Ed: Hi all. I’ve been taking Diflucan, 100mg per day, for about 10 days now. About 3 days ago I started feeling a lot better, with much reduced die-off symptoms of joint “stiffness” or swelling and head-fog. So then I switched from taking the 100mg all at once to taking 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night. Bang! My knuckles and toes became EXTREMELY arthritic. I think this was due to splitting the dose, but I’m not sure. Other possible factors that I am wondering about are the effects on the yeast of:
1) Smoking
2) Coffee (black of course)
3) Multivitamins
4) Diet Cola drinks (ie no sugar)
At the same time as I started splitting the dose in two, I began taking multivitamins and drinking Diet Coke/Pepsi. So these are other variables that may account for the extreme arthritis reaction that I am going through. By the way, I skipped this morning’s half-dose and plan to go back to taking all 100mg at once, since this seemed less painful. Anybody have any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Sally: On the coffee issue — rough on the kidneys and you need them working good to detoxify. Also creates an acid body — not good. Also is loaded with molds, which candida people seem to tend to be allergic to. I have no experience with Diflucan, but maybe someone else can help you with that. I didn’t realize how much the coffee was affecting me until I eliminated it for two weeks and added it back. Helpful hint: make only one change at a time so you can observe the effect of each change as everyone is different.
Ed: Cool! I just found a web site saying that aspartame, which is in the NutraSweet which is presumably in the diet drinks, is a toxin. That’s what I suspected! And I do remember seeing some posts here about aspartame, but they didn’t register since I didn’t know what aspartame was. Ahh!
Sally: You are right, aspartame is a toxin. There is a lot of info available on this subject if you look for it. The best thing you can drink is bottled or filtered water to flush out the toxins released by the candida — lots of it. I hate to admit it, but smoking is the one thing I’m still struggling with. I’ve beat the yeast and have made many radical changes in my life style that I plan to continue, but I’m still smoking — its one of the most powerful addictions there is. Tobacco is a nightshade along with potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers; all of which are notorious for causing arthritis-like symptoms in sensitive individuals. Also tobacco is sprayed with toxic insecticides that are not permitted on food products by the FDA, and we smoke them. I’m still quitting and trying to “bite the bullet” but feel really stupid every time I light up.
Harold: My mother is Swedish and boy, do they ever love coffee and we grew up with it. I can pat myself on the back because I have cut down from about six mugs a day to TWO CUPS, and that is going some. This so-called coffee today is an abomination when you know what it used to be like many years ago. About ten years ago I quit all coffee, tea, wine and whiskey for five years and I can’t say it made that much difference in my yeast and H-pylori problems. At my age, there are few little luxuries left in which we can indulge, so, I can only say, “Take my wife but leave my coffee alone!” (tongue in cheek).
Polly: Coffee is a godsend for my husband. It is the only thing that he can tolerate that will keep him regular. In his case, the coffee is definitely worth any risk that might come with it.
Whether or not coffee is a blessing or a bane will depend on the person. Coffee does have some good health properties that shouldn’t be ignored. As Sally mentioned, coffee will make you more acidic, which according to most popular books today is bad. But sometimes people need to push their body more acidic. Some people point to coffee’s ability to raise blood sugar as being bad for anyone with candidiasis. Yet sometimes you want to raise the blood sugar. This reduces your reaction to allergens. Coffee helps you remove iron. Lots of people would be healthier with less iron. Coffee stimulates the production of hydrochloric stomach acid. Many of us need more. According to the article that Marilyn mentioned from the Seattle Times (June 09, 1999),
“caffeine and some as-yet-to-be identified compound in the brew confers a protective effect on the gallbladder”.
Coffee also inhibits the formation of gallstones. At Dr. Lowe’s site, he has a long list of benefits attributable to caffeine, like mood and intellectual performance enhancement. He states
“for caffeine to be of benefit, you must find what for you is an effective and non-overstimulating dosage.” http://members.aol.com/jlowe55555/prev2.htm,
However, on the bad side, some people are sensitive to the mold, food dyes or the sulfur in the coffee. Lynn, at our forum, found that organic coffee was not a problem, but ordinary coffee made her asthma act up. She suspects the food dyes in the ordinary coffee. However, I understand that a lot of the coffee on the market has a high level of pesticides, which might contribute to her problem. Like so many things, with coffee, there is no pat answer.
If you decide to quit smoking, you might want to use the nicotine patches or the nicotine gum for a while. (Nicotine will kill yeast.) However, nicotine gum isn’t a great idea if you have amalgams. All that extra gum chewing could release more mercury. Also, be careful with hot coffee if you have amalgam fillings. Hot liquids will release more mercury from fillings.