Bloodwork for Unknown Causes (Systemic Candida?)

A friend from the UK is having extreme health issues, most of which clearly are food reactions on foods that he previously ate with joy. His issues are very similar to what mine were - absolute confusion about what is going on and unable to get answers.

In trying to get answers he keeps trimming foods but the symptoms rage on. So he decided to undergo a serious bloodwork battery from a healthcare practitioner who recognizes systemic candida as a problem and looks for dietary alterations to control symptoms. The practitioner does not diagnose, but he/she is licensed to advise on diet and nutritional intake to control symptoms. With permission my friend has allowed me to publish his bloodwork. The bloodwork and dietary suggestions are specific to my friend's needs and are not to be used to treat others. However, others may benefit from ideas in how a healthcare practitioner advises his/her clients so as to mask symptoms and regain control of one's diet, health, and perhaps life.

Bloodwork [click to enlarge]

Revised Dietary Programme

Your programme is an individually tailored programme and should not be used by anyone else without supervision of a qualified nutritional therapist. Your prescription is not intended to be a lifelong guide to eating habits, unless otherwise indicated and will be subject to review and alteration as your treatment progresses.

Cooking Methods
Steaming, baking and stir frying are the most beneficial cooking methods. Heat destroys vitamins and other nutrients, so minimal cooking times and temperatures. Boiling leads to loss of vital minerals in the fluid. Please avoid fried food. Avoid microwaving.
To make the best success from your nutritional therapy programme it is important that you eat plenty of nutritious foods on a daily basis in their most natural form.

Preparation for Changing Your Diet
In many cases people find it easier to implement changes slowly over the next few weeks rather than trying to change everything at once. If for example your programme recommends excluding both wheat and dairy, you will probably find it easier to tackle one at a time, rather than both at once. If you are excluding foods, then do make sure you have plenty of the alternatives to hand first to optimise your likelihood of making successful long-term changes.

Planning is also an important part of success with this programme. It will probably take you a while to get used to the changes in your cookery regime. I find it helpful to plan before shopping which meals I will be eating. Then I make sure that I buy in all the foods I will need.

Do buy some recipe books that support your new dietary regime.
It is useful to have healthy “quick grab” snacks etc.. so that you have something healthy to eat if you are hungry.

Cooking everything from basics is more time consuming (but the rewards are great!). The way that I manage this is to plan ahead – if I know I am going to have a busy day, I will try and make the basics of meal the day before – so it just needs cooking or re-heating. I often eat the same meal two nights on the trot to reduce cooking times. You could also batch cook and freeze meals for easy use at a later date. I also have a repertoire of meals that are very easy / quick to prepare i.e. baked potato / salad and meat or fish. Pasta (Gluten free if needed) and Pesto with stir fried veggies etc...

Please include a power drink daily:

Power Drink -

Daily - great as a snack between meals or with breakfast to get you going Preparation: Blast seeds in the blender in the water they were soaking in Add the other ingredients and blend

Handful of mixed Berries (frozen is fine) or fresh fruit for your list Handful of watercress 1 tablespoon of mixed seeds (Pumpkin, Sunflower, Flax, chai etc...) soak overnight in water with nuts 1 tablespoon of nuts (Almond, Hazelnut) soak overnight in water with seeds If you don’t want to use nuts you could use ImmunoPro Pure Whey Protein (Allergy Research Product) 30g serving of Higher Nature Hemp Protein Powder 1 tsp coconut oil 1 tablespoon Lecithin granules Raw Egg 1⁄4-1⁄2 Avocado A cup of Kefir (see instructions below) or live soya / nut based yoghurt 1 tablespoon E-Lyte Electrolyte concentrate A green Superfood such as Dr Schulze www.superfoodplus.co.uk would also be a good addition NB you don’t need to use all the ingredients every day i.e. but I would definitely use frozen fruits, pre soaked nuts and seeds each day.

Food Group	Frequency	What to Use
Proteins
Meat	Up to x 1 daily	Use fresh or frozen poultry, game & lamb with lean beef used occasionally only. Avoid pig products and processed meat products such as sausages, burgers, luncheon meat and canned produce. Meat particularly should preferably be organic, as is preferable for as much of your food as you can manage. Try to ensure meat is a fresh as possible to reduce histamine content. i.e. freeze on day of purchase until you require it, avoid leftovers etc.. and avoid smoked meats
Fish	4 x 125g per week	Use fresh/tinned in spring water/frozen oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, tuna) and white fish. Avoid shellfish, salted, smoked, breaded, battered fish products.
Eggs	None	Food intolerance results
Pulses (Beans & Lentils)	60g per day	All types of canned and dried pulses are included (chickpeas, lentils, beans, peas etc) No red kidney or pea
Seeds	30g per day	Use pumpkin, linseed, sesame, sunflower.

Nuts	Ideally I would like you to have 1-2 portions per day, but it really depends upon whether they impact on your symptoms or not	Nuts can be sprinkled onto salads, used as the basis of main meals (e.g. nut roast, nut rissoles etc.) or turned into ‘milk’. Note the order of preference (in descending order): (1) Almonds, (2) Hazels. Only these two should ever be used as the main base of a meal, or for milks or spreads. Other nuts, e.g. Brazil’s / pistachio, pine, pecan, are acceptable in small amounts in cakes (if any of these are included in the Diet) or in small amounts to chew as kernels. Chestnuts are fully acceptable, but protein content is negligible. Limit walnuts and cashews re histamine content; caution nut content generally to assess if Tyramine an issue Caution nuts - cashew, pine and pistachio very close to tolerance level on test
Sprouted pulses & grains	Use x 2-3 weekly	See table below – use wide variety
Carbohydrates
Potatoes – white & sweet	4 per week	Cut off any sprouts or green areas. Preferably eat the potato skin.
Cereal Grains	2 portions per day	The cereal grains should be used with each meal, and can be used as snacks. Always use wholemeal / wholegrain cereals. Please use short grain brown rice or millet at least once daily, oats (one portion daily only), and quinoa, buckwheat, corn / maize (small amounts only), or barley.
Wheat & Rye	None	Wheat & Rye may be used as wholemeal bread, wholemeal or spelt pasta, wholemeal flour or as a wholegrain breakfast cereal. Replace with other grains.
Fats
Dairy Produce	Remove all animal sourced dairy	Milk: replace cow’s milk with Nut, Soya (unsweetened) Oat, or Rice milks. Replace sugary desserts and yogurts with plain live Soya or nut based yoghurt (I have recipes if you would like). Avoid cheese, cream, crème fraiche, milk based desserts, ice cream and chocolate. Cows milk showed strongly on your food intolerance test
Fats & Oils	Maximum 4 tsp (20g) per day	Use olive or coconut oil, butter or ghee only in heated dishes. Olive, linseed / flax oil can be used for salad dressings. Butter or non hydrogenated dairy free spread / olive oil based margarine for spreading & baking.
Vegetables
Vegetables	50% of 2 meals per day of wide variety	Use a wide range of all vegetables with at least 2 meals per day. Include each day – one portion salad / raw as well as cooked vegetables. Vegetable crudités make great snacks. Where blood sugar is an issue, root vegetables should be avoided or eaten in small quantities only.
Sea Vegetables	Include at least x 2-3 weekly	These are a rich source of minerals, vitamins, amino acids and chlorophyll and help to build up the blood. Available in health shops or www.seagreens.com

Veggie Juices	1-2 glasses daily	All vegetable juices are encouraged – preferably fresh / homemade so that all the enzymes and nutrients are still intact. A good juicer can be purchased for around £80 (www.ukjuicers.com) use non salted variety such as Eden carrot if you don’t have a juicer. One glass of diluted (50/50) fruit juice daily.
Fruit
Dried Fruit	None	High sugar content can exacerbate candida; caution required re Tyramine content too
Fruit	Max 3 pieces per day	Apple, berries, nectarines, lemon, orange, cherries, plums, apricots, grapefruit, pomegranates & pear only. Some people with candida cannot tolerate any fruit due to sugar content. These fruits are the low glycemic variety which are less likely to cause problems
Drinks
Alcohol	Limit / Avoid	One unit of alcohol is 125ml of wine, 1⁄2 pint of beer / lager or 25ml spirits. If alcohol is taken dry white wine or white spirits are preferable. Avoid sugary mixers. Additional hazard of Histamine / Tyramine content
Beverages	2 litres every day of filtered water	Using largely filtered or mineral water, also a variety of herbal & fruit teas, coffee substitutes (such as Barley cup), green tea, Rooibosch tea & vegetable juices. Black tea can be used twice per day. Coffee (whether regular or decaf) is limited to once per day/removed. No coca cola
Herbs	Use freely	Please use a wide variety of culinary herbs in your cooking. The herbs listed are those which may be particularly beneficial in your case. No gingko
Foods to limit or	exclude from	your diet
Processed Food	Limit / exclude	Includes all pre-made, packaged, boxed products such as microwave meals, sauces, crisps, pizza, made up meat products. No Agar Agar
Salt	Exclude	Remove salt added at table or in cooking. Remove highly salted products such as stock powders, Bisto, gravy, canned products, marmite, soy sauce, packaged products. Marigold Swiss low sodium/wheat/dairy/yeast free stock powder may be used.
Yeast	Remove	Foods high in yeast include bread, leavened dough (pizza, doughnut, breadsticks, and pastries), vinegar, alcoholic drinks, marmite, stock cubes, gravy powder, and soy sauce.
Sugar	Remove refined sugar	Sugar is hidden in many products, please read the labels. Added sugar can be called sucrose, dextrose, lactose, maltose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, concentrated grape juice.
Sweeteners	Try to avoid	3 teaspoons of honey or molasses may be used per day. Avoid the sugar substitute’s aspartame and saccharin. If you need a sweetener, use Xylitol from health food shops.
Exclude		Remove confectionary, sweets, and additives.

Supplements in addition to controlled diet:

I learned a lot from this report. The US alternative lifestyle practitioners and those in the UK look at blood range normalities a bit differently (that is, norms for both countries are viewed differently; usually that of the UK are narrower, which I think is a better view of the norm). Both countries also utilize different herbs, e.g. I've heard of belladonna but never in my research come across its use for people with food reactions, and different brand names that could be beneficial to check out, e.g. High Nature Citricidal and Biocare liquid whatever.

My friend got ideas about dietary care from my research and I got more insights from his holistic practitioner's advice. He allows me to publish this here because his food reaction traumas, like mine, were horrendous. He hopes that even a tiny piece of information could benefit someone who is having sudden food reactions, because just maybe, the person can recognize the need to trim foods to see if an altered diet could be of benefit.