What is Candida? Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in your body. The most common reasons you get the overgrowth are when you disturb the natural balance in your body by doing things like taking antibiotics, hormones, including birth control pills, or steroid meds. If your diet is too high in sugars and refined carbohydrates (fast foods and processed foods that we all eat) and/or too low in fresh fruits and vegetables (be honest here!) you may also experience candida symptoms.
The what you end up with is an overgrowth of yeast – remember normal levels function well with the friendly bacteria (lactobacillus and bifidus) in your body. It’s when the yeast feeds on the extra sugars and carbs that messes up the job of the friendly, but fragile, bacteria to keep the yeast in check. Plus your friendly bacteria are easily destroyed by medications, intestinal disturbances, and stress.
What are Candida symptoms? Don’t let this scare you, but the list is long. Maybe you have symptoms from one group, or possibly multiple groups – and have not been diagnosed with another illness. It might be beneficial for you to explore getting candida cleared up and see if your symptoms go away.
Brain/Nervous System
Anxiety
Depression
Headaches
Irritability
Mood swings
Poor memory
Poor mental focus
Dizziness
Headaches/migraines
Immune/Respiratory
Frequent infections, especially ears/tonsils
Sinus congestion
Chronic cough
Pain/tightness in chest
Environmental sensitivities, i.e. mold
Reproductive
Endometriosis
Uterine Fibroids
Cervical Dysplasia
PMS
Infertility
Loss of libido
Prostatitis
Impotence
Pelvic pain
Vaginal discharge or itching
Digestive
Colitis/ Irritable Bowel disease
Constipation
Belching
Diarrhea
Bloating/Gas
Abdominal Pain
Bad Breath
Heartburn
Mucous in stools
Rectal Itching
Cravings for sweets, breads or alcohol
Food Allergies
Redness around rectal area
Other
Acne/ skin disorders
White coated tongue
Athlete’s foot
Nail fungus
Canker sores
Burning tongue
Rash/blisters in mouth
Fatigue
Joint pain/arthritis
Muscle aches/weakness
Diabetes
Blurred vision
Spots in front of eyes
Candida Probiotics
There are natural supplements that can work well to increase those friendly bacteria and help them do their job to keep the yeast in balance.
Probiotics and prebiotics can deliver new, friendly bacteria to your body. When you can get them delivered to your intestines while they are still live, they can make a much greater difference in elevating friendly bacteria levels. Don’t take a supplement that can’t do this or you may only get about 10% of the effect.
Garlic is another natural supplement that helps increase friendly bacteria and reduce yeast growth.
Supplements that strengthen your immune system help make your body more resistant to growing candida, and provide benefits to your overall health so that you avoid getting body systems out of balance.
Helping Candida With Your Diet
There are ways to help candida growth with your diet, including to reduce cravings for foods that cause it in the first place. One such way is to balance your blood sugar levels so you are not wanting to snack on sweets or carbs.
When your blood sugar levels are steady, you don’t feel hungry. Then, if you make the conscious effort to snack on healthier options, and plan this ahead, you won’t be reaching for the junk food. You won’t feel starved and you will have a healthy snack like a protein bar ready for when you need mid-meal food.
Paying attention to your diet and making the necessary changes to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) sugars and refined carbs) may be the hardest part for you in your quest to reduce candida in your body. Alpha Lipoic Acid is a nutrient that can help by balancing your blood glucose (sugar) levels naturally and reducing your cravings for these types of foods.
B vitamins, especially B-Complex (all the B vitamins together the way that you find them in nature – in your food sources), also help reduce cravings and also help balance hormones that can improve things like mood swings, nervousness, fatigue, irritability, headaches, dizziness, stress – things that can make you want to reach for the sugar and carbs!
Candida Yeast Diet
Don’t eat foods that feed yeast: sugar (including maple syrup, honey, molasses, and corn syrup), refined carbohydrates (white flour foods – crackers, snacks, chips).
DO eat foods that nourish your body: protein-rich foods (vegetable based, poultry, fish, eggs) and low-carb veggies (dark salad greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, brussel sprouts, asparagus, peppers and cucumbers).
More ways to get the yeast growth under control
Another way to balance hormones, that also helps reduce inflammation in your body that can be causing you symptoms of candida, is to take essential fatty acid supplements. Inflammation is the root cause of many illnesses and also causes pain or discomfort in your body.
Fish oil is an Omega-3 fatty acid and many doctors are recommending it to all of their patients because we have discovered this connection between inflammation and disease, together with the fact that most of us eat many more Omega-6 fatty acids that throws off the balance that should be in our bodies where there is more Omega’3’s.
If you do need a healthy source of Omega-6 to help balance your hormones, GLA Complex is an excellent choice (women – great for PMS, menopause symptoms, improve eczema). And last, some detoxifying might be in order, especially if you have an extreme case of candida. Liver and intestinal detox supplements, Alfalfa, and drinking lots of water can all help.
Final words: this overgrowth of yeast is nasty when it’s in our bodies, and getting rid of it may possible be uncomfortable for a short time. You may experience things like headaches, fatigue or achy joints as the yeast dies off. This is due to the toxins leaving your body and will pass. Some of these symptoms are similar to those you are already experiencing – the goal now is to get rid of them permanently.
We use the Shaklee brand of natural nutrition supplements for several reasons:
- it is the #1 Natural Nutrition brand
- the ingredients are the highest quality
- the delivery system of the nutrients gets them to the right part of the body at the right time
- the science behind each product proves that it works BEFORE the product is ever made
- Shaklee products are 100% guaranteed to work (or your money back)
That’s enough proof for me!
Each product mentioned in this article is linked to the appropriate Shaklee natural nutrition supplement. If you have any questions or want to discuss anything you read here, contact me at vicki@antiagingbydesign.com and let me know if you want to communicate by email or give me your phone number if you’d like me to call you.
Another option to try a few of these items AND get a free Shaklee membership that saves you 15% off all products is to order Vitalizer. Vitalizer includes extra B vitamins, fish oil, probiotics and antioxidants, and all the vitamins and minerals that are inside multi-vitamins. It is packaged in one convenient strip of 6 tablets you take daily. Plus taking Vitalizer every day gives you more energy and is proven to help you build better health (we have the long-term clinical studies that tests blood levels to prove it!). You could add a bottle of Garlic to take for an extra boost to get rid of your candida.
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