Healing Begins In The Gut

( I’d like to announce right off that I am participating in Fight Back Friday. Check it out!)

It’s believed that the majority of Americans are gluten intolerant today. And there are many opinions about why, but it seems to be one of those buzz tags.

You may know, if you visit The Home Of Peaceful Acres, my favorite people to be around are farmers. One farmer who’s been teaching me about several very important topics including Brix mentioned while I was picking up fresh chickens from him that he believed the abundance of gluten intolerance was due to a toxic mold in the wheat supply today. That really is a very interesting take on it, but he didn’t share any more so I can’t either. He’s still learning, so I’ll have to pick his brain some more when I go back to visit.

For some it’s as simple as reducing Phytic Acid in the grain before preparation by soaking and sprouting. Amanda Rose, Ph.D. offers her findings in a white paper titled Phytic Acid. The Food Science Chart that she provides shows the dramatic drop in phytates by soaking wheat. Many people find relief from gut pain and cramps by simply soaking and sprouting wheat.

BUT for many the issue of gluten intolerance goes much deeper….very deep into the gut. And the cause takes much more than simply soaking grains to fix the problem.

For these folks research at Rice University attributes 70% of all people as having an infection of Candida albicans. source

Candida is a genus of yeast; or better described as a fungal infection as manifested in thrush and/or vaginal yeast infections. Many find that when Candida has run amuck it causes leaky gut and the Candida can then become systemic in the blood stream. It’s at that point that one probably begins to experience symptoms that are similar in nature to many other disease including auto-immune illnesses and Lyme Disease  (which is NOT an auto-immune disease). Many in the general medical profession do not believe in Candida as an “illness”, but prefer to treat the symptoms rather than the cause. I speak from nearly 40 years of personal experience when I say this. I had one doctor literally threaten to throw me out if I insisted on using the word Candida! Needless to say, I fired him!

It was in the year 2000 that one very well intentioned doctor dismissed the idea that I had Lyme Disease, and insisted that it was merely Candida. I was a million times relieved. Who wouldn’t want Candida over Lyme! Me for one.

So my journey to wellness started there. Amazingly I discovered that I improved almost 100% until I fell off the wagon. The diet was very strict and as a SAD (standard american diet) eater for most of my adult life, I wasn’t use to such standards to achieve wellness. I discovered as I yo-yoed back and forth with my health, that diet was the key. Although it took me almost another 6 years to find the right diet to begin healing, the diet to treat Candida was a very good place to start.

You can find many diets for Candida on line and in books. Most will involve a cleansing period which begins the elimination of sweets, grains and processed foods and begins the introduction of fermented foods such as kefir, yogurt, brined sauerkraut and sour foods, veggies and proteins on a clean slate; your gut.

When I began this diet in 2000, I noticed a great improvement in just 1 week. My headaches were gone and the joint pains were improving. But of course for me, since my core issue was Lyme Disease and 3 Co-infections, I had further to go. BUT it was a very good start!

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Much information you find on line will give you a sure fire answer to the symptoms you are facing as purely Candida, I do not. Lyme Disease is called The Great Imitator just as Syphilis was years ago. I do not believe that everyone who exhibits Candida symptoms has Lyme, but I do believe that everyone with Lyme has Candida. And with over 200,000 people being diagnosed annually in the USA with Lyme & Co-Infection Diseases, it’s hardly something that I should let go unmentioned.

It’s my believe as well as many good alternative doctors that all healing begins in the gut. The father of medicine Hippocrates said it over 2000 years ago and it holds true today.

Here are some of the symptoms for Candida from Body Ecology:

• Fatigue and chronic fatigue
• Muscle aches, weakness or paralysis
• Insomnia
• Pain and/or swelling in joints
• Constipation or diarrhea
• Bloating, belching, intestinal gas and/or abdominal pain
• Poor memory, foggy thinking or feeling “spacey”
• Troublesome vaginal itching, burning or discharge
• Prostatitis
• Loss of sexual desire or feeling
• Endometriosis or infertility
• Impotence
• Bad breath
• Frequent mood swings

Donna Gates of Body Ecology was one of my starting points 10 years ago in finding healing to my mystery disease. HOWEVER, I do believe that many people are stopping there. I did. It appears to me that some may believe that Candida is an end all to health issues that might stem deeper.

Let me just give you a list of Lyme Symptoms: source

(I had nearly all of these symptoms and possibly more than are on this list and I am happy to tell you that nearly 100% of them are GONE! This did not happen over night. It took many long years. And my journey continues daily pursuing wellness with food.)

(However, IF I either fall off of my nutrient-dense high vitamin diet (not often) or if life hands out too many stresses (like back to back blizzards), some of these symptoms can begin to exhibit themselves again. BUT with quick reflexes I am able to catch it and get my life back in balance within a day or two thus eliminating the symptoms very quickly. I am very in tune to my body and I listen carefully daily to what it’s saying to me….a headache? a joint pain? a stiff neck? a stomach ache? constipation? I listen and I narrow it down…then I attack! )

I’ll go into how I attack at a later post.

Symptoms of Lyme Disease

• The Tick Bite (fewer than 50% recall a tick bite or get/see the rash)

1. Rash at site of bite
2. Rashes on other parts of your body
3. Rash basically circular, oval and spreading out (more generalized)
4. Raised rash, disappearing and recurring
   • Head, Face, Neck
5. Unexplained hair loss
6. Headache, mild or severe, Seizures
7. Pressure in head, white matter lesions in brain (MRI)
8. Twitching of facial or other muscles
9. Facial paralysis (Bell’s Palsy, Horner’s syndrome)
10. Tingling of nose, (tip of) tongue, cheek or facial flushing
11. Stiff or painful neck
12. Jaw pain or stiffness
13. Dental problems (unexplained)
14. Sore throat, clearing throat a lot, phlegm ( flem ), hoarseness, runny nose
    • Eyes/Vision
15. Double or blurry vision
16. Increased floating spots
17. Pain in eyes, or swelling around eyes
18. Oversensitivity to light
19. Flashing lights/Peripheral waves/phantom images in corner of eyes
    • Ears/Hearing
20. Decreased hearing in one or both ears, plugged ears
21. Buzzing in ears
22. Pain in ears, oversensitivity to sounds
23. Ringing in one or both ears
    • Digestive and Excretory Systems
24. Diarrhea
25. Constipation
26. Irritable bladder (trouble starting, stopping) or Interstitial cystitis
27. Upset stomach (nausea or pain) or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)
    • Musculoskeletal System
28. Bone pain, joint pain or swelling, carpal tunnel syndrome
29. Stiffness of joints, back, neck, tennis elbow
30. Muscle pain or cramps, (Fibromyalgia)
    • Respiratory and Circulatory Systems
31. Shortness of breath, can’t get full/satisfying breath, cough
32. Chest pain or rib soreness
33. Night sweats or unexplained chills
34. Heart palpitations or extra beats
35. Endocarditis, Heart blockage
    • Neurologic System
36. Tremors or unexplained shaking
37. Burning or stabbing sensations in the body
38. Fatigue, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Weakness, peripheral neuropathy or partial paralysis
39. Pressure in the head
40. Numbness in body, tingling, pinpricks
41. Poor balance, dizziness, difficulty walking
42. Increased motion sickness
43. Lightheadedness, wooziness
    • Psychological well-being
44. Mood swings, irritability, bi-polar disorder
45. Unusual depression
46. Disorientation (getting or feeling lost)
47. Feeling as if you are losing your mind
48. Over-emotional reactions, crying easily
49. Too much sleep, or insomnia
50. Difficulty falling or staying asleep
51. Narcolepsy, sleep apnea
52. Panic attacks, anxiety
    • Mental Capability
53. Memory loss (short or long term)
54. Confusion, difficulty in thinking
55. Difficulty with concentration or reading
56. Going to the wrong place
57. Speech difficulty (slurred or slow)
58. Stammering speech
59. Forgetting how to perform simple tasks
    • Reproduction and Sexuality
60. Loss of sex drive
61. Sexual dysfunction
62. Unexplained menstral pain, irregularity
63. Unexplained breast pain, discharge
64. Testicular or pelvic pain
    • General Well-being
65. Phantom smells
66. Unexplained weight gain, loss
67. Extreme fatigue
68. Swollen glands/lymph nodes
69. Unexplained fevers (high or low grade)
70. Continual infections (sinus, kidney, eye, etc.)
71. Symptoms seem to change, come and go
72. Pain migrates (moves) to different body parts
73. Early on, experienced a “flu-like” illness, after which you have not since felt well.
74. Low body temperature
    
75. Allergies/Chemical sensitivities
    
76. Increased effect from alcohol and possible worse hangover

Wo, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations! As you can see most of these symptoms fall under so many other maladies, including Candida.

You’re probably asking….so what does all this have to do with Gluten Intolerance? Most Lyme victims are gluten intolerant and suffer from Candida. I personally found that by following a diet to heal the Candida I also healed the leaky gut issues that caused my gluten intolerance.  All healing comes from the inside out. And I’m happy to tell you that from time to time I can enjoy grains prepared by soaking & sprouting or using sourdough as described by Amanda Rose, Ph.D. in the Phytic Paper.

A simple diagnosis of Candida is an easy fix and has restored many to health, including the son of my friend who is Autistic.  Lyme & Co-Infection Diseases (more infections transmitted by the tick), go much DEEPER and take a much longer and a greater intense protocol to heal. They are serious and life threatening and should be dealt with in cooperation work with a good Lyme Literate Doctor (LLMD).

If you’re suffering from what you think may be Candida or Gluten Intolerance or a host of mystery symptoms, please don’t stop searching for an answer. Lyme is now in all 50 states and on all Continents. Most people never find a tick or a bull’s eye. Please, seek out a good Lyme Literate Doctor who can begin assessing you. Most alternative doctors will start with diet and move on to herbal treatments and some even choose drug treatments.

It’s a very personal choice, but when the antibiotics fail, remember to look at your gut….it will have taken another beating from the drugs.

Life and healing begin in the gut!