Just Bummin'

[JLH]

I have had in the past but not right now.

I just ordered the EL test for soy, yeast and eggs.

Does chemo make one prone to Thrush?

[JLH]

Thanks for all that great diet info in your post above. It doesn't make me happy at all but it is good to know that I must give up yogurt, cheese, butter and ice cream.

[tex]

Does chemo make one prone to Thrush?

Well, yes, it makes a patient more vulnerable. Anything that tends to suppress the immune system makes one more vulnerable to a candida overgrowth, but most commonly, it occurs following a treatment with antibiotics. With chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or frequent courses of broad spectrum antibiotics, it's even possible for a yeast overgrowth to occur in organs such as the lungs, liver, and brain, but that's not common, of course.

Tex

[jillian357]

Tex,
thanks for the link to the Candida Checklist....nope, no thrush here.

I did take the quiz, the results state I "probably" have a problem with Candida.....
I have seen cleanses at the health food store for this particular issue. Problem is, in the past when I have done whole body cleanses, I always get sick when I am done. I can't afford any illnesses right now, so I think I may have to wait to address this issue.

In the meantime, are there more natural ways to minimize candida, or would simply staying away from sugar be my best bet?

Thanks!
Jill

[jillian357]

Hi Polly,
Thanks for the suggestions on the diet...you have given me a lot of helpful information, no doubt.

I must admit, I have been eating a bit of peanut butter here and there, I'm thinking that may be a problem. Also, green beans......I thought they were "safe", but the info you provided about lectins is enough for me to avoid them for the time being and see if it helps to avoid them. I never knew.

I can already tell a bit of a difference since I've been avoiding tomatoes and fresh veggies. Things feel a bit calmer in the gut. Tonight I am scheduled for a 50 minute run, so I will have a better idea during/after my run as to how my stomach is responding.

I would love to have some testing done, but the $$ just isn't there right now. I have to figure this out as best as I can, and you all have been a tremendous help!

Karen (moremuscle) has emailed me some great info too....and brought up the issue of the Depends as well. It's certainly NOT the avenue I wish to take, but I will keep it on the back burner as a worst case scenario rescue. I would rather have to wear them and be successful at this race than not be able to compete at all!

Unfortunately, a good chunk of this race is along a bike path along a river, so there's not going to be a lot of places to take care of business, and I can't really drive it either for that reason...for now, I'm trying to be optimistic and not worry excessively about the "what ifs"...... I'll make myself crazy if I do!!!

Thanks again for all the help and support! You are all great!!

Love,
Jill

[tex]

Jill,

Most conventional doctors believe that candida overgrowth is overdiagnosed by holistic practitioners, and many disagree with the validity of the diagnosis. To be honest, so do I. I brought up the possibility simply because there's a very strong connection between craving sugar, and yeast overgrowth. Candida actually causes the body to crave sugar, (because it has to have sugar to thrive, of course).

Frankly, I don't believe that there is much value in most of the "body cleansing" treatments being sold these days, either, (for various purposes). Most of the sales pitches for these treatments are reminiscent of the "snake oil" treatments that were sold a century ago.

Unless your score was extremely high on that questionnaire, I seriously doubt that you have a candida problem, especially in light of your low carb intake. If you actually do have a yeast overgrowth, the diet that Polly suggests should do a pretty good job of eliminating the problem. Basically, the idea is to starve out the yeast by cutting carb intake down to a bare minimum. It takes months to complete the job, but improvement is usually apparent after about a month. Also, most naturopaths recommend eliminating from the diet, all fermented foods, such as bread made with yeast, cheese, tomato paste, mushrooms, and beer, but again, if you follow the diet that Polly recommends, you will already be eliminating most of those, (I say most, because I'm not sure about the mushrooms).

The fact that you have been on the GF diet for several months, means that you have already removed a primary source of carbs, (and yeast) from your diet, (bread made from wheat flour), and that's why I seriously doubt that you have a yeast overgrowth. As I said, I only brought it up because you mentioned a craving for sugar. It's difficult to access the intensity of your craving, because many of us crave sugar. For most of us, though, it's just a "normal" craving, that we're able to resist most of the time, without a serious effort. With a "real" yeast overgrowth problem though, I suspect that the craving can become virtually impossible to resist without extraordinary effort.

That's great that Karen responded to your e-mail. When she joined us, she had horrendous symptoms, but she kept fine-tuning her diet until she found the last offender, (a brand of chocolate that contained soy, even though it wasn't on the label), and as far as I'm aware, she's been symptom-free ever since, and living life to the fullest.

Good luck with your diet, and your training, and please keep us updated on your progress. Also, don't forget to keep us informed on your running. Any information you can offer can be a big help to others who follow in your footsteps.

Tex

[jillian357]

Thanks Tex, as always, for a lot of wonderful info!

I agree, I don't think the cleanses out there are worth much of anything. It's good to be aware that sugar feeds yeast, therefore that gives me more reason to avoid it as much as I can.

I promise to keep everyone updated on how things are going with the diet and running. If it helps just one person it's worth sharing....Karen has already been an invaluable source of info, so thank you for putting me in touch with her.

If all goes well, and my race is a huge success (crossing fingers!) I will certainly want to share the good news with everyone....I feel so lucky to have found you all.

I hope you don't mind if I share the good/bad/ugly updates about my training along the way too....it helps me to talk out my issues.

Question about the legumes issue Polly brought up.....are coffee beans part of this family? I do drink approx 2 cups o' joe a day, and I'm thinking maybe a better substitute would be some black tea. Karen had mentioned to me that black tea helps things "move when you want them to" anyway, so it only seems logical to me that this would be a beneficial change too.

Love,
Jill

[tex]

We certainly don't mind if you want to share anything with us - to the contrary, we appreciate it. We consider ourselves a family, and we always like to know how everyone is doing, whether it's good or bad. Anyone can post anything they want on this forum, (within reason, of course, as far as decency and consideration of others' feelings are concerned), without worrying about a moderator telling them that they are out of line. We're not easily grossed out, (we've been there, done that), and we learn what works and what doesn't work, by sharing experiences, and even though bad experiences can be very disappointing, they can also be very educational for others who find themselves in a similar situation. The good experiences, of course, will always make us smile right along with you, and cheer you on.

Regarding your question about legumes - no, coffee beans are not legumes. In fact the family Leguminosae does not include coffee beans, castor beans, cocoa beans, nor vanilla beans. even though they bear a superficial resemblance to true beans.

Many GI docs claim that coffee should be removed from the diet of anyone with MC, based on the fact that caffeine is listed as a secretagogue. (A secretagogue is a substance that stimulates certain glands in the body to secrete other substances). My feeling is that this is merely an opinion based on intuition, rather than documented research, since most of us here have found that it rarely makes any significant difference, in our own situations. Of course, that means that tea is also a secretagogue, unless it is decaffeinated. Most of us just use our own judgment on this one, but as far as I can tell, most of us find tea to be helpful, and very few are bothered by coffee. IOW, since that effect pretty much applies to the general population, I seriously doubt that caffeine has any more effect on those of us with MC, than it does on anyone in the general population, on the average.

We mostly try to avoid legumes, primarily because of the various lectins that they contain. All living things contain lectins, so we can't avoid them in totality, if we are to eat. Some of the lectins in certain legumes, however, amount to rather powerful natural insecticides, or some other form of defense that the plants have developed in order to enhance their competitiveness in nature. Some of us are not necessarily sensitive to some or all lectins, but many of us seem to be. There are ways to counter most lectins, of course. Soaking beans in water before cooking, for example, will neutralize most of the risk from the lectins that they contain, and make them relatively safe to eat, after cooking. (I'm not suggesting that you should eat beans, though, because there are also other reasons why they cause problems for many of us).

Probably the most powerful lectin is found in caster beans, (which are not actually a legume, of course). The deadly chemical ricin, (sometimes used by terrorists in gas warfare), is made from the lectins in caster beans. You may recall the terrorist attack in Japan a few years ago, when ricin was released as a gas into passenger rail cars full of commuters.

Sorry, I didn't mean to write a book - I got kind of side-tracked there.

As always, you're very welcome.

Love,
Tex

[Gloria]

I've noticed that some of the gums - guar gum, locust bean gum etc. are made from beans. Would it be best to avoid all foods containing them, also? I believe that xanthan gum is using corn, so people intolerant to corn probably should avoid it.

Gloria

[tex]

Gloria,

It's true that guar is a legume, similar to soy. Locust bean gum is similar to guar gum, but since it comes from the carob tree, it's not a legume. You're quite correct - xanthan gum is made from corn sugar.

It's difficult to do without at least one of the gums, though, because with GF baked products, they take the place of the gluten that normally holds bread and other pastries together. Without them, the products are so crumbly that they become rather impractical for many purposes.

Tex