Re: Could a sudden shift in diet and lifestyle "shock" my system and cause recurrent UTIs? Treatment advice?

In addition to what you've listed, I've used uva ursi extract to successfully treat UTIs, and acupuncture and Chinese herbs (my acupuncturist gave me a formula, unfortunately I don't remember the name of it).

As for whether the sudden lifestyle and diet shift caused it, that seems reasonable. Throwing the body off-balance like that is bound to have repercussions.

One final piece of advice... I have more experience with UTIs than I care to remember. Through diet and lifestyle changes I was able to virtually eliminate them, with the exception of once a year. For some reason, I would still get one in the middle of every summer. This year, I did a candida cleanse during the summer. I ate lots of raw, vegan and low-to-no sugar. And bam! No UTI this year. I suspect that it was the low Sugar diet that did it, so you may be right about it being candida-related. In any case, try going on a low or no-sugar diet and see what happens.

And good luck! I know your pain. :P