Wow. It’s been a wild four, five weeks for all of us here in New Zealand with this Covid thing. I’m sure you all out there have been doing different things. So, if you look at my spectacles closeup, you might see some specks of paint on them because I’ve been painting. So make good use of your time, that’s the thing. It’s just easy to sit there and let time get swallowed up by nothingness. It’s good to relax, but it’s also good to get stuff done. It’s really important, I reckon.

Now, lots of topics to cover, as usual. Many, many questions. Here’s a classic question I get asked all the time. Help, nobody believes I’ve got a candida problem. They say that I’ve got something wrong inside my head, that I’m imagining everything or, a classic one is, you’ve got irritable bowel syndrome or you’ve got… They just fudge it away as something else.

This won’t just being medical practitioners, this can often be naturopathic practitioners. It can be chiropractors, it can be many different, allied complimentary health care. Health professionals can also say this, that you haven’t got a candida problem, you’ve got lactose intolerance or you’ve got a food allergy or you’ve got something else. So this is why I set up Yeastinfection.org. This is why I wrote Candida Crusher, for exactly this reason, because when I had candida a long time ago in my twenties, well, I was told to go to the psychiatric people, that the problem, I had a problem, but it was a mental health problem. And that just infuriated me, like it will infuriate you out there, as well.

So let’s explore the irritable bowel syndrome. It’s a typical one that many people have come to my room saying, I’ve been diagnosed with having IBS. As I’ve written in Candida Crusher, it’s a garbage can diagnosis. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s where doctors put people in, so hopefully someone else will take that can of crap away and not deal with it. So many, many physicians are like that, but also many natural practitioners are like that.

So how do you know if you got candida? Well, a really good thing for you to do is to check out Yeastinfection.org and look at the signs and symptoms. I’ve written so many pages on that site, particularly, the male pattern, the female pattern, the pediatric or the children’s pattern. So things to look out for. And I want you to go to that site and have a good look and, also, I really want you to do the test, the Candida Crusher test, the online test. We were the first people to put a good test online regarding that.

Related articles:

• Oral Yeast Infection (Oral Thrush) Symptoms, Causes & Treatment
• Recurring Ringworm: Can It Be Candida?
• Can Candida Cause Canker Sores?
• Poor Concentration, Brain Fog & Candida
• Candida Case Studies: Meet Ann
• How To Get Rid Of Persistent Female Itch

So I’ve got a quiz. Yeastinfection.org will have that quiz. You need to do that quiz if you haven’t done it to see how high your score is. Now if I would have completed that test in my twenties I would have 100% because I had nearly all of those symptoms. So be very careful with people telling you that you haven’t got candida, when you have strong sugar cravings, when you got gas, when you got bloating and itchy skin and brain fog and all of these incredible symptoms that candida can produce. There are many, many clever people out there who know about candida. I’m not one of the clever ones. I’ve just sort of self-taught, but there are many sharp people out there now, medical professionals who know that candida albicans and candida tropicalis have said all these species can cause massive problems for people.

If you go to Google and you’re typing candida yeast infection studies, you’ll find thousands of studies now that support my work. So it’s scientific, it’s not backyard bogan hillbilly medicine stuff that we’re preaching here. This is real stuff. Dr. Liz Lipski is somebody I hold in very high regard and she wrote a book called Digestive Wellness and she said there are four main reasons why people will have big gut issues and they need to be explored. And the first one she said was infectious problem, yeast infection, parasite problem, bacterial overgrowth. This is the top of the tree. It’s the first thing that needs checking out. So if you really think you’ve got a candida problem and if you don’t get a test done, well, it’s probably like getting in a space rocket and shooting up to go to the moon, but you’ve got no steering wheel or map or compass and you’ll end up in Jupiter or Uranus or something.

Anyway, I’m going off track again, but I think you get my point. If you really think you’ve got a problem, you need to go to someone who can test for you. That was not something that was possible for me a long time ago, back in the eighties. Testing was in its infancy. You go to a naturopath or a doctor and you talk about candida, well, as I said, the first person you went to was the shrink, the psychiatric person. Because tests weren’t really there. Tests are there now, studies validate these tests. There are people out there who can nail this thing for you and say yes or no. So remember the first thing is, there’s infectious problem.

The second one, as Dr. Lipski says, is likely to be, if it’s still an issue, particularly bloating and gas, could be lactose, lactose intolerance. But the chances of having a lactose problem, intolerance compared to having a candida problem, well, it’s quite slim. Lactose intolerance is a minority, whereas many more people have candida problems. And the other one, of course, number three is going to be food intolerances and food allergies. We’ve spoken many times about this on this channel. Big difference between intolerances and allergies. A zebra is not a lion. They’re two different animals. So you’ve got to look at the intolerance and the allergies being two separate animals.

Again, check out my videos on that. There are, what, 1800 videos soon on this channel. And then the fourth one, which nobody talked about until I wrote a lot about it in 2013, was stress. Stress is one of the key things that messes people’s guts up. Mess up their gut, mess up their skin, mess up their brain, mess up many parts of their body.

And again, I’ve written a whole bunch of stuff on this and spoken a bunch about it. So think about those four key drivers that often push people into an issue. But what did I say, the number one? The infection, the overgrowth, the imbalance. That’s the key thing. Lots of people haven’t got sufficient training in this area either. But even if you just go to a physician or alternative professional and say, look, I want this test. I really want this test to determine if I’ve got candida. Do the test properly, it’s going to be a stool test. Don’t come to me. I’m finished. I’m painting now and I’m doing other stuff. So my clinic’s done, but I’m here to teach you guys that this is the way to go, testing or validate what’s going on. It’ll validate and it sets you up having a benchmark, you’ve got a standard, and then you work off that standard.

Once the test says yes, you’ve got a problem, you put a protocol into place, which we talk about on this channel all the time, protocols. You follow the protocol, you retest, and then if you’ve done things right, there’ll be a big improvement, not just in the results, but also in your body. That’s science and that’s what I’m interested in. Have you seen the paint splatters on my, no, actually they’re not too bad. Catch up in the next video. Look at my hair. I need a haircut, but everyone’s closed. All the barbers are closed at the moment.

That’s because I’ve been locked down for four weeks. Actually, it’s five weeks now with COVID-19. So, I trust everyone’s having a good time out there, and trying to make the best of every single day. Okay? It is beautiful being alive. You’ve got to think about it, and as my sister-in-law used to say, “They call today the present because it really is a gift.” Every day is a gift, all right? Whether you believe in God or don’t believe in God, don’t really care. Today is a gift, so it’s a special day for you. It’s a special day for me. Every day is a special day. As my old man used to say, “As long as your bum points to the ground, and your head’s up right, everything’s going to be okay.”

Now, a problem. I can’t poo. I haven’t been to the toilet for a week. I’ve got a real problem, right? That’s this video. Help, I can’t poop. It’s been a whole week, and I can’t poop you. Now, I’m going to put a link in the description box below. If you go to ericbakker.com, I think it’s forward slash, constipation. I’ve written a whole page on constipation on that site. I want you to check it out. Yeastinfection.org may also have some constipation articles of mine on there. So, it’s a real problem. So many people can’t go. So many people. I wrote quite a bit about this topic in Candida Crusher as well, so it’s the texture and the frequency of the stool that concerns me with many patients.

It’s normal to have a stool twice per day, at least twice per day. Once it’s good, two is very good. Okay? Three times can be even better, particularly if it’s well-formed. That tells me you’re eating a lot of fiber. Fiber is what you need to bulk up that stool. Carries a lot of debris and rubbish out of the body. Lots of toxins and crap are released. It’s a bit like you putting out your trash can every week. Would you put your trash can at once a month? You’re not worried about all the animals that congregate around the trash can in your yard somewhere. You’re going to get roaches, and you’re going to get rats, and all sorts of stuff. They’re going to be interested in all that. Well, this is what happens to people. You’re going to get bacteria, you’re going to get all sorts of viruses and yeast all growing in that gut, and you can’t not poop.

It’s really, really bad not to poop. It’s shocking, in fact. There are many ways to remedy this. In my book, I believe I wrote that having a really good bowel function is sort of similar to a woman having a great menstrual cycle, like on a monthly kind of thing. But something often happens, [inaudible 00:02:47] gets thrown in the works and the cycle won’t work properly anymore. Now for that woman, it might’ve been a relationship problem, or she got fired, or something bad happened emotionally, and then bang, the cycle got affected. Stress has got an incredible way of impacting on a female’s menstrual cycle just like stress has got a seriously big way in impacting on a person’s gut function.

Stress, in my opinion, is one of the key drivers behind constipation because it pushes people down pathways of eating the wrong food, not drinking enough fluid, drinking soda drinks instead of water, and making the wrong kind of decisions.

Related articles:

• All You Need To Know About Rhodotorula
• How Many Stool Samples Do I Need for the CDSA Test?
• Functional vs Conventional Laboratory Testing for Candida
• Metabolites, Mycotoxins, and Acetaldehyde – What Are They?
• Fatty Liver And Candida Infection: Is it Connected?

Sure, there’s all sorts of tests you can do. You can eat beetroot, and then watch the passage of it coming through the bowel, and how many hours it takes for that red stuff to come out, and all this kind of thing. But one thing you can do every day, which I often talk about is the eyeball test, is actually looking when you’ve done number two, is having a look in the pan. Look in the toilet to see, look at the stool. Some people I speak to have never ever looked in the toilet bowl to look at their bowel motions, and they think, “Oh, no, it got looked down there. That’s all horrible.” Well, hang on. It came out of your body. All right? Can’t be that bad. You don’t have to actually touch it or stuff. But, you’ve got these two things here, and you can look at it, right?

You see what it’s like. You’re got to get a texture. You want a color. You don’t have to get down on your knees and sit there and have a real good look. But you know what I mean. Get a feeling for what’s happening, right? What goes in here and what turns around in here will dictate what comes out the tailpipe. So, stressful thoughts, angry thoughts, disturbing thoughts. Okay? Depressed thoughts, anxious thoughts, all these have an effect on the gut. Every single thought you have will affect the gut to a degree. The people I’ve personally found to have the best bowel functions are relaxed people.

They’re easy-going people. They’re not highly stressed or strung-out people. So, if you look at someone’s personality, you can often get a feeling for how they drive their car, how they treat their wife, how they have a bowel motion. You can just… I don’t know. With my experience with patients over the years, you can see that. And generally, when a patient used to come into my room, and sit down and start talking, I’ve already brought up a slow mental picture of the likely kind of problems or dysfunctions that she’s going to talk to me about. And guess what? About a year or two before I retired, I thought, man, I’m starting to get pretty cool with this because someone had come in and you’re thinking, “Okay, here we go. We probably got a gallbladder problem, a bowel problem, probably heavy menstrual cycle.” And those are the three things that she would say. Boom, boom, boom.

And then, most of the conversation will be dominated about her employer, that the guy’s a pain in the butt, that she didn’t like the guy. She didn’t like the way that she was treated in his office and things like that. So, they’ve built up a lot of resentment, and hate, and bitterness. Note the word bitterness. I just said gallbladder. So, as I’ve mentioned before, Asian people, Chinese really believe that every organ has an emotion attached to it. Each organ in turn. I love traditional Chinese medicine for that reason because they really look at the mind body concept.

What’s going on in here sometimes will dictate how this functions and what comes out there. So don’t ever forget that, okay? That, to me, is one of the number one reasons why people are constipated, right? It’s not just, you need to drink three more glasses of water a day, and have a couple of pieces of all bran wholemeal bread, and you’ll be pooping like fine. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll write you out a prescription for Loperamide or a drug that will make you poop like a duck, and then you won’t be in my room again. And that’s the doctor, okay? Very pragmatic, very critical saying, “Take this stuff. Get out of my office.” It’s not going to work. All right?

Please read my page, the link below. Click on that and read it on constipation, and go right through it, and look at my sensible tips on constipation. Follow those tips. If you follow those tips carefully, you will not have constipation. All right? The gallbladder is a big one for ladies, particularly for ladies, more so than men I find. So, make sure you read about in the gallbladder. Bitter things in the diet are quite good to include for women for that reason, like grapefruit, or olives, or olive oil, lemon juice. These things are quite good. Bitter greens are quite good to add in there.

I love olive oil, and I think that one good tablespoon of olive oil per day will go a long way to fixing up constipation. One patient I saw a long time ago now, it would have been what, 25 years ago now, had a bowel motion every 10 days. And her doctor said, “Look, it’s fine. If you’re pooping every 10 days, it’s fine for you. Don’t worry about it.” The guy probably wanted to get out of his office and play golf or something. I mean, come on. Get real, mate. Might come back to that with saying, “Excuse me, doc, you put out your garbage can once every two months? Is that fine?” And the doctor wouldn’t even be thinking that way. If it’s in there, it’s got to go out, and there are many ways you can get that accomplished.

Taking digestive enzymes can be beneficial for a whole host of problems. If you’re suffering from bloating, cramping, abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, or constipation, digestive enzymes have something to offer. The same is true if your problem is weight gain, weight loss, SIBO, Candida, genital yeast infections, or skin problems. Remember, as powerful as your diet and the right high-quality supplements can be, you can’t heal your gut thoroughly while living an unhealthy lifestyle. You need to manage your stress, manage your sleep, and manage your relationships to truly get healthy.

Naturopathic gastroenterology has been my life for over thirty years. In 2014 I decided to get into the business of making supplements. I wasn’t happy with the supplements on the market. The quality wasn’t consistent. The results my clients were getting weren’t consistent.

I’m not here to sell my products. I’m here to help people achieve the best health possible. You can buy whatever works for you. I designed the CanXida line of supplements to ensure my clients would get a predictable outcome. So far, the feedback from consumers has been phenomenal. Occasionally I get a complaint about the price, but the price reflects years of clinical practice, research and development, and the fact CanXida is made from the highest-quality ingredients available.

The basis of good health is never going to be supplements. Food will be your primary “medicine.” Eating a typical Western diet combined with a few supplements, isn’t going to give you a healthy gut. Same with drinking alcohol every day while popping an occasional vitamin pill.

I believe in making treatment as simple as possible. That’s why I combined enzymes and probiotics in one capsule. CanXida Restore, the one with a green label, contains the best digestive enzymes I could find and the best probiotics I could source. Combining digestive enzymes with probiotics works so much better than taking the two supplements separately. The enzymes allow the body to break down and digest food efficiently, and the probiotics facilitate optimal fermentation.

Related articles:

• Aldehydes and Candida Connection
• Does Candida Cause Sinus Infections, Headaches, and Fatigue?
• Are Biofilms Resistant To Antibiotics?
• Does Your Child Have a Diaper Yeast Infection?
• 6 Most Common Types of Candida
• Recurring Ringworm: Can It Be Candida?

There’s a bit of a twist in the CanXida Restore supplement. I’ve put a small amount of the enzyme serratiopeptidase in the product. Serratiopeptidase is a systemic, rather than digestive, enzyme. I added serratiopeptidase for a very specific reason. I wanted to be able to reduce the Herxheimer reaction in people.

For best effect, I suggest taking at least one dose of CanXida Restore away from food. That’s why I often suggest taking one at breakfast and one before bed. Some people take three a day or even more, which is okay for the short term. Taking two with food and one at bedtime is fine to speed things up for three months or so. For maintenance treatment with CanXida restore, taking one a day is sufficient.

CanXida Restore works very well to clean up the gut when Candida or SIBO are a problem. When you’re sleeping, it’s great to have CanXida Restore seed your gut with probiotics. At the same time, the serratiopeptidase removes dead cell fragments, harmful bacteria, and yeast.

CanXida Restore comes in a capsule that is resistant enough to bile and acid that it can travel down to its target spot, the small intestine and beyond. A supplement that spills all its contents in the stomach isn’t going to work as well.

I’ve said on many occasions, and I’ll say it again, don’t take a probiotic supplement that also contains a prebiotic. Instead, get your prebiotics from whole foods. Prebiotics in supplement form can cause a variety of side effects, including bloating, gas, and abdominal pain.

Take a look at CanXida Restore. For many people with gut problems, CanXida Restore offers features that are hard to beat. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23380245 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29212390 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18479885

There are hundreds of scientific studies that demonstrate the negative aspects of antibiotic use. Some people never recover from antibiotic side effects. The more antibiotics you use in a short period of time, the higher the chances of running into big problems.

One journal out of the UK published a study that showed even one or two rounds of antibiotics close together increases the risk of developing anxiety or depression. The American Journal of Gastroenterology reported that three or more rounds of antibiotics in a five-year period increase the risk of inflammatory bowel disease 1.5 times.

The American Medical Journal published a study showing that over 60% of people who went to their doctor for a sore throat were given antibiotics. According to the journal, that number should have been less than 10%. It’s not the doctors’ fault that antibiotics are overprescribed. That’s what they were taught in medical school. That’s why patients need to be very discerning and careful when it comes to antibiotics. Ask if there are alternatives like colloidal silver spray or garbling with a drop of tea tree oil in a glass of lukewarm water.

Related articles:

• Using the Coca Pulse Test to Identify Food Intolerances And Allergies
• All You Need To Know About Rhodotorula
• Unexplained Joint Pains & Candida Connection
• Always Disconnected & Dizzy: Is It Candida?
• Why Fermented And Cultured Foods With Candida?
• Food Allergies and Candida

Often for the average, healthy person, the immune system is enough to “cure” a sore throat. It may look like it was the antibiotics that made things better, but by the time the medication was started, the immune system was reaching its peak effectiveness. In those cases, it’s the body’s own lymphocytes and killer cells that are making the biggest difference to the infection. The body is supremely intelligent and often can kill pathogens on its own.

We know that antibiotics can cause massive devastation and destruction in the body. What we don’t know is why this devastation sometimes leads to anxiety, depression, weight gain, and other long-standing side effects.

If you’re also taking medication like ibuprofen or acetaminophen, drinking alcohol, and living an unhealthy lifestyle, your risk of side effects from antibiotics is even higher.

Heart disease, diabetes, and many other health conditions have been linked to antibiotics use. One of the reasons is that antibiotics not only kill harmful bacteria, they also put a significant dent in the population of beneficial bacteria. The good bacteria in your gut essentially becomes “collateral” damage as a result of antibiotics use. Sometimes the gut never rebounds fully after the use of antibiotics. That’s why I always recommend that my clients be very cautious when it comes to using antibiotics. You don’t want to suffer the after-effects of antibiotics for years to come.

Sources:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28114473
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28604925

Digestive enzymes are crucial for proper processing and absorption of food. When levels of digestive enzymes are abnormally low, a number of signs and symptoms can surface. Bloating, gas, GERD, constipation, diarrhea, foul-smelling stools, and fatty stools that float instead of sink are some of the ways digestive enzymes problems can present.

You don’t want stool that floats because that signifies a problem with lipase, a digestive enzyme. It could mean a problem with your gallbladder or a problem with your pancreas.

If your pancreas is not functioning well, you could end up with blood sugar problems. If the pancreas is not excreting enough amylase, your digestion can suffer.

In my mind, the pancreas is one of the organs most vulnerable to the impact of stress. If you eat lunch and notice within thirty to ninety minutes that your energy is dropping, it could very well be a pancreas problem. Craving certain foods is often associated with a stomach or pancreas problem. If you have to eat something every few hours to stave off irritability, it’s likely a blood sugar issue that may be the result of pancreatic dysfunction.

If undigested food is suddenly more noticeable in your stool, something about your digestive tract is probably not working very well.

Related articles:

• Everything You Need To Know About Candida Auris
• Why Fermented And Cultured Foods With Candida?
• The Connection Between Candida Yeast And Addictive Behavioral Patterns
• Multiple Yeast Infections Have Tried Everything
• The Differences between Adrenal and Thymus Gland Extracts
• Can Candida Cause Canker Sores?

Proteases are the digestive enzymes responsible for breaking down protein. If your protease level is low, you’ll likely develop problems with your hair, skin, and nails. A person should have nice, shiny hair. They should have skin that glows. Their eyes should be bright. There should be no yellowing of the eyes, a problem that develops when there are bile, liver, or gallbladder issues. The nails should be glossy and strong.

Strong Body odor is another indication that digestive enzymes levels may be low. Digestive enzymes deficiency is also associated with fatigue and poor immune function. You may end up with recurrent colds and cases of flu.

Mineral and vitamin deficiencies can develop when digestive enzyme levels are too low to allow for normal digestion. Vitamin B12 deficiency can occur when the stomach doesn’t make enough of a molecule called intrinsic factor. Intrinsic factor is necessary for proper absorption of this essential vitamin. Iron deficiency may surface when digestive function is impaired.

Other conditions associated with digestive enzymes deficiency include insomnia, premature aging, gray hair, hair loss, degenerative diseases, heart disease, and diabetes. Clearly, making sure your digestive enzymes are in good working order is a valuable investment in your health.

Sources:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31824646
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31171887