Hi Alicia,

I'm not familiar with Mercola's mercury detox diet, but I do know that mercury interferes with the body's immune functions. I also believe mercury suppresses the natural growth of healthy colonic flora, and both of these factors will contribute to the overgrowth of "bad bacteria" like Candida.

My business partner, Russ, was unable to get rid of his Candida problems during the last year of so before he got his mercury fillings removed. However, once the fillings were out, the Candida disappeared all on its own and has never been a problem since.

So...if you have all the mercury fillings already removed, I would tend to think that gently detoxing the mercury will get to the root problem causing the Candida. Some people like to take Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) or chlorella. There's also a product called Heavy Metal Detox. Whatever you take for mercury detox, I highly recommend taking Algin. Algin will actually bind to (absorb) the mercury being expelled from the tissues and pull it out of the body via the colon. This is, in my opinion, the most important step in the mercury detox process! The reason, if you don't have anything to absorb the mercury that's being expelled from the tissues, the mercury will just get reabsorbed and redistributed, which can make some people very sick and really exacerbate their condition. (I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I've tried detoxing without Algin and I got very sick...so have others I've known. In fact, someone posted a while ago that they had tried fibers like psyllium, but they didn't work nearly as well as Algin.)

If you do want to take things to help with the Candida while you're going through mercury detox, you could try it and see if it helps you. Sandra mentioned she takes Olive Leaf Extract and Caprylic Acid...both of which are very good for combating Candida. I've posted some information about both supplements in case you want to know more about them:

Olive Leaf Extract

Caprylic Acid helps maintain the delicate balance of intestinal flora in the colon, keeping levels of Candida yeast in check. Caprylic acid is a natural fatty acid known to have an antifungal action against Candida albicans. Caprylic acid is quickly absorbed in the intestines; therefore, timed-release or enteric-coated formulas are typically preferred, as they enable the contents to be gradually released throughout the intestinal tract.

By the way, I've read that many "fermented" foods, like sauerkraut, contain nitrates and/or nitrites. According to one website I came across, nitrites in the stomach can react with food proteins to form N-nitroso (nitrosamine) compounds, which have been found to be carcinogenic in test animals. Sauerkraut and most fermented foods are also linked to migraine headache: Migraine Elimination Diet