I was around 34 and had given birth to our son, our second
child, only eight months earlier. My daughter was just
over 3 and extremely energetic. We had moved house when I
was eight months pregnant to a property just outside of our
city. We only had one car which my husband drove to work
most days. So here I was with two little children on a
large property in the middle of no-where and at that time
had not been able to meet many new friends in the area.
I thought I was becoming depressed. I felt very irritable,
something which was not like my normal self. Each morning
I would get myself out of bed feeling like I was an old
woman. My joints ached all over my body. My fingers were
swollen and it hurt when I brushed my hair.
My body seemed to feel very sensitive. I cried easily and
felt exhausted all the time. All I wanted to do was sleep
and not get out of bed. And when I did drag myself out I
would start crying.
Eventually I decided that I needed some help. I never
liked visiting the doctor but could not think of what else
to do. At that time I wanted a quick fix. I made an
appointment and dropped my daughter at kindy and took my
little son and went to visit the local, so called, doctor.
I left his office in tears. He told me I was a neurotic
housewife and that I would get over it.
I knew I wasn't the person the doctor accused me of, and
that there must have been a reason why I was feeling so
bad. In desperation I looked in the yellow pages and
decided to go and see a naturopath. I chose one close to
home but had to wait two weeks before I could get into see
her. I had never consulted an alternative practitioner
before although I was certainly not against the idea, just
that I had never been sick to have that need.
How relieved I was when I sat in front of this new person
and virtually without any prompting from me she told me
what my symptoms were and that there was a name for how I
was feeling. I had a severe case of "Candida". From
memory I think I was on a scale of 9/10 - far too high. I
left my new practitioner again in tears. But this time
they were tears of relief.
I was determined to do everything she said. It was the
start of a six week strict diet plan. No bread, milk,
cheese, yogurt, alcohol, coffee, sweets of any kind,
certain fruits and also some vegetables. Wow, so what
would I eat?
I also had to cook for my husband and children. My family
actually went on the recommended diet with me, not that my
children knew. I steamed veggies, had lots of raw food and
drank water and herbal tea. I baked with buckwheat and
made pancakes and cakes using all sorts of interesting
gluten-free ingredients.
For a person who does not like cooking I actually had to
spend a lot of time in the kitchen. You see I wanted
desperately to get better.
After four weeks I went back to see my new naturopath and
she said the moment I walked in the door that my skin was
glowing with health. I had also lost quite a bit of weight.
That worried me a little as I did not need to lose any
weight. But I felt fantastic.
My energy increased and the aching joints and other
irritations throughout my body started to disappear. I
continued the diet and after six weeks I gradually
introduced certain foods. 17 years later and I still watch
my diet.
So what triggered my Candida? They say stress can be a
cause. Well I suppose I had had my fair share of stress
before the birth of my son. With my first child I had a
wonderful healthy pregnancy. But with my second I was
diagnosed with an itchy disease called POLYMORPHIC
ERUPTION. Unfortunately it does not go away until after
the baby is born and you are unable to take any medication
for it.
This itchiness developed in my seventh month and by the
eighth month (the same time that we had to move house) I
was scratching so much that I would make my hands and feet
bleed. A week before my son was due the medical staff
decided to take me into hospital as I was becoming
distressed and not sleeping. They were worried about the
baby.
After my son's birth, the itchiness went away. However, I
did not recuperate as quickly as I had hoped, and developed
a bad infection from the cesarean birth and remained in
hospital longer than I wanted to. I wanted to go home to
my daughter and husband.
So I suppose I would have had a great deal of stress going
through my body and this could well have led to my Candida.
Dr Robert Young (The PhMiracle) says that stress
contributes to an acidifying condition. A diet of acidic
foods and beverages combined with stress are the exact
conditions that allow Candida to get out of control.
In August of 2006 my partner and I attended a Health
Retreat for a general 10 day juice detox. My partner had
been here many times before and this was my second visit.
I was feeling great and well into the detox but on the
fifth day the retreat introduced some fruit into our diet.
Within a matter of hours I could feel the sensation of
Candida going through my body.
I was extremely annoyed because I had been feeling so well
and was ready for a Mountain climb the next day (a
challenging ritual that occurred on every program). That
night I felt the pain and tiredness and could not surface
for the challenging climb.
Instead I went to the resident naturopath explained to him
that I thought I had Candida. He did a quick blood test
which showed a positive diagnosis.
We narrowed it down to the fact that I had eaten
strawberries for lunch and the sugar content did not agree
with my detoxing body. My partner asked if he could be
tested as well and he was also diagnosed with a high level
of Candida in his body.
His symptoms were a constant and irritating cough, nail
fungus, insomnia and depression. We asked why they did not
test all guests when they first arrived at the retreat,
only to be told that it would be an additional price of
$35. It seemed a ridiculous comment given that the average
fee was over $3,000 per 10 day program.
The result of our experience was that we led an avalanche
of guests asking for Candida tests with most of them
testing positive. In a subsequent newsletter the founder of
the retreat published an article on Candida. Hopefully the
retreat staff are now more aware of the issue and Candida
is treated with suspicion for all guests.
One young woman I observed was doing a double or 20 day
program and she over-heard me speaking to someone else
about my own experience. She asked about what was Candida
and said that she also now felt absolutely terrible. I
felt quite sad for the young woman because she had spent
thousands of dollars on her double program and now was only
a few days from going home.
We now realize that my partner has suffered from Candida
for quite some time. His toe nails were quite dark with
fungus. As a result of changing diet to be virtually sugar
free and very low carbohydrate, detoxifying and drinking
lots of good alkalized/ionized water, they have now cleared.
I know that most bodies carry Candida in a morph state, but
I believe if more of us were aware of it, we would be
better able to take care of it.
So here's what do I do?
1. I drink at least three litres of alkaline water per day.
2. I hardly ever have bread, biscuits, cakes or
chocolate. A few weeks ago my body craved for some
chocolate. I paid for it the next day.
3. I eat a lot of different raw alkaline vegetables which
my partner makes up as a salad.
4. I generally eat fish.
5. When we have cooked food we use Virgin Coconut Oil.
(VCO is anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-bacterial,
antiprotozoan). It is approximately 50% lauric acid, a
similar quality to human breast milk.
6. Regular exercise
7. I also take 1tsp of Zeolite powder in water - great
detoxing agent.
----------------------------------------------------
Dixie Davey is dedicated to helping others live a healthy
lifestyle without medication. Take a look at
http://alkalize-and-detoxify.com to download your course of
free alkaline receipes and more.
