Candida – The Hidden Epidemic
Today’s guestwriter is my buddy Jackie Hutchings avid scubadiver and Co-founder of Zlimm123. I met her on a press-trip, to dive the Great Barrier Reef and we hit it off at once.. here is her post on Candida, and how ladies can avoid it.
Candida is a yeast infection. Most of you reading this will already know that, and many of you will have experienced a bout of thrush at sometime in your life. Easily treated, it’s part and parcel of being a woman.
Photo credit: Michael Mortensen via flickr
However, little did I realise the extent that Candida can spread around your body and little did I understand the range of symptoms it can cause. All this changed after I had my fifth bladder infection in as many months. Each time, I was prescribed a course of antibiotics and each time, the symptoms reoccurred. With each episode, I was asked to provide a urine sample and, each time, the results were clear – no infection found. Yet, I was still prescribed antibiotics; antibiotics for an inflection which couldn’t be found. How crazy is that? Traditional medicine wasn’t working and I knew enough about antibiotics to understand what they were doing to my body.
So I started to look elsewhere. I talked to people, I searched trusted online forums and I was shocked at what I learned . . . . Recurrent bladder problems are a symptom of Candida overgrowth. Let me explain.
Candida lives quite happily in the gut but a high sugar/wheat diet and prolonged use of antibiotics upsets the delicate balance of bacteria. This leaves the path clear for Candida to multiply and spread. And when the pesky spores find their way to places where they shouldn’t be, they cause havoc. The list of symptoms is mind boggling . . . fatigue, headache, sinus congestion, mood swings, depression, poor memory, lack of concentration, sugar cravings . . . the list goes on and on.
Candida is notoriously difficult to diagnose and many doctors don’t even acknowledge it so I knew that speaking to my doctor again was a waste of time. So, I consulted a dietician who confirmed my suspicions.
Fortunately, the treatment is simple, no drugs are required and it’s non invasive. But it is radical.
How does this sound? For 3 weeks, I ate no wheat, no diary, no sugar, no fermented products and no fruit. This is the phase when the candida is ‘starved’ of its food source (yeast and sugar). During the following 3 weeks, I could reintroduce fruit. I learned to love oat cakes and almond milk. I discovered cashew nut butter, stocked up on fresh vegetables and became an avid food label reader.
Miraculously, my symptoms disappeared. I started feeling better, I had more energy, I slept better. My mid afternoon sugar fix became a thing of the past – I no longer craved chocolate. I threw the antibiotics away and I lost weight.
Looking back, I now wonder how many people are being treated with drugs to suppress Candida overgrowth symptoms. Because, as we all know, we are what we eat.
Cikipedia’s say : Probiotics are a great way to stay Candida free as well. Probiotic is a term derived from two Greek words -“pro” and “biotic” which means ” for life”. The term was popularized by two British scientists, Fuller and Parker, in 1974. Probiotics are supplements that contain living beneficial bacteria. When taken, they help restore the balance of the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. These bacteria are not parasites. They live in your gut on the food that you take and do many good things for you. Examples of probiotic food are yogurt, lassi and certain types of cheese. All fermented food will have some amounts of probiotics. One of the great brands of Probiotics that you can get in Malaysia, that does not need refrigeration is Lacto5. Take 2 tabs stat, in the mornings, when you wake up, for best results.
About today’s Guestwriter:
Jackie Hutchings is Co-founder of Zlimm123. Zlimm123 helps people make permanent changes to the way they think, feel and behave around food. It’s a step-by-step online program built around the framework of 20 Zlimm Habits. You can find her on Twitter and connect with her on Google+
I think the word “epidemic” was spot on.
Very accurate.
And yes the word “hidden” is very applicable also, but thankfully because of articles like this and all the folks out there beating the candida drum, this health challenge is getting recognized and understood… more & more.
At least for females.
Males?
That’s another story. Most men still think a yeast problem is strictly a female thing.
That’s true. Candida can infect men as much as women. But it’s easily controlled if you know the symptoms and what you’re looking at.