>Hello Maff
>
>I was reading a thread you'd be contributing to where you described your condition and mentioned the problems you have with die off on your nervous system when you take anti-fungals etc.
>
>I have dysbiosis and yeast issues with my main symptoms being on my nervous/hormonal system. I have been trying a specific carbohydrate diet and experienced similar issues to you, in that when I tried to deepen the detox with garlic etc I felt too bad nervously to continue. Similar things have happened with oregano in the past.
>
>I was just wondering if you'd got anywhere with your efforts. Can one not introduce these things really gently and build them up? I mean what about taking s.boulardii to build up immunity in the gut mucosa, or betaine HCL for stomach acid, without directly going for the killer herbs to begin with?
>
>Like you, I'm desperate to move forward and heal, and want to find a doctor/naturopath to work with on it.
>I experienced die off when just beginning the specific carbohydrate diet, which lasted 4 days and then was OK.

Hi John,

Sorry to hear you're suffering the same nightmare as I am. I have taken steps forward and and equal number of steps back but I do believe if we just hang in there and keep learning and trying different approaches we can heal ourselves.

I have had no luck at all with the slowly and softly approach as I have to discontinue even very small doses of antifungals after a period of time. Frighteningly this period of time has decreased over the years but I believe this is due to my current high stress levels from running this site and studying for a bachelor's degree at the same time....not smart but I plan to slow down and work on getting well once I've graduated!

Anyway, if you experienced symptoms when starting the SCD and these abated after a few days perhaps you will experience the same with low doses of antifungals such as garlic and oregano but after a longer period. If you can hang in there taking these for a few weeks it might be worth it. It's impossible to say for sure, we're all different. We just have to try things (within reason) and see what happens.

I did have a great deal of success taking supplements of the adrenal hormone DHEA. This has a generally calming effect on the nervous system through mechanisms including increasing activity of GABA, the main inhibitory neurotransmitter. I took 25mg/day for 5 months a few years back and after a week I felt much more able to handle stress, less depressed, able to sleep better, and less fatigued. More importantly though I found I was able to tolerate antifungals without any of the nervous system symptoms I usually experience (unfortunately DHEA had an adverse effect on my liver so I had to discontinue - catch-22). This tells me though that anything we can do to address adrenal fatigue and stress coping will help us to tolerate fungal toxins produced during antifungal treatment.

Equally, those of us with these problems tend to have low levels of all the calming neurotransmitters including GABA and serotonin. I suffer from SAD also and my symptoms vary throughout the year in a predicatable pattern, including my reaction to antifungals. I have found anything that helps boost serotonin levels to be beneficial. These things include the nutritional supplements vitamin D3 and 5-htp, as well as getting lots of natural light exposure.

Here's a useful article - Easy and Natural Ways to Raise Low Serotonin Levels

Of course anything you can do to help your body detoxify and remove the fungal toxins will also help. This means making sure you have regular bowel movements and supporting your body's detoxification pathways using nutrient and herbal supplementation and therapies such as far-infrared saunas.

I will try to add some links to articles on detoxification but hope what I've said so far is helpful. Good luck!

Hello Maff

Thanks for your reply and all that info. I do not really fit the CFS/ME box, in that I don't have the fatigue - but in many other ways my illness is quite similar. It came on after an acute stress, and has been chronic ever since.

Can I ask - do you feel your ME is the result of yeast/dysbiosis, or do you think it has another root cause? And do you know what the general consensus is about this? I've been reading about Martin Pall's work on NO/ONOO and found it very interesting - just wondered if you'd been down that route at all - I notice that you have information about the treatment protocol on this site.

John