Candida infection - underlying cause for some? (Lyme Disease, Fibromyalgia, CFS, Gluten Intolerance)

[Guest alkria]

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Just to note this is my own opinion from own personal experience over the years, as well as reading case studies and linking many peoples stories. A lot of people are still to identify the cause of their dysautonomia and I'm hoping this might point them in new directions. This isn't meant to be detailed, but I'd be glad for people with more experience to maybe offer their opinion.

Same symptoms across syndromes and diseases

With all of these conditions (e.g. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, IBS, Dysautonomia) there seems a common thing people are finding to reduce their symptoms by stopping is: gluten and sugar. This to me is the link between all of these conditions. As they are all clinically representing with the same symptoms and often clinically diagnosed, as identifiers (e.g. blood tests) are still rather inaccurate - or don't exist. This makes me consider the underlying cause of many could be systemetic candida.

What is candida?

You will probably get a better definition from Wikipedia - but it is essentially a yeast that lives in your gut flora of your microbiome. It thrives off sugar and yeast based foods. A candida infection is when it the fungus overwhelms the other bacteria your biome. There are multiple causes, it can come about from a weakened immune system, it can come about from consuming an excess amount of foods it thrives off or loss of good bacteria from antibiotics which usually keep it in check.

Rise in cases

Why are the cases for all of these syndromes rising particularly in the western world? Why is there a rise in 'gluten intolerance'? Why is there rising reports of Lyme in the Western world, when Lyme ticks have been around forever - is it because we are starting to notice it more? Changes in climate?

Change in diet

The high sugar diet is becoming so prevelant in the western world.

Syndromes / other conditions

I have noticed patterns in symptoms between a lot of these syndromes, which a lot of these communities do not share between each other and unfortunately a lot of conditions being poorly understood.

There are patterns which can be found, one I find no coincidence, females are generally known to be more prone to develop yeast infections. As with the majority of cases for Fibromyalgia, CFE and Dysautonomia etc. with the first two being clinically diagnosed, dysautonomia normally always being secondary.

One of my grandparents as of recently started developing bad arthritis, I found they were having a lot of sugar, now it is mostly alleviated from reducing. Other Eastern countries don’t get arthritis and many of these other syndromes to the same degree, which in western countries is quite prevalent in any age group, which most of the populace associates with old age. I have also heard of cases of depression being cured from diet, which is something I’m testing with a friend at the moment. Conventional doctors often lack nutritional skills and want to only diagnose something by being presented with one symptom, then also specialising in one area - which reduces you from seeing the bigger picture, which may map these ailments together.

Conventional doctors will often also be last to identify whether you have a candida infection or not, as their perception is you can only have oral thrush and vaginal thrush, which makes no sense when this bacteria lives in your gut, it can become over-populated anywhere in between and if entering your blood stream, can appear anywhere.

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome etc. are just conventional doctors way of classifying someone with a diagnosis, when they don’t know what causes it - the patterns though are obvious to some. People finding out the severity of some of these conditions is only through the internet and identifying stories similar to theirs is how we are finally making strides.

If they do come across candida, they often think it is cause secondarily to these other conditions because of their weakened immune system, but forget it can become just as systematic as Lyme disease for example. You will find a large majority are clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease as of the poor tests, then are given a protocol. Antibiotics then enforce the problem more. They associate anti-fungals as 'cyst busters' (which destroy biofilms). I would set up a trial to not take your antibiotics for the day and retain the anti-fungals/probiotics, you will still have the same herx you normally do if they are already in their proctocol. 

People that clinically diagnose themselves with gluten intolerance are because of the correlation they find when reacting to yeast based products (e.g. bread) - then search to find Celiac disease, have the blood test which comes back negative. The link conventional doctors and most people don’t see is a majority of the products that contain gluten, contain the yeast and sugars that feed candida. They then can move onto clinically diagnosing other conditions after stopping gluten, since they are still getting some symptoms, but probably reduced, it is because they still maintain sugar in their diet, which maintains the condition, which they probably have in excess as well as it is what caused their problem.  This increase is obviousby observing the whole sections dedicated to 'gluten free' now in supermarkets.

People that have these syndromes will often comfort eat the no-go foods, which just ensures their conditions permeate.

Other intolerances

Some people that have issue with dairy, could likely be candida overwhelming the microbiome and possibly depleting the amount of lactase they have. Often why older people develop lactose issues as I believe we are all borderline lactose intolerant in the western world, which can quite easily be scewed, thus causing these secondary intolerances.

Alcohol intolerance is often something that is claimed  - could this just be from yeast or sugar alcohols that feed the candida. If the same person had vodka with diet coke (non-sugar), I can be sure they won't have the same reaction. 

Candida symptoms

If you have symptoms of itching, flatulence, joint pain, nausea, stomach noises, fatigue, skin breakouts, ear ache you can be more fairly certain it is a candida infection, in my opinion. I’ve often found a lot of people with CFS, Fibromyalgia, Lyme to share these symptoms. A lot of dysautonomia patients do have underlying gastro problems.

If you've been clinically diagnosed with one of these syndromes, have a look at a list of candida symptoms, BAM, you've been clinically diagnosed with candida. If you're on antibiotics and get 'die-off' or 'herx' reactions, you could go without antibiotics today and replace them with an anti-fungal (e.g. coconut oil, grapefruit seed extract, diflucan and oil of oregano) see what happens. Remember, these are anti-fungals foremost. Some of you might already have in your regime to 'keep the yeast at bay'. 

Just google ‘diflucan lyme’ or any antifungal, you’ll be surprised by the number of threads that come up of people reporting it to give as big herx than they ever get from antibiotics. Diflucan is a prescribed antifungal. Someone doses an antibiotic often with an antifungal (to keep yeast infection at bay), 2 hours later they get die-off, they just assume it is from the antibiotic, this in their mind then verifies they have this disease.

In my opinion, if your symptoms stop when changing diet, it is because consuming sugars or yeasts will cause it to flare as you are directly feeding it. 

My story

Unfortunately I fell through the Lyme loophole, after passing through several others, gluten intolerance, auto-immune etc. 

I thought I had a fairly good diet, but that was completely offset by the amount of sugar I had. I realised how much was in products. I was going out for regular beers in the week, then binge drinking vodka on weekends with Coca-Cola (which has 180g of sugar in a litre). A bag of sweets can easily have 100g and I was quite known for my sweet tooth. I used to smoke weed a lot and this enforces your sweet tooth more when having chill sessions with friends, you will get through multiple bags of sweets. Most of my lunches I had some baguette with them or at least my lunch was stapled on having bread in some form, sandwich etc. From going out a lot and often having little sleep, this just weakened my immune system and I became pry to an infection.

For those of you that know Lyme - I have had a good majority of Lyme, Babesia and Bartonella (co-infection) symptoms, even the ones you would clinically diagnose people with e.g. Chest tightness [bart/babesia], foot pain [bart], shortness of breath (after eating) [babesia] etc. Some of these were mostly caused by my POTS (dysautonomia) , drinking more water just subsided them (which back at the time I didn't drink much of). I even had 'Band 31' flag on the Western Blot test, which the community at large would say that one band alone is very conclusive to Lyme, conventional doctors expect at least 3, but then lots of people claim it is inaccurate. I don't think a lot of the markers are correct, these tests are still experimental. It just feels they are correct if they a verifying some symptoms you are having. I also think people are happy to land with a diagnosis after searching for so long.  There is a lot of us out there that want these 100% diagnosis's, but modern medicine is not quite there yet to offer it to us.

My symptoms are now almost relieved after half a year of clearing my candida infection with anti-fungals and stopping antibiotics. These infections can take a while to clear as they've just built up over many years. This is the reason why I believe so many do so well when they switch to the 'Lyme Buhner Protoctol', which is purely herbal - which removes the maintaining cause for the candida, which is the antibiotics. Though, some will probably go back to their old diets, as they think they are okay to have sugars and yeasts again because they’ve stopped antibiotics.

Unfortunately this clinical diagnosis just worsened my microbiome from taking antibiotics, even with antifungals. I’ve had extreme head pressure at back of my head ( alarming enough to think I had brain tumor). Numbness, muscle twitching, chest tightness, joint pain, eye pressure and heart palpitations. They’re probably the worst symptoms I had. I kept thinking I was having herx reactions with the antibiotics, but it was actually the antifungals in the regime.

Just to illustrate how many symptoms I've had as well from candida: Itching, head pressure (back of head and top), nausea, eye pressure, tingling hands and feet, foot pain, joint pain (wrists, ankles, knees, fingers), chest tightness, pain in intestine area, ear ache, burning skin sensation, numb fingers, eyelid twitching, gum pain, fatigue, muscle twitches, back pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, sinus issues, tight throat, sore throat, off-balance.

Any questions feel free to ask. Anything else to add please post!

[dancer65]

I do believe sugar,gluten additives preservities can be a problem for many with chronic illness . I tried a very strict diet under the guidence of a hebalist when my autoimmune diseases first started 30 years ago although it made me feel a little better it didnt stop the progress of my alopecia and I have continued to accumulate other health issues even though I carefully watch my diet. I think along with a genetic component  it is a piece of the puzzle and have spent most of my life trying to figure this out I will also add I have spent a fortune in this battle , I just try my best to look after myself and enjoy the good days as my POTS allows!

[yogini]

A poor diet will make dysautonomia worse, but it isn't a cause.

[Guest alkria]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 8:34 PM, yogini said:

A poor diet will make dysautonomia worse, but it isn't a cause.

I for one would attribute my head pressure I got a lot early on a fungal meningitis. I think this may of damaged or inflamed my ANS somehow.

I recommend looking into candida more and see the amount of toxins it puts out in your body. The microbiome is going to be a big focus in years to come. I would recommend checking this video below, which summarises the effect the microbiome can have on the body. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzPD009qTN4

 

 

 

[yogini]

The known causes of dysautonomia are here.  Again it is definitely not caused by diet, although you can improve by eating in a way that doesn't trigger your symptoms.

http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=150

Candida is a controversial diagnosis:

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/12/10/we-all-have-candida-and-its-ok

[Guest alkria]

What I say is all speculation based on cases and patterns I've noticed and from personal experience - just to maybe start some discussion. Of course it is hard to evidence or refute till these are more understood.

There are many studies pointing to the existence of candida overgrowth and/or dysbiosis of the gut. I would suggest reading this article which directly counters the one you shared. As you may know through getting your POTS diagnosis how ignorant a lot of doctors are - then think how little knowledge they then have about nutrition, why so many consider candida fringeline. Doctors stringently follow the CDC / NHS outline pages on conditions. Evidence enough is for how difficult it is for people with Lyme disease to get diagnosed, it is stated how inaccurate the tests are for it - to get the more accurate test (Western Blot), you have to first get a positive on the ELISA test - that is fundamentally flawed. Science and medicine can be as ideological as any religion sometimes with how they commit to their beliefs that they become close minded to often the bigger picture.

Whether candida exists, yes Candida albicans is a normal fungus in your body (as I said this in my original post). The issue is the overgrowth part and the loss of good bacteria. There is growing evidence of the affect the microbiome has on your body - this isn't fringe science - candida is just part of it.

When you take any antifungal and notice an increase in symptoms of itching, sneezing, runny nose and gas - this somewhat speaks for itself, that the antifungal is causing some form of die-off or immune reaction, IMO. When you start treatment this is significantly worse, then lessens with time. Candida overgrowth or SIBO can be diagnosed by Oral Thrush / white-coasted tongue and from a stool test you can see the levels of it, along with the levels of beneficial bacteria, so you can clearly identify if you have dysbiosis. Not everyone will have significant Oral Thrush from candida though.

As for how it causes dysautonomia - I don't know, most doctors that specialise in candida don't specialise in dysautonomia and vice versa, why there isn't a lot of studies on it - but my speculations:

1. Fungal meningitis is recognised as caused by candida albicans - look at causes on the page. I have seen a number of people on this forum report head pressure like I have, almost comparable to meningitis. This can in turn potentially cause inflammation there, affecting the nervous system and causing dysautonomia. Whether it is in your blood stream or not I don't know. When my symptoms first started I got a terrible fever, cold and head pressure, which would attest to symptoms. I had head pressure at random intervals which would flare up after eating certain foods. The doctors didn't consider it menigitis - it is a head pressure I've never had in my 25 years on this earth and I'm not one to get headaches, so I was alarmed enough to go to doctors. Later is when rest of my symptoms started appearing. 
    
2. Having it your body for such a long time could stress the adrenals, potentially causing dysautonomia.

[JerseyGirl]

I am also curious about the possible connection between C. albicans overgrowth and dysautonomia. I have had Long Covid for 19 months and based on Mt Sinai Covid Recovery program/Dr. David Putrino I am accepting diagnosis of dysautonomia for range of recurring symptoms. 
I already knew I had Candida overgrowth, but of course none of the doctors will recognise it as an underlying condition. It can’t even be added to my NHS record. When I was living in Australia, however, and told my doctor this was a problem, she tested and found Candida in my bowel/rectum.  She had been dismissive, told me C. albicans overgrowth wasn’t possible and she’d find out what was really causing my symptoms (itching, tachycardia, etc). Turns out I was right.  BUT—she didn’t actually add this as a clear diagnosis in my medical records! My current doctor is sympathetic, especially when I told him I was tested, but he is not able to add that information to my NHS record; the system doesn’t allow it. But dictors do also often recommend probiotics after taking a course of antibiotics (why would that be, then?) Atkins (of diet fame) claimed that a third of patients who went to him for obesity had Candida overgrowth. His info was really helpful to me. He also says that doctors in some US states can lise their license for diagnosing it, because it’s often caused by medical treatment.

I had chronic tonsilitis as a child. Missed 3 months of third grade and had numerous courses of antibiotics. I was given lots of ice-cream & sherbet to soothe my throat, and my craving for sweets got worse as I got older. The first  test I did for Candida—going without any sugar or alcohol for three days—was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I was in my 30s before I stumbled upon info about Candida, through a colleague.  The clincher was after having my son, when trying to lose 20 lbs I’d put on during the pregnancy. I didn’t lose an ounce on Atkins diet—until I spent a month on an anti-fungal regime. After that the diet worked like a charm, as Atkins said would be the case. And his info also gave me more tools to manage the condition. It’s definitely a real problem, and it’s criminal that the medical establishment is trying to pretend it isn’t.