Near the end of December I was talking with a doctor at the university hospital where I have done the majority of my testing to find my problem (for the past 2 1/2 years). The doctor I was speaking with was a listener - wow! - and I had met him a few times before. In fact, he made a very astute statement a couple years ago that was filled with truth, "With all your problems [heart, lungs, neck, neural, bone, female, muscle, etc] you really need all your treating doctors to get together to discuss what the problem is ... but you know that will never happen." So, in the course of our conversation I told the doctor the problem was systemic candida. He looked surprised and said, "Really? That is very rare." [Hmmm, from what I'm reading on the internet, diseases - especially autoimmune diseases - stem from bacterial invasions of the body, and those bacteria are linked to 'candida'. Hmmm, so maybe not as rare as is taught in medical dialogue!]
I just gave him a snippet about where I think the main problem lies - the esophagus in the mid-neck area - and supported it with diagnostic testing: For months I had gone to the ENTs with severe throat and later mouth problems, and on record are picts of the deep throat taken by a scope. The picts consistently show a foamy cottage cheese-like unknownness, and when I eat the wrong food, it would be larger and thicker and I would constantly be spitting up phlegm, and when I went on solid vegies for several days before returning for re-analysis, it had been greatly reduced. He listened and seemed to quite agree with what I said. And then he said, "Well, getting a bacterial test is very easy, but if the problem is viral, well, viruses just are hard to test for and pick up evidence about. But bacteria, easy!" Shocked that someone told me about such an easy test when I had mentioned to 3 doctors [ENT, gynecologist, and my dentist] that I thought the problem was candida (not candida albicans) when they all had poo-poohed the suggestion. So, I asked for the blood test.
The blood test was composed of aerobic and anaerobic blood samples, 10cc of blood for each. After 5 days of being in the lab, the outcome was ... nothing. All the wild symptoms (except 9 days of arm convulsions and a low-grade fever with slight dizziness a couple months after onset) fit perfectly to equate to systemic candida. Even my food sensitivities pointed to that, for example, when I had food reactions I would hit the internet with "tomatoes and candida" or "citric acid and candida" and sure enough, people with candida should NOT eat those items. So I was shocked that I still had no diagnosis!
Finally I went on-line and researched about blood readings for candida. The only thing I found that could relate is that when the blood registers bacteria overgrowth in it, then the body is seriously compromised and the bacteria is spreading throughout. Well, that seems to make sense. I have been on a strict systemic candida diet for 13 months and the symptoms are virtually gone .... AS LONG AS I STAY ON THE STRICTEST OF DIETS (perhaps a strawberry or a slice of apple, but that's rare). I've read in other places that candida is a shape-changer -- it's both bacteria and mold/fungus and can successfully "hide" from detection. Sigh ... whatever it is, it's very successfully hiding from the highly esteemed medical world.
Anyway, I'm still not 100% sure the problem is systemic candida, BUT I can say that the diet I am on is (1) almost completely controlling the symptoms, (2) has virtually eliminated the pain and inflammation, and (3) gives me loads of energy, bright eyes, and very healthy skin. When the nurse called me to tell me the test outcome, her dismissing statement really irritated me, "The test came back negative. You don't have candida, so don't worry about it anymore." Ooooh, I fight for every day of health in my kitchen, never eating out because restaurant food causes pain and return of symptoms, and she says "Don't worry about it anymore." I'm going to keep stating to everyone, "The prob is systemic candida" because NO ONE has ever found any answers but I have found one huge solution, THE SYSTEMIC CANDIDA DIET!!!
I have Systemic Candidiasis going on 20 years now. The only reason I know it's Candidiasis is b/c I went to a fantastic Alternative health facility that diagnosed me with it. Before that, I was going to doctors left and right to figure out why I was so sick all of a sudden, and none of them could give me an answer. Then I went to those wonderful alternative doctors, and they finally told me what I had and why. They did blood, urine, and stool tests, (same as the regular doctors), BUT they check for yeast overgrowth throughout the body, which regular doctors do not do. I know what you are going thru, it is a private hell, as this is life altering. I do not eat in restaurants either, as it makes my symptoms flair up. I do know this much, that in order to heal the body completely, you have to kill the yeast, which is no easy task. Diet is key, just like you said, but you must also take an enzyme to destroy the cell wall, an outer protection that yeast create around themselves. Also, you must take and rotate herbal anti-fungals in order to kill them. While you are killing the yeast you also have to take an oxygen cleanser, which helps to create daily bowel movements. This is really important b/c the yeast that are still living will feed off of the dead yeast if you do not cleanse them out. The anti-fungals are expensive, so I have not been able to use them yet. So, it's a 4 prong approach that will get your body's yeast levels back to normal, Diet, enzymes, that specify that they destroy the yeasts cell wall, rotating anti-fungals on a 4 day basis, and an oxygen cleanser. You have to do this for a minimum of 3 months, if you start to feel well, then get your yeast levels tested to make sure they are in a normal range. There is a website that I have been following, and it's one of the best when it comes to dealing with yeast, www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com. Check it out, it's a plethora of info on yeast. I wish you much luck in your journey! BTW, thank you for the great recipes, I'm not much of a cook, and these are really helpful! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm very curious what that enzyme or enzyme ingredient is!!! I have tried sooooo many things with very strict diet. I have controlled the symptoms and I feel great, but there is just no "cheating" on this diet or I quickly relapse, as in eating a bit off my topic 3 tiny bits of meals in a row and the symptoms in my esophagus are very very obvious. Which enzyme are you talking about? Please!!!
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