Sunday, February 9, 2014

Candida and the Repurcussions of Antibiotics

I'm not one who is much for resolutions. I feel if you need to change something, then simply change it, but don't wait for the new year to make it happen. That is just a recipe for high stress and failure in my opinion... but I do like to reflect on the past as each new year roles around. It is good to remember where you have come from. As with any year 2013 had its share of good and bad, but I have to say that I really feel like progress has been made with my health and I intuitively feel that 2014 will be a good year for making strides in my health as well. 




I'm feeling better since my last post, but wanted to share the double edged sword that antibiotics bring, which is why I really hold out and typically don't use them except as a last resort. I'm sure this post will ring true for many of you. I am very susceptible to Candida overgrowth and while on antibiotics I began to crave sugar like crazy. One of the tell tail signs of Candida overgrowth. Also, because I was on Amoxicillin, which is in the Penicillin family, my body can only tolerate so much. I am allergic to penicillin and I ended up with hives near the end of my treatment. Oh, goodie!! Anyway, it was the lesser of two evils as the other antibiotic option listed "snapping tendons" as a possible side affect. Uh, sign me up... NOT. So I picked my poison and I knew it was highly likely I would end up with hives. The interesting thing is that because of the methylation pathways that we've worked on clearing, I was actually able to tolerate far more than the last time I had to take Amoxicillin and my body cleared the hives much quicker in 3 days vs. 3 weeks. Anyway, I am now on the herbal detox for Candida and it is working for sure. I've had miserable nausea and severe diarrhea, but I think I'm nearly past that point and I have 3 more weeks left on this treatment. Bye, bye Candida. The treatment is high in Allicin, which is high in sulfer and that means not so good with my CBS mutation. I have to take Molybdenum to help counteract the effects of the sulfer. A little Activated Charcoal seems to help too. Anyway, I know the Candida die-off symptoms are temporary. I've been down this road before.

I saw my Lyme ND at the end of January and treatments for the co-infections are progressing very well at this point. I'm able to increase my dosage of the herbal tinctures I'm on and the goal is to get to 50 drops of each per day. I'm currently at 34drops per day and hope to reach my goal by mid-March given there are no bumps in the road.  Once I'm there we will switch to a stronger formula, but in the meantime I have to keep an eye on what my Dr. thinks may be an additional co-infection, Babesia. I've been getting night sweats and no I'm not perimenopausal. In addition to some brain fog that still hangs around and is typical that is shows up in the afternoon. If this all persists, we'll have to treat the Babesia in the others we are already treating. Eventually we'll move on to adding Artemisinin and others to address the Lyme. We'll also do a heavy metals challenge following my fast that is scheduled for April. 


In the meantime while I'm anxious about starting the fast I've taken almost all carbs out of my diet with the exception of 5 grams timed at 5 hour intervals. My body seems to be liking this and my hope is to kill two birds with one stone. I'm trying to starve the Candida and use my fat stores at the same time without upsetting the glycogen/insulin balance. This should regulate my blood sugar and not provide excess sugar for the Candida to feast on.

Not only am I looking forward this year to making inroads my health, but I'm excited and can feel it in my bones when I think of going back to school. Sounds crazy I know, but the program is Integrative Therapies and I hope to complete the degree with a foundation in Nutrition. I look forward to continuing to help others in the future by putting some real book knowledge under my belt in addition to my own life experiences. My hope is to be enrolled before the end of 2014.

How are you doing? I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you'd like to know about in future posts. 

Happy early Valentine's day!