Category Archives: Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers

Does Smoking and Drinking Coffee Make Candida Worse?

Smoking has some interesting side effects when it comes to Candida.

What many people are concerned about with Candida is keeping their blood sugar stable.

When you eat any food that has protein, carbs, or fat in it, your body is going to convert those nutrients into the sugar that fees your cells. Everything eventually breaks down into sugar. If you are low on sugar, the body is triggered to release stored sugar. Cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones are produced and then stimulate the liver to release glycogen, a form of stored sugar. Once the body senses the increased sugar in the bloodstream, the Islet of Langerhans cells in the pancreas release insulin. Insulin facilitate the entry of sugar into the cells, helping to fuel cells and maintain homeostasis.

Nicotine has an interesting impact on the body because it constricts blood vessels and stimulates a stress response in the body. Nicotine also triggers the release of glycogen, and when this happens, the pancreas releases insulin to allow sugar to enter the cells.

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Nicotine has a very interesting effect on adrenal glands as well. Nicotine stimulates the release of adrenaline which also stimulates the release of glycogen. There is quite a vicious cycle triggered by smoking. The nicotine initiates a stress response, which pushes the blood sugar up. Insulin is released, sugar enters the cells, and now the blood sugar low occurs. The up and down blood sugar is what makes you want to have a cigarette every two to three hours.

There is definitely a link between tobacco and the continuation of Candida. Some studies show that nicotine also initiates oral Candida and bad breath. Other studies show that nicotine is bad for the stomach and for acid production in the stomach. Nicotine can cause appetite increase or appetite suppression. It also affects neurotransmitters like dopamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin. Nicotine also impacts receptors in the small intestine.

Smoking is not good for your pocket, and it’s not good for your health in general.

My advice is to stop smoking. I don’t think vaping is any better. There is a lot of concern that vaping may result in people inhaling particles of metal from these devices. We don’t know the long-term health ramifications of vaping. By 2050 we will probably know that vaping is worse for you than smoking. Anything that you inhale into your lungs is going to damage the body.

Caffeine and nicotine have similar impacts on Candida. They are both alkaloids, chemicals that can affect you adversely. I don’t see one cup of coffee a day being bad for people. But many people who have caffeine don’t eat the right kinds of foods and they drink not one cup of coffee, but six or seven. I consider that caffeine overkill.

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Questions & Answers

Is Candida Causing My Food Allergies?

If you find yourself having allergic reactions to a wide range of foods, the first thing I would suggest is that you undergo food allergy testing. You should test for IgG and IgE. If you are going to do food allergy testing, make sure you don’t eliminate any foods from your diet. Make sure you eat all of the foods that are challenging the body and then do the blood test. The antibody count is going to provide an accurate representation of your reaction to the foods currently in the diet. This food allergy profile (FAP) will take the guesswork out of your efforts to identify which foods are causing your symptoms.

A stool test will also give you lots of useful information. It’s going to show you what the microbiology of your gut is like, where the imbalances are, where your strengths are, and where your weaknesses are. You don’t need to do a leaky gut test if you do a stool test. The stool test will give you a pretty good idea of your gut’s permeability. You’ll be able to pick that up through the secretory IgA and bacterial levels.

If you can’t afford any testing, I recommend that you write down all the foods that you’re currently consuming. Make sure you write down every food that you eat. Be specific – don’t just write “nuts” but indicate what type of nuts, e.g., almonds, walnuts, etc. Write the foods you eat down into categories: meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy, condiments, grains, and any other relevant categories. Then itemize all the foods you are eating. This food record can be done in an Excel spreadsheet. The food you eat should be in the left-hand column. In the right-hand columns, put your severity index. Column one indicates a mild reaction, column two indicates a moderate reaction, and column three indicates a severe reaction. Put a tick in whichever is the most appropriate column, date the list, and analyze it a bit. You have now established all the foods you eat, the severity of your reaction (if any) to each of the foods, and when you got those reactions. This is a very smart thing to do because, over time, as your gut heals, you should notice that certain foods are going from a severe reaction to a moderate reaction and then to a mild reaction.
The first thing you want to do is take out all the category three foods from your diet. In other words, all the foods that cause a strong reaction need to go.

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You might ask, how do I know what is reacting because I am eating so many foods? That’s when it makes sense to talk about an elimination and challenge diet. So, you can keep your diet to a bare minimum. Just eat basic foods that you know you don’t react to, maybe foods like cucumber or spinach, perhaps broccoli, maybe some fish or chicken, a few basic foods. Get your diet down to five to ten foods, and then slowly start increasing the number of foods, one at a time over. Each week you re-introduce another food to see what kinds of reactions you have in response. Then it is easier to determine if that food belongs to category one, two, or three.

Candida can cause a lot of problems for people because it can fool and trick the immune system. Candida can jam up the immune system and make it very difficult for the immune system to work at a normal level. So, the immune system can have an over exaggeration or under exaggeration in the gut. Some people with Candida can have very bad food allergies and once the Candida is cleared up, the allergies seem to die away.

If you are struggling with severe food allergies, it almost stands to reason that you have a leaky gut of some sort. You may also want to consider probiotics and even some grapefruit seed extract. You could consider taking CanXida Remove, and CanXida Restore, for example.

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Questions & Answers

Candida: From Diagnosis to Recovery

Before you embark upon Candida treatment, you must test for it. Never simply assume that you have Candida. Over half the people I see who swear they have Candida have no yeast infection at all. We couldn’t find it in the stool test or culture. It wasn’t detected with a microscope. In fact, they had no Candida. Instead, what they generally had was a bacterial imbalance in terms of lack of beneficial bacteria or an imbalanced flora. For example, they may have higher than expected amounts of Citrobacter or Klebsiella in their gut. Both bacteria are normal in stool, but at elevated levels can become a problem.

When you have too many of certain bacteria, they can cause massive health problems. The excess bacteria can interfere with beneficial gut bacteria. A bacterial imbalance can also contribute to inflammation, which can cause all sorts of problems.

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If you Candida infection was confirmed through testing, you can tell if it is getting better by retesting your stool. If your Candida treatment was effective, you should also notice a complete absence of symptoms and that you are feeling very good. Full recovery means that your energy is good, your sleep patterns are great, your appetite is good, you have no pain, there is no bloating or gas, and you have normal bowel movements every day.

I always like the idea of testing and measuring. Testing something to see if there’s a problem, fixing it, measuring response, and then retesting. This is the exact approach I recommend for anyone with Candida.
In addition to stool testing to diagnosis and monitor Candida levels, I also recommend yearly blood work. I suggest measuring your iron, B12, vitamin D, liver function, kidney function, and any other tests deemed appropriate by your healthcare provider. Having annual blood tests allows you to compare how you are doing from year to year. The results should tell you whether your health is improving or whether you have some work to do.

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Questions & Answers

The Brain Bowel Connection: The Value of Beneficial Bacteria

It’s possible to undertake a very healthy Candida regime and still find yourself with troubling symptoms. One of the possible reasons is the use of pharmaceuticals that negatively impact beneficial gut bacteria. The result can be any number of symptoms, including impaired concentration or “brain fog.”

I’ve noticed a robust association between brain fog and small intestinal dysfunction, particularly lactobacilli. I’ve seen this time and time again. I’ve performed thousands of stool tests, and there has been a consistent pattern of bacterial growth. The problem is not that there are too many harmful bacteria. The problem in brain fog is that there aren’t enough good bacteria in your intestines.

If you’ve taken antibiotics recently, you’ve likely wiped out your good gut bacteria. In the aftermath of antibiotic use, it’s entirely possible to have a nil lactobacillus count on stool analysis. With brain fog, it has been my experience that the problem is not with the bifidobacterial levels but with the amount of healthy lactobacillus in the gut.

The solution to this situation is to take a lactobacillus supplement. You could look at something like CanXida Restore. We’ve got several strains of lactobacilli in there. You could also look at other lactobacillus products. The important thing is that you take something to help repopulate your gut with beneficial bacteria.

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From the research I’ve done, I’ve noted that lactobacilli have a potent effect on receptor sites in the small intestine. Lactobacilli interact with gamma and serotonin receptor sites. This type of bacteria also interacts with other receptors that strongly influence cognitive function. If you want a very sharp mind, you need to have a very healthy small intestine.

In terms of the most appropriate dose, you can experiment. Start with a high dose lactobacillus supplement, and if you find that hard to tolerate, cut back. You could drop down to one capsule per day with a meal and slowly build up until you can take two or three capsules per day. Keep an eye on your bowel movements because the texture should change. The stool should change, as well. If the lactobacilli aren’t there in sufficient numbers, you may notice inconsistent bowel movements – loose or too firm, or a bit of irritable bowel. Continue with the lactobacillus supplements until your bowel movements indicate that your gut health has been optimized.

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Questions & Answers

If I Following A Candida Diet, Is It Still Okay To Take Red Yeast Rice Extract To Lower My Cholesterol?

One of the questions clients have asked me is whether it is okay to take red yeast rice extract to lower their cholesterol levels?

My first question for them is, why do they even want to lower their cholesterol? I ask this question because most people have no understanding of cholesterol and its role in the body.

We’re told that LDL, or bad cholesterol, damages our health. We’re told that the high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, is actually beneficial for our health. But this is only a small part of the cholesterol story. Heart disease occurs by way of inflammation, and inflammatory mechanisms go far beyond just HDL and LDL ratios. If you are worried about heart disease, keep your blood pressure down, your weight down, and keep your bowel function working.

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There are many videos you can watch on the internet about the cholesterol myth, which is also referred to as the “Big Fat Lie.” It’s simply not true that you need to lower cholesterol to prolong your life. You need to keep cholesterol balanced and in good amounts when you get older because cholesterol is a foundation for four major hormonal pathways in the body. The production of testosterone, progesterone, estrogen, cortisol, and aldosterone requires cholesterol. All these hormones rely on a good supply of cholesterol. If you are going to interfere with your cholesterol levels, you could also potentially be interfering with your hormones.

Red yeast rice extract is a type of fungus. It’s a yeast called Monascus, which grows on rice. It’s quite popular as a health product and has been used since 200 or 300 B.C. Monascus can block the effects of HMG-CoA reductase, which is an enzyme that helps to produce LDL. Monascus essentially acts as a type of “statin” or cholesterol-lowering medication. In that way, it is similar to lovastatin, a highly lucrative cholesterol-lowering drug derived from the fungus Aspergillus.

However, you don’t need to lower LDL to be healthy. Instead, the most important thing to do is ensure your bowel is functioning well. By improving your bowel movements, you improve your body’s ability to bind cholesterol in the gut and excrete it. You don’t need to lower cholesterol by taking drugs.

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