Re: I need some advice on this whole Candida/Leaky Gut thing...much appreciated!!!

 Hey yessir...sounds lije a familiar story. My issues and goals were very similar, and now my skin is clear, I'm a CrossFitter & runner (including a Boston Marathon Qualifier and 2 Boston Marathons), and if I wanto to have an occasional couple of Martini's, followed by pizza and dessert with my friends, I can do it.

Firstly, if you want to confirm candidiasis or some other intestinal bacterial/fungal overgrowth, a.k.a. dysbiosis, a CDSA was the way for me. http://www.gdx.net/product/10006.  My dermatologist ordered one for me and it confirmed intestinal overgrowths of Candida Parapsilosis, Staph Aureus and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. It also confirmed an inability to digest fats. I could elaborate on symptoms but suffice it to say that psoriasis and fatigue were among them. So when my dermatologist received the report, Tanalbit  http://www.intensivenutrition.com/products/tanalbit-plant-tannin-gi-support-product-120-capsules showed up on the report as being effective against all three of the organisms. There were also some prescription meds listed as effective but antibiotics were what got me into the codition in the first place, so I didn't want to go down that path again. I only wanted to after the bad stuff without killing the good stuff. I started on the Tanalbit and within a few days, experienced relief and an increase in  energy. I was already on the so called anti-candida diet, but that wasn't doing the job alone. all the diet seems to do, is prevent the condition from getting any worse.

In spite of this, the one thing that really broke the cycle, was the Clarke Liver Flush http://curezone.org/cleanse/liver/huldas_recipe.asp. Believe it or not, I discovered it on this website back in the infancy of curezone. Now, we can debate day and night over why one would want to do such a thing, and what exactly it does, but I like to look at my situation very simply; I've got this intestinal bacterial/fungal overgrowth, which is impairing my digestion, which is irritating my digestive tract, leading to malabsorption, leaky gut, release of toxins into the blood which the liver has to remove. The liver might become overwhelmed and can't keep up. The liver's "waste" product of blood detoxification is bile. If the liver is impaired, it slows the production of bile, which is the exact opposite of what I want to happen since it needs to produce bile to get rid of the blood toxins and the bile is needed for digestion. Bile is also a natural anti-bacterial/anti-fungal for the digestive tract as well as a substance necessary for the digestion of fats and the absorption of fat soluble nutrients which are also necessary for good skin health, etc.

So even though I didn't have gallstones I tried the liver flush exactly as written in the Clarke Protocol. That broke the vicious cycle for me, and it took more than one flush, spaced two weeks apart as recommended.

I'm really, really, really oversimplifying what I've been through and I'm leaving out many many years of trying this thing and that thing and a lot of the other things that I see in posts including diets, no diets etc.

If you decide to try it and since you like to work out, I would suggest using your workouts as a gauge. I did the same with running. The Tanalbit got me running and the flushes got me running in high gear, with very measurable step changes in the two weeks between each flush.  I'm not sure if the Tanalbit was important or not, but the flushes were the key. Clarke recommends Black Walnut Hull which maybe has a similar effect as Tanalbit. Cinnamon is said to also have this effect  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/440403  and    http://www.thecandidadiet.com/cinnamon-antifungal/ but if your going to use cinnamon in quantities, don't use the standard store bought cinnamon which is Cassia Cinnamon.  it has too much Coumarin content as opposed to Ceylon cinnamon.

I welcome questions...