edit/update

I originally started using the DE as a silica source--1/4 tsp in a gallon container of drinking water, swish it around, let it get cloudy, saturated (no pain). But then I was reading about how it really helps people have good BM's, and also that it shreds parasites, and since I have candidiasis I started wondering if it might also shred fungal candida in the intestine (relative size of the diatoms vs. the fungal candida?). So I took a tbsp in a glass of water, and later I got pain in my right kidney. I might have done this twice. Pain in rt. kidney wasn't so uncommon back then so I wasn't sure it was the DE. Then I did a 1/2 tbsp of DE and got the pain but much milder. But that was pretty much the end of it. I continue to take 1/2 tbsp once or twice a day, no pain. I think it might be a case of going from deficient in silica to an abundance. They say anyone w/ candida has leaky gut--maybe a lot more DE/silica got in than would have otherwise. I also got, around that time, a horizontal ridge on the fingernail of my left index finger, shaped like a speed bump, no discoloration. It grew out.

No protein in the urine. But I do get gout-like symptoms--a pain in my right big toe from time to time. It starts out softly then rises then subsides, not acute like classic gout. It goes away for days maybe weeks at a time. Been going on for about 3 or 4 years. I know all about purines, etc., hence the Celery seed tea. And yes, I was using kidney cleanse teas long before the DE. I've used about 6 different ones now and I think they all work, but slowly. (watermelon/seed, chanca piedra, concoction (w/ marjoram, cat's claw, comfrey, fennel, etc), nettle leaf, magnesium malate, Celery seed. I've also been doing tomato juice/celery/parsley but I'll probably stop that due to the calcium content.)