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Permalink Reply by ZolliStar on February 25, 2012 at 9:46pm

99, I'm a recovered CANDIDA sufferer. It was an alternative physician who diagnosed -- correctly -- what was wrong.

For those of you who don't know: We all have healthy and unhealthy bacteria in our bodies. The healthy, which create nutrients and do other great things for us, also keep the unhealthy bacteria in check.

Antibiotics are equal opportunity killers: they knock out the good bacteria along with the bad. In my case, overuse of medications (especially penicillin) when I was in college set me off. Worse, my eating habits of plenty of sweets (candida feasts on sugar) made things worse. I tipped the balance in favor of the UNHEALTHY bacteria. They basically proliferated and took over.

My immune system was so battered, that I was constantly sick. I ended up hospitalized from severe bronchitis -- and then got even more antibiotics as well as steroid medication, which also kills healthy bacteria.

After that, I was semi-bedridden.

My conventional doctor pronounced me as having chronic fatigue, which (he told me) is not understood and which has no cure. It took me a decade to find Dr. Gordon, the alternative physician, who diagnosed me PROPERLY. He knew instantly what the problem was and, yes, put me on a really restrictive diet. When I say restrictive, I mean RESTRICTIVE. 

It was a four-point plan:

1. Stop feeding the candida.  To do this, eliminate sugar of any kind, including sugars from high-sugar content vegetables (e.g., carrots, beets, corn, etc.) and fruits (e.g. oranges, grapefruits, etc., etc.) 
2. Kill off the unhealthy bacteria (candida).  Take herbs (that killed unhealthy bacteria) and use a cleanse (in my case, it was ReNew Life's Paragone).
3. Eat foods without sugar.  The diet was very limited indeed. All the low-sugar content vegetables I wanted that were least in sugar (fortunately, I love salads) and use olive oil liberally. Limit meat consumption; fish, especially salmon was encouraged.  Because it breaks down into sugar so readily, no bread, pasta, dairy of any kind (not even yoghurt), alcohol (no one thought I would stick to this! I did, I absolutely did).  Also, because nutrients were missing from my diet, I was put on a serious regimen of vitamins and minerals.
4. Restore healthy bacteria.  I took so-called probiotics.  Still do, in fact. Always will.

ONE CAUTION:  It is possible to feels sick, with flu-like symptoms, if your body throws off too much of the unhealthy bacteria at the same time. This is called a die-off reaction. I never had it, but I caution all of you "out there". It can happen.

Within a month I began to feel so much better, that there was not a chance in the sky that I would slip and eat anything with sugar in it. It took a whole year -- and I lost a lot of weight, which I was happy to shed -- but I recovered my health. Every year, on the date that I first saw him, I call Dr. Gordon to thank him. Even my internist has had to admit that "something" was different. But hidebound as he is to conventional medicine, he suggested that I might have gotten well on my own. Not. A. Chance. Doctor!!!!!

Conventional doctors always have an answer to everything -- except to why we're so sick and not getting better.

For more information, I just goggled Renew LIfe, which creates the product (Paragon) that Dr. Gordon had me take. It has quite a website plus community for help and answers.

Another source of help is a Yahoo Group, which I highly recommend, called Candida Support.  Maybe this link will work. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/candidasupport/

Dr. Gordon didn't know why I had "insomnia" -- and neither did anyone else, including the doctors at the first sleep disturbance clinic that I visited. About a year later a friend diagnosed my OSA when we shared a hotel room to attend an event. I went to a different doctor -- and clinic -- and here I am.

I will say this: My life would have been different if I had had my health AND if anyone (and you can't imagine how many doctors I crawled to for possible answers) had diagnosed either condition sooner. But I'm very grateful now to be sleeping with my beloved CPAP -- not that I'm  not having adjustment problems (diagnosed June, 2011). But maybe it's like marriage: you love your mate, but it may take a while to get used to living together!

Hope this saga helps someone out there.

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Permalink Reply by 99 on February 26, 2012 at 6:41am

thank you

ZolliStar said:

99, I'm a recovered CANDIDA sufferer. It was an alternative physician who diagnosed -- correctly -- what was wrong.

For those of you who don't know: We all have healthy and unhealthy bacteria in our bodies. The healthy, which create nutrients and do other great things for us, also keep the unhealthy bacteria in check.

Antibiotics are equal opportunity killers: they knock out the good bacteria along with the bad. In my case, overuse of medications (especially penicillin) when I was in college set me off. Worse, my eating habits of plenty of sweets (candida feasts on sugar) made things worse. I tipped the balance in favor of the UNHEALTHY bacteria. They basically proliferated and took over.

My immune system was so battered, that I was constantly sick. I ended up hospitalized from severe bronchitis -- and then got even more antibiotics as well as steroid medication, which also kills healthy bacteria.

After that, I was semi-bedridden.

My conventional doctor pronounced me as having chronic fatigue, which (he told me) is not understood and which has no cure. It took me a decade to find Dr. Gordon, the alternative physician, who diagnosed me PROPERLY. He knew instantly what the problem was and, yes, put me on a really restrictive diet. When I say restrictive, I mean RESTRICTIVE. 

It was a four-point plan:

1. Stop feeding the candida.  To do this, eliminate sugar of any kind, including sugars from high-sugar content vegetables (e.g., carrots, beets, corn, etc.) and fruits (e.g. oranges, grapefruits, etc., etc.) 
2. Kill off the unhealthy bacteria (candida).  Take herbs (that killed unhealthy bacteria) and use a cleanse (in my case, it was ReNew Life's Paragone).
3. Eat foods without sugar.  The diet was very limited indeed. All the low-sugar content vegetables I wanted that were least in sugar (fortunately, I love salads) and use olive oil liberally. Limit meat consumption; fish, especially salmon was encouraged.  Because it breaks down into sugar so readily, no bread, pasta, dairy of any kind (not even yoghurt), alcohol (no one thought I would stick to this! I did, I absolutely did).  Also, because nutrients were missing from my diet, I was put on a serious regimen of vitamins and minerals.
4. Restore healthy bacteria.  I took so-called probiotics.  Still do, in fact. Always will.

ONE CAUTION:  It is possible to feels sick, with flu-like symptoms, if your body throws off too much of the unhealthy bacteria at the same time. This is called a die-off reaction. I never had it, but I caution all of you "out there". It can happen.

Within a month I began to feel so much better, that there was not a chance in the sky that I would slip and eat anything with sugar in it. It took a whole year -- and I lost a lot of weight, which I was happy to shed -- but I recovered my health. Every year, on the date that I first saw him, I call Dr. Gordon to thank him. Even my internist has had to admit that "something" was different. But hidebound as he is to conventional medicine, he suggested that I might have gotten well on my own. Not. A. Chance. Doctor!!!!!

Conventional doctors always have an answer to everything -- except to why we're so sick and not getting better.

For more information, I just goggled Renew LIfe, which creates the product (Paragon) that Dr. Gordon had me take. It has quite a website plus community for help and answers.

Another source of help is a Yahoo Group, which I highly recommend, called Candida Support.  Maybe this link will work. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/candidasupport/

Dr. Gordon didn't know why I had "insomnia" -- and neither did anyone else, including the doctors at the first sleep disturbance clinic that I visited. About a year later a friend diagnosed my OSA when we shared a hotel room to attend an event. I went to a different doctor -- and clinic -- and here I am.

I will say this: My life would have been different if I had had my health AND if anyone (and you can't imagine how many doctors I crawled to for possible answers) had diagnosed either condition sooner. But I'm very grateful now to be sleeping with my beloved CPAP -- not that I'm  not having adjustment problems (diagnosed June, 2011). But maybe it's like marriage: you love your mate, but it may take a while to get used to living together!

Hope this saga helps someone out there.

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