Recent visit to the Functional Medicine Practitioner

A while back, I mentioned that I went to see a Functional Medicine Practitioner who I called Dr. Cooper.  She has really helped me to figure out what my body needs and has helped me feel better.  My migraines have not gone away altogether, but they have decreased in intensity and in duration. 

Two days ago, I went in for a check-up.  I had not seen her since September and I wanted to see how much I had improved since then. 

What I found out:
1.  I really do have a wheat allergy.  Crazy that I've gone 35 years without realizing it until this year. 
2.  Other allergies I have:  dairy, apple (weird, huh?), oats, pecans, and walnuts.  (These aren't intense allergies where I have to have a shot or anything, but these things do cause problems for me.)
3.  Dr. Cooper re-iterated that my headaches are caused by stress on my digestive system.  (caused by Candida and bad bacteria.)
4.  The Candida yeast are almost under control.  I will finish out my current Nystatin prescription, then stop.
5.  Now that the yeast is much improved, there is a high amount of bad bacteria showing up in my gut.  This is what we are addressing now.
6.  I have low Progesterone levels.

What I don't know yet:
1.  Last time, Dr. Cooper found that I had insanely low levels of vitamin D.  A healthy level is in the 80's and no one should ever be below 32 b/c it puts you at high risk for all sorts of things (including cancer).  My level in September was 19!!  I have been taking crazy high amounts (5000 mg) of vitamin D since then to build up my reserves.  Dr. Cooper has ordered a blood test for me to see if I still need to be taking that high dose.

What I will do now:
1.  Continue to eat a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free diet --BUT I will ramp it up a bit and follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (see below) which prohibits all grains and sugars except fruit and honey.
2.  Dr. Cooper has changed my diet from the Yeast Connection diet combined with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to just the Specific Carbohydrate Diet ONLY!  This means I can eat fruit!  HOORAY! (I haven't had fruit in 8 months.....well...except when I cheated...rarely.)  FYI - here is a more critical look at the diet.  It's good to consider all sides.
3.  Take 50 mg of progesterone per day.
4.  Continue with all of my supplements which she originally prescribed.  (I will list them soon.)
5.  Get my vitamin D levels tested.

That's pretty much it.  I am going to exercise more.  It seems like that's the first thing that goes out the window when I get busy.  I will have time to get back on track over the summer.

Candida

This subject is controversial in the medical community, but here it is:  Candida!  The information below is what I learned from my reading and my doctor.  Most conventional doctors do not believe that a systemic Candida infection is possible.  They confuse it with a much more serious condition which cancer patients can get.  The book "The Yeast Connection" addresses the common misconceptions made by doctors and explains this much better than I can.  In England, Candida is much more accepted in the medical community.  In fact, that's where I first heard about it.  A teacher I worked with over there ate avocados and rice cakes every day for lunch.  When I asked why, I was educated by her.  Later, I met several more people (in England) who were diagnosed with Candida by their doctors.  Over here, no one has heard of it.

After my Functional Medicine Practitioner (Dr. Cooper) did endless tests, she diagnosed me with a Candida (yeast) overgrowth in my digestive system.  (I won't go into detail about HOW they can test for this....but they can test for it.)

We all have Candida in our digestive tract and it usually isn't a problem because the "good" bacteria keeps it in check.  However, frequent doses of antibiotics kill the good bacteria and the yeast can grow out of balance.  In addition, a diet which is high in sugar and refined carbs will feed the yeast, which also helps it to grow out of proportion.

Now, I have never had a yeast infection where a lot of women have yeast infections so I didn't think I had a problem.  BUT - this diagnosis is the only thing I have come across which makes sense of all my symptoms.  I did have a lot of ear infections and strep throat infections as a child so I did take multiple rounds of antibiotics.  In addition, I am a sugar fiend!  For years, I ate a lot of sugar and sweet things.  No wonder I'm out of balance. 

My symptoms and possible causes:

• migraine headaches - Dr. Cooper thinks my headaches are caused by digestive issues having to do with the candida.  Toxins released by the candida can cause a variety of symptoms including migraines.  Also, I lack the chromosome that helps the body detox so the toxins build up in my system.  
• itchy skin - sometimes when I exercise, I'll start to itch all over.  It's weird.  No doctor has ever been able to figure out why.  (Am I allergic to exercise?)  Anyway, I was reading "The Yeast Connection" and it said that candida can travel through the blood stream and cause itching.
• leaky gut syndrome - It's not what it sounds like!  Apparently, the Candida yeast shoots out runners (like a strawberry plant) which can pierce the intestinal wall.  Microscopic food particles can "leak" out which your body attacks like an invader.  Dr. Cooper found undigested gluten particles in my blood when she tested it.  The only way they can get there is through the intestinal wall.  
• feeling sick all over - Vague symptoms and feeling sick all over is an indication of a Candida infection.  It is frustrating to go to the doctor and have them tell you "it's all in your head".
• severe carb cravings - As I said before, Candida feeds on sugar and refined carbs.  When you don't eat these things, the Candida starts to die and it will send signals to your brain to eat sugar.  If it doesn't get it, it will make you feel terrible until you do.  For years I could never figure out why I always felt awful when I tried to eat healthily.  Then, when I ate french fries and a coke, I instantly felt better! This did not make sense to me until now.  I had to suck it up and feel terrible for 3 days until the sugar was out of my system.  (Seriously!  I felt like I had the flu for 3 whole day just because of not eating sugar and refined carbs.)  
• infertility - Yep.  Candida can cause that too!

Dr. Cooper says there are three ways to get rid of yeast:
1.  Kill the yeast - take an antifungal like Nystatin or Diflucan
2.  Replace the yeast - take a probiotic to replace the good bacteria. (Eating yogurt is NOT enough.  Plus, there's sugar in most commercial yogurt which feeds the yeast and makes it worse.) 
3.  Stop feeding it - no sugar or anything which turns into sugar.  Not even fruit sugar!  And no alcohol either.  (Drinking alcohol is like throwing gasoline on a fire.  It just flares up.)

The above remedies are temporary.  Once the imbalance it corrected you can enjoy fruit again in moderation.  It takes a long time to get rid of Candida though.  6 months to a year in most cases.  I have been on the Candida Diet for 6 months now.  I lost 30 pounds on it.

Anyway, you can take or leave what I wrote here.  This works for me.  Here are some books that I found immensely helpful: