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Thoughts on candida overgrowth?


Weez
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Okay... just after some feedback or thoughts.

 

Why else would I be feeling tired and lethargic/brain fog from eating whole food vegan? I am over weight (by 3 stone according to BMI) but working on training CrossFit and Yoga 2 - 3 times a week at the moment.

 

I eat enough, never hungry, mix of fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds, berries, cooked and raw and have smoothies. I try and get enough water. Especially when training.

 

Before I trundle off to the doctor and have him tell me to eat the usual meat eggs and dairy etc, could I be suffering with candida? I seem to have the symptoms, including spit test, but it's getting worse as I progress with training (I sometimes want to go to sleep mid session) and seem to get mild acid reflux, even if I haven't eaten for 1 - 2 hours before training. If so, do I avoid fruit or not? Surely being a natural sugar, it can't do any harm? There seems to be mixed reviews of it on Google, so I'd like a few opinions from experienced people here...

 

(I do intend to seek medical advice sometime this week and get function tests but want to explore this possible candida over growth as well as both a family member and health shop worker has suggested it could be this - it would also correlate with a heavy dose of antibiotics that was given to me for an ailment I didn't have.... twice)

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Have you had your thyroid tested? I have had a lot of those symptoms and went to someone who tested my thyroid. He tested T4,T3, and the antiodies. I found out I had hashimotos, which is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. I do stay away from gluten, and pretty much all forms of sugar. Fruit is not bad in moderation and I can have stevia.

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Not yet... I think I am due a full check up and MOT, but I know family members before me have suffered with diagnosed Candida Overgrowth and were able to cure it through pro biotics. I'm just not all that keen on my doctor sometimes........ he is great for injuries, but is happy to prescribe anything no matter what. Which is why I think I feel this guff.

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I tell clients when they start to clean up their diet, that they will detox for awhile . . sometimes up to 6 months. Detox is the fat letting go of the toxins it held within itself so the body could be isolated from the poison, but now you are utilizing the adipose tissue for energy (which can be why it hits you in mid session of exercise) and releasing all the toxins.

And detoxing can feel like fatigue, like you have the flu, and weird tastes and smells can come up. All depends on what the body is currently detoxing itself from at the moment.

Establishing new gut and intestinal bacteria/flora could also be happening. So you could be getting rid of old yeast and bacteria while establishing new bacteria and yeast.

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I tell clients when they start to clean up their diet, that they will detox for awhile . . sometimes up to 6 months. Detox is the fat letting go of the toxins it held within itself so the body could be isolated from the poison, but now you are utilizing the adipose tissue for energy (which can be why it hits you in mid session of exercise) and releasing all the toxins.

And detoxing can feel like fatigue, like you have the flu, and weird tastes and smells can come up. All depends on what the body is currently detoxing itself from at the moment.

Establishing new gut and intestinal bacteria/flora could also be happening. So you could be getting rid of old yeast and bacteria while establishing new bacteria and yeast.

 

 

Thank you for your response... I have really honed my diet for high carb fruit and veg. I couldn't be eating any cleaner. But this past 2 weeks I have started getting sharp pains in my liver area and burping/bloating/gas again, added to the candida over growth symptoms, normally after eating. Which I haven't had for 2 years since going vegan, I used to get irritable gall bladder and liver from eating too much meat. I am getting fatigue, brain fog and tiredness and it's affecting my training regime. I've started taking a vegan pro biotic as well, I am happy to battle through but the doctor just keeps trying to give me imoprozol which I refuse to take, I tried it 3 years ago and I thought I was going to die. I don't even drink alcohol any more.

 

Should I up my water intake to help flush this out? Hit the lemon water? Google isn't very reliable so just looking for some info from the vegan community to try and remedy. It's getting more and more uncomfortable each day. I haven't actually trained for 5 days now.........

 

I actually contacted a vegan doctor, well respected, who told me to eat more and MORE fruit if I was struggling with candida. So that's put that question to bed for me.

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When you throw in the words "I don't even drink alcohol anymore", I become a little concerned that you might have done too much damaged to your body, and are looking at the vegan diet to help you deal with it. It may help you heal some things inside your body, but not if you damaged some thing really bad. With that said, I will proceed to give advice now on fruit.

 

I do not know if you are from the States, but there is a website EWG.org that I frequent when I question whether or not to buy organic fruit and veggies, or if they are OK to buy conventional. With fruit, I already know right away to always buy strawberries, grapes, peppers, and melons ORGANIC as they are high on the list of pesticide use. I wonder if they will come out with one for GMOs? - like I know soybean has to be ORGANIC to not be GMO.

 

Personally I do not lump all GMOs together. I just want to stay away from the ones that insert the pesticide gene into the plant's genome because they haven't done much testing of what that protein (usually a protein) from the GMO gene, is inserted into the fruit. Or other toxins, in which scientists are just now finding out that certain GMO soybeans in certain regions have a concentrated level of formaldehyde in the soybean itself.

 

Thus, look into your fruit and vegetables and see if you are eating high levels of some kind of toxin/pesticide. It might be acceptable to the average person, but you might have an underlying issue, and may be sensitive to them. For example, your liver is trying to repair itself still from your repeat use of alcohol, and now you are trying to help it by eating healthy, but if it is this food that has all these pesticides on it, and now you are eating an abundant supply of it, the liver has to deal with all those extra toxins. And then if you are losing weight, which can release old toxins, you might be asking too much of your liver.

 

And also to remind you, ibprofen does damage the liver too. So if you are taking some kind of pain killer (NSAIDS) then you are once again asking your liver to convert the toxic by-product of ibprofen (a toxin), which may be too much for your liver again.

 

Another thing you could look at is metabolic syndrome or even the next step after that, diabetes type 2, when talking with your doctor. Get the A1C test.

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When you throw in the words "I don't even drink alcohol anymore", I become a little concerned that you might have done too much damaged to your body, and are looking at the vegan diet to help you deal with it. It may help you heal some things inside your body, but not if you damaged some thing really bad. With that said, I will proceed to give advice now on fruit.

 

I do not know if you are from the States, but there is a website EWG.org that I frequent when I question whether or not to buy organic fruit and veggies, or if they are OK to buy conventional. With fruit, I already know right away to always buy strawberries, grapes, peppers, and melons ORGANIC as they are high on the list of pesticide use. I wonder if they will come out with one for GMOs? - like I know soybean has to be ORGANIC to not be GMO.

 

Personally I do not lump all GMOs together. I just want to stay away from the ones that insert the pesticide gene into the plant's genome because they haven't done much testing of what that protein (usually a protein) from the GMO gene, is inserted into the fruit. Or other toxins, in which scientists are just now finding out that certain GMO soybeans in certain regions have a concentrated level of formaldehyde in the soybean itself.

 

Thus, look into your fruit and vegetables and see if you are eating high levels of some kind of toxin/pesticide. It might be acceptable to the average person, but you might have an underlying issue, and may be sensitive to them. For example, your liver is trying to repair itself still from your repeat use of alcohol, and now you are trying to help it by eating healthy, but if it is this food that has all these pesticides on it, and now you are eating an abundant supply of it, the liver has to deal with all those extra toxins. And then if you are losing weight, which can release old toxins, you might be asking too much of your liver.

 

And also to remind you, ibprofen does damage the liver too. So if you are taking some kind of pain killer (NSAIDS) then you are once again asking your liver to convert the toxic by-product of ibprofen (a toxin), which may be too much for your liver again.

 

Another thing you could look at is metabolic syndrome or even the next step after that, diabetes type 2, when talking with your doctor. Get the A1C test.

 

That's food for thought and I thank you for taking the time to reply... I am not in the US, but UK... I went vegan 2 years ago, but decided I wanted to train and hit the gym as of summer last year. I was never alcoholic or anything like that, I just now no longer wish to drink. I don't enjoy it anymore, I don't enjoy the hangovers, it's not worth the money. However, I have been a social drinker i.e. 2 -3 pints a night with say, 4 - 5 nights a week. Slowly decreasing over the last 2 years. As for fruit and veg, most is store bought or locally sourced at a farmers market. There are pretty strict laws on toxins, pesticides and GMO's in the UK. If it is GMO, it HAS to be labelled as such. I do have oral thrush however, which both my dentist and GP put down to diet but of course wanted to prescribe antibiotics, which is not really going to help. So I declined them and it has been clearing up with a pro biotic and fruit and veg.

 

I am not anti science or any doctor etc, however I do not take any meds or any pain killers. But when I have tried to tackle this issue before, I get referred to imoprozol, which is just nasty. The heart palpitations are unreal. I stopped taking them, under doctors advice as well. I can survive as a vegan no problem, I feel great and the weight has slowly started falling off............. BUT, add in the training and bang. I had a diabetes test some time ago and my blood work came back as normal, cholesterol was a little high but blood pressure was fine. But I never explored a metabollic syndrome. I would love to get to the bottom of this as it's putting a strain on something I enjoy doing. Training and of course body building/crossfit. If it's something I just have to fight through then so be it, but I think I best get checked out a little more just in case here.

 

Thanks for the input, it's been much appreciated, especially as I am a newbie to vegan nutrition and of course working out/training.

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Nice that the UK requires strict labeling of produce. The USA keeps trying, but the industry is just so big and strong - bullies.

 

Make sure you are not overtraining. This has happened to me in the past (my younger years of bodybuilding). You should read Thrive by Brendan Brazier. He talks about the stresses that you have in your life that you have to balance: physical (which we call working out), emotional (the usual meaning of the word stress), nutritional (he advocates plant-based nutrient dense foods as opposed to processed foods with no real nutrients), and environmental (the toxins that are in your air, water, and living accommodations-home, car, outside, inside, etc). I had placed so much emphasis on physical stress, and was not aware at the time of my nutritional stress,or that I was not eating (or sleeping) correctly to compensate for my workouts. Which in turn caused me to have emotional stress (freaking out about why I was not able to push the weights, nor why I wasn't able to lose any bodyfat - also a sign of metabolic damage-my body had shut down to minimal calories and I was taking muscle mass to fuel my daily routine). And Michigan may have the Pure logo/mantra, but we have the highest use of pesticides in the US, so environmental issues I am sure were contributing. The Great Lakes are getting better, but while I was growing up, the Lakes were so polluted.

 

Also about your yeast quest, do know that one can swap yeasts back and forth with anyone who also has an overgrowth of yeast in their body. I think you know where I am going with this one. Not just sexual body fluids, but any kind of mucus/saliva also.

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They're pretty good in my opinion, they still use pesticides but you can find decent organic farmers market produce quite easy and with in a small radius. You just have to take a drive off the main roads. I was amazed how many there were when I started looking.

 

I've not trained now at all. I am not in the business of self diagnosis but I do feel I need to sort this out. I've been rotten ill with abdominal pains and liver and kidney pains for a few days and all food is bloating me out. I have been to the doctors to finally order blood tests, the diet came up and she asked the usual "where do you get your protein" and wanted to know a full run down of what i ate etc and suggested I ate SOME meat, but it's not all about the health any more, 50% of the reason I went vegan was to be away from animal cruelty. She didn't feel or hear anything wrong and thought the probiotic was more placebo, as such I am going to discontinue use until the blood work comes back. I just want to put to bed any medical issues I may have in terms of organs, whether it's fatty liver or gall bladder or what ever or she suggested a muscular issue. She agreed my path for health and fitness was the way forward and to continue, which I would do unless severe.

 

As for the yeast, she claims I didn't have an overgrowth, as I would suspect, but I know I do have an issue with it and if I had pushed the subject more she would have agreed as I have managed to reduce oral thrush to an almost minimum.

 

I thank you for the time and insight, I think I need to keep a healthy balance of homeopathic and medical advice here to solve this. What ever it is at least I will be able to find out if there are any medical issues in the next few weeks. In the mean time I am going to try and keep on the yoga side of things so at least I am doing something other than walking etc.

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  • 5 weeks later...
I am hoping you figure it all out. I know I am really trying to focus on my health as well and trying to figure out what is best for my body. I think it is great you are taking that time to figure out what is going on and getting healthy.

 

 

And the time has done wonders, it turns out all my blood work and organs are fine, bar one.... it seems a long standing UTI has caused a closure on the bladder opening to a very small (explains a lot over the last few months actually - ghost peeing etc) which is in turn, causing a build up of uric acid and not allowing my kidneys or bladder to empty properly. The extra water during training is obviously what's causing the pain.

 

Thanks for the input, I will see what urology can sort for me, but it means I know I am not in deep trouble and can some what start training again to a light degree.

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  • 1 month later...

I full support wearing long skirts with no underwear to let air get to the perineal area for women who have a history of chronic infections. I used to get chronic yeast infections, but now, when I feel one coming on, I dont wear underwear and I take the Lady Soma Candida Pills. Those two things combined make sure I never get the yeast infection, and if it starts, it goes away in 1-2 days.

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  • 10 months later...

The Lady Soma Cranberry Concentrate tablets is the ONLY product that seems to halt cystitis in its tracks before it becomes unbearable & I have found over the years that if I use it as soon as the first symptoms of an attack appear, I have no need of antibiotics. Unfortunately it is only available online at their website and on Amazon. but is definitely worth the shipping cost.

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