Candida, My Childhood, and 5 Causes of Gut Dysbiosis (Imbalance)
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After writing “The Beginning of My Sugar-Free Life”, I realized that to tell more of the story, I really needed to back up a bit.
The issue of candida and my troubles with sugars really began way before my teen and childhood years, even.
Here is what I think happened.
I was born when things were really changing regarding the American lifestyle and diet.
And there are 5 things that I think set me up for health problems:
5 Causes of Intestinal Dysbiosis
1. Insufficient Breastfeeding
I was an active La Leche League member throughout the time that I nursed my sons. LLL is a super support network for ladies trying to nourish their babies in the best way possible. Physically and emotionally.
You can imagine how I felt when I found out that my mom had only nursed me for a short amount of time.
How short?
I still remember the day when I was looking through my “baby memories” and I found the pediatrician's prescription for “Borden's canned evaporated milk” to be fed to me at 3 months of age.
Borden's. Gross.
Maybe Borden had a contract with the AMA :(.
2. Fake Food
During my mother's childhood, things were changing in the American diet–and it wasn't for the better.
I remember my mother telling me that when she was young, they would get margarine delivered to their homes.
The fake fat was in a bag that had yellow “goo” in it. They would squeeze and massage the bag in their hands to distribute the artificial yellow color throughout the artificial fat.
Yum, huh?
White flour (nothing more than grains with the healthy germ and bran removed, and sometimes with vitamins added), white sugar (calories with absolutely no nutrition added), artificial colors, trans-fats, artificial flavors.
You name it. Our food was becoming non-food packaged junk.
Anyone else grow up on Bisquick, American “Cheese”, quick bread mixes and more?
3. Antibiotics
Pretty much every time I was sick my mom went to the doctor and asked for antibiotics. Cold–flu–again, you name it.
I wish the doctor would've said no at least every once in awhile.
But I guess doctors thought they were doing the right thing. Could that really be true? Didn't they know there are good bacteria in the gut that shouldn't be assaulted over and over again?
I avoid antibiotics almost like the plague these days.
Because you want those antibiotics to work if you ever really really need them. Like MRSA and those other big infections.
You can read here how our family Avoided Antibiotics for a Sinus Infection.
Please–try to not take advantage of those “free antibiotics,” unless you really need 'em, K?
4. Toxins
We all know that our environment has become more and more toxic.
I'd never thought of it before, but it really appears that toxins affect gut health.
One of the toxins I was exposed to a lot in my childhood was cigarette smoke.
My parents smoked. A lot. I have memories of being in our small black Ford Mustang with the windows up while they enjoyed their cigarettes.
I would beg for them to open the window and they'd open them.
A little.
It was never enough.
To this day cigarette smoke is one of the most disgusting smells to me.
I always suspected the smoke had done more damage to me than just to my lungs. Here is evidence that it likely contributes to an unhealthy gut. As if the lung damage wasn't enough, huh?
For more on toxins, check out “Could You Have Heavy Metal Toxicity and Not Know It?”
5. Stress
We all know stress is bad.
Well, we had a lot of it in our home.
I won't share all of the details here, but my childhood home wasn't a happy one.
You read a lot these days about antibiotics and sugar being the big issues that cause intestinal dysbiosis (a bad balance of good and bad bacteria), but stress is also a cause. (Source)
Conclusion
To be clear, I am not sharing this as a complaint against my parents. They had a lot of reasons for doing what they did (including professionals who told them what to do), and we all need grace.
I just thought I should share more about my childhood and the causes of intestinal dysbiosis so that you could know more about my situation and hopefully could prevent the same problems in your family.
And again, I am not a doctor or a medical professional. I am relating my experience just to share them with you. You shouldn't change your diet or any exercise program, or take supplements without consulting your physician, OK :)?
For an interesting read on food and gut dysbiosis (and one theory about how to heal it), check out the wildly popular Gut and Psychology Syndrome. I'll be sharing more about my journey later.
For more, read Busting a Popular Gut Health Myth.
Got another “cause” to add? Or a “fake food” memory?
Wow my story! And so true about smoking. My parents did the same thing an I detest the smell to this day.
Your childhood sounds just like mine! I even told that margarine story the other day. I so do not want to face eliminating sugar from my diet. Going through the questionnaire on Whole Approach makes me think that the whole family needs it…
I didn’t want to face it but the other side of the fence is soooo much better.
I’m reading through your posts and thinking “I gotta do all of this stuff. Where do I start?” Do you have a post on that? For example, I wouldn’t have thought that I needed liver support when doing the heavy metal detox. I know you’re not a doc and can’t provide medical advice, I’m just curious about what you do, how you started? Perhaps it depends on my particular situation.
I get anxious about EVERYTHING and try as I might to talk myself through it, it still plagues me. This anxiety leads to a condition called trigeminal neuralgia, which makes it hard to talk, eat, drink, brush my teeth (I have dreams of losing my teeth all the time). I also have hypertension. I’m constantly dehydrated, but that’s probably because it’s hard to drink.
I feel like I have “information overload” (from everything I read on blogger sites). It’s quite paralyzing for me because I just don’t know where to start. And my 9 yo is ultra picky and has major sugar cravings. The thought of getting her on the candida diet is stressful. Thankfully, she likes stevia!
Any thoughts or direction is greatly appreciated! btw, ever thought of becoming a health coach?
Yes, I was just talking about that (the health coach thing). I am not a doc…..but I was pre med at a very good school.
I hear you on information overload.
Did you see this course? I like the diet that Whole Approach recommends (there are links in my post) but not sure about all of their supplements. Again, not medical advice. This course is amazing and might be a good place. I have a super busy day but let me know what you think. https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/death-begins-in-the-gut-dysbiosis-probiotics-gut-health/
Yeah, I was pre-med, too and have a doctorate in Biochemistry (researched a potential anti-cancer DRUG! would never recommend it, causes disfunction in mitosis, making more cancer!), none of which helps and actually, probably kinda hurts because my brain is so stuck in allopatric medicine..slowly working my way away from it!
I hear you. Candida is covered in the course I sent you info about. There’s a good payment plan. I emailed the instructor about you. She said it would be really good for you. She’s a sharp cookie. And very responsive in the FB group so you would be getting some coaching (w/in the limits of the course) included.
Thank you! It was very kind of you to email her about me 🙂 I will talk it over with my hubs.
Sure thing. This is her response.
I did see the course, a little nervous about it. Not sure I’m ready to jump into it just yet.
Feel free to tell me what is making you nervous. I have a super busy day today with a friend from out of town but I will try my best to get anything answered for you :).
Thanks for taking the time, Adrienne. You passion and caring really shine 🙂 Really, the only thing that makes me nervous is the life changes that will occur and challenges I will face (my ultra-picky daughter who LOVES sugar and routinely asks for dessert and the thought of never eating sugar again. There are some yummy “healthy” snacks that I love.). I know the outcome SHOULD be beneficial, will it really work? I know that the diet we have now needs to change. Every time I try to make positive steps, I’m met with resistance and it’s challenging to deal with (flares up the TN, make it hard to function). Maybe I need to start with just myself and then work on my family…introducing things to them along the way, but not forcing the changes on them.
Well, I will tell you it’s sooooo worth it. Really, I’m waiting way too long to make the changes and suffered damage as a result. You will be so glad you did it. Plus if you take the course you will have others supporting you, which is one of the tough things about making these changes. They are counter-cultural. I think you can find plenty of sugar free treats on my site. With more to share in the future :). I’m sure folks in the course have baby step ideas for you. Lydia helped me w/ some for my son.
I am so there with you! I had the same things happen to me as a child with well-intentioned parents, but have suffered with different problems. I have even passed on these problems to a degree to my children and have had to figure it all out myself. We love the GAPS protocol and were able to get my one daughter from vomiting at a crumb of wheat being in her diet to being able to tolerate anything she wants. We still don’t each grains much, but try to adhere to the GAPS diet as much as possible. Thank you for sharing! :o)
Larissa ~ Prodigal Pieces
Totally in agreement. Memories invading my brain neurons filling them with sentiments I long thought gone. =/ I think it’s just my yeast talking to me “feed me, feed me” or then again, just bad memories. Either case, NOT GOOD!!!!
I like your article. Very nice. Thank you for sharing
Yes breastfeeding is important in establishing good colon health for babies. But it is never too late to start working on colon health!
there are a range of strategieis from probiotics to colon cleansing that can help adutls with colon health challegnes.
The trick is in finding a practitioner that can really pinpoint where your issues are, and then being patient of course. It takes a long time to reverse gut problems.
And remember just like you, your mother did the best she could with the information available at the time.
My own mother always said we were all breastfed and it wasn’t until I had my first child that I found that what she really meant was the all of her three children were supplemented with formula and were completely on the bottle by about 3 months of age.
I had a similar childhood environment to what you described except that we did not have a lot of processed food, although sugar was considered a major food group and dessert items were always on the table at EVERY meal.
This environment produced three children (now all adults), all of whom have health issues including mood disorders, substance abuse and major allergy conditions.
Amazing as usual. I was just reading a New York Times article (posted on my FB bakery page) that is talking about the balance of bacteria/microbiome as being the future of all healing. I thought, let’s go see what Adrienne is doing and sure enough you are on top of it. Now I’m hearing that commercial probiotics might be ineffective so fermenting is on my new to do list. Thanks for always being a source of inspiration and knowledge. xx Ali
Hey Ali. Well, you have a lot more confidence in me than I do :). But I am hoping to post again today on Gut Health. Did you see the Gut Health course going on ? I’m also planning a teleseminar in May. I have soooo much to learn! I am particularly interested in the commercial probiotic thing. I have water kefir in the works and am hoping to start kombucha today and I have been taking a fermented food probiotic and I am really pleased with it. Onward…..
My confidence is not displaced and I appreciate your hard work. Keep it up and know we are all with you. hugs
Well I am going to blame my mother and her NOT breast feeding me as to why I have stomach problems, LOL! This list is so very true! Toxins are a huge contributing factor too!
Breastfeeding is a huge deal. More next week :).
Did you copy your post from my childhood?!? J/k, but seriously, you just described my early life, from the smoke to the food. We’re on GAPS now. GAPS and anti-Candida is oh-so-fun 😉
Ha. No…but it’s nice to know I wasn’t alone. GAPS and anti-candida. Wow My son has life threatening allergies to dairy, eggs, almost all nuts and sesame seeds so you can imagine what GAPS would look like for him. I’d love to hear more about what folks think about GAPS. Just not sure I can handle it.
I think I was not given a fair advantage at the start of my life… there are 9 kids in my family (It is a his hers and ours family) but even though we are step and half siblings, we were all raised together… and think of each other as real true siblings. Anyway, my mom was diagnosed with cancer during the first trimester of her pregnancy with me.
In the 70s the docs really did things different, treatments they wouldn’t even think about doing to pregnant women today.
And, because of the cancer (leukemia) I was born early, thankfully with no complications, but I was not breast fed. I was bottle fed, and I think that has made a huge impact. My mom had systemic yeasts (we know that now because of her autopsy report) and those are easily passed down to the baby. (out of all the 9 kids, I was the only one not breastfed!)
So, while I don’t have any chronic illnesses (unfortunately I do have a few “deformities” like a hearing loss, and fallen arches on my feet, and bad hips that I wish nutrition could fix), I am interested as always, in ways to make sure that I stay in tip top health.
We didn’t eat too bad growing up… about half processed and half real… we didn’t eat sugar cereal unless it was mixed (like cheerios mixed half and half with honey nut cheerios)… and even that was a treat for weekends. Mostly we had real breakfasts, and we came home for lunch from school (our elementary school connected to our backyard). So I thank my stepmom for doing all that for us…
So… what am I doing? I now am trying to follow the advice from Nourishing Traditions and some GAPS protocols and also WAP. Bone broth, FCLO, coconut oil, raw milk, fermented veggies, kefir, no sugar, trying to stay away from gluten. I feel a difference, and feel stronger as a result.
The stress one, though? I wish I had help with that. My mom died when I was a baby and when I was 3 years old, my stepmom came into my life. She was the one who taught me about eating healthy, herbs, etc. And now, after 34 years of being my mom, she is dwindling with fronto temporal dementia. We moved across country to help my dad take care of her. And I am so thankful that she was my mom, took that place in my life and taught me so much. But the stress in my life of dealing with this disease (I wish it was Alzheimers’ or other forms of dementia that are treatable, instead of this rare form that is somewhat hereditary where there are specific genes in the fronto and temporal lobes of the brain that are affected).
So any tips on dealing with stress!! I need them!!
OH wow. That’s a heavy load. I think the stress thing is major and I am not good at it. Maybe that’s where I need to go next. Thanks for sharing. It might not seem like much, but hearing your tough situation gives me strength to face my own.
My eyes got big when I read about the prescription for evaporated milk. I thought my mom’s dr. was the only idiot out there who prescribed that – 3 months breastfeeding and then the evap. milk with CORN SYRUP! Yuck!!!! I have always suffered from severe allergies (until the past year, due to daily colon cleansing), then as a teen had severe cystic acne and took Acutane. Now, I am 50 and having lots of joint and muscular pain for the past 10 years and fatty liver. I am 5’10” and weigh 132#!! But grew up on the same crappy diet everyone else has posted about, white bread, lots of desserts, bologna, Fritos. My snack after school every day was a 3 Musketeers Bar and a Dr. Pepper!! I remember my heart pounding and getting sleepy after eating sweet stuff, even as a little kid, but didn’t know why!! Sugar was such an integral part of my diet, ALL DAY LONG. No wonder I have a fatty liver! We only ate margarine, my mom grew up on butter and hates it. Wish I had known all this years ago. Thanks for this post. You have a lot of company in America. Keep spreading the truth and maybe people will wake up!
Thanks, Lori. I still almost feel like crying when I think about that Borden’s stuff. Ick.
Did you read my heavy metals post? And are you completely off sugar? My RA symptoms are gone after doing the metal and diet work and a friend of mine is loads better off almost all sugar. Take care!