Yeast... symptom or magic bullet?

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/3/0 1:23:08 PM, you wrote:

<< So now I get to be off the BCP and use terazol

for awhile. We'll see what happens. I've got some elavil waiting in the

wings, but I don't think I want to go down that path...

>>

___________________

Be careful with the terazol. It burns. Ouch. Sincerely, can you not get

diflucan...or some other oral antifungal if you want to try the yeast route>?

Anne

[Guest guest]

-

Please don't use Terazol. I have had numerous doctors tell me that it is the

harshest of the anti-fungal creams. With our delicate vulvar tissues, I

think it'd be better to use one of the oral antifungals such as Nizoral or

Diflucan.

Christy

[Guest guest]

,

Your Mom is right to a point. Yeast is opportunistic and won't move in

without an opening of some sort. Once it is established, though, it seems to

take on a life of its own, and can cause all kinds of new problems, such as

messing up the digestive and immune systems even more, stressing the

adrenals, clogging the liver with toxins, messing up the thyroid, among other

things too numerous to mention at the moment. It will take any existing

problem and make it worse. Getting rid of the yeast, finding the opening and

closing it, will result in a significant improvement of your health. It is

important to treat the yeast, and see if you can find out what started it in

the first place. Birth Control pills can sometimes be the open door, but

there may be others as well, so it is worth it to take a good look at your

life to a couple of years at least before you first started having problems.

Stress and a high sugar/junk food diet can also open the door and invite

yeast in to stay. Both of these will stress the immune system so it is less

effective. That can open the door to many infections, often resulting in

antibiotics being prescribed, which then deplete the good bacteria in the

colon and vagina, leaving a door wide open for the yeast to move right in.

Hope this helps.

Anne M., RN

ImmuneBalance@...

http://www.candidafighter.com

[Guest guest]

,

Your Mom is right to a point. Yeast is opportunistic and won't move in

without an opening of some sort. Once it is established, though, it seems to

take on a life of its own, and can cause all kinds of new problems, such as

messing up the digestive and immune systems even more, stressing the

adrenals, clogging the liver with toxins, messing up the thyroid, among other

things too numerous to mention at the moment. It will take any existing

problem and make it worse. Getting rid of the yeast, finding the opening and

closing it, will result in a significant improvement of your health. It is

important to treat the yeast, and see if you can find out what started it in

the first place. Birth Control pills can sometimes be the open door, but

there may be others as well, so it is worth it to take a good look at your

life to a couple of years at least before you first started having problems.

Stress and a high sugar/junk food diet can also open the door and invite

yeast in to stay. Both of these will stress the immune system so it is less

effective. That can open the door to many infections, often resulting in

antibiotics being prescribed, which then deplete the good bacteria in the

colon and vagina, leaving a door wide open for the yeast to move right in.

Hope this helps.

Anne M., RN

ImmuneBalance@...

http://www.candidafighter.com

[Guest guest]

There is always a tendency to try to find THE answer to a problem and make it a simple answer.

So it sounds great that finding that there is yeast and treating it may be the answer to all of one's problems.

However it may not be that simple.Yeast may mimic VV, it may trigger VV in susceptible individuals, it may complicate VV, it may aggravate VV, or it may even cause VV.

But it may be only one of many factors involved. It must be treated of course but other things such as associated neuropathy, "pain genes"; "interleukin genes" and other pain history as well as psychological and emotional issue and the robustness of the gate control system all need to be considered.

There is no easy answer in all people, but there may be an easy answer in some

There are great examples of wins on this list, so there is hope that these conditions can be beaten

Allan

Re: Yeast... symptom or magic bullet?

Yeast yeast yeast!My period ended today so I FINALLY get to start treating myself for the yeast infection my gyn diagnosed last week. (apparently I've had it for months). The fact that there was now SOMETHING on a slide that provided some CLINICAL evidence of what the heck is going on gave me a lot of hope re: yeast treatments. I'm about to embark on them today.But I talked to my mom (who is an MD, a shaman, and an herbalist)and she kind of squashed the yeast hopes. She didn't mean to. She just pointed out that yeast is a really popular diagnoses right now. Kinda fadish for being the root of much evil. Yeast, she explained, is opportunistic. It moves in whenever there's a PH imbalance or an immune imbalance. So this yeast infection that I've got is really a chicken and egg scenario. I have picked up every freaking cold/flu/bronchial inefection that has swept through NYC this winter, so doubtless I am having immune problems. And I've been on the pill, which is probably not helping.Ugh. Ho hum. I'm discouraged today. I ended my relationship this weekend. There were lots of reasons and I'm not worried about finding another partner down the track, but I was chagrined to notice how relieving it was to get away from penetrative sex. So now I get to be off the BCP and use terazol for awhile. We'll see what happens. I've got some elavil waiting in the wings, but I don't think I want to go down that path...Just musing,-________________________________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

Excellent point Allan, well stated and glad you said that. This 'dis-ease' can have many causes and variations, and not one is the 'magic bullet' for all. dee~

[Guest guest]

>Please don't use Terazol. I have had numerous doctors tell me that it is

>the

>harshest of the anti-fungal creams. With our delicate vulvar tissues, I

>think it'd be better to use one of the oral antifungals such as Nizoral or

>Diflucan.

Hi Christy!

Thanks for the caveat. I am - for the better or worse - feeling really

kamikaze about things right now and am about ready to try ANYTHING. I concur

with whoever it is who confessed to the impulse to punish the offending body

part.

That said, I started terazol last night and haven't had any problem with it

so far. I've found that I'm not too sensitive to most things which rub other

people the wrong way, like pads and tampons and jeans. When " paradise "

starts acting up it always seems to be idiopathic.

Sooo, I figure I'll take my chances in bombing myself for yeast for a little

while. I've used diflucan with limited success. In January I had a biopsy

done, which then became infected and landed me in the emergency room. The

resident who saw me de-brieded (ie, tore away all the infected flesh) my

vulva without any anaesthetic. After that, there isn't much in the way of

burning and stinging that can phase me too much, except of course the

vulvodynia itself. :/

I'll watch out for the pain, though. It's good to know that it might happen,

so that if it does happen I won't panic.

Thanks!

-

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[Guest guest]

Ann,

Thanks for the info. I was waiting for you $0.02 on this. I'm torn about

how to approach this. I think that both you and my mom are right... I'm

trying to find a balance of advice and go with it.

I'm particularly interested in your commentary about yeast taking any

existing problem and making it worse. I am becoming suspicious of my adrenal

function at this point. When I started getting VV symptoms in '97 I was

under a lot of stress (19 years old, alone in Australia, involved in an

abusive relationship with someone much older). I went on the pill and

started having panic and anxiety attacks in the morning when I woke up.

These were better when I was with my b/f but being alone could sometimes be

terrifying and being with him could easily be worse. I had a good diet at

the time, though. australasia is a good place to find inexpensive, fresh

food.

By April of 98 the VV had disappeared. I dumped my jerk of a boyfriend, took

a backpacking trip around the country, met a British sweetheart, and came

home. 98/99 was largely a stress free year. I coasted through my last year

of college (I've always had an easy time managing schoolwork) and spent most

of my free time/money flying back and forth to England. The VV remissed

ENTIRELY.

But since July of '99, shortly after graduation, I've been a nervous

disaster area. I had severe insomnia for 6 months from July-Jan. The British

boy and I parted ways, largely because I was too stressed out to maintain a

distance relationship (I'm trying to juggle the New York cost of living with

a not-for-profit job while saving money for pre-med & med school. I am one

KEYED UP chica. Then in January I started sleeping again but also started

getting sick every 2 weeks. That was when the vv returned... with a

vengeance. Now I alternate between sleeping and getting sick. I haven't been

sick in 10 days but I haven't slept much for several of them. It's true that

my diet lately is pretty crappy. I eat a lot of salad and good things,

inclduing diet supplements and herbs, but a lot of junk food, too.

Soo, I'm thinking adrenal function may be part of it since I'm usually much

better at handling stress, I usually don't get sick, and I'm usually the

kind of person who can fall asleep at a rock concert.

Of course, it could be many, many other things.

And yeast is in the mix somewhere.

To be honest, the no-sugar diet on your website depresses the heck out of

me. I'm suspicious of diets that cut out so many wholesome things, and I'm

VERY critical of the Atkins diet. I can axe the junk food (*sigh*), but I'm

leery of cutting out carbs and wheat products in general, and especially not

fruit. I have a hard time believing that my body wouldn't be better off with

a balanced diet and some extra acidophilis tablets... then again, I'm really

not sure what to think anymore.

I do really take life in the teeth (always have). If I look at the past

couple of years, the big thing that I see is TRANSITION. Lots of it. Of

course this winter things slowed down a lot. It's hard to stay too busy when

you don't want to leave the house without bringing the bathtub along(hot

baths: the only thing that works wonders every time). I'm sure I'd be quite

the sensation bringing a bathtub into a bar, but let's be realistic...

Thanks for your input,

-megan

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[Guest guest]

,

Ho hum. I'm trying the terazol now because it is the most prominent goody in

my current bag of tricks. I tried yogurt douching a couple of times last

week while I had my period and that seemed to help. I'm not convinced that

I'm a yeast mess, though I'm willing to act on the fact that there is yeast

present.

I'm just taking it as it comes now, but thanks for the warning.

Ciao!

-

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[Guest guest]

<< To be honest, the no-sugar diet on your website depresses the heck out of

me. I'm suspicious of diets that cut out so many wholesome things, and I'm

VERY critical of the Atkins diet. I can axe the junk food (*sigh*), but I'm

leery of cutting out carbs and wheat products in general, and especially not

fruit. I have a hard time believing that my body wouldn't be better off with

a balanced diet and some extra acidophilis tablets... then again, I'm really

not sure what to think anymore. >>

The no-sugar diet is only for the treatment time when you are actively trying

to get rid of the yeast. I tried several times to eat fruit or something

with a small amount of sugar in it during my active treatment time (2 years)

and reacted every time. Now I can eat some fruits or something with a little

bit of sugar and I have no reaction. There are still some fruits that I

can't eat, but I think that is more due to food allergies then anything else

at this point in time.

While you have an active yeast infection, ANY sugar in any form will feed it.

And if you have had few toxins from the yeast circulating and then you feed

the yeast, you can feel the toxins start to work. This can cause anything

from marked fatigue to muscle aches to headache to GI problems, or any

combination of the above. Some people get skin rashes. Many carbs will do

the same thing. Wheat is particularly hard on the GI tract, which is damaged

from the Candida anyway. Avoiding it can save it from further damage. Plus

many people are allergic to wheat and don't know it.

Hope this helps.

Anne M., RN

ImmuneBalance@...

http://www.candidafighter.com

[Guest guest]

Anne,

>While you have an active yeast infection, ANY sugar in any form will feed

>it.

> And if you have had few toxins from the yeast circulating and then you

>feed

>the yeast, you can feel the toxins start to work. This can cause anything

>from marked fatigue to muscle aches to headache to GI problems, or any

>combination of the above. Some people get skin rashes. Many carbs will do

>the same thing. Wheat is particularly hard on the GI tract, which is

>damaged

>from the Candida anyway. Avoiding it can save it from further damage.

Hmmm. Well, here I am at the end of the terazol, eating a croissant at my

desk as we speak, and it's true that I don't feel a heck of a lot better.

It's summer in this town, which I like but I don't think the vv does.I will

probably have to do another yeast treatment in a month or so and I think I

will try to no sugar diet then, as long as it isn't an ongoing diet.

Thanks for the advice!

-

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