Can-what?

I once interned at a church where the pastor used the same sermon illustrations nearly every week. Fishing and his yeast infection. Awkward!  Since I worked there I knew what he meant was not just a rash of the sensitive parts but an internal infection. He had a very strict diet to follow.

Dealing with another flair up of thrush, I decided to do my research on thrush and the causes of it. It’s a yeast, which everyone carries naturally that has over-grown. Our bodies should have a balance of 80%good bacteria and 20% yeast.  But with too much sugar (even natural sugars) and carbs that can be turned into sugar the yeast thrives and many people end up with a balance of 15%bacteria and 85%yeast.

I love my carbs and sugar- perhaps why I love baking. It’s my happy world of yum and pretty.  But I’m giving this yeast thing a good deal of research. The yeast is called candida something or other and the overgrowth of it is called candidiasis. (Don’t expect anything super technical here. I’m just regurgitating my random research.)

I had enough of the symptoms to be curious. The reason I came across this was for the thrush, but I am hoping and praying this will help with the extreme bouts of sleepiness. (I’m not pregnant. But I thought that too.)

So anyways, I started doing the anti-candida diet and quickly found out how many conflicting ideas there are on this diet. I first read to eat fruits and veggies so I loaded up on them. Then I read no fruit except lemons, limes, and fresh cranberries. And veggies have to be unblemished. (I ate an overripe avocoda early on and it hurt my tongue much like sugar did. Apparently it’s the mold, even hints of it. Mold, fungus, vinegar, caffeine, sugar, lactose, alcohol, and many artificial sweeteners fuel the yeast.)

The point of the diet is to starve off the yeast by not eating all the foods that fuel it.

Anyways, I stuck to what I could for a good 5 days, I even baked an entire wedding cake and made my husband do all the tasting along the way- I didn’t indulge. I’m not sure if it was working with flour, sugar, or hand sanitizer while I baked; all I know is my hands hurt like crazy that night!

A few days into the diet- I noticed that my joints were feeling better. My teeth felt amazing!

But the day of the wedding was quite busy and I was hungry. I gave in and decided to eat fast food. Bacon cheeseburger goodness! No soda. But since I cheated already I ate cake and drank juice.

That night was weird. I had a dry stuffy nose. Which, I almost always have- have had for years- except for while on the diet. I didn’t realize how much better I had been breathing until the endless boogers came back! (In college the dr told me I had dust allergies.) Oddly enough, allergies can be connected to candida. So can fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, dandruff, food allergies, depression, endomtreosis and other random things.

The next morning after cheating on my short-lived diet my joints hurt. I randomly hopped on the scale out of curiousity and saw that I had lost 5 lbs- in a week! (Some of that credit goes to Zumba videogaming )

So, with that nice ego boost and the nose full of yuck I decided to try and stick with the diet longer. I read so many conflicting reports on how long to do the diet. 2 weeks? 4 weeks? Six months? 2 years? All depending on the severity.  I decided I wanted to do more than just the diet and looked into supplements.

I went to Pilgrim’s Market and talked to a supplement lady. She showed me a handful of options and I chose the all out detox method. CandiGone. I still have to stick to the diet, and the detox lasts 1 month. Seems doable.

I’m telling you all this to prompt you to do your own research. Also, it takes a while to explain why I can’t eat much more than a carniverous rabbit would eat. I really don’t want to run around telling everyone, “I have a yeast infection” and making sermon illustrations about it.

I want to tell people what I’m learning and struggling with here. I would appreciate prayers and encouraging words. Hopefully this will help and not cause any problems- but I doubt eating veggies can hurt. Today is day 3 of the 30 days.
Random test I came across- the Spit Test. Have a glass of water by your bedside. First thing when you wake up spit in it. Healthy spit dissolves in 15min. But if it is white and stays in a lump at top or sinks to bottom, sometimes makes “spider legs” strands coming off the spit, then you may have an imbalance of candida.