Could It Be Candida?
Have you been dealing with intense sugar cravings, brain fog, fatigue, digestion issues, and anxiety or depression? It could be candida overgrowth.
What is candida and how does one get it?
Candida albicans is a specific strain of yeast that lives in the intestinal tract, which can become problematic when it gets out of balance and overgrows.
Candida is opportunistic, meaning that it will grow out of balance if your health or constitution has been weakened, typically by using antibiotics. Because non-organic meat contains antibiotics, many of us are consuming them, unwittingly, on a daily or at least weekly basis.
Antibiotics kill bacteria—both the good and the bad. So whenever antibiotics are used, we need to repopulate the intestinal flora with good bacteria (probiotics). The good bacteria should outweigh the bad so it doesn’t take over and cause problems.
Antibiotics can also thin our mucosal lining, leaving us ill-equipped to wrap up pathogens such as parasites and transport them out of the body. This can make us vulnerable to all kinds of foreign invaders and yeast overgrowth. So we build the lining of the intestinal tract using a glutamine-based product.
Other contributing factors include excessive sugar, coffee, or alcohol consumption, parasitic infections, and chronic stress.
What are the symptoms of candida?
A white coating on the tongue is typical. However, other symptoms include:
- intestinal distress such as constipation, bloating, or gas
- mental/emotional aspects including depression and anxiety
- mental fog you simply can’t shake
- debilitating fatigue or exhaustion
- intense sugar cravings (anyone running out at 10 p.m. in their pajamas to snag some sweets?)
- chronic sinus infections
- excess mucous
- nail fungus
- persistent food or environmental allergies
How do I know if I have candida?
Blood, stool, or saliva lab tests can tell if you have candida. But we have found that a free, easy, at-home spit test to be quite accurate over the years (it was also featured on The Dr. Oz Show).
It’s as simple as this: For six days in a row, when you wake up in the morning, fill a glass halfway with room-temperature water (before you brush your teeth or eat or drink anything). Next, work up a dime-sized amount of saliva and spit it into the glass. Check it three times over the course of forty-five minutes to see if your saliva sinks to the bottom, stays floating on top, or if it grows legs, little spindly tails that reach down the glass. If it sinks or grows legs, then you can suspect that yeast is overgrowing in your system. Don’t be freaked out, it happens to so many of us these days, and there is a way to cleanse from it permanently.
Does the spit test sound crazy to you? It does to most but we promise it works.
An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure!
To keep candida at bay, keep refined sugar and alcohol to a minimum, and always supplement with a good multi-strain probiotic when you do consume these foods. Eating fresh garlic, oregano, or drinking Pau D’arco tea can do wonders for the immune system (try our Cleansing Pesto Recipe found in the recipe section). Regularly drinking bone broth or adding a high-quality gelatin powder to your smoothie on occasion can help to strengthen the lining of the intestinal tract.
How Do I Cleanse From It?
To eliminate candida overgrowth, you must starve it with a special diet, and then kill it with a careful concoction of supplements.
Diet
Eliminate all yeast, gluten, sugar, white flour, fermented foods and drinks, and most fruit. Complex carbohydrates such as gluten-free grains, legumes, and root vegetables are allowed, but should be limited. Focus on non-starchy vegetables, clean animal protein, and healthy fats including avocado, butter, and coconut oil. Basically, a pretty boring diet that goes on for six to eight weeks.
Supplements
After working with hundreds of clients and many years of trial and error, we have finally figured out the best concoction for killing candida:
- Food-grade diatomaceous earth, these old tiny fossils don’t harm the human body, but act like razor blades to the exoskeleton of the candida.
- Bentonite clay (in a lot of water) carries the shell out of the body.
- Antifungals, such as grapefruit seed extract, Pau D’arco, oregano oil, and olive leaf extract kill the candida—just make sure to rotate them every four days.
But there’s more to the story
Because candida can only overgrow in a host with limited resistance, we must figure out which other system in the body has been compromised, be it the immune system (with underlying viruses or heavy metals), an organ or a gland (usually the liver, adrenals, or thyroid) or a combination thereof. Those other systems that are out of balance must also be cleansed and strengthened at the same time, in order for the candidiasis to be completely eliminated.
More Info
If you are interested in learning more or diving into our life-transforming cleanse, head on over HERE. It's an 8-week comprehensive tried-and-tested online candida cleanse and GI repair plan that you can do anytime within one year of enrolling in the program.
If you liked this blog, you’ll love:
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome
7 Ways to Avoid the Afternoon Crash!
A Little Science Behind Fungal Infections and Yeast Overgrowth (Candidiasis)
Blog Resource Links:
What is my first step in this 10 weeks program?
Can you eat brewer’s yeast or is that a no no?
Hi Therese- If candida is active, brewer’s yeast is not recommended. 🙂
How do you prepare de tea with pau d’arco? How many grams per litre? I have the bark but don’t know the proportions. Please!
Hi! Is it raw homemade apple cider vinegar allowed? And savory ferments like chucrut and kimchi?
Hi Paula- We would recommend avoiding these foods to start out with until the candida is cleared. For some, ACV can be fine and well-tolerated, however, for others, this is too fermented and can feed lingering candida.
Thanks for your response! May I ask if I can take suplements douring the process, like B complex, iron, selenium, etc.?
All this information is great !! Thank you for caring , God bless you 🙏
Hi there! I am EXTREMELY interested in this. I took the quiz and need it badly. But I have also looked into the Adrenal Recode and need that too. I am super depleted after my 4th pregnancy and am really feeling it. Is it better for my body to start with kicking the candida or recoding my adrenals?!
Thank you!
Hi, to rotate the antifungals…take grapefruit for 4 days, then switch to oregano oil for 4 days…and so on? And how long would you recommend taking these supplements? Thank you 🙂
can the diametous earth and bentonite clay be taken in vegetable capsules or must they be mix with water and drunk?
Hi Stacey – You may take in capsules if that is tolerated better for you 🙂