If your stool is yellow and contains visible mucus, the first thing I recommend is a comprehensive stool analysis (CSA). Your naturopath, doctor, or functional medicine doctor can often authorize a CSA.
When I think of yellow mucus, I think of a couple of conditions that could be the cause, Parasites, liver problems, and gall bladder dysfunction are all possibilities. Inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome can also present with mucus and yellow colored stools.
Initially, there are a lot of questions to be answered when trying to identify the cause of abnormal stools. Think back and remember what kind of medicines you were taking and what kind of stresses you were under when you noticed the changes in your bowel movements. Had you made any changes to your diet? The more information you can provide your doctor, the more likely they will get the diagnosis right the first time instead of the tenth.
I see people in my clinic who have seen 10, 20, even thirty doctors, and no one can figure out the cause of their bowel problems. Everyone’s guessing. Instead of wasting your time with guesses, get checked out properly with a CSA. Then you’ll know what you’re dealing with in your digestive system.
A big mistake a lot of people make when undertaking a Candida cleanse is that they make changes to their diet far too quickly. If you do that, your system will crash, and you’ll find yourself fighting fatigue. For example, many people get it in their heads that carbohydrates are bad when they go on the Candida cleanse. They take every carbohydrate out of their diet and go full-blown keto. You don’t need to go on a fancy ketogenic diet. If you remove all carbs from your diet, your energy is going to go from hero to zero very quickly.
When you change your diet too quickly, you’re going to be tired. You’re going to have sore, tired muscles. You’re going to have low motivation. You could even have brain fog. You could be spaced out and dizzy. You could have low blood sugar, excessive yawning. You could be so tired you can barely function, and then you’ll probably put it down to Candida, or parasites, or a problem with your gut bacteria.
Before you start on a cleanse, get a comprehensive stool analysis. The results of the stool test will tell you what problems you have in your gut and what foods are most compatible with your situation. A SIBO breath test can also provide useful information.
Not everyone needs the same diet. Many people I’ve seen don’t need a lot of probiotics. Some don’t need probiotics at all. They need something to help remove parasites or harmful bacteria.
Other people have got a severe lack of beneficial bacteria, and they’re going to have big problems with many carbohydrates. People in this situation may be better off changing the type of carbs they eat or the way they prepare their carbohydrates. A baked potato, for example, may be easier on their gut. Taking digestive enzymes can make carbohydrates more tolerable.
I recommend checking out CanXida Restore. This is a particularly good product if your energy goes down during a Candida cleanse, and you want to add some carbohydrates back into your diet. CanXida Restore results in a better breakdown of carbohydrates, less fermentation and gas, reduced brain fog, and lower levels of fatigue. CanXida Restore works well for many people.
Remember, “carbohydrate” is not a four-letter word. As long as you select the correct carb for your digestive system, you can keep them in your diet. Don’t let the food police tell you what to do with your diet. Determine which carbs sit well in your gut by experimentation. Sources:
Supplements are not something you can pop anytime you want and expect them to be harmless. Many supplements can create serious problems for people when taken incorrectly. If you take supplements in ridiculously high doses, as part of crazy combinations, or for longer than they are needed, you could find yourself feeling quite sick.
In my option, taking supplements, especially good quality ones, is no different than taking pharmaceutical medications. You need good advice and to be careful about what you’re doing. It’s easy to do the wrong thing.
More than half the people I see waste their money on probiotics. They take them when they don’t need to take them. They take too many or not enough, or they take them for the wrong amount of time.
I cannot tell you how many people we’ve tested and found no beneficial bacteria growth in the gut. I’ve seen this with very expensive probiotics and very cheap ones. Even after a year of taking probiotics, no build-up of beneficial bacteria had occurred.
Other clients taking probiotics already have a high beneficial bacteria count in their stool. Beneficial bacteria readily colonize their gut. Clients like this will rarely if ever, need a probiotic.
How do you know if you’re the type of person who doesn’t need probiotics? The only way you’ll know is through stool testing. You can get a standalone microbiology panel done to assess the levels of beneficial and harmful bacteria in your gut.
Taking too many probiotics can cause excessive gas, bloating, and digestive problems. If you get bloating and you feel sick on a probiotic, stop it entirely for two to three weeks to see what happens. And generally, if there is a connection between the probiotics and your symptoms, the symptoms will subside markedly. When the symptoms drop right off, start the probiotic again.
When you start the probiotics again, take one capsule per day. Stay at that dose for several weeks to see if the same side effects return. If they do, stop the probiotic again, and wait for three to six months before doing another trial. Consider trying a different probiotic in case the first one wasn’t high enough quality.
Probiotic capsules that also include prebiotics can leave you feeling sick. Check to see if your probiotic supplements contain any FOS, inulin, or other sugars meant to feed the beneficial bacteria.
Prebiotics can end up feeding harmful bacteria and lead to SIBO. That’s why I’m no longer a fan of combining probiotics and prebiotics. I’ve seen far too many side effects of prebiotics with my clients.
Check out my formulation, CanXida Restore. Restore is a clever blend of digestive enzymes and probiotics put together specifically for SIBO, Candida, and intestinal parasites. CanXida Restore works beautifully for most people. The digestive enzymes ensure digestion is optimized, which reduces fermentation and bloating. I discovered how important it is to include digestive enzymes with probiotics about ten years ago. I noticed that when I combined both the supplements, I got a better outcome. Then, when I created a supplement with both probiotics and digestive enzymes in the same capsule, I got even better results.
Eating sauerkraut, kombucha, or kefir doesn’t implant bacteria in your gut. What these foods do is generally improve the environment of the intestine. Lactobacillus are quite predominant in sauerkraut. The lactic acid in sauerkraut is food for beneficial bacteria. The pH of sauerkraut is compatible with beneficial bacteria. The bitterness of sauerkraut stimulates digestion.
It also inhibits harmful microbial growth. Do you still need a probiotic supplement if you’re eating sauerkraut daily? You don’t necessarily need them, but I believe it’s beneficial to take probiotics along with the sauerkraut. If you are going to take a probiotic, choose one that contains strains of lactobacillus not already found in the sauerkraut. I also recommend adding digestive enzymes with the probiotic or sauerkraut, as the enzymes make digestion more efficient. More efficient digestion means that more fuel is available for the beneficial bacteria farther down the GI tract.
I was one of the first people to develop a formula with multiple types of probiotics and digestive enzymes together in a capsule. The capsule is bile and acid resistant to it can get to the small intestine where it releases the enzymes and probiotics. If you are also eating sauerkraut, the probiotics and enzymes ensure efficient digestion. The result is a lot less bloating and gas.
Remember to introduce sauerkraut into your diet gradually. Don’t just sit down with a huge big bowl full of sauerkraut on day one and start eating it as if you’ve always eaten it. Your tummy will get very messed up if you start with big servings right off the bat. That is also true for other fermented and cultured foods. Kefir is the most suspect of all the ferments to introduce.
I recommend being very cautious with that one. I consider kefir to be the most advanced kind of cultured fermented food to enter the diet. Yogurt’s one of the safest ones. Kombucha’s on the suspect list. My order would be yogurt, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir in terms of effects on the gut. To avoid getting side effects, I recommend you introduce fermented foods into your diet in that order. Sources:
The first thing I would recommend if eating meat is making it hard for you to move your bowels is this: stop eating meat! Meat is not a great food to eat if the intestines are blocked up. Eat more fish. Fish is a lot less constipating.
Fruit is also going to help you move your bowels. Papayas and pineapples are very good digestive fruits to eat. Get that bowel working better with some vegetables. I also suggest eating lighter proteins and making sure you are keeping yourself well hydrated.
The reality is this: you need to make a diet change, my friend. Stop eating the meat for a while. It’s not a good idea to keep eating meat while trying to speed up bowel turnover with butane hydrochloride or apple cider vinegar.
It’s important to know what is going on in your gut when you’re constipated. I recommend having a comprehensive stool analysis. The stool test will tell you whether you have Candida or parasites, or a problem with your beneficial bacteria.
Poor pancreatic, liver, or gallbladder function can also contribute to constipation. You need to investigate what’s causing your bowels to be slow. Once you know why it’s much easier to figure out what to do about the problem Sources: