Update on the battle

It's been almost a week since I first came on here and introduced my situation. I feel I have made significant progress. As a quick recap, I got constant gas/bloating/belching, diagnosed with SIBO, razed it with Rifaximin, bloating got worse, realized I must have the yeasties.

Though I'm doing better than a week ago, I still don't really have a routine down. This has been developing as I go along and I'm quick to change things up as I learn. I have the beginnings of coordinated plan, but my style is still a loose shotgun approach to experiment. Hopefully I can save you some research -I've spent all my free time (and some that wasn't free) researching and treating this. Further, my lifestyle is being altered and I am putting many new things into my body. Though we can research and make assumptions, my sample size is just 1 (me) and it's difficult to prove anything is not merely correlation without causation.

My joints started popping all the time and then huting. I used Whole Foods Glucosamine Sulfate and Jarrow's MSM 2-3 times per day and this symptom improved rapidly over 3 days and reduced it to 2-4 pops per day/no pain over 5-6 days. Who knows if it would have gone away anyway or if something else had this effect. My gut (heh, heh) tells me this stuff is money.

I was unsure whether I had systemic candida and it was attacking my joints directly, or if my body was somehow off-kilter otherwise (candida causes MANY domino effects). I suspected my thyroid was tanked. There is much talk about a link between gluten intolerance and leaky gut -as I understand it, when undigested gluten makes it into the blood, the immune system marks it as a foreign invader. Problem being that its "protein pattern" looks like that of the thyroid's, meaning your own immune system might attack your thyroid. All you need when you're fighting candida, for your adrenal system to head due south. I got some Gaia Thyroid Support, and realizing my adrenals may be f'd up, started getting pain under my right ribs, indicating a liver/gallbladder issue. At this time I realized my body was dealing with dysbiosis for months, and then dealt with every bacteria in my GI being killed, and was now faced with both a candida invasion and the massive die-off effects of my merciless anti-candida regime. I am glad I took tumeric and nigella sativa for a year before this all started.

Therefore I look Pantethine (Vitamin Shoppe), Reduced Gluathione (Vitamin Shoppe -Acetylgluathione is FAR better, but I'm still waiting for it to arrive so I drove to the store and settled meanwhile) and molybdenum. The store didn't have it, so I got a balanced minerals supplement that contained a far smaller dose. Not ideal but I wanted some of it in my body.

I also did a very light coffee enema (my first enema ever. I'm officially an adult now.) As others have reported, I felt the liver/gallbladder squelching and emptying. Beforehand I had taken the above stated supplements with plenty of pure water. Afterwards I took a balanced minerals pill with some warm magnesium water. I felt quite a bit more clear and felt as though my perpetually toxic state was alleviated. For good measure, 2ish hours later I minced and boiled organic garlic and drank the water. Ultimately the pain under the ribs went from a constant thorn in my side (haha! I know how to make jokes) to there for just a second 2-3 times in a day. This was two days ago.

My molybdenum 150mcg pills arrived and I popped my first one a few hours ago. Yesterday I was on a candida killing spree and tried to manage the die-off's with what I had available and it wasn't TOO bad. At the end of it I popped a few coconut oil caps, waited an hour, and finished with my first Thorne Research S. Coagulans before going to bed (x2).

The onslaught continued this morning with more coconut oil, nigella sativa, tumeric, Cayenne/Garlic caps, Grapefruit-Seed-Extract for my first time since SIBO (I learned that L. Acidophilus may be O.K. with it!), and not to be stopped, I bought a plug-in stovetop burner and kettle on my way to work to do lemon water.

WOAH! I woke up feeling like I had a cold today, but an hour after that lemon water it hit me full-force, and the only way to stay pumped enough to work was to keep thinking of 80's soundtrack music and one-liners. Sore throat, sniffles and excessive mucus, sensitivity to light in the eyes. Now at 10PM, a few hours after my first molybdenum pill, well...it would be a direct lie to say I feel lovely. And again, correlation without causation. But if I felt like I did a few hours ago, I probably wouldn't be typing this staring at my LED screen. Oh, my head is still underwater, but I gained clarity and a spring in my step. They are 150mcg, I will try upping the dose.

Weeks ago, food was sitting in my stomach and my digestion stank. It was at its worst before I realized I had candida and was still eating things like cheeseburgers. I limited my Sugar and carbs and used NOW Betaine HCL w/ Pepsin and Rainbow Light Advanced Enzyme Complex when I ate (dose depends on amount/type of food). This improved matters greatly, even when I "cheat" and have carbs, which I still do because of my other health condition which likes them. I realized success against candida is equally unlikely if my body has no nourishment as if the candida does have it, and also notions the candida will just go for your blood Sugar if you starve it. I feel my candida is unlikely systemic and that other symptoms were controlled by countering it's affects on my adrenals; therefore I use easily absorbed carbs like jasmine rice. Never thought I'd appreciate the scant dextrose content of my 5-HTP fast-dissolves. Some of you may find this heresy and think I will need to learn the hard way; perhaps I will. Right now though I know that the yeast is on the run.

In fact, I was so slogged down at work I decided to be reckless and eat a granny smith apple an hour after the lemon juice...AND some gummy bears! My gas never totally goes away, but it only slightly worsened it. Net, my gas is still down day-over-day daily, and eating these did not reverse the trend. GOOD. By hailing antifunginals and acidic water down on them I might just be able to eat some scraps of Sugar here and there.

Tonight I plan to experiment with some big guns I just acquired. Thorne Research Formula SF722 arrived -undecenoic acid. I also grabbed a product I heard of called Fungal Defense from Garden of Life. The selling point was a massive 20,000CU of hemicellulase, an enzyme which breaks down cellulose -which is what candida's cell walls are made of. I took one. I think I will stack two Interase Plus on that before bed, and then at 6AM in the morning drop the SF722 bomb. An hour later, hopefully after the dust settles, I'll take a good dose of B. Coagulans, L. Salivarius, and Primal Defense Ultra. My anti die-off measures will have an impressive test...but so will the candida. JUSTICE IS COMING. Tweet