What Candida Is, How to Know if You Have It, and How to Ditch It
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Do you have unexplained health issues? Have you heard about candida and wondered what it is or if you have it?
Welcome to the club. This information can hopefully help you get the information you need to feel better.
So–have you ever wondered if you were totally crazy. Not like, “I feel a little crazy today”, but more like, “Am I totally going off the deep end?!”
It's easy to feel like that when you've gone to doctors over and over for health symptoms that don't seem to make any sense. Every prescription, cream, and over-the-counter med they give you just takes more money from your pocket without giving you more than a short-term fix (if it even gives you that!).
They begin to suggest it's all in your head–and you begin to wonder if it really might be–if you just might be crazy….
Well, I'm here to tell you that you aren't crazy.
As far as I know anyway ;.)
Candida Symptoms
Do you suffer from one or more of these symptoms:
- acne
- anxiety
- arthritis
- asthma
- athletes’ foot
- brain fog
- cold hands or feet
- colds
- colic
- constipation
- cradle cap
- cravings for sweets
- cysts
- diabetes
- diaper rash
- diarrhea
- dizziness
- eczema
- fatigue
- food sensitivities or reactions
- hay fever
- headaches
- heart burn
- heart palpitations
- hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
- hypothyroidism
- insomnia
- irritability
- joint pain
- lack of appetite
- migraines
- mood swings
- muscle aches and pain
- oxalate intolerance (candida and other fungi produce oxalates!)
- panic attacks
- poor memory and concentration
- pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS)
- psoriasis
- rashes and dry red or white patches
- respiratory problems
- sinus congestion
- thrush (white coating in mouth or vagina)
I've personally had friends who experienced severe manic depressive episodes and also massive hair loss from this. It's no joke.
I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on T.V. . .but if you've answered yes to more than one of these, I'd ask if you might have candida.
What is Candida
Candida is a toxic, yeast-like organism that 90% of people have in their digestive system. Most of the time it's not an issue because it's generally kept in check by good bacteria. The trouble starts when candida begins to grow out of control and can quickly start a myriad of problems. Kinda sounds like a fuzzy little green creature in a bad sci-fi movie from the 70's, doesn't it?
Now, I don't want you to think candida is the cause of every illness known to man. It's not. But, it's enough of a menace to deserve a substantial amount of consideration–much more than it gets in mainstream medicine.
What Things Can Cause Candida?
Some of the common causes for candida overgrowth are:
- antacids
- antibiotics
- anti-inflammatory drugs
- anti-ulcer medications
- carbohydrates
- environmental toxins
- foods with starch
- foods with yeast
- hormone replacement therapy
- oral contraceptives
- over-the-counter medicines
- prescription drugs
- radiation
- smoking
- steroids
- sugar in all forms
These other posts on my site have a little more information that might be of interest.
An easy way to check for candida is by taking a Candida Symptom Assessment Questionnaire. Here's another symptom assessment you can use. Your results might surprise you!
How to Ditch Candida
If your tests are positive, your next step is to take your health back and run up and down the street yelling, “I'm not crazy after all!”
Um. Scratch that idea.
1. Remedies
Instead, you can start by addressing candida with natural remedies, foods that fight candida, and quality probiotics rather than creams, drugs, and prescriptions. In fact, candida has been shown to become resistant to those medications. (source)
While there are a lot of supplements that fight candida, Grapefruit Seed Extract is one that we've used on and off over the years. I've taken up to 3 drops twice a day to get rid of issues.
2. Diet Change
The next step, and even more important, is to change your diet. Yeah. I said the word “diet.”
What you eat is one of THE most important changes you can make.
Candida thrives on unhealthy foods like sugar and starchy carbohydrates. Those foods make it grow like crazy and create chaos in its wake. Chaos from the inside out ends up almost destroying some lives.
To get rid of candida, you need to change what you eat. From loads of sugars and refined starches to foods that won't feed candida and will let your body heal.
But that doesn't mean you need to never eat a sweet treat again.
Everyone like sweets–you can still have them, but you just need to choose other types of sweets.
If you're like me, then this book, The Sweeter Side of Candida, is a great book for you.
As mentioned above, you can also eat some (or all!) of the foods on this list of foods that fight candida.
3. Address Mold in Your Environment
If you're continually breathing in mold – mycotoxins and mVOCs, your body can struggle even more with candida.
Find out if you have mold overgrowth in your home, address it, add get good air purification.
I use Austin Air and can offer a nice discount on their products. Just reach out to me at adrienne {at} wholenewmom {dot} com and we'll take care of you.
Feeling Bad When Going Off Sugar
Please note that as you work on getting rid of candida, you may experience candida die-off. It's important to do what you can to prevent that or manage it to make your healing process more manageable.
This post on candida die-off should be of help as you try to ditch this horrible beast.
A GREAT Candida Dessert Book: The Sweeter Side of Candida
Here's more on the candida recipe cookbook mentioned above. Check out these delicious recipes!
- Feet in the Sand Coconut Ice Cream–so yummy!
- “Best” Almond Butter Buckeyes – Sooo good too.
- And… Shortbread Caramel Cookies. They're kind of similar to a Healthy Twix Bar!
These, and 67 more finger-licking treats can be found here.
For recipes that will help you stay healthy, lose weight, and fight candida,this book is for you!
This cookbook is *not* only for those who suffer from candida. It's for anyone who wants to lose weight and/or stay healthy.
What do you think? Do you think you might have candida?
What are you doing / going to do to get healthy?
So I scored at 369. I had been cutting out sugar, flour, and bad carbs for a while and the holidays hit. I am going back to that way of life. I need to be healthy again. Thank you for the article!
You are so welcome!!
Dear ALL:
Please get treated with the GAPS Diet by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. Good luck.
Parting Quote: All Diseases Begin In The Gut. Hippocrates. 460-370 BC
Adrienne do you still come on here? Would there be a way we can talk?
Hi there. Yes, I respond to comments frequently. A little tied up right now – let me know what you need.
Im having a lot of severe issues and i was wondering if you could give me some insight. I dont know if its candida or something more like MS. I see you are tied up so you dont have to respond right away but i would really love your opinion. I am truly having a very hard time.
I am so sorry to hear what you are going through. I of course can’t give medical advice, but you can either leave your question here or email me at wholenewmom {at} gmail {dot} com. I had an MS scare years ago and it turned out it wasn’t it. Blessings and I will pray for you.
I just took the candida test and scored a 253. Ugh!! I already had a feeling that I had candida. My symptoms started right after two rounds of powerful antibiotics in less than a month. I am having a issue with tolerating anything to help myself get better. Before this happened I was taking a probiotic and became intolerant to it very quickly after the symptoms started. The reaction was extreme fatigue and lethargy with a racing heart. It seems like most things that I try to take to help rid myself of this monster causes similar reactions. I was just wondering if this is common? Did you experience anything similar and if so did you just push through it or stop? I am so sensitive to even the smallest amounts of herbs or anything I try to use to detox or kill the candida. Small amounts of coconut oil or saurkraut cause really bad brain fog, lethargy and vision problems. Does any of this sound familiar??? My family and friends keep telling me that it’s all in my head.
Hi there. I would not say that a racing heart is normal at all w/ a probiotic. I would think you are having a reaction to it. What kind was it? You could have an autoimmune disorder and have Th1 and Th2 intolerances. The reactions to sauerkraut, etc. might be something else – have you seen this post? https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/why-i-dont-have-fermented-foods-on-my-blog/
None of this is medical advice – please get medical attention. I would highly recommend someone like the practitioner whom I am currently working with or the one who wrote this post. https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/thyroid-disease-hypothyroid-what-causes-hypothyroidism/
Feel free to contact me for the contact information of the one I am working with now.
Adrienne,
Have you ever heard of Beeyoutiful or their products? I have been thinking about taking their product called Yeast Assassin along with Tummy Tuneup which is a Probiotic. I believe the Yeast Assassin is supposed to kill the Candida/Yeast and then you take the Probiotic to help build up the good bacteria at the same time.
Thanks!
Hi there. I have heard of them but haven’t tried their products and hadn’t heard of those. I think candida is a bad bad thing and I am looking at more things like heavy metals. I did write this post on them and now am looking in other directions. I think the two are tied tightly together, along w leaky gut. https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/could-you-have-heavy-metal-poisoning-and-not-know-it-part-one/
413. I stumbled across information about Candida while I was googling chronic ear infections. For 8 months I’ve had them continually and was given 7 courses of antibiotics – my entire immune system feels useless. I have almost every single symptom on that list. THANK YOU for sharing this – there’s been times where I felt I was going crazy. I will definately be adopting an anti-Candida diet.
HI Kim. I hope it helps you. Most of the recipes on my site should be of help to you. I don’t know what the “413” at the beginning of your comment means.
I scored 420… *sigh. Good thing I’ve been working towards going keto…
You can do it! But be careful about keto – you can do too much and hurt your thyroid from what I have heard. Not medical advice of course :).
Thanks! And thanks for the warning, I also already have thyroid and adrenal issues, so I don’t want to make things worse!!
We should talk…..
I just recently learned on a trip home to Germany that my almost 8 year old daughter has a Candida overgrowth and we are just educating ourselves on how to battle it. She almost can’t function at all right now. Doctors have suspected mental illness and I just never believed that could be it. We are wondering if she had this since she was born per c-section. My doctor here in the US is telling me that I’m wasting my time with this and I should just see a good psychologist. I want to find a doctor somewhere who actually believes in this and wants to help us, I have the lab tests to prove that her levels are through the roof but I can’t do a cleanse with a child like adults do.
I wrote about her here: https://cuckoo4design.blogspot.com/2014/09/an-update-on-our-daughter.html
My holistic practitioner friend in Germany is trying to help me but I would love to find help for battling Candida as a child here in the US. It’s so frustrating, especially the no-sugar diet.
Thanks for sharing. For sure c-sections are an issue as I believe the baby is given antibiotics when they are born and the baby does not benefit from the mother’s gut flora in the vaginal canal. I am so sorry for what you are dealing with. Is there anything I can help with? Blessings. I loved your country, by the way. I visited there years ago!
We did reduced sugars and starches with my kids and we still do so. I suspect adrenals and thyroid and gut healing is an issue and well and perhaps heavy metals. There is a lot to think about. https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/could-you-have-heavy-metal-poisoning-and-not-know-it-part-one/
been wondering what has been up with me for a while, but all my symtoms were for different things so i thought it was all in my head. this is the first thing i’ve found where all my symtoms match and after scoring 369 on that test i think i do need to look into it a whole lot more. thanks for the help!
Wow. Well, at least I am not alone. My score was pretty high as well. Stick around. The recipes here should help you. Take care!
I scored 53 on the test but for about a year now I’ve had a lot of problems with nausea and gas build up, which can vary in strength day to day. I recently took some antibiotics for a week for an unrelated illness, but for that week I felt pretty good. Do you think the antibiotics killed some of the bacteria? I still have no idea what is causing my symptoms, despite multiple blood tests etc.
I am not a doc so I can’t say. Maybe you should talk to a natural practitioner? I have one I can recommend for an inexpensive consult.