What Is Going on with Me?

When we're stressed by being afraid, our stomachs often stop producing stomach acid because of the fight/flight response. This means your body is not absorbing nutrients properly, causing overload on the digestive system and giving candidiasis a chance to overload. Food allergies can give you Candida as well. Cut a food out for 4 days and you can usually tell if you feel better, if that is the offending food or not. A little simpler than allergy tests. However, naturopaths can give you a blood test that finds allergies, instead of getting the pinprick test that doesn't really tell what food allergies you have.

Bread - because I'm gluten intolerant will cause me Candidias as will dairy products. Dairy does it to me the fastest. You didn't mention if you have been on antibiotics or if you eat a lot of sugar.

If you have a lot of yeast infections, read this book "The Yeast Connection". It has the whole Candida problem laid out and has a test that can let you know whether or not you have a systemic Candida problem. Unfortunately a lot of MDs don't believe in this condition, just as they used to not believe in Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue. Some are beginning to believe this is a real condition. This book will tell you to get rid of all sugar products, as well, to relieve the Candida overgrowth, including bread, sugar, white flour, and in my case I had to go off fruit as well.

Stress can also cause Candida. I know this from personal experience. I prefer to take probiotics to taking yogurt, because it's much more potent. I like Jarrow's EPs or Dr. Ohira's Probiotics. AMAZING how these things can knock out a yeast infection like nothing else. You may have developed a food allergy you didn't have before, that is leading up to all of this. Also, believe it or not, heart burn can be caused by either too little or too much stomach acid. If there is too little acid, the stomach doesn't drain, then everything backs up the esophagus. The test is, take a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon(you could try it over a salad). If you feel better after the lemon or vinegar, you know you need MORE acid. If you feel worse, you need less. My sister was having terrible stomach pains for over a day, and I had her do this test, she had complete relief within an hour! Only start taking antacids if you KNOW you are in need of less acid, because otherwise, you will make your symptoms worse - especially the Candida over the long haul. If you have discovered you need digestive enzymes, with the vinegar test, then in addition to the probiotics you need a good digestive enzyme. My favorite is "Digest Gold" by Enzymetica which you can purchase at Super Supplements. Good luck. I've dealt with similar problems for years, and now I don't get the infections very often any more, and the heartburn is gone. This for me was debilitating.

I had so many digestive problems prior to taking the digestive enzymes it was embarrasing. Not to mention stomach pain, and acid reflux. I hope yours clears up quickly.

God bless.

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I don't have your problem but found this sight that sounds very similiar to your experience. Best of Luck.

http://www.steadyhealth.com/Vulvadynia_and_heartburn_t101...

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I think you should see a doctor. I have had a lot of stomach troubles before, and a lot of your symptoms, heartburn and cramps could be indigestion or worse, an ulcer. If it is indigestion, then you wouldn't want to be eating yogurt for the yeast infection, because that makes indigestion worse. So definitely see a doctor, and chill out! I see that you are stressing over a lot of stuff. Stop. Prioritize and downsize the overload. :) Its worth it.

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A.,
You answered your own question. It has a lot to do with the environement you are in as far as stress. I went through this a couple of years ago and I did everything to make them go away and nothing would help, finially I just stayed home and didnt offer to do this and that or go to work, I was in so much pain anyway so I couldnt go anywahere. I made sure to wear cotton underwear and none at all when I could (nighttime) so that (it) was not uncomfortable. Have you tried the pill for the yeast infection? works greatk, that is the only thing I can really say that works.
A.

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Hi A.,

Yes, emotional and physical stress can be a big factor, because it not only affects how and whether you digest your food (stomach acid levels, assimilation of important micro-nutrients, movement of foods through your GI tract), it also affects WHAT you eat and drink--tendency to "quick fix" or comfort foods that are often high in fats and sugars, low in the nutrients we need to help with digestion and lowering stress...and THERE's your connection! If your body either isn't getting or can't assimilate nutrients that help DEAL with stress, then you become even MORE stressed, and the cycle continues.

That being said, while reducing your load and getting some exercise and watching your diet all must be done to reduce the overall stress, you now also have an internal physiological cycle that needs breaking. The symptoms you describe could be a number of things, and each could have a number of direct causes and specific things you can do to help:

Regular heartburn--may just be poor nutrition. Be sure you are taking a good probiotic supplement (yogurt is good IF it is a natural brand with high levels of live cultures, but it doesn't provide the complete spectrum of probiotics or enough potency to really deal with this) for now. You also may want to take a digestive enzyme supplement--especially if your diet is not high in raw fruits and vegetables (organic ones, which actually still have micronutrients in the soil where they are grown, as opposed to chemically grown, which is completely depleted soil).

--heartburn could also be a sign of a heart problem in women, or more likely, an acid reflux problem. You should probably get checked out by your doc to rule this out, but don't jump to acid reflux medication necessarily--you may be able to manage that often with nutrition and exercise. The fact that you say it has gotten better is a good sign for non-medical management.

Yeast infection: Assuming you've had one of these before, it's pretty likely you know exactly what you've got and it isn't some other type of infection. There are LOTS of things I've learned from midwifery training and my own pregnancies that you can do without the antibiotic ointments or internal antibiotics (which all kill off the GOOD bacteria in your system--those probiotics you need for the heartburn). My favorite no-meds treatment for yeast infection is this:
1) Avoid all sugars, sweetened juices, etc for awhile
2) Drink unsweetened cranberry juice--you can buy this concentrated and add water, and drink LOTS of water.
3) Alternate once per day--use a peeled garlic clove as a vaginal suppository in the morning, just pop it up there like a tampon, and then use a probiotic capsule the same way in the evening. I guarantee within a couple of days you'll be feeling much better! Keep doing it for 7 days, though.

There are other things you can try, but these are the ones that I've seen work over and over--and that have worked for me unfailingly even when antibiotics did not.

Fiora

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Hi A.. You won't need meds for the heartburn and intestinal cramping. There is a whole food, all natural ingredient that can help you with this. I was on meds for heartburn and I've stopped taking them. I've had heavy PMS cramping but it's also subsided considerably and the bleeding has been cut in half. I'll give you the website where you can do more reading. This is not an advertisement so I ask that you do with the info as you wish. www.sevenstarlife.com

D., mother, wife of nearly 17 years, SAHM (yah right, after all the errands it's more like TTSAHM, Try To Stay At Home Mom)

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