I'm 99% sure what is causing my problems is (intestinal and systemic) Candida, I fit so many of the symptoms. It could also be another form of dysbiosis (possible but unlikely IMO) or maybe some other digestive ailment, but for many reasons (which I don't really want to go into as I'm so tired of debating symptoms!!) Candida is by far the #1 suspect on the radar.

Recently I've been taking 3 Super Strength Olive Leaf capsules a day (20% oleuropein, 775mg olive leaf extract per capsule) and although I seriously have NO energy left for "Candida diets" anymore (they make me want to kill myself lol), I try to maintain a reasonable diet as low as possible in high glycemic load foods (such as sweets and cookies and whatever), gluten, cow's milk, etc etc.

I am also taking Kolorex and a strong probiotic (it says 66 billion a capsule), but availability of everything recently has been poor due to new year so I've run out of Kolorex and will order ASAP. I've only been taking these for about 2 weeks.

It's just all making me so miserable as it's hitting my health fairly hard and I just want it to go away. I have tried other things in the past and do see sometimes very fungal-looking white stuff when I use the loo, usually after first using a potent antifungal like oregano or grapefruit seed extract.

I've heard that other treatments like iodine, MMS, pau d'arco, caprylic acid, and even drugs like fluconazole are good. I've tried colloidal silver but it was a LOT of work to take enough of it cheaply - I much prefer capsules or other quick and easy methods, as otherwise I often don't find the time or energy and end up missing doses (as I say I've been feeling quite low about it with fairly slim hope of something actually working).

Pleeeease help or give me success stories or something.. lol

I find it so hard to believe that in the year 2012 with all our advanced medicine and the internet, many people's best advice for a fungal overgrowth is to go on a horribly restrictive and painful diet for a largely unknown period of time. It's only a fungus, I just can't believe it's this hard >.<


Thanks, sorry if I sound down, it's worn me down quite a lot

Mike

Have you looked into Lufeneron? do a tag search on this forum to find out about it. If I were going to do it I would also take an oral antifungal of some sort. Get a diagnosis even if you have to go fishing for a sample.

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Wow that is very interesting thank you, and seems well along the right lines for a "21st century cure" as I was talking about in my post! I had a read up (but it's tricky to tag search right now as am only on my phone) - no side effects and inhibits chitin eh? ^^ That's very smart! I had heard of people using the enzyme chitinase for Candida with some success but this is probably more powerful.

I did read that sometimes Candida can come back in a weaker, chitin-deficient form, but one would imagine this would make a far easier target for the body's immune system, and of course antifungals. I'll keep learning thank you, and if anyone else has any good ideas or stories or anything please do post and let me know!

EDIT -- Also wow this is interesting isn't it? O.O

https://forum.owndoc.com/showthread.php?200-The-Candex-scam

My candida was cured but it involved a protocol with a naturopath.

Whatever you use make sure you rotate them because candida will become immune to whatever you take longer than 4-7 days or so.

Probiotics won't work while you have candida. It's like sowing flowers in a field of weeds.

Unfortunately candida is not something that can be cured the western way--pop pills and in a few weeks you're cured. You have to be committed to an intense step by step process that includes the candida diet. But it's better to do that and be cured in a few months than struggle for years all the while taxing your immune system and edging toward malnutrition from not absorbing your vitamins & minerals.

Well... I don't agree with some points there, but some are very true

Thanks for the input ^^

Lufenuron + fluconazole + mega strong olive leaf + rotated oregano and grapefruit seed extract + probiotics = sad Candida!

Mwah-ha-ha-ha! ^_^

Regarding probiotics and taking them with little effect until candida is mostly destroyed, here's a few quotes from Dr. Biamonte, a candida expert who has had much sucess in curing candida in his patients:

Also from Dr. B regarding rotating the candida killers:

Quote:

DO NOT TAKE THE SAME ANTIFUNGAL EVERYDAY FOR WEEKS! Candida like a chameleon is able to transform itself from a fungus into yeast. Candida is highly resistive and may be able to mutate against an antifungal herb or medicine if the substance is taken for 21 days or more, so “rotation,” or switching the antifungal used in an orderly fashion, is essential. Once we have tested the person to discover the type of Candida they have, we then select 4 substances that are especially effective on that type of Candida. The first one is taken for a 4-day period and then stopped. We then move to the next substance for another 4 days. This is repeated over and over again. This rotation is done so that the Candida does not develop a resistance to the substance. (This concept is covered in my earlier articles on Candida.) TO KILL CANDIDA YOU HAVE TO FOOL IT! The trick is that each remedy has a different chemical action in destroying the yeast. So rotating them exposes the yeast to different forms of attack. It also ensures that resistance to the remedy is avoided because use is not continuous. One of the most common stories that I hear from new patients is "the doctor gave me an antifungal that he said was really good. I took for 3 or 4 weeks and was getting better. A few months later my symptoms were mostly gone and I thought I was cured! I didn't change anything and then all my symptoms came back again! What happened?" Simple, Candida developed a resistance to the antifungal, stopped working and grew back!

Regarding lufenuron, here's a few quotes from the site the owndoc.com website that is selling it:

She doesn't claim that lufenuron cures candida. What does 'cleared up' mean? 'Often the immune system is able to control the candida'. So not always. And what does is mean 'control' the candida? Cure it or just keep it from getting worse?

It's true, if you don't know how to cure candida, and most doctors don't, it is hard to get rid of. But why not go to one who does know how? Has she seen any cases where a person's candida was cured by lufenuron? She doesn't say.

There's no such thing as 'partially cured'. Either you're cured or you're not.

Creating 'chitin-deficient mutants'. I don't see how that is a good thing, even if it is not as virulent, it's still a mutant form of candida and it's not being wiped out completely, but left for your immune system to possibly eliminate it. And your immune system may be weakened from fighting the candida.


The writer of this article's husband, John, has or had candida:

She doesn't say if he was cured. 'His symptoms cleared up.' What does that mean?

I don't appreciate Sarah in several ways. However the principle of lufenuron is sound. The same for ellasic acid. See https://www.natmedtalk.com/f50/21108-...tml#post193446 They inhibit the enzyme chitin sythase II, also found in mushrooms. This weakens the walls of the fungus and allows other antifungals to work.

Also don't forget the all powerful colloidal silver. Fungi just doesn't have a chance with it.

Notice in that last paragraph the word, dimorphism. This is an attribute of most yeasts, including Candida Albicans. When the pH of the environment is somewhat acidic, as are the intestines when probiotics are prolific, the yeast will remain yeast. When the pH is high (alkaline), the yeast will morph into their more aggressive fungus state. Candida is a natural part of our flora, so the most you can really do is to 'control' it. Altering your diet to a more alkaline one, may not be best for those suffering from candida. This is why coconut oil, with its caprylic and lauric acids, help to kill or control the fungi. Also undecylenic acid, boric acid, ascorbic acid, etc. The fungi can also morph back into yeast in a low pH environment. That is the nature of dimorphism.

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- Jim
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. -Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm not questioning that it may work toward disabling candida, I'm addressing the fact that it is not a stand-alone cure for candida. You need a step-by-step program to cure candida, not a single product or two or three or four. Everyone jumps at each new product that claims to help with candida. They take it for a while, it helps a little and then they're back where they started. And I'm leery of mutating candida and leaving another mutation to proliferate. Who knows how much fungus is out there, doing who knows what. We already have thousands of people with candida who are 'controlling' it and not curing it.

Definitely. Just don't use it alone or in combination with other antifungals continuously. The substances used to kill candida must be rotated or candida will develop immunity to them and then they won't work anymore.

The idea of controlling candida is misleading. It's true a small amount exists in your intestines and some good bacteria even feeds off it. But once there's an overgrowth it's no longer about numbers and reduction of those numbers, now candida is candidiasis, an infection that has to be eradicated. Once candidiasis is eradicated--all the layers scaped off, all the candida killed, all the bad bacteria and parasites killed if any, then balance can be restored, which includes small numbers of candida.

It's not as simple as changing ph and fungi morphing back into yeast. In it's fungal form it digs itself into the intestinal walls and builds up in plaques and layers--I know you know this, because you were taking diatomaceous earth which scrapes it off. You also have the imbalance in the intestines--dysbiosis, which means the environment is set for bad bacteria and parasites as well. So you've got a mess of layered candida plaques and possibly parasites attached to and dug into the intestinal wall, including possibly the eggs of the parasites. And then Leaky Gut from the candida making holes in the intestinal walls. Too late for a morph back to yeast form, if it could happen. You've got to roto-rooter the mess.

You have to kill the candida enough that you can add probiotics and bring your intestines back to balance, and then fix leaky gut.

The problem is, people are taking things that kill some of the candida and lessen their symptoms. Then once their symptoms are lessened to their liking they think they've controlled it so they stop what they're doing and the candida grows back and they spend many dollars and have years of continuous misery on a never ending merry go round. If everyone with candida posted about how long they've had it and how many things they've tried, you'd be shocked. And I continue to post, hoping some will listen.

If it were merely about controlling candida it wouldn't come back.

I was cured of candidiasis in 2001 and it never came back. Because I was cured. I followed a program that takes the proper steps to cure candida, not just trying different things to control symptoms.

P.S. I have to mention that you also must follow the candida diet. No progress will be made without the diet because you can't kill the candida fast enough to outdo what the sugars in your diet are doing to make it grow. As an example, if you're on the diet and only cheat one day it will take 1-2 days to reduce any growth from the cheat.

wow that's really interesting O.O

So... what is the most likely cause of one's intestines being too alkaline? Couldn't you just take something to switch that balance over and you're done? As in, Candida would not even need killing as it would go down voluntarily?

As u&iraok says, it is not that simple. It is not going away voluntarily. Sorry. But at least much will depend upon how bad off you are. Candida does not go systemic so quickly either. So the sooner you deal with it the better.

Milk is one culprit for alkaline in the intestines. Losing your friendly bacteria colonies in the intestines is another big one to bring on high pH. Taking things like baking soda is another. Drinking alkaline waters. Balance is the big key. Antibacterials are notorious for bringing about an alkaline state as well as killing those friendly bacteria. Many antibacterials even say that a side effect is oral thrush and possibly more yeast infections.

I am well aware of these things you are saying. Hardly any disease is cured by any one thing, including cancer. I'm also aware of the need for rotation. No such study has been done with the use of alternative med, but clear references to antibiotics is what has to be considered, as alternatives function in the same way. However, colloidal silver does not need to take part in such a rotation. It is a catalyst. A catalyst is best described as a substance that brings about (causes) a reaction or occurrence, without itself participating or being consumed.

Silver, in its atomic state, has the capacity to absorb oxygen and act as a catalyst to bring about oxidation. Atomic (nascent) oxygen absorbed onto the surface of silver ions in solution will readily react with the sulfhydryl (-S-H) groups surrounding the surface of bacteria or viruses to remove the hydrogen atoms (as water), causing the sulfur atoms to form an R-S-S-R bond; blocking respiration and causing the bacteria to expire. Employing a simple catalytic reduction/oxidation reaction, colloidal silver will react with any negative charge presented by the organism's transport or membrane proteins and deactivate them. https://www.earthbornproducts.com/howitworks.htm

There is evidence that silver ions attach to membrane surface radicals of microbes, impairing cell respiration and blocking its energy transfer system. One explanation is based on the nature of enzyme construction: Specific enzymes are required for a given biochemical activity to take place. Enzyme molecules usually require a specific metallic atom as part of the molecular matrix in order to function. A metal of higher valance can replace a metal of lower valance in the enzyme complex, preventing the enzyme from functioning normally. Silver, with a valance of plus 2, can replace many metals with a lower, or equal valance that exhibit weaker atomic bonding properties.

Silver works on various levels within the body. It enhances the immune system. It kills the nasty bacteria, so the body can do its job with the fungi.
Studies by C.L. Fox and S.M. Modak with pseudomonas aeruginosa, a tenacious bacteria that is difficult to treat, demonstrated that as much as 12% of silver is taken up by the organism's DNA. While it remains unclear exactly how the silver binds to the DNA without destroying the hydrogen bonds holding the lattice together, it nevertheless prevents the DNA from unwinding, an essential step for cellular replication to occur.
Since silver kills only bacteria that is anaerobic or nitrogen breathing, the friendly bacteria in the digestive tract are immune to it due to the fact that they are oxygen breathing, (aerobic).


Luferuron is only a tool for this fight. It only inhibits the enzyme Chitin Synthase II. That's all. However, that is enough to severely weaken fungi so other substances can work better to kill it. As you said, fungi can overwhelm the immune system so much that it will take more than one thing to kill the overgrowth. The faster the better. (off point)This is what I don't understand about MMS users. They are afraid to move too fast with it. They try to avoid the detox effects. This allows bad pathogens an opportunity to become more prevalent. A candida diet is an important tool as well, but working fast to destroy will allow you to take less time with the full diet. Then using the principles of the diet, avoiding sugar, would keep you in the preventive maintenance phase of your health crisis.

hm fair enough. Why doesn't it go away voluntarily though? If the intestines were made more acidic wouldn't it revert to yeast form?

Antibiotic Resistant Infections

Penicillin was discovered (actually rediscovered) by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928. But just four years after drug companies began mass-producing it in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it. Since then, we’ve seen penicillin-resistant strains of pneumonia, gonorrhea, and hospital-acquired intestinal infections join the list. And it’s not just penicillin. Bacteria resistant to most of the other antibiotics of choice have also appeared and proliferated on a regular basis.

Antibiotic resistance to manmade drugs is almost impossible to stop since it is the result of some simple rules of evolution. Any population of organisms, bacteria included, naturally includes variants with unusual traits -- in this case, the ability to withstand a particular antibiotic's attack. When said antibiotic is used and kills the defenseless bacteria, it leaves behind those bacteria that can resist it. These renegade variants then multiply, increasing their numbers a million fold in a single day, instantly becoming the dominant variant. In other words, the very act of using an antibiotic creates the opportunity for strains resistant to it to flourish.

How do antibiotics work?

It’s important to understand that antibiotics vary in the way they kill microbes. Penicillin, for example, kills bacteria by attaching to their cell walls and then breeching those walls, thus killing the bacteria. Erythromycin, tetracycline, and streptomycin, on the other hand, kill bacteria by attacking the structures inside the bacteria (ribosomes) that allow them to make proteins, thus also destroying the bacteria.

Unfortunately, because each antibiotic is a single compound and one dimensional in its approach, it’s not that hard for microbes to "evolve" around such attacks. For example, microbes resistant to penicillin have developed cell walls different from the norm and that prevent the penicillin from binding. Similarly, other variants prevent antibiotics from binding to ribosomes, thus neutralize the effect of those antibiotics.

Again, because antibiotics are one dimensional in their approach, it’s not that hard for microbes to "evolve" around them.

Where it gets really frightening, though, is that bacteria swap genes like politicians swap favors -- which brings us to vancomycin, the antibiotic of last resort. When all other antibiotics failed, doctors knew they could count on vancomycin. But then vancomycin resistance was discovered in a common hospital microbe, enterococcus. By 1991, 38 hospitals in the United States reported the variant. Just one year later, vancomycin resistant Staph bacteria were observed with the same gene. What this means is that not only are bacteria programmed to "evolve" defenses against antibiotics, but once they produce such a defense, they are also programmed to rapidly share that defense with other bacteria -- thus rapidly spreading the resistance.

Viruses

Whereas bacteria are single-celled organisms, viruses are far simpler -- more primitive even. Essentially, viruses consist of one type of biochemical (a nucleic acid, such as DNA or RNA) wrapped in another (protein). Viruses are so primitive, in fact, that most biologists do not consider them to be living things, but instead, they are considered infectious particles. Since antibiotics specifically attack bacteria, they are useless against viruses. For viruses, doctors rely on a much less effective group of drugs called antivirals. Tamiflu, which governments are currently stockpiling as bird flu insurance, is one such antiviral.

Because of their primitive structure, viruses mutate even more easily than bacteria. Whereas antibiotics can remain effective for 2-5 years before resistant strains render them ineffective, antiviral resistant strains can appear in a matter of months, or even weeks. And in fact, we have seen that with Tamiflu. Although governments are stockpiling it as a safety net for bird flu, bird flu arrived on the scene pretty much resistant to Tamiflu and the other antivirals right out of the gate. And even those flus that Tamiflu was once helpful with are developing resistant strains by the month.


What can science do?

It was briefly thought that alternating the most commonly used antibiotics might stop the spread of antibiotic resistance. But a new model shows that the practice of cycling, alternating between two or more classes of antibiotics as often as every few months, probably will not work.

The latest theory is that mixing cocktails of antibiotics may help. And, in fact, this is closer to the way natural substances avoid the resistance problem.

How natural substances avoid the problem

When you think about how quickly pathogens "evolve around" antibiotic and antiviral drugs, it’s more than amazing that they have been unable to do so against most natural antipathogens such as garlic, olive leaf, and oil of oregano even given tens of thousands of years to do so. How does this happen? What is their secret?


Actually, it’s quite simple – or more accurately, quite complex. Earlier, we talked about how drugs are essentially one dimensional, which allows microbes an easy avenue to evolve around them. Natural antipathogens, on the other hand, are anything but one dimensional. They often contain dozens of biochemicals. Not all of them are "active," of course, but many of the so called non-active biochemicals work to potentiate the active ones and offer combinations with each other numbering in the thousands – presenting a complexity that makes it virtually impossible for microbes to work around.

Take garlic for example

For a long time, many people thought there was only one active component in garlic, allicin (in fact, many companies still promote that concept). It was believed that raw garlic had very little biological activity, but when you "damage" garlic cloves - by slicing, cooking, or chewing them - the enzyme alliinase immediately converts non-active alliin into the active ingredient, allicin.

As I mentioned, it was once thought that allicin was garlic's principal active ingredient. However, researchers now know that allicin is rapidly oxidized. In the process of oxidation, allicin breaks down into more than 100 biologically active sulfur-containing compounds. While allicin may still serve as a general marker of garlic's potency, research increasingly points to S-allylcysteine and other compounds as the most therapeutically active ingredients in garlic.

So how many possible pathogenic defense combinations can you get from garlic’s 100 biologically active compounds? A whole bunch!! Thousands and thousands and thousands, in fact!

The formula for finding the number of combinations of k objects you can choose from a set of n objects is:

n!
n_C_k = ----------
k!(n - k)!
With 100 objects/compounds to work with and possible combinations ranging from any 2 of them to any 99 of them, the complexity is just far, far, far too much for simple pathogens to evolve around.

And that’s the secret. But it gets even better.

When you combine several natural substances in one formula, the combinations of compounds are beyond counting. Quite simply, microbes cannot evolve around them.


10 of the most powerful antipathogens found in nature.

Ginger
Onion
Garlic (equivalent to 30 cloves in every bottle)
Olive leaf
Horseradish
Habanero
Zinc
Grapefruit seed extract
Wild mountain oil of oregano
Apple cider vinegar
Individually, their effectiveness is astonishing.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the best infection fighters available for both bacterial and viral infections. It is a natural antibiotic that does not appear to create resistant bacteria strains. In addition, fresh garlic extract has been shown to be virucidal to many viruses.

Garlic possesses the ability to stimulate the immune system. It can stimulate the activity of the macrophages (white blood cells), which engulf foreign organisms, such as: viruses, bacteria, and yeast. Furthermore, garlic increases the activity of the T-helper cells (immune cells which are central to the activity of the entire immune system). Garlic may be particularly effective in treating upper respiratory viral infections due to its immune-enhancing properties and its ability to clear mucous from the lungs.

It destroys and/or inhibits various bacteria and fungi, with an antibacterial action equivalent to 1% penicillin. Garlic is effective against strep, staph, and even anthrax bacteria.

Onion

Everything that's been said about Garlic can be said about onion. Onions and garlic share many of the same powerful sulfur bearing compounds that work so effectively as anti-viral and anti-bacterial agents.

Ginger

Ginger has been traditionally used to treat colds and flu. Chinese studies have shown that ginger helps kill influenza viruses (even avian flu), and an Indian report shows that it increases the immune system's ability to fight infection.

Olive Leaf Extract

Olive leaf extract has a long history of being used against illnesses in which microorganisms play a major role. In more recent years, a drug company discovered that in vitro (in a test tube), an extract from olive leaf (calcium elenolate) was effective in eliminating a very broad range of organisms, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and yeast/mold/fungus.

Haba�ero and Horseradish

These are stimulants that quicken and excite the body. They energize the body (helping it to marshal its defenses against invading viruses). In addition, they help to carry blood to all parts of the body.

They are also diaphoretics and thus help raise the temperature of the body, which increases the activity of the body's immune system.

Horseradish, in particular, contains volatile oils that are similar to those found in mustard. These include glucosinolates (mustard oil glycosides), gluconasturtiin, and sinigrin, which yield allyl isothiocynate when broken down in the stomach. In test tubes, the volatile oils in horseradish have shown antibiotic properties, which may account for its effectiveness in treating throat and upper respiratory tract infections. At levels attainable in human urine after taking the volatile oil of horseradish, the oil has been shown to kill bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections, and one early trial found that horseradish extract may be a useful treatment for people with urinary tract infections.

Liquid Ionic Zinc

Like colloidal silver, liquid zinc is both anti-bacterial and anti-viral, but without the potential toxicity issues found with silver. Zinc is found in all body fluids, including the moisture in the eyes, lungs, nose, urine, and saliva. Proper zinc levels offer a defense against the entrance of pathogens. In the 1800’s, surgeons used zinc as an antiseptic/antibiotic after surgery; they noted its amazing healing properties. Wounds would heal, at times, as quickly as 24 hours after an operation, without swelling, and scarring was barely noticeable after a short period of time.

Oil of Wild Mountain Oregano

Numerous studies have shown wild mountain oregano oil (not to be confused with the oregano found in your kitchen) to be a potent antimicrobial. It has been proven useful as an antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal agent rivaling even pharmaceutical antibiotics such as streptomycin, penicillin, vacnomycin, nystatin, and amphotericin in its ability to eliminate microbes. Remarkably it accomplishes this without promoting the development of drug resistant strains and other problems often attributed to the use of standard antibiotics. In addition to this already impressive list of abilities Oregano Oil is also a powerful parasitic expellant.

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Grapefruit seed extract was originally developed as an antiparasitic, but studies quickly showed that it had the ability to inhibit the growth of not only parasites, but fungi, viruses, and bacteria as well. The active ingredients of grapefruit seed extract are non-toxic and are synthesized from the seed and pulp of certified organically grown grapefruit. The process converts the grapefruit bioflavonoids (polyphenolics) into an extremely potent compound that is being used to kill strep, staph, salmonella, E. Coli, candida, herpes, influenza, parasites, fungi, and more.

Apple-Cider Vinegar

ACV (Apple-Cider Vinegar) serves several functions in the Super ViraGon formula:

It's the tincture medium for the formula, as opposed to alcohol (which is the tincture medium in an immune tonic).

ACV is anathema to all kinds of germs that attack the throat. In effect, it acts like a sponge and draws out throat germs and toxins from the surrounding tissue.

And finally, ACV stimulates a condition called acetolysis in which toxic wastes that are harmful to the body are broken down and rendered harmless.