Heller Ricki - Living candida-free: 100 recipes and a 3-phase program to restore your health and vitality

Once you choose hope, anythings possible.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE

Do you sometimes feel as if theres a war going on inside your body, andeven though you never enlistedyoure the one losing the battle? Your body is fighting a stealthy adversary that seems to be everywhere at once: you may be suffering from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), get recurrent sinus infections, have chronic yeast infections or rashes, or experience general malaise. These are only some of the symptoms of candida. Or perhaps youve noticed what are the most common symptoms of candida: overwhelming cravings for sugars or carbs and a feeling of spaciness or fuzzy thinking, so that getting your mind to focus on a single thing can seem impossible.

No wonder so many people with candida-related complex (CRC, or, simply, candida) feel discouraged and may even begin to despair, when doctors cant seem to pinpoint whats wrong and nothing seems to make it better.

Well, Im here to tell you: there is hope, and you can heal. Yes, candida is a formidable opponent, but, with diligence and the right approach, its possible to get it under control and restore your health. In my case, I had an exceptionally severe and stubborn case of candida-related complex, and I was able to heal and get better. In fact, my health improved beyond what it was before the candida.

In this book, Im going to tell you how I did itand what you can do, too.

I found myself at the dermatologists office again, the fifth time in three months. The raw, raging rash on my torso wasnt getting any smaller; if anything, it was growing. Id been following a strict no-sugar, no-yeast diet for eight weeks, and Id tried every prescription cream the doctor could think of. Id just completed a two-week course of Diflucan, a powerful antifungal pill, which was the only thing that seemed to make any dent at all, helping reduce the unbearable itch that plagued me every waking moment. Now, the doctor was telling me she wouldnt prescribe a second course of the pills.

It cant be candida, she said, the way youd speak to a tourist asking for directions. It would be gone after two weeks with those pills if it were candida. Try alternating the Canesten cream with some zinc oxide ointment.

I began to sob inconsolably. Please, you have to help me. Its spreading, I insisted.

Diflucan is the only thing that had any effect at all. Just look at it. I pointed to the angry crimson splotch the size of a Stop sign. Blistering, crusty edges surrounded an amorphous red patch dotted with areas of tender pink flesh. The itching finally stopped when I took the Diflucan. All Im asking is two more weeks. One of the books that Ive been reading says

I will not give you more Diflucan, she barked, cutting me off. If the Diflucan didnt clear it up yet, its never going to clear it up. Okay, now. Just keep using the cream and the zinc oxide. She turned toward the door. Come back in a few weeks and well take another look.

In a few weeks, it will have covered my entire body if you dont do something, I said, as the door shut behind her.

Sadly, my experience with that dermatologistthe fourth doctor Id seen in search of some answers about my candida-related complexis not atypical. And let me be clear: this woman was a conscientious physician who truly wanted to help her patients; she just had no context for treating me.

I knew beyond a doubt that my problems were somehow related to candida, and I knew from its effect that the prescription antifungal was essential to mitigate its growth. But back then, in 2009and to a great extent, still todayconventional medicine didnt accept candida as a real medical condition.

How did I get to that point? How could I, someone trained as a holistic nutritionist and armed with all the necessary knowledge about the perils of sugarsomeone whod actually studied nutrition as a direct result of symptoms related to candida ten years earlierhow did I end up with one of the most resistant cases of candida-related complex my naturopath had ever seen?

Anyone who feels powerless in the face of a chocolate brownie likely already knows this, but only recently has science concurred with the notion that sugar is addictive. Such best-selling books as Mark Hymans The Blood Sugar Solution discuss at length the special addictive properties of the white stuff. For me, sugar was always the drug of choice.

Almost as soon as I could walk, I could bake. At age six I began to help my mother in the kitchen, spending entire afternoons studying her culinary prowess as she stirred up huge bowls of cookie dough, blended cottage cheese with eggs and lemon for my dads favorite cheesecake, or whipped egg whites until triple in volume for her famous chiffon cake. At each step along the way, I might help by contributing a cup of flour or a sprinkling of chocolate chips, but, for me, by far the best part was after the batter was in the oven and I could lick the spoon or beaters, or scrape the bowl clean. My sisters and I would regularly bicker over who got which utensil.

In retrospect, its clear that I began to manifest symptoms of candida even back then. Shortly after our first dog, a sweet boxer named Princess, began to share my bed, I was diagnosed with ringworm, an itchy scarlet rash across the hairline at the back of my neck. It was attributed to the dog, of course, and, with a bit of ointment, it disappearedor so I assumed. It wasnt until years later that I learned ringworm is actually a form of fungus and was most likely an augury of the more intense candida-related rash to come down the road.

The love affair with sweets continued through my teens and twenties. As the responsible daughter, I was always left in charge of my younger sister when my parents went on vacation. As soon as their taxi drove out of sight, my sister and I threw on our jackets and headed to the supermarket. There, Id spend the entire weeks grocery money stocking up for our weekend party: we filled the cart with every kind of junk food imaginable, from tubs of Heavenly Hash ice cream to family-size milk chocolate bars and boxes of fudge-filled sandwich cookies in other words, whatever was normally forbidden in our homemade only household. As soon as the bags were loaded and the groceries paid for, wed head home, settle down on my parents bed in front of the TV, and proceed to devour the entire haul.

By the time I reached my thirties and got married, I was beset with recurrent yeast infections that no one could explainor cure. I wasnt officially diagnosed with candida, however, until later in that decade, when Id suffered a series of recurring sinus infections that finally became so severe that, after six courses of antibiotics, I spiked a 104F (40C) fever. That day, Id been to yet another physician who could do nothing but prescribe more drugs. My husband had taken off work because I was too sick to drive to the doctors office on my own. When we arrived home, I was depressed, despondent, and so weak that I literally was unable to walk up the stairs to our bedroom and had to crawl up step-by-step on my hands and knees. At that point, it finally hit me: something major had to change (yes, Im a little thick-headed that way).