Hi everyone, I was hoping you could help me (sorry this is long). I think I may have candida but I'm not sure. I was on low dose antibiotics last year but I went off of them in December and I was fine. The only other potential trigger I can think of is that in January I went on Atkins, mainly because I started weaning myself off of Prevacid (which I was taking for my acid reflux) and I read online that a low-carb diet could help. Well it helped with my reflux but I had such terrible issues with low blood sugar and I just felt awful all the time, so I started slowly reintegrating carbs back into my diet.

It was around that time that I started have pains on both sides of my abdomen around belly button level, after I ate, from time to time. The pain is like a cramping and bloated feeling, and it feels worse when I sit than when I stand or lay down. Then two weeks ago I had a terrible bout of chest pain so bad I could barely breathe (pain was like someone had a belt around my rib cage right underneath my breasts and was squeezing). Now the pain is usually in my stomach, belly button level, all the way across my abdomen (as if I were wearing a belt of pain around my waist), and seems to act up when I eat certain things, like bread or italian dressing. I've eaten other things, though, like macaroni and cheese, and I'm fine. I usually wake up feeling fine, but once I eat a trigger food I'm sick the whole day. But it's just the pain in my stomach and sometimes chest, no diarrhea or constipation, no intestinal pain, no vomiting, etc. I've already been taking probiotics and have since I was on the low dose antibiotics last year. I took the spit test and it was positive.

Mainly I would think I had candida except that I don't have any intestinal problems. Has anyone been diagnosed with candida with similar symptoms to mine? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello, I don't know the answer but based on what I've gone through I hope I can help a little.

It sounds like the pain could be trapped wind. Especially with being able to link it to particular foods...I get pain from trapped wind all up to my shoulders and can't breathe with it sometimes, when I've eaten something terrible. And it isn't always that recognisable as wind until it's almost going, or maybe not even then.

Candida die off has caused me to have trapped wind. Since being on the candida diet that my digestion has been all over the place. The die off of candida causes gas, bloating, uncomfortable sensations, can cause fever, aches and pains, etc.... Bread would especially cause a reaction as it feeds the candida causing worse symptoms. If you aren't fully on a candida diet then you'll have had lots of die off causing you to feel crap as you transitioned to a low carb diet, but as you eat things that feed the candida (such as bread, sugars, vinegars which are in dressings and sauces, and much more) then the candida gains strength and could cause the symptoms you describe.

I'm surprised the low carb diet didn't help your low blood sugar issues, it's the only way I can control mine. I found that eating lots of fat made a big difference - for me I had to replace the carb with fat (and somewhat increase protein). It took a little while to adjust going to low carb, and I had aches and weakness/fatigue for a few weeks which I attributed to die off of candida due to the lower level of carbs. Do you know your problems were low blood sugar - ie did you check it with a glucose monitor? It could have been your body adjusting, I had a lot of what felt like low blood sugar but wasn't. It was just my body transitioning to fat burning rather than carb burning, which takes a bit of time and you suffer in the meantime.

It might also have just been your stomach adjusting to the change in diet, but increasing carbs will increase food for candida...

Some pains can be caused by a food that you ate the day before. Especially if the pain is down near your navel or below.
I would recommend going on the paleo diet at least for a while but to ease into it gradually. You might not need to stay on it. The paleo diet is pretty useful because there are not too many problematic foods on it. If everything settles down you can then reintroduce suspect foods to figure out what has been causing the problem.

Btw. Try licorice sweets and tablets if you get any more pains but make sure it's not really sugary and check that it's real licorice and not just a fake flavour. They are fantastic for most belly aches and trapped wind.

Make sure you don't have an ulcer. Symptoms are not always pain in the stomach.