Here are 2 interesting consultations of how to get rid of yeast overgrowth so well known to FMS/CFS patients...the second article dispells the first one. Good
to read this, and again, reassure us that you shouldn't always believe what you read!
Battling Chronic Yeast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My most visible CFS health problem has always been chronic yeast infections. Around the time the MD's were giving me the old "it's all in your head" trip in 1985-1986, I continued to eat my way toward the grave.
Christmas 1985, I was reduced to an almost vegetative state when visiting my family back in Montana. My grandmother, her sisters, and aunts had long established a holiday tradition in our family. Homemade Christmas candy was the pride of every household. My grandmother made the very best chocolate fudge, and in no small quantities.
At the time I was feeling very depressed. Something was wrong with me, that was for sure. My life had been so full of hope when I left college. I was worried that I was now going to die from whatever was making me ill. AIDS was at the beginning of it's sensational journey into the public mind. Never had I done anything to put me in a high risk group.
But there was no way to be sure what was truly known and unknown about that deadly plague. There was definitely something wrong with me was all I could ponder. Those blue feelings and an ever present plate of the worlds best homemade fudge were the formula for the biggest downward spiral in my decade long career as a person with chronic fatigue.
After returning to Oregon, I was not going to see 190 pounds on my frame or decent energy again until 1996. My friends didn't understand why I never wanted to do anything any more. My evening practice was to fall asleep in front of guests after dinner. My emotions were so raw, it is a miracle Carmen stuck with me.
The next summer we went camping with a couple we had met the year before. It was in a camper near the Pacific ocean at Astoria, Oregon that I connected my illness to sugar.
We had a good morning out and about and came back for lunch. As we finished eating I was drinking a can of soda pop. As I drank, my intestines bloated with gas, my head starting swimming, and my body began to hurt in the joints and muscles. I had to lay down for the rest of the weekend.
Carmen and I wondered why sugar would have such a profound negative effect on me. This question would lead me to "The Yeast Connection" and eventually my ND.
At this point I will say I believe this discovery saved my life. It didn't make my life instantly better, but it did stop the free fall I had begun with my grandmothers Christmas fudge.
There are more stories of my going to GI specialists who essentially laughed me out of their office at the notion that I had an intestinal yeast overgrowth. Mentioning it to you here is almost enough to purge my psyche. Let me just add that no experience in my decade long health plight has given me cause to trust my life unquestioningly to the practicing medical establishment in this great country of ours.
Many of you are equally versed in the yeast diet. No sugar, at all!...at all!...at all!...at all!
It doesn't matter how many times you remind yourself, you find yourself eventually sneaking sugar and regretting it later.
The other tenants of the yeast free diet are to go low carbohydrate and to always test for food allergies. It go so bad with me that despite it being a carbo, plain white rice was the only food I could reliably eat without an allergic reaction.
My nature is to be assertive, even aggressive. As I watched my weight go down I took action. Aggressive eating is the only way to describe my approach to the food problem. I was rude, gross, slobby, and obsessive about eating as much as I could. The only clear result was four or more bowel movements a day. I had no idea peristalsis could move so fast. The most distressing part was that I was recognizing raw input materials upon output.
The next trick was to try digestive aids such as papaya enzymes. These helped some.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Experiences with Yeast Remedies
I'm going to jump out of any sense of chronology, and just start examining remedies I experienced somewhere along the 11 year saga.
Upon careful examination I noticed I had yeast growing everywhere. The bottoms of my feet were always sore and experiencing a burning itch. All of my cuticles, both hands and feet were severely hang nailed. The skin under my nails was always split and red. My tongue and throat were coated white. The lines of my hands were coated white. My private parts constantly itched. It burned upon urination and during other urinary track releases. And of course, my GI track and digestion, as mentioned before, were a dysfunctional mess.
The importance of the following remedy list has increased a hundredfold now that I know Candida albicans is transforming elemental mercury into methyl mercury through its metabolic processes.
Until you are completely cleaned up and cured, you have got to continue the battle with the yeast. Battling the yeast is only part of the success plan. You need to detoxify, renew your good bowel flora, and to get a good nutritional program going to restore your bodies metabolic processes.
Capryllic Acid - AKA Capricin. Over the counter was an important attribute of this remedy since I tried it right after I had sworn off "it's all in your head" MD's, and had yet to approach an ND. It has yeast killing properties. My first yeast die off was experienced under capricin. The problem with this remedy was that I developed an extreme intolerance to it. My GI just couldn't handle it after a short while.
Acidophilus - The war between good and evil, a morality play, right there in my gut lining. Wipe out the bad bugs, recolonize with the good ones. Uproot the weeds, replace them with flowers.
Intellectually this all made sense. I took live cultured yogurt until my body rejected all dairy products, something I now tolerate fine by the way. After that it was powder, capsules, and direct introduction to both ends of my GI track.
Acidophilus supplements were with me for the duration of the yeast wars. If they had an effect, it was to prevent something worse from happening, or some very gradual improvement. I can't honestly say I ever saw a direct health benefit. Intellectually it still makes sense though. It makes even more sense when you can realistically expect the yeast to stay gone.
Now that my own life processes are dominating my health situation, yogurt based Acidophilus is aiding in digestion and utilization of vitamins. At my current state, I can detect the positive result. Intellectually, having looked at the science papers regarding the protective effects of GI flora, I know this is a very good remedy to pursue long term. I eat low fat, no sugar, highly active yogurt daily.
Nystatin - This powder has long been my friend. I used to look forward to it's extremely bitter taste. Knowing it was reliably killing yeast gave me this odd anticipation. Nystatin stuck it out with me for 8 years, with only one pause when white rice was the only ingestion not irritating my bowels.
The nystatin controlled the yeast. That feature alone was important. Together with regular saunas, I saw my first sustained improvements in life quality from this yeast killer.
Fasting - This is one is scary. I would not do this if I lived alone, or felt my illness had worn me down to a point that death is a serious concern. What I did and why I did it were the following.
My ability to withstand food and treatments had reached the point that white rice was all I could eat. I had not yet considered enemas, let alone try them. I decided to quit eating for a day to starve the yeast.
After I cleared my bowel the following day, I took Nystatin and Acidophilus in sequence. The theory was that the yeast would be weakened and the nystatin would be more effective. The Acidophilus was there to claim any real estate made available by the evicted yeast. I did this several times over several months, and was able to turn myself around and start taking more food again. Based on what I know now, do the enemas instead.
Saunas - These are what saved my engineering career. Whenever I had something really important to perform in front of others at work, I would find a way to have a sauna 2-3 hours before hand.
The saunas were first tried on the theory they would excrete yeast toxins through sweat. I continued them because they worked, providing reliable alleviation of symptoms and a period of clear mind. I now know that sweat is a major excretion pathway for mercury.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was coping with my root problem with this remedy. I highly recommend saunas. They work as a mercury and toxin excretion pathway. An important aspect is that mercury leaving via this path doesn't have a chance to be reabsorbed.
Taheebo Tea - I used to buy this bark dust by the kilo. My ND really believed in it. Along with other things, I tried it often. Eventually I gave it up because I couldn't see what it was doing besides irritating my bowels and using my money.
Homeopathic Remedies - Sorry! None of these demonstrated any improvements for me.
Raw Cranberries - Here is a unique one. Somehow I picked up some cranberries to try as an alternative fruit. All other fruit sent me loopy from sugar. Not only did I tolerate cranberries, I perceived health improvements from them. As with everything that worked, I took it as far as it would go.
We used to buy cranberries by the frozen 40 pound box from a food wholesaler. My approach was to microwave the berries from frozen to the point where they just popped. Then I would add water, blend it, and drink it.
The order of water introduction was important. The way I did it produced the most sour taste, and perceived benefits. Adding water before cooking came up with less acidity and less effect. Eventually I quit cranberries because, ironically, they made my teeth hurt.
Nizoral - In Oregon an ND cannot prescribe this systemic yeast killer. I had to find an MD who recognized and treated systemic Candida in order to get this prescription.
My yeast noticeably cleared up on this stuff. While on the drug my sugar cheating did not receive it's usual rewards. It cleared me up quite well, especially noticeable was my GI.
Big Warning! This drug is very hard on your liver! When I went off it, my GI yeast were back full strength within the month. Other yeast growth locations were permanently moderated after this treatment. Nizoral gave me a taste of what it would be like to be well again.
I am glad that you posted this because in my opinion, this is exactly what NOT to do if you have candida or CFS. This person started having problems in 1984. He did not get better until 1996 for some very good reasons.
He was right to eliminate sugar. That, of course, is a must if candida is going to be controlled. However, there is no mention of what the rest of the diet was composed of so, for all we know, he could have also made more mistakes in that area as well as what I am going to comment on. He did mention eating "live acidophilous yogurt" but again, we don't know what brand or weather it was raw or pasteurized. My belief is that it had to be a weak pastuerized form. This tends to worsen people with candida. Live, raw kefir, especially from goat, tends to help people with candida. This person did not do that.
He goes on to describe many of the supplements and therapies he did to overcome the yeast. Nystatin powder was a big one for him. He would use the nystatin powder, and follow it up with acidophilous. The theory was, the nystatin powder would kill the yeast, and the acidophilus would crowd out the rest and take their place. The problem is, it's not that simple. Even if the nystatin powder did kill most of the yeast for him, his intestinal tract would have been too alkaline due to all the yeast overgrowth. Thefore, the acidophilus would have never taken hold. Obviously this is the case because it took him 12 years to get over this condition.
He mentions some herbal antifungals such as caprylic acid. Again, these are effective with certain strains of yeast, but not with others. He might also have been taking too low a dosage. This is why, in my opinion, discovering the strain of yeast is a must if antifungals are going to be used.
His second to last statement was incredible as well. He mentions taking more than a gram each of Vitamin E, B, Glutamic Acid, and N-acetyl-cysteine. That is whay too much vitamin E, and candida has been known to metabolize vitamin B supplements. Basically, he continued to feed the yeast this way. The "die-off" symptoms he claimed to experience were probably only detoxification reactions due to the high doses of N-acetyl-cysteine which is a potent liver detoxifier. Little did he know, he was feeding his problem.
Next, he tries fasting and colonic irrigation. Fasting is not the best thing to do with candida. Candida continues to deplete your body while you fast. The fasting also depletes the body creating a double-whammy effect on your body. Not a great thing to do, especially when coupled with CFS. He goes on to tell us how to do a home colonic. Colonics leave the bowel in an alkaline state and can worsen candida conditions. This is a bad idea. The best thing that he did was the pysllium fiber and even THAT is something that I wouldn't necessarily do (it depends on the individual. Certain fibers help certain people. It's important to discover which works best for you).
After all of this, it's amazing that he even got well. The trick to overcoming candida, from a nutritional point of view, is in changing the intestinal pH to support healthy bacteria. Good bacteria do not do well in an alkaline pH. They need a slightly acidic pH in order to thrive. Inversely, bad bacteria need an alkaline pH to thrive. This is why trying to introduce good bacteria into an alkaline GI tract is fruitless. It's like trying to grow roses in toxic waste. Even if all the weeds are removed, the roses will still not grow. So, taking traditional probiotics while candida runs the GI tract is fruitless. Only foods and supplements that can ALTER the pH of the GI tract can overcome candida permenently. Sure, we can kill candida in the short run, but unless we change the pH, candida comes back. Save the probiotics for when the pH has been successfully changed and the candida eliminated.
Many techniques have been described on this board on how to acidify the GI tract and get rid of candida. These are the most effective ways:
1. SR
2. Soil organisms = proven in clinical studies to reduce or eliminate candida while changin the pH of the intestinal tract at the same time
3. REAL fermented foods = provides lactic acid which supports a healthy intestinal pH
Other natural foods to kill bad bugs:
1. Coconut oil = contains lauric acid which has anti-microbial properties
2. Garlic
3. Olive oil
4. Raw cultured dairy
A perfect whole-foods diet was never mentioned in this article. My belief is that he didn't really know what to do other than eliminate sugar. He still could have been eating too many starchy carbohydrates and grains. It's best to eat a lower starch diet while counteracting candida. This way, you will get better in a matter of months instead of a decade or more. I'm glad this article was posted.
Battling Chronic Yeast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My most visible CFS health problem has always been chronic yeast infections. Around the time the MD's were giving me the old "it's all in your head" trip in 1985-1986, I continued to eat my way toward the grave.
Christmas 1985, I was reduced to an almost vegetative state when visiting my family back in Montana. My grandmother, her sisters, and aunts had long established a holiday tradition in our family. Homemade Christmas candy was the pride of every household. My grandmother made the very best chocolate fudge, and in no small quantities.
At the time I was feeling very depressed. Something was wrong with me, that was for sure. My life had been so full of hope when I left college. I was worried that I was now going to die from whatever was making me ill. AIDS was at the beginning of it's sensational journey into the public mind. Never had I done anything to put me in a high risk group.
But there was no way to be sure what was truly known and unknown about that deadly plague. There was definitely something wrong with me was all I could ponder. Those blue feelings and an ever present plate of the worlds best homemade fudge were the formula for the biggest downward spiral in my decade long career as a person with chronic fatigue.
After returning to Oregon, I was not going to see 190 pounds on my frame or decent energy again until 1996. My friends didn't understand why I never wanted to do anything any more. My evening practice was to fall asleep in front of guests after dinner. My emotions were so raw, it is a miracle Carmen stuck with me.
The next summer we went camping with a couple we had met the year before. It was in a camper near the Pacific ocean at Astoria, Oregon that I connected my illness to sugar.
We had a good morning out and about and came back for lunch. As we finished eating I was drinking a can of soda pop. As I drank, my intestines bloated with gas, my head starting swimming, and my body began to hurt in the joints and muscles. I had to lay down for the rest of the weekend.
Carmen and I wondered why sugar would have such a profound negative effect on me. This question would lead me to "The Yeast Connection" and eventually my ND.
At this point I will say I believe this discovery saved my life. It didn't make my life instantly better, but it did stop the free fall I had begun with my grandmothers Christmas fudge.
There are more stories of my going to GI specialists who essentially laughed me out of their office at the notion that I had an intestinal yeast overgrowth. Mentioning it to you here is almost enough to purge my psyche. Let me just add that no experience in my decade long health plight has given me cause to trust my life unquestioningly to the practicing medical establishment in this great country of ours.
Many of you are equally versed in the yeast diet. No sugar, at all!...at all!...at all!...at all!
It doesn't matter how many times you remind yourself, you find yourself eventually sneaking sugar and regretting it later.
The other tenants of the yeast free diet are to go low carbohydrate and to always test for food allergies. It go so bad with me that despite it being a carbo, plain white rice was the only food I could reliably eat without an allergic reaction.
My nature is to be assertive, even aggressive. As I watched my weight go down I took action. Aggressive eating is the only way to describe my approach to the food problem. I was rude, gross, slobby, and obsessive about eating as much as I could. The only clear result was four or more bowel movements a day. I had no idea peristalsis could move so fast. The most distressing part was that I was recognizing raw input materials upon output.
The next trick was to try digestive aids such as papaya enzymes. These helped some.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Experiences with Yeast Remedies
I'm going to jump out of any sense of chronology, and just start examining remedies I experienced somewhere along the 11 year saga.
Upon careful examination I noticed I had yeast growing everywhere. The bottoms of my feet were always sore and experiencing a burning itch. All of my cuticles, both hands and feet were severely hang nailed. The skin under my nails was always split and red. My tongue and throat were coated white. The lines of my hands were coated white. My private parts constantly itched. It burned upon urination and during other urinary track releases. And of course, my GI track and digestion, as mentioned before, were a dysfunctional mess.
The importance of the following remedy list has increased a hundredfold now that I know Candida albicans is transforming elemental mercury into methyl mercury through its metabolic processes.
Until you are completely cleaned up and cured, you have got to continue the battle with the yeast. Battling the yeast is only part of the success plan. You need to detoxify, renew your good bowel flora, and to get a good nutritional program going to restore your bodies metabolic processes.
Capryllic Acid - AKA Capricin. Over the counter was an important attribute of this remedy since I tried it right after I had sworn off "it's all in your head" MD's, and had yet to approach an ND. It has yeast killing properties. My first yeast die off was experienced under capricin. The problem with this remedy was that I developed an extreme intolerance to it. My GI just couldn't handle it after a short while.
Acidophilus - The war between good and evil, a morality play, right there in my gut lining. Wipe out the bad bugs, recolonize with the good ones. Uproot the weeds, replace them with flowers.
Intellectually this all made sense. I took live cultured yogurt until my body rejected all dairy products, something I now tolerate fine by the way. After that it was powder, capsules, and direct introduction to both ends of my GI track.
Acidophilus supplements were with me for the duration of the yeast wars. If they had an effect, it was to prevent something worse from happening, or some very gradual improvement. I can't honestly say I ever saw a direct health benefit. Intellectually it still makes sense though. It makes even more sense when you can realistically expect the yeast to stay gone.
Now that my own life processes are dominating my health situation, yogurt based Acidophilus is aiding in digestion and utilization of vitamins. At my current state, I can detect the positive result. Intellectually, having looked at the science papers regarding the protective effects of GI flora, I know this is a very good remedy to pursue long term. I eat low fat, no sugar, highly active yogurt daily.
Nystatin - This powder has long been my friend. I used to look forward to it's extremely bitter taste. Knowing it was reliably killing yeast gave me this odd anticipation. Nystatin stuck it out with me for 8 years, with only one pause when white rice was the only ingestion not irritating my bowels.
The nystatin controlled the yeast. That feature alone was important. Together with regular saunas, I saw my first sustained improvements in life quality from this yeast killer.
Fasting - This is one is scary. I would not do this if I lived alone, or felt my illness had worn me down to a point that death is a serious concern. What I did and why I did it were the following.
My ability to withstand food and treatments had reached the point that white rice was all I could eat. I had not yet considered enemas, let alone try them. I decided to quit eating for a day to starve the yeast.
After I cleared my bowel the following day, I took Nystatin and Acidophilus in sequence. The theory was that the yeast would be weakened and the nystatin would be more effective. The Acidophilus was there to claim any real estate made available by the evicted yeast. I did this several times over several months, and was able to turn myself around and start taking more food again. Based on what I know now, do the enemas instead.
Saunas - These are what saved my engineering career. Whenever I had something really important to perform in front of others at work, I would find a way to have a sauna 2-3 hours before hand.
The saunas were first tried on the theory they would excrete yeast toxins through sweat. I continued them because they worked, providing reliable alleviation of symptoms and a period of clear mind. I now know that sweat is a major excretion pathway for mercury.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was coping with my root problem with this remedy. I highly recommend saunas. They work as a mercury and toxin excretion pathway. An important aspect is that mercury leaving via this path doesn't have a chance to be reabsorbed.
Taheebo Tea - I used to buy this bark dust by the kilo. My ND really believed in it. Along with other things, I tried it often. Eventually I gave it up because I couldn't see what it was doing besides irritating my bowels and using my money.
Homeopathic Remedies - Sorry! None of these demonstrated any improvements for me.
Raw Cranberries - Here is a unique one. Somehow I picked up some cranberries to try as an alternative fruit. All other fruit sent me loopy from sugar. Not only did I tolerate cranberries, I perceived health improvements from them. As with everything that worked, I took it as far as it would go.
We used to buy cranberries by the frozen 40 pound box from a food wholesaler. My approach was to microwave the berries from frozen to the point where they just popped. Then I would add water, blend it, and drink it.
The order of water introduction was important. The way I did it produced the most sour taste, and perceived benefits. Adding water before cooking came up with less acidity and less effect. Eventually I quit cranberries because, ironically, they made my teeth hurt.
Nizoral - In Oregon an ND cannot prescribe this systemic yeast killer. I had to find an MD who recognized and treated systemic Candida in order to get this prescription.
My yeast noticeably cleared up on this stuff. While on the drug my sugar cheating did not receive it's usual rewards. It cleared me up quite well, especially noticeable was my GI.
Big Warning! This drug is very hard on your liver! When I went off it, my GI yeast were back full strength within the month. Other yeast growth locations were permanently moderated after this treatment. Nizoral gave me a taste of what it would be like to be well again.
I am glad that you posted this because in my opinion, this is exactly what NOT to do if you have candida or CFS. This person started having problems in 1984. He did not get better until 1996 for some very good reasons.
He was right to eliminate sugar. That, of course, is a must if candida is going to be controlled. However, there is no mention of what the rest of the diet was composed of so, for all we know, he could have also made more mistakes in that area as well as what I am going to comment on. He did mention eating "live acidophilous yogurt" but again, we don't know what brand or weather it was raw or pasteurized. My belief is that it had to be a weak pastuerized form. This tends to worsen people with candida. Live, raw kefir, especially from goat, tends to help people with candida. This person did not do that.
He goes on to describe many of the supplements and therapies he did to overcome the yeast. Nystatin powder was a big one for him. He would use the nystatin powder, and follow it up with acidophilous. The theory was, the nystatin powder would kill the yeast, and the acidophilus would crowd out the rest and take their place. The problem is, it's not that simple. Even if the nystatin powder did kill most of the yeast for him, his intestinal tract would have been too alkaline due to all the yeast overgrowth. Thefore, the acidophilus would have never taken hold. Obviously this is the case because it took him 12 years to get over this condition.
He mentions some herbal antifungals such as caprylic acid. Again, these are effective with certain strains of yeast, but not with others. He might also have been taking too low a dosage. This is why, in my opinion, discovering the strain of yeast is a must if antifungals are going to be used.
His second to last statement was incredible as well. He mentions taking more than a gram each of Vitamin E, B, Glutamic Acid, and N-acetyl-cysteine. That is whay too much vitamin E, and candida has been known to metabolize vitamin B supplements. Basically, he continued to feed the yeast this way. The "die-off" symptoms he claimed to experience were probably only detoxification reactions due to the high doses of N-acetyl-cysteine which is a potent liver detoxifier. Little did he know, he was feeding his problem.
Next, he tries fasting and colonic irrigation. Fasting is not the best thing to do with candida. Candida continues to deplete your body while you fast. The fasting also depletes the body creating a double-whammy effect on your body. Not a great thing to do, especially when coupled with CFS. He goes on to tell us how to do a home colonic. Colonics leave the bowel in an alkaline state and can worsen candida conditions. This is a bad idea. The best thing that he did was the pysllium fiber and even THAT is something that I wouldn't necessarily do (it depends on the individual. Certain fibers help certain people. It's important to discover which works best for you).
After all of this, it's amazing that he even got well. The trick to overcoming candida, from a nutritional point of view, is in changing the intestinal pH to support healthy bacteria. Good bacteria do not do well in an alkaline pH. They need a slightly acidic pH in order to thrive. Inversely, bad bacteria need an alkaline pH to thrive. This is why trying to introduce good bacteria into an alkaline GI tract is fruitless. It's like trying to grow roses in toxic waste. Even if all the weeds are removed, the roses will still not grow. So, taking traditional probiotics while candida runs the GI tract is fruitless. Only foods and supplements that can ALTER the pH of the GI tract can overcome candida permenently. Sure, we can kill candida in the short run, but unless we change the pH, candida comes back. Save the probiotics for when the pH has been successfully changed and the candida eliminated.
Many techniques have been described on this board on how to acidify the GI tract and get rid of candida. These are the most effective ways:
1. SR
2. Soil organisms = proven in clinical studies to reduce or eliminate candida while changin the pH of the intestinal tract at the same time
3. REAL fermented foods = provides lactic acid which supports a healthy intestinal pH
Other natural foods to kill bad bugs:
1. Coconut oil = contains lauric acid which has anti-microbial properties
2. Garlic
3. Olive oil
4. Raw cultured dairy
A perfect whole-foods diet was never mentioned in this article. My belief is that he didn't really know what to do other than eliminate sugar. He still could have been eating too many starchy carbohydrates and grains. It's best to eat a lower starch diet while counteracting candida. This way, you will get better in a matter of months instead of a decade or more. I'm glad this article was posted.
Mosken
