What Candida Is, How to Know if You Have It, and How to Ditch It

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.

• My Childhood and 5 Causes of Gut Dysbiosis
• Do YOU Believe this Gut Health Myth

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?