For a couple years I was a person that ate a lot of organic fruit everyday (apples, oranges, bananas, raisins). This was fine until I developed a chronic aching pain on my lower right abdominal side that would not go away. At first I thought that I might had pulled a muscle or strained something. But eventually the pain spread to my lower right back, and then worsened onto my right groin. All this took many months to develop and the pain was steady and chronic. My energy also was dwindling and the situation was leading me to drink tea in order to let the caffeine work to keep me awake past 7pm. It was February 2007 until I decided to try and rid myself of this “Candida” that I thought only other people came down with. I only occasionally had read about Candida but I didn’t know how to kill it off and how to avoid having it return. It took me nearly 2 years to come to a point where I could say that I was recovered and now I am happy to say that my health is great with a return of energy like before and the chronic pain gone!

 

What is Candida?

  Candida (Albicans) is an opportunistic yeast that loves to live on simple sugars in the digestive system, especially placed in the colon (large intestines) but it can also pose problems for the entire system including the mouth and vagina for women. Everyone has at least a little of it in their intestinal tract and this isn’t harmful. It’s when it is allowed to run rampant that it creates terrible problems. Women particularly tend to be susceptible to develop yeast infections from it. Alcohol and food allergies can fuel a Candida overgrowth. Antibiotic use can bring about Candida. But sugars are the big source for Candida development.

 

What is Leaky Gut?

  Candida, if left long enough can burrow down into the colon wall with root-like tentacles and create hyper permeability or ‘Leaky Gut’. The intestinal walls are a wonderful special membrane that is supposed to allow certain items like nutrients and water through. But a leaky gut is just that, LEAKY, and can’t keep the bad particles out. As it lets more of the bad things in like undigested food particles and germs that’s when problems begin. One thing that occurs is now foreign material is in the bloodstream, this sets the body up to now have to deal with this “junk”. Lymph nodes and filtering organs like the kidneys have to rush to fix the problem. And for me this is where the back/groin pain stemmed from. For other people different symptoms can arise such as headaches, chronic fatigue, joint pain, etc. Everyone may express a different reaction to Candida and leaky gut.

 

How do you get rid of Candida?

  Basically you have to go off of all sugars, alcohol, and fungal carring foods (like black tea, mushrooms, yeast risen breads). Special do-it-yourself formulations can be taken to be taken kill the Candida and help the body heal itself. There are also doctor prescribed medications. One needs to learn about Candida first to prevent the chance of a returning overgrowth. For myself I decided to first try the home formulations:

 

The 3 part Anti-Candida formulation:

  This remedy uses Caprylic Acid, Bentonite Clay, and Psyllium Husk/Seed Powder supplementation. Please do some more research on your own to find the recommended percentages and dose that you can take. In theory from what I’ve read, the Psyllium fiber creates bulk in the stool, this presses the caprylic acid up against the walls of the intestine and effectively kills off the Candida. The bentonite clay is a great adsorbant that collects and retains the deadened effects of the Candida. A dedicated use of this treatment is recommended.

 

Note about Die-Off or Herxheimer Reaction:

When you kill off the Candida in a swift and fast manner it can temporarily make you feel much more worse before you get to feel better. This is because your body still has the load of all the bad junk in your gut and now has to deal with the dying Candida on top of it. When Candida dies it actually lets out its toxins, and if you have leaky gut this is bad. It’s not considered life threatening, but is just a bad phase to work through. But things can and will improve! Hang in there.

 

Separate Products to fight Candida

  1. Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE):

  2. Oil of Oregano:

  3. Kyolic Garlic supplents:

  All these are great anti-fungal items to take to help fight off Candida and keep it in check. I like how the Kyolic garlic formulation 102 is designed for digestion because they add some enzymes to help your body digest food which allows you to absorb the needed nutrients better.

 

Things to remember after healing

  Basically, I pay very close attention to everything I am eating. Reading all food labels is actually an enjoyable hobby for me and it’s surprising to know that a lot of energy or “Health” bars out there on the market contain a whole lot of sugar, be it fructose corn syrups or real sugar. After a while of being away from all sugar, those types of foods now seem overly sweet and are appetizing to me anymore. I can now sense the sweetness of raw almonds and pumpkin seeds! That’s all I need now to satisfy my former sweet tooth. An apple is actually a rare treat that seems explosively sweet!

 

I wish you the best in your path to healing!        Cheers, Christopher