Candida over growth
Everyone has bacteria or fungus living on their skin, normally this isn’t a problem unless it gets out of control. One of the things that we never want to let get out of control is candida.
Candida albicans is the most common type of yeast that normally lives within our body, usually it is in small amounts in your mouth, stomach and intestines, they help the body to absorb nutrients and digest food.
If an over growth of candida is left untreated it can cause havoc with the body, breaking down the walls of the intestinal lining going directly into the blood stream releasing toxins that cause leaky gut syndrome.
In certain circumstances where someone eats a high carb or high sugar diet, drinks a lot of alcohol or has immune problems the candida can multiply and grow out of control, causing it to spread to other parts of the body. Candid feeds on sugar in order to grow which can make us crave high sugar and high carbohydrate foods.
Candida doesn’t just show outward signs and symptoms it also has a huge impact on the inside of your body, causing new things to develop like:
- Food intolerance
Outward signs of candida
Thrush – oropharyngeal candidiasis
Many of us have had thrush throughout our lives, babies tend to get it in their mouths and throat, so do the elderly and also people with low immune systems.
Symptoms of oral thrush can include:
- Thick white or yellow patches on the tongue, lips, inner cheeks, gums and the roof of your mouth
- Redness and soreness in your mouth and throat
- Pain when swallowing
- Cracking at the corners of the mouth
Genital yeast infection - genital candadiasis
It is said that as many as 3 out of 4 women will experience at least one yeast infection during their lives.
Genital thrush occurs when too much yeast grows in the vagina, men are also susceptible to genital yeast infections but this is not as common as in women and is usually passed onto the male when having sex with someone who already has genital thrush.
There are many reasons why we get yeast infections but it is usually because the balance in the body changes causing too much yeast to grow.
Other reasons could be:
- Birth control pills
- Weakened immune system
- Transferred through sex
- Symptoms of genital thrush can include:
- Extreme itchiness
- Swelling and redness
- Discomfort during sex
- Pain when peeing
- Thick white cottage cheese like discharge
- Men usually get an itchy rash on the head of the penis
Internal candida symptoms
Chances are if you have external symptoms of candida like oral or vaginal thrush then you probably have a systemic candida overgrowth too. Some people have a systemic candida over growth and do not even realise it, doctors may even have mis-diagnosed your candida over growth symptoms as something else.
Symptoms of systemic candida over growth
- Chronic fatigue – extreme tiredness, afternoon sleepiness,
- Sleep difficulties – unable to get to sleep, unable to stay asleep, not getting good quality refreshing sleep, interrupted sleep
- Headaches – migraines, sinus headaches
- Pain – Joint pain
- Mood disorders – panic attacks, mood swings, anxiety, depression, irritability
- Re-occurring infections – vaginal and urinary tract infections
- Oral thrush– sore throat, thick white or yellow patches on the tongue, lips, inner cheeks, gums and the roof of your mouth, redness and soreness, cracking at the corners of the mouth
- Intestinal distress – bloating, gas, diarrhoea, constipation, stomach cramps and burping
- Sinus infections – post nasal drip, cough, flu like symptoms, congestion seasonal allergies
- Hormone imbalance – mood swings, water retention, PMS, low sex drive, migraines, endometriosis, struggle to lose weight
- Brain fog – short term memory problems, difficulty concentrating, difficulty recalling words, poor coordination
- Skin and nail infections – athlete’s foot, fungal nails
Treating external thrush symptoms – oral and genital
Oral and vaginal thrush can be easily treated with anti-fungal medications or cream like:
- Clorhexadine mouthwash
It is important to note that if you are sexually active you need to treat both you and your partner at the same time to avoid getting re-infected.
Treating internal thrush symptoms – systemic candida over growth
Treating systemic candida over growth requires a lot more than just medication it requires an all-out attack, you will not kill the candida but you will be able to get it back under control but first you have to make some major changes.
Change your diet and lifestyle
Change to a low carb paleo or ketogenic diet, cut out all processed, high sugar, high carb foods. There is absolutely no reason why you cannot do a low carb ketogenic diet, this is the way our ancestors have eaten for thousands of years, there are people who continued to eat this way and are thriving.
We have become a society of people eating food like substances and not actual real food, we are no longer getting real nutritious food we are eating highly processed, highly toxic manufactured crap! And then we wonder why our bodies are riddled with diseases, it’s because our bodies were never designed to eat this way.
We need to introduce fresh vegetables, green leafy salads, meat fish and protein, you will want to limit cold foods to once a day, your body will respond quicker to warming foods.
You may want to start this process by doing a cleanse, you have probably heard of people doing the cabbage soup diet or the water melon diet, well these are called cleanses they are supposed to be one food group and you eat only that food over a couple of days, cleanses are done over a 1 to 5 day period, you can also cleanse with vegetable or bone broth, broth is great for gut health. Don’t forget to drink lots of fresh bottled of water (not chlorinated), this helps by flushing the system of toxins.
When candida starts to die off it produces over 70 different toxins we want to get rid of all the toxins that get released into our body, something you can do to help release those toxins is to take salt baths 2-3 times per week and soak in it for 20-40 mins at a time.
- 1 cup epson salt
- 2 cup magnesium flakes
- 1 cup of baking soda
Boost your gut
Gut health is very important, we are supposed to have a certain amount of good bacteria and also a small amount of candida when the good bacterial levels drop the candida starts to take over so it is important to get our good bacteria boosted, this is why we need to introduce fermented vegetables, fermented vegetables are full of good bacteria things like:
Research shows that candida has become resistant to anti-fungal medication so choosing natural supplements to gain control over your candida over growth is the way to go.
Coconut oil – coconut oil has antimicrobial properties which can kill candida, it contains something called lauric and caprylic acid which kills candida and helps to keep it under control
Milk thistle – helps to cleanse the liver from toxic medications, heavy metal poisoning and also the effects of chemo and radio therapy
Clove, lavender and oregano oil– both clove and oregano oil help to kill fungus, parasites and candida and lavender also inhibits the growth of candida, if you intend to use essential oils like clove, lavender and oregano oil you need to make sure they are safe for human consumption and stop using them after around 10 days because they are highly potent.
Vitamin c – helps to boost adrenal glands and also boosts your immune system, you need to take 2-3000 mg per day
Candida die off symptoms
When systemic candida over growth starts to die off your body creates a metabolic reaction which releases over 70 different toxins into your body, it is likely that you will feel unwell.
You may experience:
- Impaired brain function
- Sweating, fever
- Flu like symptoms
- Intestinal bloating, gas constipation
- Sinus infection
- Skin rashes
People tend to confuse all of these symptoms as keto flu or keto being a bad diet making them ill, so when they ask for advice on forums they usually get told, up your salt or drink more water or make sure your getting electrolytes in, in actual fact if you don’t get immediate relief from taking pink salt you can be sure that the symptoms you are experiencing are candida die off and should start to clear 7-10 days after starting.
Embarking on a new way of eating is killing this over growth of candida, come on if you were being starved of food wouldn’t you be showing symptoms? Of course you would so it’s important to be consistent with your treatment and not give into die off symptoms.
After a couple of weeks of following a low carb low sugar diet you should start to see improvements like increased energy and relief from all the other side effects of candida over growth.
Once you have gained control over your candida over growth you will need to stay in control continue with your new lifestyle change because if you don’t you run the risk of your candida returning to its full glory.