hi y'all -

my name's caroline. i'm 22, and from maine. i just joined this forum.. didn't bother introducing myself to the WHOLE forum, cause i'm pretty much just here because of candida.

i've been dealing with IBS, severe brain fog, fatigue that just won't quit, headaches, anxiety/depression, and the vaginal yeast infection from hell (will NOT go away) for 5 or 6 years now. i've been to countless doctors for these issues individually, and, of course, none of them have been able to help me in any way. finally i decided to take it into my own hands.. it seems like everything i'd research having to do with any of these issues always led me back to candidiasis.

at first i thought it was bull, thought there must be some more rational reason why ii've been feeling like this for so long. the idea of the diet scared me, as did the idea of having little yeasty organisms crawling through every part of my body. but the more i researched, the more it made sense.

after being treated with diflucan for my vaginal yeast infection and seeing no results, i finally realized that i had to buck up and get better already. the food thing isn't a big deal for me, but.. man, do i miss beer, as a former avid beer drinker.. booze is the only thing that calms me down, and it's rough goin without. ha. but i've been eating as little as possible in the way of carbs and sugar (the most being the tiny amount of sugar in almonds, and the occasional plain yogurt, and the starch in chick peas for hommus and felafel), been eating lotsa veggies and meat, and have been taking grapefruit seed extract, caprylic acid, garlic, pau d'arco tea, and acidophilus. along with occasional coconut oil, unsweetened pure cranberry juice, and cranberry pills with uva ursi.

i've been on the diet for a week or so now, and a few days into it, i woke up with this awful aching right behind my eyes.. the kinda aching you get when you have a fever? no fever though. i also have had a really sore salivary gland at the back of my mouth, as weird as that sounds, and probably tmi, but: my vag is RIDICULOUSLY SORE AND ITCHY since i started the diet. like.. really BAD. ouch. way worse than it was beforehand!

i'm assuming this has to do with die-off? either that, or i've got some really weird unrelated bodily stuff goin on. my question is.. is this good? i mean, i can deal with the symptoms.. i'd like to get rid of this yeast as soon as possible. but is it bad for my body to be treating it this aggressively? should i kinda back off on the GSE and caprylic acid?

also - how long have y'all had to be on this diet? i'm sure after the symptoms go away i'll still stick to a LOW-carb diet for good, but will i ever be able to enjoy a few beers or a sandwich again?!! if not, i wonder if it'd be better to just live with the candida.. ahh. i'm pretty stressed out about this.

any advice would be awesome.. thank you so much.

Hi Littlecre,

I empathize with you. I did not have it as bad and got tested recently to find outnthat I kicked it only to find out that I now have a aprasite to kick aqs well.

Enough about me though. From all of my reading and researching I have foudn these to be true:

1. Die off will be a worse version of your already symptoms
2. Once you start the diet and the pills you'll feel a bit better ionly to feeel worse. That is how you now it is the die off

as for the ag issues, coming from a women, you can try a few things:

after a bath or a shower put your blow dryer on cool and blow dry the area. Sounds dumb but yeast thrives in moist areas. Or you can dab yourself with apple cider vinegar.

As for your is this good question YES!!!!!!! THIS IS GREAT!!!!!! You need to kill them and once you do think of it as a carcass that needs to decompiose and elimiante. The decomposition of the invader is the toxin that makes things worse for you.

You are doing great and you'll get through it. you have had this for quite some time so your die off may be a little longer than a week but that is a typical time frame.

If you need any help or an ear I am hear.