Anti-candida diet: The first week

What led me to the anti-Candida diet?
About 10 weeks ago I visited a doctor, ailed by what I thought might be a sinus infection. After asking me a few questions and looking up my nose, the doctor confirmed my suspicion and quickly prescribed the antibiotic Amoxicillin for treatment of sinusitis. After ten days of treatment, I felt better but not healed, so she wrote me a new script, this time for SMZ/TMP DS 800-160 (generic for Bactrim). By the time I finished the second prescription, I felt better in some ways, but I also felt worse in a lot of other ways.

Over the next month and a half, my health went downhill big-time. Ever since I ended the antibiotic/antibacterial treatment, I've been in nearly-constant pain and discomfort all over, which just kept getting worse. Here's a list of my most noticeable symptoms:

• constant headaches and head pain
• jaw pain
• tooth pain
• eye pain
• vision disturbances (specifically optic neuritis)
• clumsiness
• emotional instability
• neck pain
• tender throat
• sinus inflammation
• nausea
• uncomfortable digestive gurgling
• chest pain (respiratory)
• confusion
• "brain fog"
• forgetfulness (I felt very stupid)
• unexplained general pain
• fatigue
• and surely some other things I can't think of right now.

This stuff was constant and it was driving me absolutely nuts, so I scoured the internet for answers. For a while I feared that I might have meningitis or a brain abscess, among other undesirable or deadly maladies. But then I started reading about Candida overgrowth. I'd already come across this condition once during my search, but I didn't look into it. Honestly, I can't even remember what made me click the "Candida" link this time, but I did, and quickly everything started making sense. It connected my recent illness with some issues I've dealt with off-and-on over the last five or ten years, including athlete's foot, toenail fungus, rashes, other skin conditions, numbness, and anxiety, as well as some of the symptoms I listed above.

Beginning the Candida diet
One week ago, after reading about Candida overgrowth, I began a Candida detox, which means I eliminated sugar, carbohydrates, and dairy products from my diet, along with other types of food I don't normally consume anyway, like alcoholic beverages. For the last week, my diet has consisted of only a handful of different foods, including eggs, chicken, fish, granny smith apples, raw garlic, peppers, berries, almonds, pecans, apple cider vinegar, acidophilus tablets, and tons of water, along with some exercise (though not as much as I've intended).

Before I began this anti-candida diet, I ate the same thing almost every day. Usually I would eat a couple bowls of Frosted Mini Wheats in the morning. (Sometimes instead of cereal, I would eat a few "fun size" candy bars.) And almost every evening I would make myself a pepperoni pizza (from scratch). Maybe a little candy at night, too. So essentially my diet consisted of a lot of carbs and sugar.

In the week since I ditched the cereal, pizza, and Milky Way diet for the anti-Candida diet, I have noticed a dramatic improvement in my health. Pretty much all my symptoms have diminished drastically, and many have disappeared. Right now I feel pretty good, and it seems like I'm going to keep improving, as long as I stay disciplined. But I know I'm nowhere near "cured" yet.

I've read a lot about die-off symptoms that occur shortly after you begin an anti-Candida diet, which happens because your body becomes overloaded with dead microorganisms (or waste) that the body simply cannot process very quickly. According to a lot of the information I've read, die-off usually can be felt in the form of the same symptoms you had to begin with, although it's not the same thing. I can't say for sure that I've experienced this die-off yet. Maybe it's because I've forced myself to drink lots and lots of water, which has enabled my body to flush out the waste efficiently. Or maybe I just haven't experienced die-off yet. That's why I created this blog; to share my experiences as they happen so other people can learn from them.

I'll try to keep updating this blog as my condition changes.

--
Aimless: The Adventures of an American Vagabond.
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