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  #16   ^
Old Tue, Dec-08-09, 18:52
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Well, my doctor basically told me told me what everybody said he would; it's all in my mind; it only affects people with HIV or cancer; there is no real diet; etc. Maybe it's for the best though. Maybe, since the tests can be unreliable, I would have received a negative even if I really do have it. I'm just going to continue with the candida diet and see where it takes me. Annajen, I found the Pau D' Arco tea and started taking it today. Should I start with 2-3 cups a day or should I start slowly?

And KT12, thanks for the tip on extra virgin coconut oil. I picked some up yesterday with the tea and also started taking it today. I'm going to take it easy with it at first though because I've read a lot of people experience nausea when they first take it. Hopefully I'll be up to the recommended 3 tbsp in a month or two.

Thanks again guys.
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  #17   ^
Old Tue, Dec-08-09, 22:31
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honeypie honeypie is offline
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Great thread guys. Annjen - I wanted to ask if you wouldn't mind sharing how you found a good consultant in London? Or if you would even be willing to share a name? I'm really interested in learning more about this oxygen therapy you mentioned, and am wondering if it is something I could pursue/obtain/begin without a prescription maybe?
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  #18   ^
Old Wed, Dec-09-09, 05:55
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Annajen Annajen is offline
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Hi Tom and honeypie,

First off, Tom . . . I am sorry that your doctor feels that it is in your mind. If it helps, I believe you and a lot of people in this forum will tell you that they received the same response from their doctors. The problem is, when a doctor doesn't understand something he says "you're a hypochondriac".

I was told that several times, until they discovered I had low thyroid, malnutrition and Vitamin B2 deficiency. Then they said "Ah, look . . . you're not imagining it!". Several years later after a lot of problems and unnecessary suffering on my part. I was less than pleased with those ones.

On the other hand, you should start now to try to find a doctor who will deal with it. You can either try to pursue it with that doctor, perhaps from a more conventional viewpoint ("Ok, so you don't think it's candida, what about an endoscopy or colonoscopy?") You might get somewhere if they can find evidence of it, as in the case of KT12.

Otherwise, this puts you in the circle of alternative practitioners. I have had a few of them now in the past 10 years and they are like ordinary doctors---some are great and some are quacks.

You need to find one of the good ones, not the ones who studied for 3 months and have a mail order diploma from herbal school but a really good qualified one.

Ideally, this person should have gone to medical school (an MD) and then done additional work in nutrition and alternative or complementary medicine. There are some like this if you look around. I found one such doctor and it is possible.

The diet alone will help you feel better but won't cure the problem. For that you will need either pharmaceutical or herbal antifungals and these should be given under guidance. I started mine alone but with guidance from my book (most of my info is from this book, BTW, although some is also from my specialist and the internet---I'm big into research---so if you want a really good book, here it is:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cand...d/dp/0761527400


This book will give diet information, recipes and treatment information but even WITH the book you should ideally be under the guidance of a specialist.

Honeypie, to find the specialist I'm seeing I emailed the author (Dr Rona, who has contact information on the internet) to ask for a recommendation for a specialist in the UK, preferably in the London area. These chaps all meet each other at conferences, so even if they can't name one personally that they remember, they often have lists of other conference attendees or centres in certain areas that they could suggest.

You may have to pay out of pocket as many are not covered by insurance, BUT they tend to cost less than the ones who are covered by insurance, so they are pricey but if you are desperate, they may still be affordable in the long run, in the sense that at least you may fix the problem and then you can stop having to do the rounds of a lot of doctors ---insured or not---who can't fix it or don't believe in candida.

I don't mind saying whom I'm seeing, although I am not sure where you two are in the world, so you may have to do some reserach in your local area.

Dr Rona's website is:

http://www.heritagehealthcentre.ca/node/31

Dr Rona is in the Toronto area.

As for me, I'm under the treatment from the specialists at

The Centre for Complementary and Integrated Medicine

The website is: http://www.complemed.co.uk/

This is in London, UK.

Honeypie, if you missed the earlier link I posted about the oxygen therapy, you can look at this, although I make no claims regarding Dr Whiting because, although he is apparently fairly well known in the US, I have no personal dealings with him. He discusses the benefits of oxygen therapy in the video, but again, remember that he is also selling oral buffered oxygen over the internet and so there may be other approaches as well. I find his videos on youtube helpful for information and general ideas but I would be careful about recommending someone I haven't had personal dealings with. I admit he sounds very experienced in the video in dealing with candida, and I have personally found the O2 therapy my specialist put me on worked fairly well, although I was only on it for a week previous to antifungals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN-STK2XvgM

Regarding the tea, Tom, my advice would be to start SLOWLY because I don't know 1) whether you have candida or another condition or two conditions including candida etc.

2) the rest of your medical history
3) how much candida you may have in your body

So the general rule of thumb is, if it's new, start SLOWLY. Don't introduce changes quickly unless you want your body to struggle. Try one cup of the tea in the morning for a day and then the next day, try a cup, preferably ahead of food or away from food. Stay on 2 cups for a few days and then increase to 3.

This is also a good idea with the coconut oil. Bear in mind that coconut oil as an ingredient in cooking may be helpful, but it is almost 90% saturated fat. We also have to think about our arteries on this diet. If you want to try capryllic acid as an antifungal (the ingredient in coconut oil that works against candida) you can buy it in tablet form where it is maximized. Here:

Solgar makes it and you can get it at a health food store.

Here: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...KHcvo-Qak-NnXDA

Before doing this or anything else, though, it would be really a good idea to buy either the book I mentioned by Dr Rona or a similar guide to diet and treatment which has many more details about the diet plan, treatment plan etc. I began this treatment while searching for a good specialist and was one month into it when I saw the specialist, by which time I was able to show him the book I was using to see if he thought it was ok, and also the treatments I was on. You can begin the diet gently, and some of these other things gently but before going on to 3 tbsp per day of saturated fat, you'd want to make sure you didn't have any other health issues with your heart, arteries, blood pressure etc.

As for the tea, once you take it or any other antifungals, monitor yourself for die-off symptoms, improvements, or any changes whatsoever in your main symptoms. Usually this tea will precipitate a change in your symptoms ---although it may be for the better or worse, depending---but if it affects your main symptoms then it is probably working. If you notice no changes at all over a week or two then you may have a different condition.

I hope that helps. It's great to see a few people participating in these discussions since I'm also keen to find out what other people have tried, what has worked, what didn't work and how to fix this as quickly as possible!!!

Anne

PS Sorry for the length of these posts. It's hard to answer all the questions in a short space.

Last edited by Annajen : Wed, Dec-09-09 at 06:08.
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  #19   ^
Old Wed, Dec-09-09, 09:00
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honeypie honeypie is offline
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Thanks for another great post Annjen.... I will be back to write later - just wanted to tell you quickly how much your time is appreciated
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  #20   ^
Old Thu, Dec-10-09, 13:28
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Annajen Annajen is offline
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Hi honeypie

Glad someone's appreciating it. It's more than I get over here.

Give me a shout if I can help further or if you want to chat anything through. I'm not an expert, but I'm READING an expert.
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  #21   ^
Old Thu, Dec-10-09, 17:39
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Annajen, is it normal to get headaches from Pau D' arco? Ever since I started drinking it I've been getting headaches and feeling nauseous. I only started in a couple of days ago. Can I be experiencing die off this soon? I think I'm just going to stick with one cup a day for a while.

Last edited by Tom873 : Thu, Dec-10-09 at 19:38.
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  #22   ^
Old Fri, Dec-11-09, 04:20
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Annajen Annajen is offline
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Hi Tom,

Well, headaches can be part of die-off and so can nausea. Some people find it affects their muscles, whilst others find their nerves and other tissues are badly affected. According to that Dr Whiting youtube video link I posted (again, I don't know whether he is a great doctor or not because I have only seen him on the video, so I am not claiming him to be the final authority on candida), he did mention that candida has been found in the brain fluid of people, and so it may be able to live in your brain as well.

Headaches are a very common reaction to a detox type diet like a candida diet and if you have been on it for a few days, then, yes, after about 3 days is when my own die-off effects kicked in.

You can go down to one cup a day to see how you go, but unfortunately, die-off in general is not pleasant and this is the effect of trying to kill the candida. By all means, ease up on it slightly, which is why they say begin with one cup of tea per day, then slowly move up to two, then three etc, but in the meantime, keep trying to find a proper qualified doctor or specialist to treat this, since we don't know your whole health history here.

Other symptoms of die-off, some of which I experienced strongly, besides headaches (which can also be caused by lower blood sugar and a change in diet), include:

feeling cold in the extremities,

extra tiredness or weakness in the limbs,

sinuses clearing/tons of mucus coming down,

feeling lightheaded or "brain fog",

inability to concentrate

cravings for sweets or sugary or starchy foods (don't give in to that one unless you want to feel even worse! Resist it and use a little coconut oil or butternut squash or sweet potatoes or popcorn or something to get you through that one without reaching for the sweets and dairy!!!)

and gastro-symptoms initially.

You can see what other members of the forum have also reported concerning their die-off symptoms, since everyone is different. Headaches are a common one, though, although after a week I felt my head clearing and much better, although by then I was choking on constant mucus coming down from all the killed yeast in the sinuses. That cleared after about 3 weeks and now I feel much better than before, although I still have some die-off symptoms if I overdo the antifungals.

Try to use the barley green powder about twice a day mixed with water for an alkalizing effect which will help you through the die-off. I found I felt much better too after eating beetroot during the die-off period, since that also adds extra oxygen and can help you through some of the symptoms. At least it worked with me.

Again, though, I'm not a proper doctor but just another person with candida. It would be really good if you could try to find someone in your area who is a candida doctor since this is just the internet but a complete programme for this would ideally take into account your health history, candida symptoms, dietary requirements etc.

Of course, in the meantime, feel free to ask whatever you like and I (and of course a lot of other people here) will be happy to help as much as we can.
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  #23   ^
Old Fri, Dec-11-09, 19:34
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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I know it's normal to crave foods high in sugar and yeast but is it normal to be craving meats? Also, is brown basmati rice okay to eat? I'd assume no due to all of the carbs but I've read on a lot of sites that it's a candida safe food.
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  #24   ^
Old Sat, Dec-12-09, 17:22
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Also, what about all natural tomato sauce with no added sugar? I love meatloaf but it's no fun without tomato sauce.
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  #25   ^
Old Sun, Dec-13-09, 06:37
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Annajen Annajen is offline
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Hi Tom,

As for the brown basmati rice, I suppose it's better than the higher GI white basmati but ideally you would want to aim for wholegrains if you are going to include grains in your diet. I just buy organic wholegrain brown rice and work with that. You can also use cornflour or arrowroot flour in recipes as a substitute for wheat flour sometimes too, as long as you only add a little bit.

As for craving meats . . . well, this is not necessarily a problem on a candida diet. I mean, you can have meats but the only possible problem if you have a lot of meat would be if your digestion were not working very well, you got lots of constipation etc.

What I mean is, if meat stays in your gut too long, it can ferment and the fermentation can feed the candida. If you are very regular and eating TONS of veg, this is less of a problem. If you are one of those people who suffer from bad constipation, then you wouldn't want to begin antifungal treatments heavily nor eat tons of meat, grains etc until your system were working better and you were very regular and getting lots of good cruciferous veg to help clean out your gut.

Another good gut cleaner which is anti-candida and which might be soothing on your esophagal ulcers would be aloe vera. I usually put a few tsp mixed with psyllium husks and then add plenty of mineral water. This helps clear the gut too.

Meats shouldn't be a problem with candida unless you already have these other issues, but be careful about the additives (hormones, nitrites, nitrates, sulphites, sulphates etc which are added to sausages, bacon etc). THOSE can be VERY bad for candida, so try to buy fresh organic meat and cook it up yourself, rather than buying pre-made meatballs, supermarket-prepared steaks etc and be VERY careful about marinades unless you make them yourself---they tend to have a lot of preservatives too if you buy store-bought prepackaged stuff.

Natural tomato sauce . . . well . . . organic passata can be used, and you can make your own with chopped canned tomatoes (watch the additives but some brands are ok and fairly "pure). You can experiment and actually use substitute dairy (soya milk, rice milk, natural yogurt) to mix with the tomato sauce and add lots of your own herbs etc.

If you look in the recipes section here or even just on google and type in "low carb tomato sauce homemade" you will probably find lots of recipes for this. Just check the ingredients because some low carb recipes will not be ideal for candida if they add a lot of maple syrup, honey or full fat cream etc. Use the substitutes for these things where possible. A small amount of honey (like a tsp) spread over a large dish (like a homemade pot of soup) might not be the end of the world, but you wouldn't want a high amount of those things in your food if you are fighting candida.

It's a good time to try some new low-carb versions of recipes and combinations too. If you think of it as a good opportunity to learn some new recipes, it might make it easier to adjust to not having things taste exactly like they used to with your old recipes.
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  #26   ^
Old Sun, Dec-13-09, 08:46
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Thanks again, Annajen. I definitely only eat all natural meats but I have been pretty irregular for months now so maybe I'll cut back on the meat intake for a while anyway.

Speaking of irregularity, now that oats and fruits are not allowed can you suggest some safe foods that are high in soluble fiber? Before I started the candida all I ate were foods high in soluble fiber. I'm afraid that the drastic change in my diet will not be fun. Unfortunately, every time I do a google search it's basically nothing but oats, fruits, and starchy vegetables. I take flax seeds but they have 7g of carbs. Don't know if that's okay. This diet &^%ing sucks.

Last edited by Tom873 : Sun, Dec-13-09 at 09:41.
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  #27   ^
Old Mon, Dec-14-09, 08:09
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Annajen Annajen is offline
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Hi Tom,

White grapefruit is still allowed in moderation on the candida diet, although I sweeten mine with ground cloves now instead of sugar and occasionally add some spiced stewed homemade cranberry "sauce" to add to the flavours (no sugar added, but I mostly sweetened the cranberries with cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and threw in one orange to stew in with them).

These should help the irregularity. Again, the veg should really help clean you out. Make friends with Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. Brussels sprouts taste nice with some fresh lemon squeezed over them and some dried (or fresh) basil or thyme mixed in. On a high veg diet, you should notice that you are going to the . . um . . powder room more than once a day and so irregularity should not be a problem on this diet.

Increase your water and herbal tea also (not the sweet flower herbal teas, but peppermint, fennel etc) and this should help too. Lentils and soups with pulses are good and keep you regular as well.

Courgette (zucchini), grated carrots and salad (try to choose other leaves than iceberg lettuce, though, only because it is hard to digest), grated beetroot, roasted nuts and sunflower seeds, plus natural yogurt mixed with either lemon juice, grapefruit juice or apple cider vinegar for a dressing (or blended with cold cucumber) should also help your digestion improve.

I agree about missing oatmeal a bit, but in my case it's due to the gluten issue. Some people with candida might be ok on the whole-grain oats (Scotch oats, not refined) but I also have to avoid them for now.

Think of it this way ---it shouldn't be forever, but just until you get well. Then you may be able to resume a few treats like oatmeal occasionally. It all depends on what your doctor and your gut think about the idea.
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  #28   ^
Old Mon, Dec-14-09, 09:47
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Annajen
Hi Tom,

White grapefruit is still allowed in moderation on the candida diet, although I sweeten mine with ground cloves now instead of sugar and occasionally add some spiced stewed homemade cranberry "sauce" to add to the flavours (no sugar added, but I mostly sweetened the cranberries with cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and threw in one orange to stew in with them).

These should help the irregularity. Again, the veg should really help clean you out. Make friends with Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. Brussels sprouts taste nice with some fresh lemon squeezed over them and some dried (or fresh) basil or thyme mixed in. On a high veg diet, you should notice that you are going to the . . um . . powder room more than once a day and so irregularity should not be a problem on this diet.

Increase your water and herbal tea also (not the sweet flower herbal teas, but peppermint, fennel etc) and this should help too. Lentils and soups with pulses are good and keep you regular as well.

Courgette (zucchini), grated carrots and salad (try to choose other leaves than iceberg lettuce, though, only because it is hard to digest), grated beetroot, roasted nuts and sunflower seeds, plus natural yogurt mixed with either lemon juice, grapefruit juice or apple cider vinegar for a dressing (or blended with cold cucumber) should also help your digestion improve.

I agree about missing oatmeal a bit, but in my case it's due to the gluten issue. Some people with candida might be ok on the whole-grain oats (Scotch oats, not refined) but I also have to avoid them for now.

Think of it this way ---it shouldn't be forever, but just until you get well. Then you may be able to resume a few treats like oatmeal occasionally. It all depends on what your doctor and your gut think about the idea.



Thanks but I can't have grape fruit due to my esophageal ulcers and I thought apple cider vinegar, carrots, cranberries, and yogurt, unless made by yourself was not allowed. Also, I just found out a few weeks ago that I'm allergic to almonds and cinnamon so adding them to anything is a no no. I'm so pissed off.
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  #29   ^
Old Tue, Dec-15-09, 05:52
KT12 KT12 is offline
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Hey Everyone,

I just came back from vacation and was reading all the new threads.

Again I must say, Annajen your posts are truly detailed and amazing. You have done so much homework regarding Candida. I feel like I've finally found someone who has researched this topic as much as I have! LOL, we should become Candida specialists and open up shop somewhere!

Tom, I wanted to answer your questions about the virgin coconut oil. It's possible that if you start taking it in large quantities you will experience diarrhea and nausea initially. I would recommend taking it easy at first, maybe 1 Tbsp per day, slowly working your way up after a month or so. Annajen, is right, virgin coconut oil is high in saturated fat, however, the difference lies in the type of saturated fat. There are long-chain fatty acids, medium-chain fatty acids, and short-chain fatty acids. Long-chain fatty acids are the ones that have a detrimental effect on your body, and are found in a lot of the foods we consume in our diet such as meats and vegetable oils. However, coconut oil contains primarily medium-chain fatty acids, which are utilized by the body differently. Rather than being stored as fat, they are metabolized by the body much more easily than the Long-Chain fatty acids.

With that being said, of course eating too much of anything can make you fat, so I would totally not overdo it on the coconut oil. Personally, I don't eat it every single day, but I do try and eat it at least 2 to 3 times per week. Also, since I live in Thailand, coconuts are easy to come by and cheap, so I just eat those vs. gobbling down coconut oil. Also, Annajen made a good suggestion regarding taking caprylic acid or capric acid supplements. That way you could avoid the saturated fat altogether.

Also Tom, in regards to your diet, I really don't think you should over-think it. The problem with the Candida diets you will find online is that most of them contradict each other regarding some foods. What I can say is that most of them agree on certain foods being cut out of the diet, such as breads, mushrooms, alcohol, etc. Those are the things I would focus on cutting out of your diet.

Personally, I still eat fruit (apples, pineapples, coconuts, etc.) I still eat vegetables (except the ones I don't like, hehe). I eat all meats. And I also eat brown rice. I live in Asia so I eat brown rice everyday (rice is like a staple food here). I also take probiotic supplements everyday, and I eat plain natural yogurt with live active cultures (not the crap yogurt you can buy with all the sugar and candy inside).

I was diagnosed in 2007 with a Candida infection, and since I was treated, I haven't had a reoccurrence. I believe it's because I changed my diet and just started living a healthier lifestyle in general.

Good luck with your treatment Tom! Let me know if you have anymore questions.
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  #30   ^
Old Tue, Dec-15-09, 10:17
Tom873 Tom873 is offline
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Thanks a lot for the advice KT12. I think next week, which will be 2 weeks since I started the diet, I will introduce both brown basmati rice and Stonyfield organic plain yogurt back in to my diet. Maybe in a week or two I'll start eating berries again too, in small quantities of course. Also, how do you feel about raw walnuts and raw pumpkin seeds? I've been told to stay away from them due to mold being able to grow on them but would like to eat them again for health purposes. Thanks again.


Edit: I also read that green apples are beneficial in the fight against candida. Should I start eating a green apple a day or is it to soon?

Last edited by Tom873 : Tue, Dec-15-09 at 12:32.
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