Please help!

[thirdworldattitude]

Hi everybody. I would like to give a little info about myself. After spending my whole life dealing with acne, extreme lethargy, stomach problems, rashes, and never getting a good night's sleep, and after taking countless trips to the doctor with no end in sight, I decided to start researching for myself. I soon started matching my symptoms up to food intolerances, so I decided to go on a cleanse and see if anything got better. On day four I woke up feeling better than I can ever remember feeling in my life, and all I could think was, 'Wow, It's over'. I kept getting more and more rest and feeling better all the time and it was great, but it kind of comes and goes. And there are certain things that didn't clear up. So, back to the internet I went. I just figured out that the dry, itchy, flaky, bleeding skin that I've had all these years is actually seborrheic eczema. And I still have a major problem with brain fog, major memory problems, lethargy, major gas/bloating, tiredness after eating, and I can't even have one drink now without feeling overly tired and unrested for two days, and I have many more symptoms. So I made my way back to the food intolerance websites and I think I figured out that I have a Candida problem. And that brought me(eventually), here. I am feeling extremely depressed at this point. I thought I had solved all my problems, but now it seems that I have an even bigger one in front of me. And of course there's no consistency in what I'm finding online. So I am hoping that someone that has been dealing with this can please, please, help me. Just give me some good, trustworthy resources to read up on. Tell me where to begin. I just want to get better. I want to have energy and live a somewhat normal life.

Thank you in advance for your time, Thirdworldattitude.

[SarahVaughter]

It is never sufficient to merely strongly suspect something - you need hard evidence, you need to exclude all other possible causes of your ailment in order to find what's the problem.
Only then you can start addressing the issue.

Brain fog and memory problems do not sound like Candida. Candida does not attack the CNS in healthy people - as soon as it does, you're dead in approx. 72 hours. I know that Internet quacks say that Candida produces alcohol and that this alcohol causes the brain fog - baloney.
However, it is possible that you have a gut filled with Candida and that toxins and immune system reactions cause the brain fog - I am not a doctor. Not that doctors have a clue!

Brain fog and memory problems can be caused by food intolerances, because for example gluten sensitivity can cause local inflammation in organs - including the brain. Yes, bread can cause brain damage, see my posting here:

http://www.owndoc.com/diet/bread-our-daily-poison-gluten-sensitivity-mistaken-candida/

In order to find out what's the matter with you, the best way would be to:

1. Eliminate possible causes of food allergies by eliminating gluten, lectins, diary and nuts from your diet, observing any positive changes and reintroducing them if there is no difference.

2. Eliminate possible nutritional deficiencies by taking vitamin and mineral supplements - ignoring the RDA and instead taking what SCIENCE tells you is required. Get enough sunshine - extremely important.

3. Read up on possible causes of your symptoms (you may suffer from a spirochetal/mycoplasmodial brain infection for ex.). Not on forums - in the medical literature.

4. Test your hypothesis. Not by doing tests (they can help though), but by trying antibiotics of the correct type for example, if you suspect a bacterial cause, by taking an antifungal if you suspect a fungal cause, by taking an antiparasitical if you suspect a parasitic cause, by taking an antiviral if you suspect a viral cause, and so on and so forth. Tests are virtually useless, for many reasons. I will dedicate a very long frontpage article soon on exactly why tests are quite useless.

5. Read as much medical research data on the possible ailment that you may have. Try to find the most likely cause based on your (symptom) history and eliminate the less likely causes.

6. If you think you know what ails you (it could be an exotic genetic disorder such as a chronic lack of an amino acid in your case - you won't know until you research - postulate - test - eliminate - etc.) then spend all your time, effort and money on FIXING the issue. If it means smuggling certain medicines into your country - do it without hesitation. People are sick for a reason. Most illness can be at least ameliorated with proper medication or behavior modification.

Good luck - you will need it.