THE HERBALIST - TAKE TWO

It was my second visit to the Herbalist back on the 30th December. I took in another filled in questionnaire with me, on which I'd had to mark down grading scores for symptoms I have and how they affect me, and from that Jan was able to add up the points to 187. She'd expected me to be somewhere between the 150 and 200 point mark, from the information I'd given her the first time, and it was further confirmation that I do have the candida fungus in my gut. It also gave her a chance to assess how I was doing after my first few weeks on the herbal medicine and how well I'd settled into the changes to my diet.

Apart from a glitch over the festive season, when it was two roast duck dinners with all the trimmings two days on the trot (Christmas Day and Boxing Day) and a weekend with a tuna melt pannini and two cappuccinos I'd been doing OK. When Jan questioned the two cappuccinos in one weekend I gave her a big smile and told her the reasoning behind that was that I hadn't had one the previous weekend so....... and laughed. She saw the funny side and laughed too then reminded me that it didn't quite work like that. No worries, as I told her: though I'd enjoyed those things at the time I wouldn't be doing it again - I'd felt a bit off by Monday and it was actually a relief to go back to the plainer food again. I guess something must be working then. :0)

The upshot from that consult is that I'm now on acidophilus capsules once a day (replacing the dying candida with good bacteria - thankfully the chronic indigestion I had when first starting them is now easing), as well as the Chromium Complex and herbal medicine. I've also started the full-on candida killing diet which I'll be on for the next two weeks, which means no:
Sugar, dextrose, glucose, maltose or artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, saccharin, nutrasweet, canderal etc; Honey, molasses, jams, preserved fruits, fruit juices, canned fizzy drinks; Sweets, cakes, chocolate, etc; Dairy products: milk, cheese, cream, buttermilk, sour cream; Bread, rolls, pitta bread,croissants,doughnuts etc; Stuffing,rusk (in sausages etc) or breadcrumbs; Marmite,Bovril,vegemite,oxo, and most other prepared stocks; Processed meats and fish; Peanuts and pistachios; Alcohol; Mushrooms or fungi (guess that means the magic mushrooms are out then ;0) LOL); Vinegar, pickles, ketchup, chutneys, relishes, salad dressings, horseradish, mint sauce, mustard, HP sauce, soya sauce; Gravy powder; Fruit; Malt,malted drinks, malted cereals; Monosodium glutamate (E621), Sodium sulphite (E221) - a preservative, used as a decontaminating agent in fresh orange juice, and during sugar refining ; Food supplements - unless advised by practitioner; Anything that may have been fermented;
Tea or coffee.

Bet you're thinking that doesn't leave much to live on - I know I did at first. LOL But what I can eat is:
Wholegrain cereals (good job I like porridge oats!); Soda bread, ryvita crackers, rice cakes, oat cakes, matzos, some chapattis (check ingredients); Beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, seafood; All vegetables and salads except mushrooms; Almonds, cashews and pecans (so can use nut butters); Seeds and pulses - ie. Sesame, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chick peas and lentils; Eggs; Herbal and fruit teas, cereal coffees; Olive oil - contains Oleic acid which has antifungal properties - add to salad as a dressing; Garlic - sliced finely on cooked vegetables or crushed and added to salads (there ain't a vampire within a 10 mile radius of me! LMAO); Yeast free bread (so far I've only found some tortillas); Vegetable juices - especially carrot and beetroot. After the two weeks I can reintroduce the berries on my porridge and the mid-afternoon apple, plus have kiwi, papaya and mango.

Basically it's returning to a more natural, Stone Age style diet which is far better for us than the mostly processed foods most of us eat.

I think it's remembering to read packet labels of ingredients before buying anything that is the biggest pain, as that makes food shopping a rather longer business these days, although doing it online in the comfort of your own home makes things a little easier........no standing around involved. LOL On the other hand, I've discovered: I like fennel as a veg; butternut squash is tasty too; beetroot tastes much sweeter when left in it's skin, cut into wedges, sprinkled with a little olive oil and then roasted on a tray in the oven (Yum!); though brown rice takes longer to cook it's worth the extra effort, as it's got more flavour; I can have a sandwich without using bread - Aldi garlic tortilla wraps make a very tasty alternative when you can't have anything with yeast in it; I don't have to have meat and two veg swimming in gravy and, yes, you can get through a cold winter whilst eating salads instead of stodge......... although I do seem to be feeling the cold more at times but the Damart cardi and thermals are helping that. ;0)

Jan kindly gave me a couple of recipe sheets: some for yeast/sugar free scones, biscuits and the like, so I shall be getting back into the baking again soon, and some for other foodstuffs....... although I think I'll be giving those buckwheat pancakes a miss, as they sound rather nasty.

I go back to see Jan again on the 23rd of this month and she'll then change the herbal medicine to one that will have more anti-fungal properties, to really start sorting things out. Am hoping that doesn't mean yet more indigestion, as that's been bad enough already, and it's pretty scarey when it starts hurting enough to make me wonder if I'm about to have a flippin' heart attack! Still, all this will be well worth it in the long run. :0)


Lynn: if you've ever had a blood test for an under-active thyroid which has come back normal (which is what happened to me a few years ago), then it's pretty likely you have candida problems because the symptoms are just about identical. Don't expect a GP to take it seriously though, as most of them don't recognise it as a problem, let alone test for or treat it. Jan told me that when cancer specialists open up patients with colon cancer the vast majority of them are usually riddled with candida fungus - yet it isn't recognised as a contributory factor.
That's where alternative therapy practitioners come in: they seem to be the only ones who recognise it as a genuine health problem and offer treatment for it.

Jane: are you still thinking about having Reiki treatment? If so I will try and remember to ask at the Clinic how you can find a reputable/qualified practitioner in your area and let you know.