Hi All,

Fairly new here - I've previously posted on introductions.

Generally, I've had chronic headaches for 12.5 years and now chronic gastrointestinal problems for 3 years.

Having a bad day today, so, you know how it is, I've come here to find some inspiration and hope. I do have an appt with my dentist on 3/7 to discuss amalgam removal so I am making moves.

About candidiasis - haven't been diagnosed or ever treated with it. Been told after tests etc ruled everything else out that I 'probably' have IBS and I've been left to it.

However, I've seen snippets of info re: candidiasis and a lot of the other symptons I have are associated with, eg headaches, chemical sensitivities.

Can anyone tell me if they've had this problem and how successfully it was treated - and is it strongly linked to mercury poisoning? Has mercury removal/chelation alleviated these problems?

Thanks for you time

Melanie.

Ok this is going to be a long post, so hope you'll bear with me. Candida almost always exists in a mercury toxic person. They go hand in hand. They both can cause their own seperate misery, so try and imagine it combined.

Mercury harms the gut and liver, candida harms the gut and liver. Sadly, both the gut and liver are crucial in the process of detox. So the effects of these both can be pretty horrific. Alleviate one and the other will normally improve somewhat.

But it is tough. Mercury is hard to get rid of, candida isn't easy either, but at least with candida, you have control over the one thing it needs desperately (sugar). If you continue to eat sugar, even the bits here and there, candida is happy and remains at high levels, poisoning your blood stream, harming your liver and gut, whilst you are undoing the mercury toxicity at the sametime.

Take away candida's main food source and watch what happens. You stop eating sugar, yeast, gluten grains and when these things come out of your system (may take some days or longer), the candida begins to panic. It needs these things to survive and suddenly they are not there. Though it can still feed on natural sugars from milk, fruit etc, so long as you either elminate things initially or mimimise them, the candida will still start to weaken and die. If you have an acute case of candida, you may need to have no fruit at all, no milk, no potatoes (starch can feed candida) etc.

At any rate, rid the main things, mimise or elminate the rest if needs be. The candida will start to weaken and become ill and die. When this occurs, you will sometimes feel worse and could end up getting headaches, burning eyes, sleepy etc. It can cause almost anything. IT will want you to cheat and eat sugar and you will sometimes start craving the very foods you need to avoid. This is the candida talking. If you can hold out and fight, even if you feel like you're going crazy with cravings, the candida will die. If you cheat? You may have to start from scratch all over again, or you will simply not notice progress.

The die off period can last from days to weeks, depending on each invidual.

Candida also absorbs mercury. It has been known to hold its own weight in mercury. So if a person decides to use antifungals? The antifungals will kill large amounts of yeast in one go, cause the yeast cells to split open and release all their toxicity, plus mercury. when this happens, a person ca become repoisoned with mercury. Not a wise move. Though in some cases antifungal have to be used if it's acute case of candida, but only under guidance.

Diet is the safest way to do this because yeast simply get ill, and wither and are disgarded by the body eventually. They do give off their death toxins and alcohols, which can cause you to feel very unwell and almost drunk on occassion, but its' worth going through.

I do hopethat helps a litte Mercury of course is the underlining factor, but lowering candida in the body can help some people feel dramatically better. Some detox the mercury easier after this also.

Thank you, that was a fantastic response and has made things much clearer to me. Just a couple of questions please:

Once the Candida has died after the days/weeks of denying it sugars can i safely go back to eating some of the things I love, like bread?

Also, do you know of a good website that offeres alternative foods to eat whilst on this restrictive diet? I eat quite healthily, eg lots of fruit & veg, but not very imaginitively so I could do with a good list of alternatives to inspire me.

Thanks so much again for the info. I can hardly believe the responses I've had from here - people really do seem to care about others same situation. I really do hope once my fillings are gone that I feel that benefit too and can be in a position to say the same to others!

Melanie

Hi Melanie, you're very welcome. I would not be in a hurry to eat bread or sugar again until you are certain you have candida under control. You may find once you have less candida, that you will get a pretty marked reaction if you try and cheat and you won't want to experience it too often.

I cheated after 3 weeks on the candida diet, thinking because I felt better and stronger, I'd get away with it (I ate chocolate). I relapsed so bady, I had to start from scatch and it was only one night of eating chocolate. So it's really shakey for the first couple of months. You have to give your body enough chance to rebuild.

Also, fi the ongoing affects such as mercury remain, then you may not be able to go back to your old diet, until those things have been greatly lessened. Candida will just come back.

So it'll be up to you and how you respond and whether you can get away wtih finally adding things back. But just be really careful. I did manage to get away with eating some potatoe chips finally and some fruit, but I always had to be careful. now? i can't do anything because I've had other knocks to my health that has gotten me so sick, I now have to be far stricter.

I'm not sure what other great things you could eat on this diet. I'm really useless in regards to recipies and cooking. I'm the worst! But I will direct you to a website that is probably the best website for candida you will EVER find. However, it is the strictest possible extreme on the diet, so you might be very taken aback at what is banned and what is allowed. But you can choose whether to go to that extreme or not. Depending on how bad you have candida. you might improve simply on the basic no sugar, no yeast, no gluten grains diet and be able to include minimal fruit or milk. But if you can't you may have to go on the strict diet at first.

At any rate, this website has a wealth of information on it and hope it might help in regards to things you can eat. I'm useless with this kind of thing because I don't cook and I never get into recipes etc. I just eating boring old plain food

The website link is http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/candidasupport/

It has files on that website you can read that contain all kinds of information. From nutrition to what foods you can eat, to how to make certain things and so forth. And what to expect.

Hope that helps <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Plain and simple. Mercury is a antibiotic. With fillings it is continous.antibiotic. Kills all bacteria, in addtion to the good ones then obviously you get a overgrowth of candida. This causes the gut damage and gastrointestinal problems. In addtion it also opens the door for parasites. You can take parasites cleanses all the time, probiotics but your never taking care of the beginning cause which is your fillings.

Yeah, you're right. If the underlining condition remains, then candida will continue to cause issues or come back. But it's good to at the very least deal with it while a person gets rid of mercury, that can help some people a lot. It's worth trying to my mind. It can be life saving sometimes.

On this page of my personal story, I write about the candida issues that I had. I also expand this subject in the following chapters:

My Mercury Amalgam Story (Candida)

I hope you find it helpful.