You feel great !

In my experience it is NOT something you wake up and you are all better. It is gradual. Ten years ago I battled candida and won. I had had candida for about 1 1/2 years when I found what it was. My symptoms were not as bad as this go round. In any case I went on diet and ate tons of yogurt. The first few months...yes that is right months , were absolute hell. I was so tired and fatigued it was hard to hold my head up. I was in training for a new job and I just prayed no one asked me to get up or move. I was mentally out of it. My arms and legs felt like lead. It felt like there was a gravitational force on my body much stronger than normal. I felt like I was 300 pounds and I had no strength at all to drag myself around. I had thrush wich gave me a sore throat, yeast infections that burned, trouble with balance, anxiety attacks, breathing problems. After it started to clear I got better gradually, The fog of mental cloudiness left me and I felt sharp mentally. I could rememeber words I felt clear headed. I could think straight. My body began to feel light. It was no effort to get up and move about. I had tons of energy. The body felt fantastic. I remember neing at work one day and thinking OMG I am not sick anymore. I had gotten so used to existing feeling like crap and draggin myself around like that day in and day out. Of course I then continued diet for another 6 months out of fear and thinking I could never go back to eating normal again after all that. But guess what, eventaully, after about a year of dieting and after 6 months of feeling great I went back to normal food. First I took a bite of bread and nothing happened. In the next few days I tried a cookie, etc. Within a week I went right back to a normal diet with no repercussions whatsoever. I was fine for about 10 years until antibiotcs got me again. Symptoms were different and I did not recognize what was happening...for years. never occured to me I could get it back. Lesson learned.

If you ever have candida you are always suseptible. and the second time it is doozie.

Michelle

Most doctors or and chiropracters say that you can eliminate the yeast overgrowth in 4- 6 weeks if done right. If you have an autoimmune disease associated with it then it will take much longer. Most people struggle in here for two reasons.
1. other things are occuring
2. misdiagnose....many people come to this room 1st because its one of the biggest forums where you can get help quickly. You will find great support in here. Sometimes I feel that every problem out there is in this forum.

To play it safe I used a doctor that was inexpensive to make sure I was on the right track. And then I emailed people in here to help me out with questions and stuff cuz seriously your doc does not have the time to hear u complain and answer all your questions via email or phone.

Once I did it in a fairly short time, a couple weeks, with Nystatin and avoidance of certain foods. The second time (a few years later) it took me about a month with drinking pau d' arco tea all day long, senna tea to clean me out, & strict diet with supplements. Another time I had to use great discipline because it was more intense. I had to work on healing myself with patience, strict diet, meditation 1-2 hours a day, & yoga. I drank a mix of caprol, psyllium, Bentonite & probiotics daily to clean me out. It took me several months but I was very healthy happy and balanced by the end of it. I lived in a moldy apartment and so when I would have tension in my life my whole system would get weak and then the mold would invade my body. I have eczema and it gets extremely bad when i get a yeast overload. I could feel the moment the candida died off on all occasions. It was like a peaceful well balanced feeling came over me. A sense of relief.
I am once again invaded by yeast after 2+ years of worrying about money and being under great stress. This time it is very intense and it hasn't left me yet. I am seeing a chinese doctor who is treating me with chinese herbs to get the heat and dampness out along with abiding by the regular candida diet. It is easy for yeast to grow in a damp warm environment & the herbs work very quickly to get the heat & dampness out. In 3 days I saw a major improvement. I look forward to that moment when the last bit of it leaves.

Here are 2 links to info about candida and chinese medicine
http://www.acupuncture.com/conditions/candidiac.htm
http://www.tcmpage.com/hpcandidiasis.html

"The constitutional energy is endangered when an internalized evil is there," says the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine.

Getting well is a 2 step forward and one step back process for me. I tend to make a breakthrough, then backslide some. I was just at my docs this morning, and he confirmed this is the classic detox pattern. I thought it should be linear, but my experience has been it comes in waves, and he agreed.

HI. Good question. I had struggled with candida for my entire life. Therefore, I did not recognize the symptoms as something wrong, it's just how life was.

I tried the sugar-free diet that was espoused by "The Yeast Connection" way back when... the 80s? I didn't get worse, but didn't get better, either. Stopped that, but overall tried to eat "healthy," including 2 years as a vegetarian. I didn't get better, but did gain a LOT of weight. Wrong diet for me.

A couple years ago, I found a local doctor who treats candida. By this time I would sleep hours late, need a nap, and have to go to bed early. In the meantime, I could not think clearly, had memory problems, felt compelled to sleep - a drugged feeling, even when awake it felt like part of my brain was always sleeping. I had muscle stiffness all over, allergies, bursitis that would NOT go away (for nearly a decade- bad enough that at times I could not work), and a host of other symptoms.

I started the doctor's diet, and after one week began nystatin. In 24 hours the muscle stiffness went away. I couldn't believe it- It felt fluid to move! Also noticed that I didn't have to DRAG myself upstairs anymore. For me, it was easy to notice continued improvement, because my whole body was affected. My brain slowly cleared... memory came back, and attention continues to improve. Eventually I could wake up in the morning and feel GOOD!!! I had never experienced that! No tired, crabby, drugged feeling, no stumbling around hoping I won't fall down the stairs...
My allergies went away. Rosacea went away. I no longer have blemishes that excrete yellow stuff... My eyes used to always have yellow stringy "gunk" in them in the morning- I thought that was normal and had given up wearing contacts because I couldn't keep them clean. That's gone! The horrible itching in my nose is gone. There are many, many more symptoms that went away. Bloating and flatulence went away (that happened quickly).

The pervasive symptoms had affected every part of me. From others' descriptions, it seems that most people don't have as much difficulty, and that the yeast may affect some areas more than others. So, recovery will feel different, too. Some symptoms remitted quickly, as I wrote above. Others took a very long time to clear up. I didn't seek other treatment for them (had been there, done that, but before treating for candida got nowhere. Treated for candida- they went away on their own).

So, I think the answer will be different for everyone, and also depend on the treatment chosen. I was lucky to find a doc with an effective treatment. Some people don't seem to find what works for them.

It is definitely worth treating! I believe that if you don't get better, you will get worse! One suggestion is to keep a brief journal about how you are feeling. Believe it or not, it is easy to forget how miserable it felt to be ill and lose motivation to stay on the diet.

Good luck to you.

It's good to hear some more positive results about treating Candida rather than purely doom and gloom!! :)

I had Candida from 18 to 28 following glandular fever and numerous Antibiotic treatments as a result! I had a whole load of symptoms that affected me over the 10 years until some got so bad that I looked into it myself and discovered I had candida!! Some of my symptoms came and went over time and some were progressive and constant;

Major digestive problems and severe bloating
Foliculitis on legs and stomach
Progressive until severe breathing problems
Environmental allergies; namely cigarette smoke
Ongoing intense cystitus
Intense untreatable ringworm on various parts of torso
Fungal nail infections and loss of toe nail
Bad anxiety attacks and intermitent Depression as well as paranoia
Fatigue
Bad joints symptomatic of arthritis; knees and wrists mainly
Crusty eyes in the morning; at times hard to open

The list goes on and on...

I have been treating Candida for just over a year now! I feel so so much better but I still have up and down days especially with my monthly cycle. I feel a lot of the remaining symptoms are now allergy related so I am treating leaky gut, doing a parasite cleanse and building up to a liver flush. I think that now I need to work on healing my body. Almost all of the above symtoms have gone. At first (first 6 months) I felt absolutely awful and like I wanted to give up; I felt very ill, everything got worse and it made me so depressed I really wanted to give in! But then grandully things started to clear up and I have felt greatly improved for the past 6 months!

I started with 3 months on a very strict diet; no carbs, Sugar of any sort (inlcuding no dairy, fruit etc) and taking antifungals including Niastatin for 2 months. I then switched to natural antifungals; caprylic acid, olive leaf, grapefruit seed extract, pau d'arco, oregano oil and rotated these until recently. At all times I have taken or rotated various supplements including multi vit and mineral, cod liver oil, vit c, milk thistle, l-glutamine and taken digestive enzymes with all meals. After 3 months and throughout the last year and I have very gradually added things back to my diet. I still never touch Sugar or wheat and various other candida no no's like yeast etc. But I do now have a much more varied diet with some fruits and whole grains and very little dairy! I am happy with my diet now and will pretty much maintain it, besides I am too scared to eat bad things anymore!!! I am gradually trying to reduce the supplements I take but I am also taking antiviral supplements at the moment; sasaparilla and cats claw and using a zapper daily as part of a viral and parasite treatment. I am aiming at another 6 months until I can say I am cured although I will always take great care with my health and maintain my diet indefinitely!

Good luck to everyone else treating this horrid illness!!