Candida and ADHD -- Or just one? --Sort of a Rant too. (Women-Sensitive topics*)

Hi there.

Warning: This may be long as I tend to explain myself a fair bit.

Normally I don't post more personal stuff other than my mental health on here, but I'm about ready to throw everything that anyone's ever said to me out the window.

So, I haven't been diagnosed but I'm 99% sure that I have a yeast overgrowth, or systemic Candida. I've done the whole spit into a cup of water thing and the spit was all 3 of what can happen, sink to the bottom, string down like a spider, and cloud in the middle. I get weird tastes in my mouth sometimes in the morning(it's more noticeable some days than others it's not there) and sometimes get a white coating on the far back of my tongue.

I have had the white coating on the tongue part before, when I also had what they called a "fungal infection"(the word Candida did not come out of the doctors mouth at all so I never really knew what it was) and it was at the roof of my mouth(YUCK!). I had that infection in January of...it would have been about last year. January 2011 if I'm correct. Previously I had been on birth control (Since October 2010 to about March 2011) -- I hear than these pills can cause Candida in some people. I also had...excuse me if you're not a lady here.. I'll just abbreviate with BV(the female one) once, and then that followed with recurrent yeast infections.

Fast foreward to this year.. I've been under a huge amount or emotional stress after being kicked out of a healthy relationship with my then-boyfriend, last year in May. I moved away from home to be closer to work because, ironically my ex-boyfriend is actually my neighbour so, I never want to go home to see my mom or cats cause being there literally makes me sick to my stomach. I had Shingles really bad back in March of this year, and I didn't really talk it over with my doctor.

I've been struggling with what seems to me like hormonal acne (lower cheeks and jawline), but I never tied Dairy or Gluten foods to it because I've ALWAYS ate and drank those and I never had acne this bad. It seems to come and go, but I refuse to ask my doctor for anything for it, I just figured I could cure it myself. I'm probably wrong.

This is longer than I wanted it to be, but I have a few more things to cover...

Hmm let's see. Okay so again sorry for the men out there, lately(and this has been recurrent..off and on..I noticed it back shortly after I was on birth control pills, and every now and then since then) I've been having really heavy discharge. Half of the time when it's a lot...like I mean it's just white but THICK and doesn't usually smell. Although I have had yeast infections down there, not lately but I usually get them if I accidentally drip soap when I'm in the shower(I try really hard not to). I had my first pap test pretty late, I think I was 18? And the doctor said I had a lot of discharge and she looked at me like I was supposed to know why..:S. I had no idea I thought it was normal, it never itched or anything. It always seems to worsen right after my period, which to me just means I'm ovulating. I used to get MAJOR cramps and now I don't. That's mainly why I went on bcp in the first place.

ANYWAYS. So, Theres a little history, and I HAVE had symptoms of ADHD that date back to when I was a child but, in the same sense...a lot of the symptoms are present in Candida too..and I'm just wondering..could it be possible that It's not even ADHD? or that maybe it is but Candida makes my symptoms worse? I'm on Vyvanse 40mg right now(to be honest the 30mg worked better than these ones..I'm still really crabby and emotional).

I'm wondering if I should ask my pdoc to stop my meds so I can clear up my Candida problem(it would take longer than a month I would think..it's pretty severe. I eat dairy and gluten and I'm either in the bathroom emptying all day, mainly just mucous..ew, or I get instant stomach aches. I crave sugar and bread ALL THE TIME and I get migraines when I don't eat it.

Oh, and I'm also underweight now, thanks to flipping Concerta..-.- I was never hungry on it. But since I can't eat things with fat in them..and I have to cut back on everything that turns into fat that my body would ACTUALLY store anywhere(i naturally have a very high metabolism and just for reference I'm 5'7 and I used to be 137pounds and now I'm 117. Lost 10 pounds when I had the flu in 2011 and another bunch when I was on Concerta earlier this summer--lost it in about 3 weeks or less ).

So I guess two questions -- Which do I work on first?
Getting my ADHD meds right,
Getting rid of Candida --also could be dangerous cause I might lose even more weight(I HATE being skinny, I really flipping hate it I feel so gross)
or,
Gaining weight by making my Candida and possible Adhd even worse plus stressing more cause I'll have bad acne and IBS and possibly get shingles again...?

I don't think my doctors want to treat me with anything but medication...and I know that diet needs to be a huge role when you have a yeast problem.

SIGH.

Anyone?

Do you have protected sex even when on BC? How many partners? What about your ex? Have you had STD testing? Sounds like your immuno-compromised with the recurrent infections and shingles, the added stress is definitely contributing to the changes. Definitely tell your doctor that you have been having white discharge when you're getting any medications

Have you been tested for celiac disease? It sounds like from your post you are currently eating gluten and dairy? Celiac can cause a lot of problems in a lot of different areas of your body. A lot of people (not all but a reasonable percentage) of people with celiac end up dealing with candidia. If you have celiac, gluten can act like an opite in your brain and stopping eating it can be like withdrawal. When I went gluten free I would have cravings for bread. And then when I would get glutened in the first couple of years gluten free one of my first signs was having cravings for bread. You should get that checked out if you haven't already. It can be comorbid with other autoimmune diseases. But make sure you are eating gluten if you want to get tested.

I hope you get this all figured out.

Sex isn't an issue, I haven't done it in over a year. My ex boyfriend was my first and I was his first, and so it isn't STDs or anything either. I'm not on birth control, I haven't been on it since last March or something like that. I think I've always had sort of a heavy discharge but I'm noticing it more now(it's not ALL the time, just right before and after my period usually.. and some in between the next one).

The last time I had a pap test done my doctor made a comment about the discharge amount, but nothing came back wrong with any tests she did.

I've been trying to eat organic and gluten AND dairy free (its seriously not easy at all) and I think I've noticed an improvement, in the sense that I do still eat meat and LOTS or organic peanut butter(it's got a lot of good fat) and organic dairy free mayo(its canola oil based...doesnt taste very good though).

I just never considered Celiac because it's sort of sudden. After I moved a year and a bit ago, I just got stressed and I was emotionally everywhere because of the relationship I had just gotten out of.

I do eat gluten from time to time, like right now im eating a burger on an actual BUN, lol for the first time in a few weeks.

My family though, we tend to eat a lot of bread..I get that from my mother I think, and I eat sugar a lot, I've cut back though but it's hard when I don't want to lose any weight either.

I guess the first step should be to rule out medical conditions(celiac or something else) and let my doctor know that I'm unsure if the adhd is caused by something else? I have always been spacey though, so I guess I'm still going to be stuck with it.

Thanks for your input

If you want testing for celiac, you will have to be eating gluten. That is usually for at least 3 mos every day. Otherwise it could be a false negative. If your body isn't reacting to the gluten because you don't have gluten in your system then the tests would always be negative. So you would have to go back to eating it all the time. Good luck on figuring this out.

I would focus on getting the Candida cleared up as if it's making your ADHD worse, you might be able to get by on a lower dose.

Here's a good article about Candida and mental health issues including ADHD:

http://www.alternativementalhealth.c...es/candida.htm

Besides cleaning up your diet, you might want to look into some sort of Candida cleanse supplement to help your body combat it. Here's a couple of links to some just to give you an idea of what's out there. I shop at Vitacost.com all the time, and have done very well with their stuff. The Nzymes products are great--we use them as both our dogs have Candida if you can believe that!! Their products along with a change of food has saved one of our dogs who was very bad off.

http://www.vitacost.com/productResul...dida%20cleanse

http://www.nzymes.com/store/pc/home.asp?a=people

We've had to put our dogs on low glycemic index diet along with eliminating all sources of yeast such as cheese, vinegar and the like.

It was very interesting reading your post because I can relate. For some reason I always believed that all these mental issues I have are not psychological but are a consequence of some infection/disease, and as soon as I've heard of Candida, its symptoms (especially the foggy mind one) I've said to myself - "This might be it!".

I'm really interested in this topic and wish I would know a way to test myself for candida and related yeast infections, but sadly in my country isn't really a country that can offer you these things, at least not professionally...things are falling apart here and I am sometimes desperate for help.

Candida is usually present on all skin and mucous membranes. If you get an overgrowth in the large intestine, which normally only happens after antibiotic treatment, the symptom is a horrendous sore rash peri-anally. (As a nurse, I've seen this many times.)

Overgrowth of candida in the mouth and vagina, that is not severe enough to cause pain, is (IMO) not all that uncommon. When it's severe enough to cause pain, it usually gets diagnosed by a doctor for what it is. It sounds like you may well have candida overgrowth. (I've never found convincing literature about people having so called "systemic candida overgrowth." If fungus gets into your bloodstream, which is what systemic infection usually refers to, that is a major medical evergency.) But back to fungal overgrowth in the mouth and vagina. I think that is totally possible as the culprit, in your case.

Cleaning the tongue and roof and cheeks with a good electric toothbrush can remove that white coating, which, no doubt, does contain fungus (candida albicans.) When I've seen fungal infections of the throat, that ususally is accompanied by pain. The cure for that is a presription anti-fungal rinse. (Nystatin, I think.) I've seen a few persons who had to use that on an on-going basis.

With recurrent vaginal yeast infection, you want to get screened for diabetes. It can be the cause. Often, though, it is not. Birth control pills, and hormone replacement pills can also cause this. But for some women, we just don't know why they keep getting candida overgrowth. It's pretty common, which is why vaginal anti-fungal medication is now available over-the-counter. (Once in a while, big pharma is looking out for us.) You can relate it to stress. Could be. Stress tends to increase cortisol production, which tends to decrease immune response.

Doctors tend to say that douching is not a good idea. I'm not so sure I believe that.

Discharge caused by Candida overgrowth is not malodorous, at all.

Interesting facts Rose!

And, people guess what? I was right, they found candida in my stool...even though stool test is considered pretty unreliable. (out of 3 stools they found candida in two).

Sometimes people should listen to their own instincts and diary, rather than to various doctor "experts"...cause so many highly educated doctors have told me "we don't even recognize candida overgrowth as a condition/disease".

So please, be persistent, do your research, talk to people who specialized in area that you believe is the area of your problem, not the casual every day doctors.

I'm not so sure that finding candida in the stool is abnormal. I may be wrong, but I understood that candida normally lives in the large intestine, so it would be excreted in stool. Just like having candida living over every inch of your skin is not especially abnormal. What's abnormal is overgrowth. I would be very interested to know what the finding of candida in two stool specimens led to so far as treatment.

The main thing that keeps candida from overgrowing in the intestine is the abundant other microbes growing there that out-compete the candida. If antibiotics are taken for -say - a respiratory infection, then the normal gut bacteria get wiped out and the fungus/candida to take over. This can cause diarrhea (antibiotic induced colitis.) Loose stool, containing lots of fungus (condida) will terribly irritate skin around rectum. Irritation is caused by the loose stool and by the candida itself. (I think I've got this right.) I've see this many times. Anti-fungal paste/cream/ointment get applied to the peri-**** rash, which can be awfully sore.

The reason antibiotic treatment leads to fungal overgrowth is because antibiotics tend to kill bacteria, while leaving fungus pretty unaffected. Fungus is very tough to kill. (Fungal cells are more similar to human cells. So what would be lethal to fungal cells tends to be bad for our own cells, which we don't want to kill.)

Practitioners of non-mainstream medicine have been pushing the idea of "systemic fungal overgrowth" for a long time. What main stream doctors question is NOT the idea that there can be fungal overgrowth. It so happens they treat it all the time. However the question is this: fungal overgrowth where??? Mainstream doctors are skeptical of the idea of fungal overgrowth all through the systems of a body.

So, if a "specialist" has told you that you have candida overgrowth as a disease entity, a general condition, I would like to know what the specialist means. Like - where is this overgrowth located? What is the treatment? (I've read of stuff like not drinking beer to treat this supposed ailment. I've seen no convincing evidence of that as a measure that accomplishes anything. This thinking is part of alternative medicine thinking and not, to my knowlege reflective of science.)

Candida is all over human skin, producing the typical skin-on-skin rashes that we see under breasts . . . sometimes in armpits . . . under belly apronfolds of the abdomen (where ever skin-on-skin produces dark and moisture that allows candida to thrive. Fungus (especially candida) exists in the GI tract. Every part of the body, with the expception of the skin and the GI tact (from mouth to rectum) and the vaginal canal and the surface of the penis can host fungal populations that may cause no health problems. Every other part of the body - like inside organs and inside the bloodstream are normally sterile. If fungus shows up in the blood, it's an emergency and is aggressively treated by mainstream doctors. The specialist to consult about this would be an "Infectious Disease Specialist." They tend to know what they are doing. Usually, you need to be in a hospital to meet one. Anti-fungal meds are ordered by them via I/V therapy.

My understanding make be obsolete. I would welcome any feedback to correct any misconceptions I may have.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/candida-in-stool.html This seems like a reasonable article. It deals, specifically, with intestinal candidiasis (candida overgrowth in the gut.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis I happen to believe the outline of candida disorders laid out in this article. This article also addresses the difference between disorders reconized by mainstream medicine and those that are not. When somebody sells a book claiming to tie everything from depression and fatigue all the way to multiple sclerosis to the presence of candida, I, myself, am very skeptical. It also explains that "systemic candidiasis" is candidemia, which means candida in the blood, a major emergency - for which you do need conventional big gun medicine, not a change in your diet.

Here is what I use: grapefruit seed extract (several drops mixed with water)...to fight candida. I douche with it. (Never did I think I would be typing those words online.) It helps balance out the ph down there and keeps it where you want it to be (and the yeast from getting out of control). I had yeast infections for years and everyone told me to take a probiotic....I tried EVERYTHING (including changing my diet), but this has been my saving grace (after missing SEVERAL summers at the pool). It supposedly has lots of other great properties, too!

This is what I use:

http://www.vitaminlife.com/product-e...Fckx4AodR3wA2w

I don't drink it tho, although I imagine that could have benefits as well...but for me it's way too bitter.

Good luck and I wish you all the best!