has been so dismissive when ever I've tried to bring it up.

Interested in hearing more about this

Claire sorry, I've been out all day seeing my mum.
When I look at all the things I can connect to candida and yeast overgrowth it all falls into place. I can even connect my childhood asthma to it- we lived in a damp house. Also I remember going to the doctors with my mum when I was about 5 and having to show him my itchy bottom a symptom of candida also my bad PMS for years is attributable to it
I had a breast abscess 2 years ago and needed 3 doses of antibiotics and haven't been right since - athletes foo, thrush, bad ibs, food intolerances, I get manic when I eat anything highly flavoured too, itchy, flaky skin and rashes, my vagueness and poor coordination can all be connected. All my family seem to have problems related to yeast overgrowth.
GPS don't want to acknowledge it but I know what's wrong with me andd there is more more notice being taken of it

Let me know what you're doing and if I can help.

Hey Nelly,

just wondering if you're still on the diet and how it worked for you?

I just started the diet a month ago, and antifungals two weeks ago. Still haven't noticed any change in my symptoms and am experiencing pretty bad die-off.

It's so hard to find other people's experience of this!

Hope you're well!

I've been reading a bit about this too.

Is it possible to sort this out without all the tablets? I just can't afford them at the moment, but think I suffer with candida.

I'm trying to give up sugar, I gave up wheat a while ago due to IBS.

Hi Maiscout I'm still doing it !! I must be about 10 weeks into it by now - I feel like my symptoms are easing off. I've been on antifungals for 4 weeks - caprylic acid first and now I've added an oregano combination to it, the next lot and last (I hope) will be an antiparasite compound - apparently there's a chance if you have candida overgrowth then you can have parasites in your gut - yee-uck! I've had die off on and off it helps to take milk thistle and I drink loads of water. I've got die off this weekend - at least it means it's all working. I feel like I've got a hangover - nauseous, headache-y, oh and po**ng more (tmi) I've got itchy flakey skin and orifices (iygm). I'm told its cause the yeast cells are being forced out of the lower intestine and they cling to the warm moist areas, so I keep applying tea tree oil to them

The good news is I've lost a stone in weight!!! :)

Carrie cutting out all this stuff is starving the yeast! so it does help, it probably takes much longer and doesn't get rid of all the candida, although I'm no expert. If you do this now, then maybe later on if you can afford supplements try to get some then. I was told about a good combination one that might be worth trying called ecobalance by bionutri

I forgot I'm taking garlic pills too and I eat loads of garlic and onions too.

Glad to hear its going well :)
Do you mind saying what symptoms you had and how long you've had candida overgrowth?

I thought my symptoms were relatively mild- IBS, thrush, cystitis, post nasal drip, but other people seem to have made way more progress in the same amount of time.

I'm getting so much anxiety from the die off! reading previous threads on here makes me feel so much better, seeing all the people who have gone through this and come out the other side :)

I'm taking SF722 currently, and then will be rotating Grapefruit seed extract and oregano oil. Hopefully this will go well

Hope to hear your progress on here Nellymay!

Carrie-

If you can't afford antifungal pills, try to use the food forms. Swede, brussels sprouts, turmeric, Garlic, Coconut oil (this is expensive though), pumpkin seeds. There's loads more that I can't remember.

To keep costs down with probiotics you should get some kefir grains and make your own kefir and sauerkraut

Hope it all works for you.

My biggest fear in all this is that I won't recover :(

Maiscout sorry your feeling so ill with the die off - from what I've read you need to strengthen you liver to help it cope with all the toxins being pumped out and the die off is when it's not coping well with the onslaught. I take L glutamine 2 x5000 mg x3 times a day I get higher nature ones or solgar, as well as Volga milk thistle drops in water - I think this has helped my body cope , although I'm going through a bout of die off now, like I said.

My symptom were bad ibs that seemed to be getting worse, bad pmt, itchy flakey skin and scalp, thrush, mouth ulcers, athletes foot, a bloated sick feeling and I was getting headaches like migraine that could last 2-3 days and sore itchy eyes too.

I've probably had candida overgrowth on and off since my teens as I always had an intolerance to yeast - I'd get rashes and scalp problems, and I remember crying cause I'd got thrush when I was about 18.

What's sf722?

I worry it won't go away too, but on the other hand I can feel my symptoms starting to ease off.

Carrie it helps if you eat lots of prebiotic foods too, like oats seeds, pulses - it's a wonder I'm not sprouting, the amount I eat!

Ps where do you get kefir grains from?

Let's keep updating

I've been taking molybdenum and milk thistle for die-off, it does help to a degree but I'm still spotty nervous wreck ;)

I had the sore itchy eyes too, and blurry! thought I needed glasses but my eyesight has improved with the diet. Incredible how many little niggly things I've had for years all comes down to the same problem!

SF722 is another anti-fungal, and supposed to make the candida go back from the fungus form to its yeast form. No idea if it actually does that, but seems to be killing the buggers!

I bought kefir grains off of rawandpure.co.uk/kefir-kitchen/ but there is a fb group where people will send you them for free! Think its called kefir and scoby's to share or something?

Yes, let's definitely keep updating! It's good to hear the progress other people are making, and it might be helpful for others going through the same thing in the future! One thing I hate about all the candida blogs/fb etc is that they never say if they got better, just seem to disappear. I'm hoping that means they got well and forgot about the whole bloody illness! :)

I know what you mean about all these blogs etc about candida, and they are often by Americans and their supplements have different names to ours.
I found it really hard to get any information about it at first - I bought the books I mentioned at the beginning of this thread and kept trawling the Internet and was often more confused than when I started! I also found on Amazon a copy of jane mcwhirters book - she was like one of the gurus in the 1980/90s of candida - I found her no nonsense approach and her wide knowledge really helpful, although much of what's in Gill jacobs book is similar as they worked together.

Loads of odd symptoms, like you say, can be attributed to yeast and candida overgrowth - even my childhood asthma, as we lived in a damp mouldy house. Antibiotics increase it and I've had at least 4 lots in the past few years for tooth abscesses and a breast abscess.

How're you feeling today ? My die off symptoms are a little better today - but not gone yet I read that if you get die off to ease up on the antifungals - I'd rather plough on. To drink lots of water and to support the liver as much as you can. I've increased the milk thistle.
Thanks for the info on kefir - I'm just going onto fbk to look up the group. Bye for now.

I think reading too much on the internet about candida makes me more anxious and depressed. I'm sure it's just because everyone 'cured' doesn't bother to have a blog about the subject, but it's full of depressing stories about how people have to eat like this for life.

I think I'm just gonna stick to mumsnet from now on, much more upbeat!

Feeling better today :) symptoms STILL are not leaving but at least the die-off is easing.

Thanks for commenting back on here. It's great to have support from people who are going through the same thing.

How's it going Nelly?

Just wondering, have you ever had glandular fever?
As on the candida fb group most people who have candida had previously had glandular fever. It's definitely when all my problems started :(

Hi Maiscout I'm ok but been feeling a bit "off" all week, since last Friday really. I slept in this morning too andive been waking up feeling hungover. I guess it's the die off. I feel better today than i was y'day though so maybe it's going.
YES i had glandular fever and every time I get run down my glands swell up!! So there you go :)
How are you doing?