Desperation.

In times of major stress a human will truely believe anything if he or she is told it is the answer to the stressful situation, however illogical it may be.

I believe in the exsistance of fungal overgrowths, however a simple bacterial overgrowth is mush more prevailent due to our western diet. I expect most of the people on the Candida Support Forum have primary bacterial overgrowth, not candida.

Very similar symptoms but a completely different course with a different treatment. Think of all those people who have gotten more sick on an anti candida diet (typically the anti candida diet is bad for treating candida though!)

So symptoms of bacterial overgrowth (from my own personal experiences, yours may differ)

Diarhorrea, alternating with constipation.
A buring pain under the ribs, may be on teh left or right
malasorbtion
confusion
hyperactivity (occasionally)
poor sleep
anxiety


Now for candida

Just diarhorrea, never constipation
never a buring pain
malasorbtion
confusion
anxiety
overactive bladder
ok sleep
confusion (however noticeable different to bacterial overgrowth)

As you can see they are similar.

Due to the western diet being very high in starches a bacterial overgrowth will be the primary issue for most people. There may a secondary growth of candida thriving on the bacterial waste, however in that situation it is likely to register on medical testing but will not the cause of the symptoms. A primary candida overgrowth is rare, generally only appearing in those who have a diet exceptionally high in refined sugars, or those who have a low count of bacteria. Now it will be rare for a person on teh standard western diet to have too little!

I have learnt this though experience, I had a bacterial overgrowth and removed it by diet. With too little bacteria I had a true candida overgrowth pop up (there are many other factors however) And found a great deal of difference between the bacterial, and fungal symptoms. I also found my candida overgrowth was cured in about 3 days by increasing my fiber intakes and hence my bacterial levels. To compound my knowledge of the differences by day 8 I had too much bacteria and experienced the bacterial overgrowth set of symptoms. I hope to strike a balance soon and will have hence solved my gut issues.

So my advice to you? Forget candida, its unlikely to be the cause of your problems, it may play a part but not as the rot cause.

Don't google bacterial overgrowth, most of it is wrong. Like candida its self perpetuating. It will cause the damage to your gut that allows food to malabsorbed and hence feed more bacteria. treating with anti-biotics will only lower your bacteria levels temperary, the damage is still there once you stop the course. You need a long term dietry treatment. I used the SCD diet, to my knowledge its the only one that works.

With SCD you'll have the bacteria under control in about a month, your digestive tract will then begin to heal, the healing process typicaly takes about 12months (but your symptoms will be long gone by the 12month mark, I felt great by the 3month mark) After those 12 months of healing you can begin to come off the diet if you feel so inclinded, a lot of people don't, afterall, why risk your health?