[StayingHopeful75]

Hello all-I've been reading a lot about Candidiasis. I would love some opinions from others who have gone down that path. A bit more about me....I'm a 34 year old male who has been suffering from IBS (mostly abdominal bloating with constipation) for over 15 years now. I've tried many different medications, tests, herbs, etc. with not much success. I'm taking glycolax twice a day which helps me go to the bathroom, but it seems as though I ALWAYS have CHRONIC BLOATING!! It feels like I have very little peristasis in my gut (trapped gas and constipation). I tested negative for Celiac disease, and had an upper/lower GI, endoscopy, abdominal/pelvic cat scan, but they all came back negative.Meds I've taken:----------FlagylRifaximinDonnatalBentylPropulsidLevbidProbiotics (align, etc.)So, I've been reading a lot about candida yeast overgrowth in the intestines. Has anybody else gone down the path of treating their candida? Has it worked? Is it just a money-making scam? It seems like there are a lot of sites out there about Candida, but many of them are just trying to push their products. Is the Spit Test even accurate? Would it be better to take a prescription medicine vs. homeopathic (i.e. garlic, grapefruit seed extract, etc.)???Any information would be greatly appreciated

 

[Common Response]

Hello all-I've been reading a lot about Candidiasis. I would love some opinions from others who have gone down that path. A bit more about me....I'm a 34 year old male who has been suffering from IBS (mostly abdominal bloating with constipation) for over 15 years now. I've tried many different medications, tests, herbs, etc. with not much success. I'm taking glycolax twice a day which helps me go to the bathroom, but it seems as though I ALWAYS have CHRONIC BLOATING!! It feels like I have very little peristasis in my gut (trapped gas and constipation). So, I've been reading a lot about candida yeast overgrowth in the intestines. Has anybody else gone down the path of treating their candida? Has it worked? Is it just a money-making scam? It seems like there are a lot of sites out there about Candida, but many of them are just trying to push their products. Is the Spit Test even accurate? Would it be better to take a prescription medicine vs. homeopathic (i.e. garlic, grapefruit seed extract, etc.)???Any information would be greatly appreciated

High SH.I'm also investigating this possibility & don't have a definitive answer.What l have found after much experimentation with diet is that food containing wheat seems to cause me to become constipated.If you think about it refined wheat features in just about anything westerners eat & can easily be overlooked as a contributor to symptoms.I discovered this by accident when overseas in a country where rice is the staple.Rice along with plenty of vegetables & water keeps the stools soft & provides bulk to keep up regularity. You do have to become strict with what you eat. I think of it as "eating to live, rather than living to eat".Much preferable to medications if it works for you.The problem is that if you've suffered for many years it can be difficult to retrain your system without perseverance.Also regular aerobic exercise is important.I pigged out on bread on Friday night (two sandwiches, slice of pizza, & some brownies) & sure enough it backed me up & made me feel bloated.I recommend eliminating refined wheat products from your diet (cakes, bread, pizza, cookies, waffles, pasta, take away food).For variety rice also comes as a noodle in many sizes.It may not be the total answer but might be worth trying.Regarding the candida, l think the school is out.My suspicion is that l might either have a candida or yeast overgrowth and/or unfriendly gut bacteria resulting in a number of symptoms.I started a course of Huang Lian (Coptis Rhizoma) a Chinese herbal medicine.http://www.orientalpharmacy.com/hulisutak.htmlAnother poster claimed a cure to his IBS using Huang Lian. The Chinese herbal practitioner suspected yeast over growth & prescribed it.http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?s...=113455&hl=I'm willing to try anything but am skeptical.It's far to early to make any claims yet, but l must say, after one day my stool formation appeared more normal than for a very long time.Well formed, with no liquid or mess, easy elimination without that incomplete feeling & the wipe was clean. I've been three times now & the result has been consistent.I've bought a two weeks course from a Chinese health store ($AUS15.00) & plan to be on these for 4 weeks.Small yellow tablets with a very bitter taste, I take two three times a day with plenty of water.I also plan to follow up with a course of probiotics (friendly gut bacteria) to take up the void when the Coptis course is completed.I highly recommend totally reviewing diet, not just for general health, but to aid any concern with regularity.I suspect many of us can't really cope with overly refined western junk food including most take away, soda pop, excessive alcohol, high fat, refined sugars, & refined flour, products which are in just about everything we eat. I sincerely hope this helps you.

 

[StayingHopeful75]

Hey CR-Thanks for the information. I really hope Huang Lian works for you. I'll have to do some research on that one. I hear you about the dietary restrictions. This is one of my weaknesses

I have to say though, I've tried experimenting with foods in the past and nothing has seemed to help.As far as your intolerance to wheat products - have you been tested for Celiac?I'm going to try going on a Kefir kick for the next month to see what that might do for me. I actually spoke with my GI doc on the phone yesterday, and he didn't seem to think I would have any sort of Candida overgrowth. It's so confusing with all of the info online (many of the sites are just trying to push their products).Best of luck

 

[Kathleen M.]

Unfortunately it often is a money maker and many of the tests used by supplement providers show every single person on the planet has a raging Candida infection and if you have any symptom of anything at all or any disease on the planet that is also proof you have it.That being said, the diet usually proposed to combat Candida (and I don't know if any actual science proves it changes levels of any of your internal flora) does tend to be low in IBS-triggers so may benefit you to try for a few weeks. I don't believe the whole you have to be on it one year without a mistake (or month or whatever the calculation) for every *fill in the blank* with lots of supplements also every single day without missing a day before you see results. Usually if the diet and supplements fail you it is made out to be your fault and you don't want to get well bad enough. To me that sounds too much like they are shaming you into giving them lots of money for several years while they hope whatever you have just eventually gets better by itself.They do see these kind of raging internal Candida infections in the scientific medical setting, but only in people with a disease that takes out the immune system or because you are on a treatment that wipes out the immune system. Usually those make you a heck of a lot sicker than most IBSers tend to be.

 

[Puppy3D]

Moneymaking is everywhere, not only a candida thing also on the doctos and sience side.. Especaly for gas and bloating you can waste 1000 dollars for anti gas meds, which often dont do anyting. But changing your diet to low carb (similar to candida diet) is free, and in my opinion the best way to get ridd of gas. I dont think that candida is a cause for IBS. But it`s sience proofen that the gut bacterial flora is altered in IBS and of course mastcells and inflammation cells are present which lower the own defence system of the gut. This could help spreading candida.

 

[Patman75]

I had great success on the diet. There are Candida programs that don't cost anything but the food you eat.This one is very natural and I used it.http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/It changed my life.

 

[Patman75]

You might also search the forum for post by "thickthighs" she went on the Candida diet with no special supplements and got rid of her leaky gas.

 

[Jillywindy]

First post here but I've been following this site for several months since my IBS was diagnosed.When I first got IBS (suddenly - I can even name the date). I had all these other symptoms like extreme fatigue, feeling drunk in the afternoons and really depressed (almost suicidal) usually in the mornings. Because of these extra symptoms, I was convinced that the whole thing was Candida related. So immediately after my colonoscopy, I went on a strict anti-candida diet and these mental symptoms never returned. Unfortunately the underlying IBS symptoms, which for me is pain, gas and bloating, have hung around, albiet with less intensity. My diet is now heading more towards a SCD one - I've reintroduced fruit and gradually cutting back on grains to the point where only my breakfast contains them. My pain is now only mild to moderate and there are even stretches of many hours where I don't have any pain at all.The thing is that most of these diets are very similar in that they restrict carbs to some extent or another and they are all designed to reduce gut fermentation, whether due to yeast or bacteria, by reducing the fuel to them. It seems that most people benefit by being on one of these diets and then refine it to suit them according the trial and error. Hopefully the ramifications of an error are not too severe.I'm now trying to deal with the brain gut interaction 'cos I noticed that my symptoms improve a lot when I'm doing some extreme sport like windsurfing in waves. For most people here, to do such a thing would be just a dream, right. Maybe not. I was worried about doing it thinking "what if I have bad cramping when I'm out there in those breaking waves and can't get back up." But I went out anyway. What happens of course was that all the nerves to the gut shut down completely whilst you're out so there are no problems at all and the improvement lasts for several hours afterwards. The 3 days I spent doing it were the most symptom free for many months. So yeah, you can expect an improvement on the Candida diet but you will be lucky to get complete remission (maybe you will be). I've tried Berbine too (the main active ingredient in the Chinese herb) and again, it didn't provide a complete cure.

 

[proudLgaser]

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[proudLgaser]

what you see in the spit-test is the scraped mucous membrane of your mouth(specially after teeth brushing)+remnant of the food...,in the lab they stain the candida and count them under microscope(direct visualization),and since the candida have distinctive shape it can't be missed with bacteria so i think the diagnosis would be 99% accurate.it's more reasonable to accuse an undiscovered or a mutated bacteria but it seems that candida have a charisma....

 

[Kathleen M.]

I think most people are talking the at home spit in a glass and look at it test.http://www.owndoc.com/candida-albicans/spi...sis-unreliable/ discusses it as unreliable, and they sell stuff to treat Candida.When you have thrush and they do a real test on a microscope slide they can diagnosis that with accuracy. Thrush in your mouth is not the systemic yeast that causes every symptom of every disease that people will try to sell you on to get you to take a few years worth of expensive supplements.The bacteria being accuse in IBS are not some weird mutant or undiscovered. Post infectious IBS is all the well known bacteria that make the news when food is contaminated.SIBO is all the normal colon bacteria living in the wrong place and it was known for a long time in other illnesses, not just made up for IBS.

 

[Common Response]

Quote: SIBO is all the normal colon bacteria living in the wrong place and it was known for a long time in other illnesses, not just made up for IBS. Is the wrong place the upper digestive tract including the small intestines & duodenum?If one takes probiotics what stops them from colonizing this upper area?Can a nervous or faulty ileocecal valve (between large & small intestine) cause bacteria to backflow into the small intestine causing bacteria infestation?

 

[Kathleen M.]

SIBO is colon bacteria in the small intestine. That is the S and the I in the SIBO. The duodenum is part of the small intestine, but I'm not sure how far up the bacteria go.At least in some studies probiotics seem to help some SIBO patients, but not sure if anyone knows the exact mechanism.It is unclear that only people with a bad valve get it. OFten some of the other diseases (the non IBS ones) that cause it are more things that effect motility through the small intestine rather than something allowing back flow. Remember most of the bacteria in your colon got their by having a way to survive the stomach and small intestine until they get to the more favorable environment of the colon. The small intestine is also pretty favorable, but usually they don't have the time to get going in there that well.

 

[vesper7]

Have any of you looked into Salicylate Sensitivity? http://salicylatesensitivity.com/I thought I had candida for the longest time, but it turns out I actually have salicylate sensitivity. Many of the claimed symptoms are the same.

 

[I B S SICK]

this is my combo which works well ,im 43 and been on this ride for 6 to 7 years now..have the very same ill effect as you do..2 organic bowel cleanse. made by renew life 1 digest gold premium formula. made by enzymedic1 primal defense ultra .made by garden of life1/2 of a zanax i got the smallest dosage and cut them in half i take them once a day at night right after dinner... i have a once a week MANAGBLE FLAIR UP verses a 4 time a week UNMANAGBLE flair up on nothing at all and i dont punish my self with bland #### tasting food..i eat fast food cause i love it just stay away from the soda all toghter. i drink 1 red bull every morning to counter act the zanax slow down. so i dont feel spacey..now dont get me wrong i have trigger foods but i use them on the weekends when i want to be bad.why suffer more then you have to..it took one week to kick in and im set ...and belive me i tryed everthing under the sun before this combo came up....even REGLAN which is now being sued ... this formentioned combo worked for me it may work for you...

 

[Syl]

There isn't a connection between Candida overgrowth and IBS. After more than 25 years of speculation about the role of Candida in IBS no connection has been found by IBS researchers. Here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine The role of Candida albicans in the pathogenesis of food-intolerant irritable bowel syndrome

Middleton and colleagues' are to be congratulated in demonstrating that there is no conclusive link between overgrowth of intestinal Candida albicans and the symptomatology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).Sadly, I suspect that the popular health magazines and alternative practitioners who persuade patients that these symptoms are directly linked to the pseudoscience of 'leaky bowels' and Candida toxins' are unlikely to alter their views.

Here a link to the original article that concluded "Overgrowth of C. albicans is not the cause of food intolerance in patients with IBS and anticandidal drugs should not be used in the treatment of this condition." The Mayo Clinic has a nice write-up on A nutrition counselor told me a "candida cleanse" diet would cure my fatigue, headaches and weight gain. What conditions does a candida cleanse diet treat?.