Candida Protocol

AgeLess Medical Candida Protocol

The Four R’s of healing a Leaky Gut apply to yeast (Candida) overgrowth:

1. Remove- We need to kill and remove the excess yeast before we can heal the lining of the intestine, and give your new, healthy bacteria room to grow. This is important because probiotics may have no “real estate” available on the walls of the intestine to attach to. Candida is white and pasty, you can imagine how that could coat the gut. All your wonderful probiotics could end up in the sewer! To kill the yeast we suggest 1 teaspoon of Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) in filtered water in the morning on an empty stomach. You may put a drop or two of Stevia in it if you would like, but Diatomaceous Earth really has almost no taste. Try to do this at least one hour before you eat, and drink plenty of water to wash it through your system. After the first week or two, you may increase the DE to twice a day for even better results. This can also be done with Bentonite Clay, however, many people find this to be less appetizing. 2-3 drops of Clove essential oil from a food grade company such as DoTerra or Young Living in water also helps to kill yeast. If you feel you have thrush, or yeast in the lining of your mouth (common), try a tablespoon of coconut oil with 2 drops of clove essential oil and swish it around your mouth gently, as with Oil Pulling. Then spit it out after 5-20 minutes into a trash can. Brush your teeth afterwards. Another option for killing the Candida in your gut is to take prescription Fluconozole twice a day for a month. While this may work, too much Fluconozole is not good for the liver. As with any prescription medication, the benefits and side effects need to be weighed. We are also suspecting that there may be some resistance to this drug in gut yeast. Whichever method you choose, it is important not to get constipated so that the dead Candida gets out of your body. There may be a “die off” period for a few days that feels like flu symptoms. This is simply the yeast dying and your body getting rid of it. The symptoms are usually mild, last a few days, and resolve on their own. Remove - Sugar cravings, addictions to junk food, processed foods, sweetened soda and fruit juice, are often caused by the Candida itself. Candida thrives on sweets and carbs. Processed and junk food is full of this stuff, even if they don’t taste sweet. Try to eat healthy fresh organic vegetables, and moderate fruit. Many tropical fruits are high in fructose, so they are not good in this phase of the protocol. Green leafy vegetables, as usual, are your go-to foods for the first few days, and make a great soup. During this phase we often recommend a Medical Food Supplement, Metagenics Ultra InflammX 360, or Orthomolecular InflammaCore. These powdered supplements contain many healing components that take down inflammation in the gut, and help you start feeling good right away.

2. Replace- replacing stomach acid, if needed, and digestive enzymes help you to break down the healthy food you are now eating. If food is properly digested, as was intended by our own nature, then it reaches our intestine in the proper sized pieces and the nutrients can be absorbed naturally. Many people have been on stomach acid lowering medications for years- another “band-aid” to a symptom without treating the under-lying cause. Consider why nature intended us to make acid in our stomachs- our food is not sterile, nor should it be. Pathogenic, disease causing, bacteria are killed by the acid in our stomachs. Without it we are allowing the “wrong” bacteria to get into our bodies. Stomach acid is our first line of defense. Without enough stomach acid we cannot break down the food we eat, which adds to our nutritional deficiencies. Common sense has gone out the window with respect to this obvious over-use of antacids and proton pump inhibitors. With this in mind, if you need stomach acid, a capsule or two of Betaine can be taken with your meals. Along with that, the digestive enzymes that are normally supplied by the pancreas should be added as most of us aren’t making enough of those either. If the stomach is not presenting the food to the first part of the intestine in the form that it is supposed to, then the pancreas does not put out the proper enzymes to continue the digestive process. This is particularly evident if you’ve had you gall bladder removed. Take Ortho Molecular Betaine and Pepsin capsules right before meals as needed, then 2 Ortho Digestzyme capsules while you eat or directly after.

3. Repopulate- once you have repaired your gut lining enough it is time to introduce plenty of good probiotics to repopulate you intestine. I recommend Pro-Biotic 225 from Ortho Molecular. This powder has 225 billion cfu (colony forming units), where most other products have much less. Recent research is showing that we have been under-dosing with probiotics and this higher dose is recommended.

4. Repair- As you heal, you may find that using the medical supplement powder and probiotics, along with digestive enzymes, helps you to continue to heal your gut. Some patients cut down the dosages as they feel better and improve their diets. However, it is important to remember that in America, our food supply is often tainted with chemicals and genetically modified foods, making it very difficult to eat completely “clean”. It is unrealistic for most of us to think that we can always avoid this. Eating out, it is not enough to order “healthy” options because few restaurants offer grass fed meat and organic fruits and vegetables. The cost would be prohibitive. So, having some protection in our gut in the form of good quality anti-inflammatory products and probiotics may be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future.

Overview:

Change your diet- cut out processed foods and sugar- eat plenty of vegetables

Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth- 1 tsp. in plenty of water, on an empty stomach 1-2 times/day making sure to not get constipated. Good fiber such as PGX is helpful.

Take digestive enzymes- Betaine/Pepsin, and Ortho Digestzyme

Ultra InflamX 360 powder every morning, or InlammaCore if preferred.

Pro-Biotic 225- 1 packet per day (may be mixed with Ultra InflamX 360 and water, almond milk, coconut milk, kefir, etc.- not fruit juices due to their high fructose content).