I wondered if you could help me, I have candida for over 17 years now and feeling incredibly worse by the day. Alongide that i have constant urine infections and because of all the antibiotics i have been taking the candida gets worse.I have also been taking fluconazole and canestan for so long i have become allergic to anything with azole in it. firstly do you know what the best treatment is for candida and also what is the best probiotic, i have just ordered VSL3 but it is very expensive and heard about three and five lac, but not sure? also have you heard of Dmannose for urine infections instead of antibiotics??/sorry to bombard you with questions, but you seem to know what your talking about !! and i am desperate!! thank you

Hi Lisa,

I'm so sorry to hear you are in such trouble. I've also had candida for 15 years or so; it flares up at various times. I used to be like you and have to take several courses of antibiotics a year - for various reasons. Until I discovered essential oils. They are mostly widely used in France. You can try a combination of clove oil, thyme oil, cinnamon oil and oregano oil (although I don't find the oregano that useful). So what you do is take 5 drops of this mixture (you can order it from the website robertetfils.com; it is in Canada; they have a anti-infectious formula (#11) that is murderous for any form of infection. I have not had to have antibiotics ever since finding this formula. Of course, there may be also essential oils in the US in health food store and all, and you can mix your own). So you take about 5 drops in a spoonful of vegetable oil (can be olive oil) or mixed with honey (which you can't do because of candida). Take this spoonful 4-5 times a day. I guarantee you symptoms will subside very quickly. And then you can take it maybe 3 times a day for 10 days or so.

The advantage of essential oils is that they are also antifungals. So you kill two birds in one throw. Cinnamon oil is an immune stimulant, which you seem to need seriously since you have repeated UTI.

Also, if I were you, apart from the traditionnal approach to candida - diet, antifungals, cleansing, etc. I would seriously look into boosting your immunity (low immunity is always a factor in candida overgrowth) and detoxing heavy metals from your body. I am doing this for months now, and I tell you, all my symptoms are resolving naturally and I feel great energy as if I was a teenager again!

In terms of antifungals, I tried Fluconazole only once, but it did such damages to my liver I won't ever touch it again. There are two excellent natural antifungals - in my experience - that is raw garlic (up to three cloves a day, you chew and swallow with a glass of water, believe me, when you suffer enough, you get used to that! ha ha ha). And the other is tea tree essential oil. Yes you can take it internally. (and this website Robert & Fils sell an antifungal formula too). These are the natural antifungals that have given me the best results.

There are many things you have to do to overcome candida - and you have to change your protocol as you go. You start with diet, antifungals, probiotics, etc and then you adjust as symptoms change or disappear.

You may also want to get the help of a naturopathic physician (NOT A NATUROPATH!); because frankly I think all the people trying to resolve this alone would get better much faster if they had the proper guidance.

Good luck!

Hi Lisa,

I'm with Dechen. Hopefully you can find a Naturapathic Doctor who can help guide you.

I highly recommend a CDSA test before you do anything to find out exactly what's going on in your stomach. It's important to find out why the candida keeps coming back (you may have a parasite or other problems which can complicate healing). Blood sugar/glucose problems can also aggravate candida. It's important to find out if that's a factor.

HMF replete is a probiotic that can help repopulate the good bacteria in your stomach after taking antibiotics. You take 1 sachet a day mixed in water for 1 week.

You can use something like Candidophilus by Ecological Formulas too (it's inexpensive). Take 2 on an empty stomach at night and it will help repopulate the flora. You can also take 2 at night and 2 in the morning for a couple of weeks after taking antibiotics. Culturelle is also a good product.

I'd avoid the 3/5 lac stuff. I did some research on it awhile back and it can cause some big problems that I can't recall offhand.

Thorne sf722 is a strong antifungal. You can take 3 pills, twice a day with meals, but you'd probably want to work with a health professional to monitor your progress.

Nystatin is also a treatment. I'm not sure of the dosage, but it's in Orion Truss's book The Missing Diagnosis. You need to see a regular physician to get a prescription.

The Body Ecology diet is also good for getting candida under control. I like the diet, but I don't agree with the mind-healing techniques that are sometimes given on the site.

Essential oils are too strong for me to use, but it all depends on your body. It may take awhile to find what works for you, but don't give up. There will be something that will help.

I've never heard of VSL3. I looks like the main ingredient is lactic acid.

I know that the CDSA test will tell you if you're low or have no good bacteria in your stomach and tell you the specific type that you need (like lactobacillus).

Good luck!

Airy

Hi Lisa,

Dechen and Airy both have a lot of experience dealing with these problems and have given some excellent advice.

Essential oils are certainly powerful antifungals and this is backed up by a growing body of scientific research. I wrote a news story not long ago about a study that found clove oil to be an excellent Candida treatment - Clove oil effective Candida treatment

As Dechen mentioned, the combinations seem to work best. It seems two or more antifungals combined is generally much more effective than a single agent alone. Please see my blog post on synergistic and additive effects of antifungals - Candida & Yeast Infections - Rotating and Combining Antifungals

As far as probiotics go - the problem we have is that Candida-related illness is not an accepted illness so there are no studies that look at which probiotics are effective at treating it. A number of specific probiotic bacteria and combination probiotic products have proven themselves in other conditions such as IBS however and these include Align (Bifantis), VSL#3, and Lactobacillus GG (Culturelle). There is no evidence that Threelac or Fivelac are any good apart from suspect testimonials so I wouldn't personally spend my money on those.

As the others mentioned, it is vital you optimise your immune function as fungal infections can only take hold when their is a weakness of immunity. Testing for factors such as heavy metals and other infections which would suppress immunity is certainly advisable under the care of an enlightened MD or an ND (in North America). Removal of such factors would have a big impact in improving health, as Dechen has found. You can also use diet, nutritional supplements and herbs to enhance immunity so do some research in this area if you can. I will have to disagree with Airyhere and say that the mind has a huge influence on immunity so anything that induces relaxation and positive thoughts is a good thing e.g. enjoyable social activities, meditation, yoga, complementary therapies, religious practices etc. There is now a whole branch of medicine devoted to the link between the mind, nervous system, endocrine system (hormones), and immune system - psychoneuroimmunology. This blog post gives a brief introduction - The Mind-Body Connection and Chronic Illness.

Finally, the essential oils and a herb called Uva ursi will certainly help with your UTIs and cranberry juice or capsules can also be useful according to some good research. Constituents of cranberries are antibacterial and are thought to prevent bacteria adhering to the wall of the bladder and urinary tract.

I hope you find some of this information useful. Good luck and let us know how you're getting on or if you have any more questions.

I looked up the candida treatments mentioned in earlier blogs on robertefils.com.
One was anti-infectious formula (#11). The other was an anti-fungal essential oil combination made by Vitarom at the same website with 4 essential oils (tea tree, clove, etc). Both items said they should be applied topically. Did those of you who took these products take them internally?

I've used them internally for years. The formula #11 (anti-infectious) is amazing in case of urinary tract infection, gets rid of symptoms in hours...

Naturopathic doctors, homeopaths, etc, prescribed them internally. I don't know why the website specifies topical use. This may be because of restrictions from the government.

Of course, dosages have to be prescribed - like one two three or five drops a certain number of times a day.

These are used internally very widely in France. So no there is no problem using them.