My Story

So I thought I'd write up my story as to what happened and how I believe this problem started.

In short, Candida has ruined my life over the past 2 years. I've gone from being a healthy young guy, with no health concerns at all apart from hayfever, to a fatigued run down "shadow" of how I used to look and feel. The stress, depression and anxiety attacks led to me walking out of a well paid job. And the acne and skin rashes have destroyed my self-confidence and made me become detached socially.

So let's rewind a couple of years...

In August 2009 I got pretty bad food poisoning, was bed bound for a week and was off work for 3 weeks in total. The doctor gave me antibiotics to cure the problem.

Around this time (I'm not entirely sure of the date) I was also given a course of antibiotics to clear an infected nerve in my tooth.

Around Feb/March of 2010 I start seeing "patches" breaking out on my skin, notably on my forearms and groin/lower stomach area. I was worried this was some kind of STD so I went and got checked at the GUM clinic - every thing came back clear. So I went to the doctor again, who said this was a fungal infection, and yep you guessed it, he gave me a cream and antibiotics!!!

So within the space of roughly a year and a half I have taken 3 courses of antibiotics - enough to totally wipeout the balance in my gut? I think so.

My diet was pretty unhealthy (compared to now) to be honest, it was high in bread, cheese, processed and fast food more often than not. This hadn't caused me any problems, but after the antibiotic wipeout this diet obviously started to feed the problem. Alcohol was also a regular occurrence, and in large quantities.

So fast forward to April 2010, this is where skin rashes became a constant annoyance. All over my feet, arms and legs, itchy hives. I went back to the doctor about this who said that I was allergic to something and I would need to work it out by process of elimination.

The rash was worst on my feet, I went from thinking it was a sweat rash (as it was very hot where I worked) to thinking I was allergic to our washing powder. I used many hydrocortisone creams from the doctor which made my skin so thin and brittle it was breaking all over from where I was scratching it.

My ability to deal with stress was rapidly decreasing. I worked in a busy restaurant as an assistant manager. And so my alcohol consumption increased dramatically. As time went on and depression and anxiety started the alcohol increased even further. I was having sleepless nights and working 12 hour shifts.

Next I thought I was allergic to the spicy food we sold at work, so I stopped eating it and began eating sandwiches, pasties, pasta in its place, this was obviously feeding the problem further.

After an almost complete breakdown, I walked out of the job 1 day as I couldn't deal with it any longer. I went to the doctor who signed me on the sick for 3 weeks. While off I made the decision not to return to the job as my health was more important among other reasons.

So in October 2010 I went to see a nutritionist to have a food test conducted.

I was told my body was VERY low in essential vitamins and minerals, and I had sensitivities to many food items, including gluten and yeast.

So the gluten free diet began, and this I thought was obviously the reason for all my symptoms.

I think I tried every gluten free cake and biscuit available at the supermarket, just because it was gluten free and I could eat it. After a while I also discovered gluten free bread - I craved the bread so bad I stuffed a whole loaf as toast one night, and this made me very itchy and fatigued for the next couple of days.

Over the next few months, Every time I tried a bread product these symptoms would reoccur, and this is when I thought that the yeast was the problem eventually. I was also having a problem with thrush. I knew that thrush was caused by yeast and so my research began on the Internet.

This is when I self diagnosed myself with Candida, after extensive research and uncanny similarities in my symptoms.

So in summary, the good bacteria in my gut got wiped out, then my diet allowed an overgrowth of bad bacteria, which I fed and fed for the best part of a year as I had no idea what the problem was.

So I feel so lucky to have found The Candida Diet and am now committed to reversing this damage and resuming my normal healthy lifestyle!