I have some good news!

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 5:07 pm

I am not lactose intolerant! I guess I could be casein intolerant so I will stay away from dairy for now. The best news is that I am feeling better. I no longer feel like I have the flu or something.

Also I am having fewer D episodes.

I know that it will take some time to heal now, but just feeling better is huge to me!! Thanks for all your support! It was here that I got the idea of eating avocados for extra fat while on this diet and they really help. Thanks again!
Pat

Post by **tex** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:53 pm

That is good news. I'm glad you're finally making some significant progress. As hard as you've been working on this, it's very gratifying to see that things are finally going your way.

I hope you continue to feel better each day.

Tex

Polly · Post by **Polly** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:40 am

Way to go, Pat!

Avocados (and olives) were very helpful to me, too, when I was sick and losing weight. And I still eat a lot of them.

So happy to hear that you are finally feeling better.

It does take time, as you said, but it sounds as if you are well on your way.

Love,

Polly

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:02 pm

Thanks Tex and Polly,

Do you think olives are ok if you have yeast overgrowth?

Polly, you are a doctor, I think. In your opinion do people get overgrowth of candida? I know I have it (or had it) in my ears (documented by my ENT who gave me steroid drops) and in my vagina ( I didn't need a doctor to tell me about that one - I had the symptoms - burning, itching, white discharge, cramping). I am taking fluconozole and VSL #3.

Pat

Post by **tex** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:24 pm

Hi Pat,

Yes, Polly is an MD, (her specialty is pediatrics). She has taken on a lot of other projects lately, so she isn't able to check in as often as she used to. Hopefully, she'll be able to log in more often again at some point in the future. She sometimes has time to check in on weekends, so she might log on again tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, (or in case she doesn't have time to post anytime soon), I'll try to answer your questions. Yes, there's no question that candida can overgrow, and take over the digestive tract, from mouth to anus. It can even be a problem externally, in places where the skin stays moist, (usually where the sun don't shine). Sometimes it's obvious, but often it's difficult to diagnose, and many doctors seem to have difficulty diagnosing it, (they just don't have the presence of mind to check for it, and you can't find what you don't look for). I can recall suggesting to at least two board members, in the past, that they have their doctor test them for candida overgrowth, and the results were positive. Both were successfully treated, once the diagnosis was made. Some doctors consider it to be too rare to be a possibility, but rare is beside the point, when you've got it.

I think that olives are best avoided, when trying to purge yeast from your system. Unfortunately, I would assume that avocados would be off limits also, until the yeast is no longer a threat. Here's a site with several short articles about candida treatment - the first one contains a pretty extensive list of foods to avoid, when fighting candida:

http://www.changingshape.com/resources/ ... a-diet.asp

I hope you find this to be helpful.

Tex

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 3:57 pm

Thanks, Tex,
My doctor said he couldn't test me for candida. He said that if I had systemic candida I would be so sick that I would be in the hospital, but then in the same breath he said he would prescribe 2 weeks of fluconozole. So here I am. I am just having trouble getting enough calories. I keep losing weight. 96.5 today. I am putting butter on meat and on what vegetables I can have. This is no fun!
Pat

Post by **tex** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:49 pm

Hi Pat,

Obviously your doctor doesn't understand the issue. Yes, systemic candidiasis is very serious - it occurs mostly in patients with severly compromised immune systems, (like HIV victims), and it's associated with death in as many as 77% of the cases. You don't have systemic candidiasis. You have an overgrowth of candida in your digestive tract. There's a huge difference. I don't believe that there is a simple, "packaged" test for candida overgrowth, but I could be wrong. I believe that diagnosis requires a certain degree of medical judgment, based on experience.

Can you eat peanuts? Or almonds? Peanuts have a very high calory count, and I would assume that almonds and most other nuts probably do also.

Can you eat coconut? It's a good source of fat, (coconut milk is available in cans, and is very high calorie). I would assume that it's safe for a candida elimination program also, based on this site:

http://www.coconutdiet.com/candida.htm

Tex

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 8:27 pm

Thanks again, Tex.
The coconut milk is a great idea! Coconut oil is also good, but not the meat. It has too much sugar. www.nutritiondata.com is an excellent website for the nutrional composition of just about any food you would want to know about. You have to type in the search box. Then when you get to the page you want scroll down and you can find the sugar content of different foods, or anything else about them that you would want. I'm gonna have to go back to the store!

Pat

Post by **tex** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 9:34 pm

Thanks for the link. That's a good site. The "Fast Food Facts" section is really handy for someone inclined to eat fast food, since it appears to list every food item offered by all the major chains, just by clicking on the name of the chain.

Actually, coconut milk is coconut meat, (run through a juicer). That website I referenced, advocates using coconut oil, to destroy candida, (actually it's the caprylic acid, capric acid, and lauric acid in the coconut oil that does the trick). However, the oil is in the meat, (and milk, of course), so coconut milk, (or meat), should be just as good as oil, at killing candida. Since the acids in the coconut are lethal to candida, I am pretty sure that the sugar content of coconut is irrelevant to the treatment, since the candida would be unable to extract any nourishment from the sugar in coconut, due to the toxic effect of the caprilic, capric, and lauric acids.

Here's something I found on a low-carb discussion board, in a response to someone asking about menu help when fighting candida:

If you love ice cream, like me, try blending 1 can coconut milk with 2-3 T coco powder and stevia and freezing in popsicle molds. I use carob powder, too. Coconut milk slows candida so this is a great addition to your diet and it's creamy, a little treat.

You may want to try this recipe, if you crave something sweet, (which you probably do, at this point). It's a source for a few extra calories, too. This quote comes from here:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=318346

On the other hand, I'm going to have to withdraw my nomination of peanuts, because it just dawned on me that peanuts are notorious for fungus problems, due to the environment in which they grow, (underground).

Tex

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:41 pm

Besides peanuts being notorious for fungus problems they are also lectins.

Many of us have had problems with lectins, well documented in past posts.

Do a search for lectins on this sight to find many useful links.

As always - “To your recovery”

Matthew

P.S.

A good place to start-

http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html