Anti-candida diet, is it worth it? Am anxious at the deprivation..

[Homerun]

I'm considering doing this for chronic thrush. I've had lifetime of it and currently it's not responding well to flucanozole. I really want to get a handle on it and think diet is my last resort. But I'm terrified of giving up coffee (mainly) and all the other many things that are banned on it.
Does anyone have experience and inspiration?
Also, which diet would you recommend - there's a baffling amount of info out there.

I ate no refined carbs or sugar and even cut down on 'sweet' vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots and beetroot and Cut out caffeine, yeast and fermented foods. I also have several food intolerances including dairy and eggs. It was very difficult but definitely worth it. It's amazing how your taste changes. I lapsed back to my old habits after gradually eating more and more carbs including sugar and feel worse for it.

Have you heard of 'Horopito + Aniseed' capsules by Forest Herbs? As effective as fluconazole apparently? Google them - they definitely help a lot.

A nutritionist I saw said the best supplements are grapefruit seed extract (if you can tolerate it), garlic supplements (if you can tolerate them), colloidal silver and threelac. This was several years ago btw. Caprylic acid and goldenseal will help too.

You must take probiotics too - but not at the same time as the anti-fungals.

There are nice coffee substitutes - barleycup is quite similar and you can buy dandelion coffee - make with soya milk and it feels similar to having a cappuccino.

There are sugar substitutes available which you might be okay with - yacon syrup and xylitol are both natural. And there are sugar-free chocolate bars (sweetened with xylitol) if you'd miss chocolate - made by plamil IIRC.

Sugar cravings are supposedly helped by taking a chromium supplement. Cinnamon is useful too.

You might be able to satisfy

The diet works so it is worth it.
I also went to a good herbalist who gave me various herbal mixtures that got rid of the bad bacteria and assisted my body to produce the good bacteria.

Oh thanks rogue - some really good tips. I didn't know that you couldn't mix probiotics and anti-fungals though, why is that? Do the anti fungals kill the pro-b's?
I think I may need to see a naturopath or nutritionist as I find the stages of the diet a bit confusing as conflicting information. I'm also hypothyroid so don't want to take anything that would reduce absorption of thyroxine.
I will definitely check out the coffee substitutes - I'll have to live without the caffeine but it wld be nice to have a treat (barleycup sounds yum)

Thanks too pax . That's encouraging. Are you still doing it?

The grape seed is fantastic stuff OP. I took that in the morning and probiotics for bed. Worked a treat, and I didn't go insane on the diet - just no yeast or sugar. Make sure you read up on die-off reaction tho - I got it after four days and it was bloody awful. I had to call in sick for work .

Hi home run just wondered have you been tested for thrush & it's always thrush? Just from personal experience & research lately it seems a lot of skin/other complaints are mistaken for thrush and therefore treatment doesn't work. Might be way off but just thought it's worth a mention especially if going down the route of restricting diet etc.

It was 15 -20 years ago when I had a problem, but no I don't still do the diet.

Hi royal, I think its thrush as I've had it so many times and it's usually responded to treatment. You could be right though - I don't think it's BV as I have had that and it's nothing like it but it could be an allergy (although I'm very careful to use hypoallergenic everything). It's so frustrating and I'm at the point of giving anything a go, even this scary diet!
Sailors, that sounds almost doable. I could do that. Did you drink coffee? Is tea allowed anyone? Or is it no caffeine?

Well I drank coffee, just with no sugar. I did cut down tho to one of a morning and maybe one if I was visiting. The rest of the time I drank hot water and lemon. It's really important to flush out the toxins as they die

Just read about die off, sailor. Sounds bad but at least you know it's working

If it was me I would get gp/gynae to check for allergy or skin condition like eczema/psoriasis. If you have that then constantly using thrush treatment could be irritating the skin further. A few weeks of a proper steroid ointment might be the answer. Just guess work but I would be finding out what it is before treatments and changing diet.

Yea exactly. I was very sceptical until then. It's probably also worth mentioning that I stopped using any thrush creams and started using pure calendula on sore bits. I haven't had to use any over the counter stuff since.

Interestingly i sometimes get an allergic reaction to canesten cream - irritation even worse than the thrush it was meant for! I tend to steer clear.
You're probably right royal, but that could be another couple of months of waiting and I'm pretty desperate to sort it out

I had chronic thrush for years, I did the anti candida diet for several months and it didn't make a great deal of difference to me. I cut out everything, right down to stock cubes and vinegar. I took grapefruit seed extract, caprylic acid and probiotics afterwards. I even had colonic irrigation as that's supposed to help, it didn't but the memory will stay with me a long time!

I didn't get any die off but I did get killer caffeine withdrawal. A headache I couldn't shift and in bed by 9 every night.

Eventually a doctor told me for a lot of women its hormonal and to take a pill or pessary on day 21 of the cycle which seems to have done the trick. The forest herb supplements sound interesting though, I'm going to investigate those.

Hi Megan, I think your doctor was right - mine definitely coincides with period, but this time it just hasn't gone.
Your experience sounds grim. I think I'll go with sailors approach to,start - it is so radical anyway (for me). I think cutting sugar, yeast, wheat and caffeine (bar1 cup precious coffee) has got to be good.

Home run could you be allergic to the products you use during your period if it coincides with it.

@MeganChips Is this method still working for you? I get thrush a week before my period every month!

Chronic thrush is a symptom of an un/der-treated auto-immune condition such as diabetes, hypothyroïdie etc.

In the US thé standard treatment is 1lcg for each pound of body weight. So, 140mcg for someone of 10stone.