I have had so much going on lately that I have a real backlog of things I want to share with everyone.
A few weeks ago my acupuncturist did a special fancy urinalysis on me, ordered through a company called Metametrix. She thought it was a good idea as this test tends to "find hidden issues." Well, it certainly did -- the biggest surprise was that I have candida -- which is a yeast overgrowth!
I had heard of this before but assumed it was not a problem for me because I don't eat sugar. However, thinking back on it, as part of my anti-fibroid diet for the past year and a half I have been eating a lot of carbs, especially in the form of rice and beans and apples. On any given day I had at least two of those I would guess. So it seems that my fibroid-shrinking diet had a negative side effect. I also do have to admit that I have gained some weight the past 6-8 months, about 8 pounds (some of this might be due to trying not to over exert myself while trying to conceive, and also the affect of the fertility meds).
The candida basically takes over and creates a toxic environment in your body. So getting rid of the candida is important for detoxing. Looking on the internet, it seems that there are some associations between it and fibroids. (See for example this article, which discusses how a candida waste product acts like estrogen -- yikes!) My acupuncturist definitely thinks that they are related -- she says that both fibroids and candida are phlegm issues, and that clearing up the candida could help the fibroids. It also seems like something important to do on general principles for my health. Furthermore, sounds like getting my body's internal flora in balance will be helpful for pregnancy. And evidently candida houses antibodies that can affect the ovaries so is bad for fertiliy. So let's get rid of it!
More general info on candida here courtesy of another blogger, I'll refer you to that rather than reinventing the wheel here.
So, yet again another big change in my diet is needed. Ugh! I am just so tired of food restrictions. I'm using the book The Body Ecology Diet which is focused on helping clean up candida. Basically every meal you eat a whole bunch of veggies plus either protein or a starch (like potatoes or quinoa or millet). In order to do this and avoid dairy (which is bad for fibroids and also discouraged by the Chinese medicine fertility books
) and soy (ditto), and not go above a couple of eggs per week (too phlegm-promoting thus bad for fibroids), I am going to have to eat more meat and poultry because I can't live on just fish.
A few weeks ago my acupuncturist did a special fancy urinalysis on me, ordered through a company called Metametrix. She thought it was a good idea as this test tends to "find hidden issues." Well, it certainly did -- the biggest surprise was that I have candida -- which is a yeast overgrowth!
I had heard of this before but assumed it was not a problem for me because I don't eat sugar. However, thinking back on it, as part of my anti-fibroid diet for the past year and a half I have been eating a lot of carbs, especially in the form of rice and beans and apples. On any given day I had at least two of those I would guess. So it seems that my fibroid-shrinking diet had a negative side effect. I also do have to admit that I have gained some weight the past 6-8 months, about 8 pounds (some of this might be due to trying not to over exert myself while trying to conceive, and also the affect of the fertility meds).
The candida basically takes over and creates a toxic environment in your body. So getting rid of the candida is important for detoxing. Looking on the internet, it seems that there are some associations between it and fibroids. (See for example this article, which discusses how a candida waste product acts like estrogen -- yikes!) My acupuncturist definitely thinks that they are related -- she says that both fibroids and candida are phlegm issues, and that clearing up the candida could help the fibroids. It also seems like something important to do on general principles for my health. Furthermore, sounds like getting my body's internal flora in balance will be helpful for pregnancy. And evidently candida houses antibodies that can affect the ovaries so is bad for fertiliy. So let's get rid of it!
More general info on candida here courtesy of another blogger, I'll refer you to that rather than reinventing the wheel here.
So, yet again another big change in my diet is needed. Ugh! I am just so tired of food restrictions. I'm using the book The Body Ecology Diet which is focused on helping clean up candida. Basically every meal you eat a whole bunch of veggies plus either protein or a starch (like potatoes or quinoa or millet). In order to do this and avoid dairy (which is bad for fibroids and also discouraged by the Chinese medicine fertility books
) and soy (ditto), and not go above a couple of eggs per week (too phlegm-promoting thus bad for fibroids), I am going to have to eat more meat and poultry because I can't live on just fish. I do have to admit that my system seems to really like this protein and veggie heavy diet, I feel like I have more energy and my digestion feels better.
Unfortunately the recipes from Body Ecology are not that exciting, I just do not think the author is a very good cook! There were a couple of others on the related website that were ok, especially the easy turkey and lettuce wraps. I have also found a blog devoted to anti-candida eating that looks promising. From there I found one of the better recipes I have had on this diet, a parsnip and ginger soup. (Never realized how delicious parsnips are!) I have ordered a few cookbooks too and will report on which seem good.
So now I'm low-carb gluten-free dairy-free and soy-free, plus organic as much as possible. Rather complicated, especially when trying to eat out!
One benefit could be that eating a lot of protein is supposed to help egg quality: see info here and here.
Unfortunately the recipes from Body Ecology are not that exciting, I just do not think the author is a very good cook! There were a couple of others on the related website that were ok, especially the easy turkey and lettuce wraps. I have also found a blog devoted to anti-candida eating that looks promising. From there I found one of the better recipes I have had on this diet, a parsnip and ginger soup. (Never realized how delicious parsnips are!) I have ordered a few cookbooks too and will report on which seem good.
So now I'm low-carb gluten-free dairy-free and soy-free, plus organic as much as possible. Rather complicated, especially when trying to eat out!
One benefit could be that eating a lot of protein is supposed to help egg quality: see info here and here.
4 comments:
In case it helps, I thought you might find it interesting that according to the Nourishing Traditions cookbook associated with Weston Price traditional peoples had less candida because they ate less cooked foods, much more raw, and much more cultured foods-full of good lactobacilli cultures.
These days most people often only get good bacteria from yoghourt, but some of the tribal people, had fermented meats, as well as vegies, and drinks- current soft drinks we're modelled on these healthfilled drinks, as when you make traditional orangina with whey it goes fizzy from the lactobacilli.
Hopefully you can clear it up quickly!
That's a good point indeed.
I have added to my diet fermented foods -- kim chee, sauerkraut, etc. that I get in the refrigerated section of Whole Foods and that are packed with active cultures.
I'm sure that tribal peoples must have had lots of other interesting things along these lines! So much has been lost by our modern culture...
That's great that you can get live cultured ones there, I have to make ours, which I don't mind, but the choice would be good. Here in Australia, they are usually just boiled and made with vinegar, or pasteurised to kill everything off.
UGh! It's very frustrating!
Thank you for writing about your issue: oddly, I have the very same one. A big fibroid (not painful though nor does it shed more blood) and my kinesiology therapist just told me I had a severe candida infection, which would explain why I have not been able to heal my itchy feet and bad toe-nail fungus whatever I have done to them or taken internally - nor the fibroid reacted or shrunk from all the herbal supplements and teas and things I have been doing for it...
I hope it clears up for you soon, and wish it for myself too :-)
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