My gut is doing really well and I no longer have any major (or maybe even minor) yeast die off symptoms.

However, my sinuses are dry feeling and irritated - not swollen at all but really sensitive to odors, especially perfumes and cleaning products and car exhaust.

Acute exposure makes them hurt, gives me a bad taste in my mouth, headache and my ears ring. I'm thinking that the last yeast holdout might be in my sinus area. My doc had as part of my candida treatment a nasal wash with nystatin (he wanted me to put it in every orifice - gross) but it turned out that I can't tolerate nystatin. I'm doing saline nasal washes to help lubricate but wonder if anyone else has this problem and if they've been able to come up with a decent solution.

btw, I'm treating the yeast overgrowth with diet and probiotics but no meds. I have been lc for and have eliminated the yeast foods since Mid Dec with a great deal of success.

Hello again!! I have the same problem. I still have an occassional "sick day" from a die off. But I've had sinus problem my whole life. Normally I would be dying this time of year with all this pollen, but it's just sore throat (in the back), itchy, dry eyes, weirdly a dry feeling in my sinus but post nasal drip. The drip had gone till the pollen came. I just use a saline nasal spray to keep the membranes moist and keep up with building up my immune system. I started taking beet root powder capsules. All the nutrients without the beet sugar!! I also have a big problem with smells, that's still the candida. I've seen senitivities to odors listed as a symptom in several places. I can't stay in a major store for more than 1/2 an hour because of all the off-gasing from the plastics in there. The wierdest one was picking my son & 3 friends up from a pizza place, the smell of oregano was so strong to me I had to roll down the car window!!! I'm hoping the smell thing disapates as this goes away. Maybe it's your last hold out in this.

I too am using diet and probiotics, but I take several vitamins and minerals and natural anti-fungal supplements. I know this probably wasn't much help, but it always comforts me to know I'm not the only one going through something like this.
Hang in there!!
Liz

It helps because I feel like I'm on the right track anyway. It was the sensitivity to odors that got me to go to the doctor in the first place and he's the one that suggested Candida. He claims that the candida makes leaky mucous membranes and that all the pollutantes just go right in and activate a toxin response. Without that mucosal barrier we have lost our first line of defense against stuff in the environment that isn't normally a problem for people.

Getting healthier has to help.

That makes a lot of sense. It does the same thing to the intestinal wall. Partially digested food particals make it into the blood stream and cause a toxic response. That's why people's food allergies improve after treatment for candida. I guess with the mucous membranes being the first line of defence, they would be the most damaged and be the last to heal. The intestinal problems have cleared greatly with me. All the sinus stuff is still around, I get sore throats quite a bit and general fatigue for no reason is still an issue sometimes. Not as often as before. Have a problem with muscle stiffness in my shoulders. Keep getting muscle knots over my shoulder blades. Has muscle stiffness ever been a problem with you? The worst time I can think of was right before I started treating this, I was getting dressed and my arms were so weak I could hardly put my shirt on. I really freeked me out. THOSE DAYS ARE GONE!!! Little by little the other problems are going too. Now we'll see how I handle the summer heat....

Liz

I have a partial vertebrate in my neck so I often have neck and shoulder pains but I don't think they are related to yeast. Sometimes I have what feels like reflux without the reflux and I think this is yeast related too. I know that the CD made the yeast worst and in turn the yeast made the CD worse although now that it started there is no return of gluten eating ever.

It sounds like many of our symptoms are similar.

I have CD too. That's how I found out about the candida. I saw an article about CD and said OMG that's me!! Started reading and found the link with candida and there were the rest of my problems. IBS(treated for a deuodenal ulcer at 10!), migraines (that hospitalized me at 16), FM (for a year I had all 18 pain points), CF, Angina, sinus infections, strep repeatedly as a child, rashes, uncoordination, dizzyness, low body temp, unexplained bruising, brain fog (I actually blacked out in high school once sitting in my chair!), anemia (clinical twice), repeated broncitius, anxeity (crippling at times), panic attacks, depression. Most of the mood disorders diminished when I stopped eating sugar. I'm very careful of how I eat it now. My son's yogurt has cane juice in it, so if I'm in the mood, I make sure I only have one 4oz cup. And only 1 service of whole fruit a day. I couldn't deal with the anxeity and angina. What 36 (at the time) year old woman should be on angina meds!!??!!

What problems has it caused with you? I'm always curious how the same thing affects different people.

Liz

I think I have been malabsorbing most of my life but only mildly. I had one of those touchy digestions where too much fat or too much fiber would give me diarrhea. For the most part I was pretty healthy though but as I got older I got fatigued really easily.

About 5 years ago I got a really bad flu and just never felt right after that. Increase diarrhea and fatigue and a cotinuing cough and a hypersensitivity to fragrances, cleaning products and lots of other weird things which would sometimes just wipe me out. It made it hard to work or socialize because even one person in the room with fragrance on would make me sick.

I went through a variety of tests and consultations and the only things wrong were the beginnings of osteoporosis and what looks like inflamation in my nasal mucosa but nothing that look infected. It was more like sunburn.

My internest suggested that I get tested for CD because of her experience with women who get osteoporosis fairly early (I am 52 so it isn't that early). I came up positive for CD and went gluten free. That help alot with the diarrhea but I was still and still am having problems with the odor sensitivity. The allergist is the one that suggested the connection to Candida. I also test really high on an antibody test for candida proteins.

At around that time I had a few really bad episodes of hives, one at hallowean after a candy pigout (probably induced a yeast explosion and subsequent die off) and two more after going on a candida diet and taking nystatin in what I think were die offs that occured over a few months. I got through it with antihistamines.

In Dec I went lc and have been keeping my carb counts to around 20g per day. I eat some cheese which I wasn't eating on the candida diet but I cook it first in order to make sure I'm not introducing any yeast. In fact I eat most foods cooked to avoid the same. I take a few supplements, vitamins and probiotics.

There is a good article about chem sensitivity and its relationship to CFS and some of the other related illnesses.

Here is the abstract and I can send the article on Monday if it interests you. Just let me know
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...2&dopt=Abstract

I believe I've had CD my entire life also. Had a very weak stomach as a child. As a teen would feel sick even though nothing was going around and would have little or no fever. Things got worse after I had kids. After my daughter was born I had a sinus infection and low grade fever for 3 months. Went anemic during both my pregnancies. I would imagine I had boughts with candida from time to time also. More often than not in the last 15 years. The only thing that sent me to the hospital besides the migraines was what I thought was a heart attack in my early 30's. They said every thing tested fine and some women my age would have pain in their chest muscle walls and no one knew why. I now know it's the candida. I read somewhere (I really need to write down where I read things!) that the mycotoxins released by the candida often time cause muscle pain in the lower back, shoulder area and chest wall. Sorry, forgot about the time in my 20's when my husband gave me a big bear hug, I had a searing pain in my lower back on the right. Went to the ER thinking I had ripped something (it hurt that bad, after I screamed, he let go of me and I was on the floor) they said it's just tight, start walking to make it better.

Every day things get better. I've been LC since the middle of Feb. I read about the celiac and was eliminating gluten when on Valentines Day we went out to dinner. Had one scoop of icecream (which I didn't usually eat because dairy and IBS don't go together)and the next day I was on my back I was so sick. It was the next day or two I found out about the candida. Sugar was gone that day. And it's slowly getting better from there. I started exercising this week!! Slow and steady, little old ladys were passing me on the walking trail around the lake at the park!! But at least I was out there!! I do yoga a couple of times a week and next week I'm adding weight training with hand weights to get some upper body strength. I'm currently a total wimp. Are you doing any regular exercises? I eat regular cheese but only natural and only an ounce at a time. Still don't drink milk. Probably never will. Couple of times a month I'll have sour cream on my taco salad. Most of the other candida stuff, sugar (never again added to my diet), vinegar, mushrooms, sill stay away from those. I only added the cheese after my energy started coming back and did it slowly to see if it would flare up the IBS. Some thing I'll probably just never eat again.

Do you take L-glutamine? It does amazing things. I do and I just found out I can take way more than I am. I'm gonna get the powder so I can take more. It's an amino acid and it helps to rebuild the intestinal wall where it's been damaged. It also combats muscle fatigue. People who work out take it so they don't have muscle stiffness the next day and if you take it 1/2 hr before you eat on an empty stomach it stops sugar cravings. It's a brain food and aids in clear thought, there's more too. It's amazing and not expensive. Deffinately something you should look into.

OMG, I can't believe I wrote that much. Hope you don't mind. With the kids and my schedule I don't have any close friends, the kind who talk about everything. Since I've discovered all this stuff, it's really nice to talk to someone about it who understands. I'm so glad I found this forum. There are so many great people here!! Thanks for the link. It's very interesting. I speak a little medicalese but that was a little over my head. If you have something that's a little more layman directed that would be great. Hope you have a great weekend!!!

Liz

I take the Q10, L-cysteine, glucosamine, vit C, regular vitamins and eat pretty healthy. I don't drink milk either because it is too high in carbs but I use cream. I eat a lot of fish and lean meat and don't avoid the good fats. I'm trying to lose about 20 more lbs so I do the Atkins eating for both the yeast and weight control.

It is nice to talk to others about this stuff. I know that friends sometimes think I'm nuts when I have to leave someplace because of the perfume content in the room.

I've read about the L-glutamine and I should probably add it in to what I'm taking. I think it is pretty high in the protein shake I make for breakfast but I'll check.

I have started to do more exercise although not enough yet. I have a water rower and I have started taking breaks at work to climb the stairs. I do 6 flights a couple times a day. I walk on weekends. I should do some weight training but the water rower helps with that to some extent. I used to be pretty active when I was younger but feeling ill and working long hours at a sedantary job does take a toll.

I hate to sound like a dufus, but what is CD?

Thanks!!

-Denise

Celiac disease, it is an autoimmune disorder which is induced by eating gluten. Gluten is one of the proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. It is in many prepared foods as a natural flavoring and stabilizer and filler.

Hello!!! Had a crazy weekend. Is DS birthday monday so sat DD and her family & DS GF came over for the afternoon. Then ALL DAY sunday we moved furniture into our new office. That was my aerobic exercise for the day!! Shoulders are a bit sore from lifting things.

I've noticed the longer I do this candida thing and the better I feel over all, the more sensitive to smells I get. Have you noticed that? Think it will ever go away? Even driving in traffic is bothering me, sucks 'cause that'll never change!!!

Good to see you around Denise, feeling better?

Liz

I'm hoping that GF and candida controlled will reduce the acute sensitivity to odors actually. Many of the intestinal symptoms I got with a bad acute exposure don't happen anymore but I still get the mouth taste, sore throat and nose, headaches and ear ringing although I can at least make it through grocery shopping without feeling too sick these days.

Maybe you just notice it more because it is what is left of the yuck feelings and before you just felt bad most of the time instead of only with exposure?

I know very well what you mean about traffic - I commute to NYC and we are in traffic for an hour each way. I got an in car air purifier and run the vents on recirculate which helps some. I was even wearing a carbon filter mask for a while but don't seem to need to as much. I may need to go back to it this summer when the pollution gets really bad though.

I also have air cleaners in my office and my house so at least I have some places where I am relatively pollution free.

Now if people if have to share elevators with would just tone down their perfume things would be a lot better.

hi Liz,

I wanted to ask you about L-glutamine. What you said earlier in the thread about it, sounds like a real marvel. I picked up some powder today and will start taking it daily.

Was wondering though on the packet it talks about using it in conjunction with high energy exercise routines, bulking up, weights, etc.. at the moment I don't take any exercise (I have very little energy), does it make a difference if you take it without exercising do you think?
The packet says 3 teaspoons a day, how much did you discover you're allowed to take?

would be interested to know how long you've been on the candida diet, you sound like you've made some really good progress. Do you exercise much?

ALSO, does anyone know anything about colostrum, would be interested in your thoughts or experience with it. Spoke to a homeopath the other day who recommend I go onto colostrum, essential for candida healing as it heals the lining of the stomach, intestines, etc.. which allows the primadophilus to do its job effectively. Only thing I'm slightly concerned about is that it's made from cow's bovine (hormones) and you can't have milk on candida diet. I'm slightly worried about taking it in case it does damage to all my good work. I don't know this homeopath, she was in the health food shop, so could just be trying to sell a product.

thanks heaps
Row

Ro, Hi! In fact I just ran out of L-glutamine and have to order some more. I've read that up to 40 grams a day is tolerated without side effects. Someone here was taking it for the intestinal healing properties and started weight resistance training and upped her intake to 3 grams a day. It deminishes muscle soreness. So as you can see, you can play around with the dosage and when you take it without it concern. I was up to 1500mg 3x a day 1/2 he before meals on an empty stomach. I had capsules. I'm going to get the powder and take 1 gram at the same times. You should do a little reading on it. Pretty cool stuff.

I've been doing this since the middle of February. It's just been in the last week that my energy has begun to return. I started exercising this week. I walk 3x's a week and do yoga 2x a week. The end of the week got messed up, we're moving our office out of our home into office space, so most of my exercise has been aerobic and weight lifting!!!

All of my intestinal symptoms are gone. My allergies are nearly gone, I have a little muscle soreness occassionally, seldom have a headache, sleep much better, doing 85% better overall.

I don't know anything about colostrum, I'm trying to keep my program as natural as possible. I just started eating dairy again because I was getting stabbing muscle pains. The dairy made it stop but it makes me a little mucousy, so I'm working on backing off it again. If you're still having major fatigue and gastro problems, I would stay away from anything dairy. There are lots of other things to take. Here is a web site with a 3 levels of candida diet that list supplements to take with your program. www.candidapage.com I would stick with ammino acids, probiotic and antifungal supplements.

Keep us posted!!

Liz