My story is too long to tell here, so I won't bother trying. I have been dealing with IBS (possibly misdiagnosed as IBD) for years. It's been ongoing since 2003, when I took some antibiotics for acne, and though I managed, through dietary changes, to feel relatively normal for a few years - albeit still unable to gain weight and with all kinds of gastro issues - the past 8 months have been a nightmare. I woke up one day after taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu the day before feeling that something was totally off. My muscles and joints ache like hell after levels of exertion that they used to handle fine. My neck hurts. My chest cracks all the time, and my fingers and other joints crack too. Just awful. For the first few weeks, my neck glands were swollen. In May, I started getting lightheaded all the time and had to (reluctantly) stop BJJ altogether.

I've been trying tons of things since then to try to fix this. I've been seeing several doctors and a naturopath. Tests reveal nothing wrong - Epstein-Barr keeps coming back negative, and my thyroid, pituitary and adrenals are fine. The only thing that's off is my Vitamin D (which was 24 when I should have been 70+). Nothing I've tried has brought any lasting success, save a bit of help from licorice and possibly from cutting out grains (which I did around the same time I stopped the weightlifting/BJJ, and felt better afterwards).

So, nearing my wit's ends - I started looking into a whole new approach, and that's when I started wondering about candida. There are a lot of reasons for this.

1. All of the questionnaires I've seen ask first and foremost about antibiotic use, and some specifically ask about tetracyclines, which are what triggered my IBD/IBS.
2. Since I'm not sure, from my stool tests, that I ever cleared all of the candida out, but focused mainly on the pathogenic bacterias, it might explain my persistent food allergies and other gastro symptoms.
3. Candida might very well explain why my sinus issues got worse when I strayed from my diet late last year.
4. Candida could possibly account for the chronic fatigue-like symptoms, or it could have made me susceptible to a virus (not EBV) that caused this damage essentially overnight.

I took the Candida Spit Test a few weeks ago. Not only did my spit sink rather than dissolve - it left this cloudy, powder-like stuff that stayed at the bottom of the glass for a week. I have since cut my sugar intake down from 70-80+ grams of fruit sugar a day to well under 20, all from a single granny smith apple, some almonds, and some vegetables. I also ate garlic for a few days, and just over two weeks ago started taking oil of oregano in water.

After I took the oregano oil, I had some rather classic "die-off" symptoms: a terrible, itchy rash on my right calf, an acne outbreak, and, more recently, extreme lethargy (to the point where I just need to lie down and sleep - normally my fatigue isn't like that) and the constant need to drink and urinate (the urine is still very bright and sometimes smells, though it's been that way for months). I can't say that I feel a whole lot better yet. I am aware that a deep-seated candida issue can take months or years to be resolved. I am not sure how to continue this in the long term - if I should keep taking oregano oil, get a prescription for diflucan, or something else.

So, what do you all think? Do I sound like I have a candida issue? If I do, do you think it's the reason my body's been so screwed up for the past 8 months? Or even for the past several years? What should I do? Any honest advice would be appreciated.

Yes, I think your symptoms point both to candidiasis and wheat disease of some kind ......celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or gluten sensitivity. Don't let the docile names fool you. They represent serious autoimmune disease. Wheat disease and candidiasis go hand in hand.

In addition, I think your smelly urine points at a bacteria, maybe something as serious as H pylori. Do you own a dog or dogs? It could be E coli. I'd get that checked out.

For the wheat and candida ..........simple. Stop eating wheat and sweets. As this forum shows, sweets come from lots of things. The hardest sweets for wheat disease sufferers to digest are lactose and fructose. So don't drink raw cow's milk, and stop with the sucrose and fruits. Get a water purifier, and stop drinking chlorine. Stop eating foods which have strong salicylate dyes .....blueberries, blackberries, and even (yes) turmeric.

Start eating plain live yogurt a couple times a day. Start supplementing with vitamin C and B complex.

You should start feeling better within two weeks. That's how long it takes digestive antibodies to clear. Blood antibodies can take six months to clear, so complete relief may take longer.

Completely stopping glutenous grains is VERY hard, as they seem to be in everything. Buy fresh meats, veggies, eggs and cheese. Don't eat stuff like chicken fried steak and southern fried chicken. Read pill labels, and don't lick envelopes.

Be vigilant. Minute quantities of wheat can set off the autoimmune reaction.

Do the exclusion above. If that doesn't do it, then you'll have to go farther. Next on the list are other glycoproteins and alkaloids from the nightshade plant family.

What's considered "food" is quite subjective. It comes from cultural paradigms. Your idea of food should come from your own body.

Good luck.

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