Not Waving …. Drowning!

What a few days I’ve had. Truthfully, I don’t think I’ve coped too well.

We’ve had a health challenge arise with my 10 year old girl, Snugglebunny. She’d had a sore ankle for about a week and following my intuition I took her to the hospital, rather than the local Doctor. They found no broken bones on the first x-rays, but then thought that with the symptoms she might have osteomyelitis (a bone infection).

Blood test came back showing there was no raging infection, but they wanted to schedule a bone scan to confirm it wasn’t in its’ early stages and if it wasn’t, was it a fracture that didn’t show on the x-rays initially? If that was the case, then they said they would be concerned that she has a fracture without a traumatic event causing it and that there might be an underlying condition.

So, we were sent home with crutches, with a bone scan to be scheduled (and canceled if her foot was better before then).

I wasn’t happy with having a bone scan if it wasn’t really necessary (if there were other treatment options) and as luck would have it, we were able to see Dr Kitty Campion, my medical herbalist, at short notice.

Kitty scanned Snugglebunny using the VegaTest machine and it confirmed there was no bacterial or viral infection. But it also showed a number of food intolerances at the moment and, even though she has a really good diet, an inability to assimilate her nutrition. This resulted in her being deficient in a number of key vitamins and other things. The results also showed that she is having problems with her pituitary and thyroid / para-thyroid and given the combination of results, is likely to be having trouble producing good quality bone.

So, not only is she likely to have a fractured foot, but she has a problem with the major gland in the body, the pituitary.

We’re doing hair analysis to see the exact extent of her vitamin and mineral deficiencies and Kitty recommended a number of things to start creating the environment for Snugglebunny’s body to heal. So, my daughter is off chocolate, sugar, salt, coffee (no big deal as she doesn’t have it!), tofu, gelatin and cheese for the time being, as well as having some herbal stuff / tissue salts.

Interestingly, we’re yet to hear from the hospital with regard to the bone scan.

All of this, coupled with getting my husband ready to go to Melbourne for a week (and him flying out on Friday), has left me in a bit of a spin.

I’m stressed, pressed for time, really tired and making ‘get me through the day’ poor choices. I need to sleep well. I need to eat well.

I seriously have to get a handle on all this. Something has to change. I’ve not had time to do the spreadsheet for this week, I’ve barely taken my vitamins, pro-biotics etc for my Candida, my water intake is down, the house is a mess, but at least I’ve got the dog out for a walk most days.

Sorry guys, but just needed to vent my frustration with my ability to cope. I know that the Candida will not be helping with the fatigue, sugar cravings etc, but I’m just over it! Signing off to go and get some sleep!

By the way, I now realise how crappy the font looks on my blog when you view it through Internet Explorer – completely different to how I see it on my Mac. We’re working on a facelift in the next couple of weeks, but for now, this will have to do!

Sunday, 31 October 2010 21:46 Written by Catherine F. 2 Comments

Liver’s Job and Candida

It’s not like me to post twice in a day, but I just listened to an interview online and it fitted in with the last post.

The interview was with Dr Mark Merriman, an MD in the States. He is to be part of the Longevity Conference run by David Wolfe – starts on the 24th Sept.

Anyway, in the first half of the interview Dr Merriman was talking about the phases of Liver Detoxification and the research currently happening there. I didn’t completely follow it all, but the gist of it was that there are 2 phases of detox in the liver – aptly named Phase 1 and Phase 2.

In Phase 1, toxic intermediaries are created as the first stage of trying to get rid of something yukky. It involves using anti-oxidants. In Phase 2, something is added to the Phase 1 intermediary to make it safer for the body to excrete. This intermediary/toxin is then excreted in the bile, bound with fibre and which allows the toxin to pass through the colon safely.

Now here’s the kicker ….. if you have Dysbiosis, an unbalanced level of bacteria in your gut, like from Candida, these bacteria can cleave the anti-oxidant bound to the toxin away from it, releasing the toxin in the gastrointestinal tract to be re-absorbed into the body.

So, Candida can make your body absorb and carry around more toxins, making the liver work harder and harder to keep your body going. And where do we tend to store toxins …… body fat!

Here’s the link if you want a listen – it’s in the first half of the interview: Dr Mark Merriman Interview with David Wolfe. – oops that didn’t work, so if you want to hear it, have your email address public in the comments and I’ll forward the email with the link.

Also the Longevity Conference is streaming via Webcast, so click on the link to find out more: Longevity Conference – this link didn’t work either, so comment stands as above.

Thursday, 23 September 2010 14:27 Written by Catherine F. 0 Comments

How to Keep Candida at Bay

Last week I blogged about what I had been learning about Candida (see Is Candida Halting Your Weight Loss?). It astounded me that so much of what I had been experiencing was tied to this noxious weed of a condition. So, I wanted to share what I had learnt through my research.

Interestingly, one of the commentors said that her Personal Trainer puts an individual on a Candida diet if their weight loss has stalled. Makes sense now!

So, this post is about how to prevent / overcome a candida / yeast overgrowth.

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1. Eat Well

Candida wants to party in an environment where there is a steady supply of sugar / carbohydrates, not just the obvious add it to your coffee sugar, but the hidden stuff in processed foods and the natural sugars / carbs found in foods like fruit, fruit juices and root vegetables.

So, a diet rich in protein (meat, fish, chicken, eggs, seeds and nuts), vegetables (avoiding root vegies, peas, corn, all beans except green beans, all squash except zuchini and mushrooms – hey they’re a fungi!) and healthy cold pressed oils (olive, sesame, coconut, almonds, flaxseed, safflower, sunflower …). Oh, and forget the carbs in the form of rice, pasta and bread for a while until the Candida is under control – just gives the Candida more fuel. Vinegar, salad dressings with vinegar and aged cheeses aren’t going to help either.

Once you starve the Candida of the fuel it needs to keep going, it will start to die off. This is the not nice part – in the process of dying they will release their toxic by-product into your body and so you will initially feel worse (like for the first couple of weeks).

My mistake is that in the first couple of days I feel really good and then drop my guard a bit and some of the ‘fuel’ creeps in to my diet (or sprints through the door), creating a bit of a yoyo effect – not good for my body. For it to work, you’ve got to stick with it.

Another tip – if you’re moving to a higher protein / lower carb diet make sure you take something to keep the pipes moving, like psyllium husks. I use a natural product called Intestinal Formula 2 from a herbal pharmacy in the UK (let me know if you’re interested and I’ll pass on details).

For more info on diet have a read at The Candida Diet

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2. Exercise

Exercise helps with keeping things moving through your pipes! But, it also has the benefit of helping to bring back into balance the levels of neurotransmitters in your brain (remember, Candida breakdown affects the work of the neurotransmitter Dopamine….. anxiety, depression, foggy brain etc result). The result is an improved mood and feeling better overall …… getting the endorphins happening too.

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3. Re-balance the Bacteria

Supplement your diet with a good source of probiotics (I’m using FiveLac and a Mercola Probiotic supplement at the moment) as this will help bring things back into balance and eventually will outnumber the Candida (which is as it should be). Cultured and fermented foods, like natto, also contain sources of good bacteria.

Another site that has good information and is set up well is Candida Support

4. Stress

Candida is metaphysically linked to an overactive mind, so another thing to help overcome it is dealing with sources of stress, things that throw your mind into overdrive. Deal with the triggers and find strategies that help to manage the stress, like walking or swimming, meditation etc.

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5. Deal with Emotional Eating Issues

This is a biggie! Because Candida thrives on sugar, food cravings for sweet things happen all the time, because the Candida wants its fuel. So, if you have an emotional eating type response, if you’ve got Candida, bet you go for sweet or highly processed things. Dealing with emotional eating issues is huge and challenging. Awareness is great, but something like hypnosis or Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping or meridian tapping) might help. I’m yet to seriously do tapping, but that for me is my next port of call – I’m thinking of making a video of myself doing it so people could tap along with me. Let me know if you’re interested.

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6. Avoid Exposure to Chemicals and Medications

According to Dr Mercola, antibiotics, corticosteroids and birth control pills all need to be avoided. Also, chemical sensitivities and allergic reactions are common in people with yeast overgrowth, so avoid paints, household cleaners, perfumes and scents if they inflame symptoms.

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7. Other Helpers

Because your digestive system is getting hammered in this process, taking some digestive enzymes might provide some support – I started out on them, but don’t feel I need them at the moment. Herbs that can help balance intestinal bacteria and fight the yeast growth include Caprylic acid, Pau D’Arco, Oregano oil, Black Walnut, Grapefruit seed extract, Garlic (fresh and crushed is good) and Beta-carotene. A pro-biotic I am about to start taking mentions to stop taking these while you are taking it – I’m not sure why, but will do some more research.

Thursday, 23 September 2010 12:43 Written by Catherine F. 3 Comments

Is Candida Halting Your Weightloss?

Well readers of this blog would have had glimpses of my on-going dance with Candida (sounds like a Spanish flamenco dancer!). Search on Candida if you want to get a feel for it….

I have been trying to deal with it without the use of pharmaceuticals (to give my liver a break, but also because of my poor success rate with them in the past). I’ve been trying to get on top of it mostly through diet and homoeopathy, but also through methods to deal with stress and an over-active mind (the metaphysical reasons for candida).

Well, in the first couple of months of this programme when I was pretty restrictive with my diet (no carbs, no sugar, no fruit), my symptoms improved. I failed to consistently deal with my stress though – either through better ‘management’ or through things like meditation.

In the last few months, I’ve not been as restrictive and carbs, sugar and fruit have crept back in – not over the top, but certainly more than before.

But what I found was that as soon as I started having more carbs, my craving for all things sweet went through the roof! My body has responded to the extra carbs by feeling bloated, gassy (you’re lucky this is over the internet!) and more bloody itchy bum syndrome!

I also jumped on the scales after a long hiatus (I was consciously not jumping on the scales every 5 minutes like before). My weight had gone from being 89Kg to 92Kg! Talk about devastated.

So, I spent some time doing some research into Candida so that I would better understand the condition and I started going back to the strict diet (no carbs, sugar or fruit).

Well, blow me down, but I ‘lost’ 2Kg in 24 hours – I’m at 90Kg today.

So, here’s some of the info that I found out….. I’ll put it in 2 posts to make it better to read.

Besides the common symptoms that we are all familiar with, some other common conditions that are signs associated with Candida overgrowth include:

Irritable bowel syndrome (don’t have that but thought it interesting given the number of bloggers who seem to have it).
Migraines
PMS (I had that big time – homoeopathy relieved it completely though).
Weight gain – YES!
Chronic fatigue – YES!
Depression – YES! I’m just coming out of another black hole episode that I’ve had for the last 3 months.

On the issue of depression, when the Candida break down in your body they release alcohol and acetaldehyde in high amounts. Acetaldehyde reacts with the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is why people with yeast overgrowth often experience anxiety, depression, poor concentration and feeling spaced out.
Well, I’ll be darned!

[Sourced from http://www.mercola.com/Downloads/bonus/Candida-yeast/default.aspx - it’s a free report when you sign up]

So, I currently have a liver under-load (from coping with all the toxins from the breakdown of the Candida) and Dysbiosis, which is an imbalance in intestinal flora that results when the Candida has overwhelmed the good bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

As the toxins enter the bloodstream, it triggers an allergic response which leads to:

Food cravings (especially for carbs, yeasts favourite food and the main fuel for its growing).
Bloating
Liver overload as it tries to deal with the toxins.
Decreased thyroid function and metabolism; toxins block thyroid hormone function.
Increased fluid retention to dilute toxins; fat cells swell as they trap toxins to protect the rest of the body.
Gas from metabolic function of the yeast.
The stress of toxins, weight and feeling awful triggers more cortisol, the chronic stress hormone, to be released – side effect here is to make it nearly impossible to lose weight. [See past post on Cortisol ]

[Source: http://www.yeastconnection.com/about_leaky.html]

When I first read the list I was just amazed. I have first hand experience of all but one of them and my 2Kg weight loss in 24 hours attests to the fluid retention and bloating.

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So, my advice would be to anyone trying to lose weight, go and find out if you have Candida, because all of our weight loss efforts may be that much harder while this condition exists in our body.

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In the next post I’ll cover different strategies to prevent Candida from taking hold……

Friday, 10 September 2010 21:37 Written by Catherine F. 6 Comments

Dark Night of the Soul

Well, I think I’m going through what has been termed ‘the dark night of the soul’ and I have to say that I am over it!

It probably started a couple of months ago. I had an appointment with my Medical Herbalist, Dr Kitty Campion, and we did a Bioresonance Test on the VEGA machine to see how things were going in my body. Well, she praised me saying it was one of the best charts she’s seen.

What was my response to that bit of news?

Well, I unconsciously took that as a sign that it was okay to take my foot of the pedal. I had been super conscientious with my low carb / high protein diet and exercise and the weight had fallen off very, very quickly. I was focused and found it easy to get my exercise in. In hindsight, in the last 2 months I was not as focused on my eating, allowing little things to creep in under the radar (like birthday cakes, the odd sweet thing – sweet is my poison, not savoury).

Also, winter here meant that my early morning walk that I love was curtailed – need light to be safe and not turn your ankle or something where I walk.

I could have been better at adjusting the timing of the walk, but I didn’t consistently do that.

So, in the time that the slippery slide was in play, I’ve probably lost 2Kg (4.4lb) which is positive, but the big, and I mean big, difference is in how I am feeling both physically and mentally.

Physically I have gone back to being tired all the time and the Candida has gone stupid again (apparently there is a link between the two). The Candida has probably gone stupid because of the increase in the carbs / sugars in my diet, however minor in comparison to what it used to be.

Mentally and emotionally I am really feeling done in. I am feeling like I am over the whole thing and just want to stop thinking and feeling things about it all. So many emotional issues come up. I just want to do a Sabrina from Bewitched and wiggle my nose and it’s all changed! I keep trying to keep up a positive appearance but even that I think has taken its toll. It’s not authentic.

I saw Kitty a couple of days ago and we re-tested. Bugger bum poo wee sh*t! My body is just completely under load – liver, kidneys, hormones …… the list had 26 items on it – my very first list only had 19! Maybe it’s good in that layers of things are coming up to be cleared? Things get worse often in healing before they get better.

Anyway, I think I really have to look at what I’m doing, because my gut tells me that the stalling in weight loss is because I’m not doing all the work required to clear the emotional sludge. Big sigh! BIGGGGGG SIGH! When I have rapid weight loss I just focus more on what I eat and exercise and avoid the rest. Hhhhhhhmmmmm.

Help guys – anyone else gone through the dark night and woken up in the dawn?

This post is part of a Blog Hop:

Thursday, 05 August 2010 12:14 Written by Catherine F. 3 Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Candida’

Not Waving …. Drowning!

Liver’s Job and Candida

How to Keep Candida at Bay

1. Eat Well

2. Exercise

3. Re-balance the Bacteria

4. Stress

5. Deal with Emotional Eating Issues

6. Avoid Exposure to Chemicals and Medications

7. Other Helpers

Is Candida Halting Your Weightloss?

So, my advice would be to anyone trying to lose weight, go and find out if you have Candida, because all of our weight loss efforts may be that much harder while this condition exists in our body.

Dark Night of the Soul

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