SarahVaughter
February 6th, 2010, 02:55 PM
This was part of an email exchange with a customer with HIV/AIDS.
He tried Lufenuron for a suspected Aspergillus (a fungus) infection and he complained of neurological problems as well.
Hi [deleted],
My credentials: I'm a retired certified nutritionist-turned-internet-marketer for my own products. I have been suffering from Lyme disease for the past 15 years.
John & I have no agenda. We are already "rich", we don't need to peddle miracle cures. We do this as a hobby, to do something useful.
I think my biggest asset is that I adopt a no-nonsense, logical, scientific approach to health issues. I reject almost all "common wisdom" regarding diet and illness.
I'm not with the doctors, and I'm not with the cure peddlers and armchair know-it-alls. I have no experience with fungal infections as it relates to HIV, but I know that HIV patients have a lot of fungal problems. Even healthy immune systems can barely cope with fungi!
The problem with fungal infections is that they're all incurable, and I mean that. Fungal infections are incurable. The only thing one can achieve, at most, is to suppress the infection such as to eliminate all noticeable symptoms. (And I'm even talking about people without compromised immune systems here). There are exceptions such as with very young people and with certain more benign fungi, but generally, once infected with a mycelial form of a fungus, all you can do is suppress it until it comes back when your immune system is down. No antifungal medicine can fully and totally kill a fungal infection that has progressed beyond the yeast "thrush" stage. It can only kill 99% and the immune system has to keep it in check indefinitely.
Lufenuron is a very effective Candida-killer but it performs poorly against about half of the other fungi out there, including Aspergillus. You should have gotten a strong, unmistakable dieoff reaction at around the fifth day, if you were suffering from a Candidiasis. I'm sorry it did not have the desired outcome. I did some research and found that Lufenuron actually does kill Aspergillus, but higher dosages are required (page 3):
http://www.owndoc.com/pdf/Lufenuron-patent.pdf
The fact that your symptoms greatly improved with the use of Diflucan (Fluconazole) is a valuable nugget of information - it means we can assume that those symptoms at least are of fungal origin, and should be combated with antifungal therapy and an immune-strenghtening strategy.
I would not buy more Lufenuron if I were you. If it does not give great relief at least temporalily, you simply do not have a serious Candida infection. I am confident of that, since there can't be resistance to Lufenuron in the wild yet. And Lufenuron does help tremendously with people with positive Candida tests (ELISA, WB etc.)
Your neurological sx (dizziness, emotionality, leg cramps) sound very failiar to me, as a Lyme patient. They MIGHT be symptoms of a very mild encephalitis, caused by an infectious agent that can be a virus such as Herpes Simplex, or a bacterium such as Borellia burgdorferi. I am not a MD, this is just an educated guess. It's a very complex field. The leg cramps could also be the lack or an imbalance of an electrolyte (Mg, Ca, K) or the lack of certain vitamins (B12). Considering the many supplements you take, the former may be the case (CNS infection).
But to rule out electrolyte imbalances or other depletion due to your stressed immune system, you should get full blood work done.
Mainstream medicine has a blind spot regarding infectious disease in general, not just fungal infections. They work with the old paradigm that blood is always sterile or the patient is dying, they think antibiotics/antifungals quickly kill 100% of an infection, they lack accurate diagnostic tests because of corruption and collusion in the diagnostic test world (testing positive for a fungal infection implies that a lot of money should be spent to cure it), they have no knowledge of the myriads of ways a bacterium or fungus can hide from the immune system (efflux pumps, intracellularity, DNA bleb-forming, cyst-forming etc.) Commercialism and plain old laziness are the main culprits. Unfortunately I also don't have all the answers.
People write books about antifungal diets mainly because they want to make some easy money, not because they necessarily are experts. 99% of those people simply regurgitate whatever they find elsewhere. The best anti-fungal diet is the most natural diet for Homo Sapiens. So no large amounts of high GI-food, a minimum of diary, a minimum of anything invented by agriculture, such as bread. Agriculture is at least 4 000, at most 15 000 years old. That's nothing in evolutionary terms, humans have not changed genetically in the past 200 000 years. Avoid diary, grains, processed foods and sugars. Eat nuts, salads, pulses, fish (sardines are about the healthiest fish available - little Mercury, lots of Omega-3 and fat-soluble vitamins), vegetables and fruit, especially berries. And don't fret over some dark chocolate - it's good for you too!
The advice about avoiding/recommending all kinds of food such as caffeine, yogurt, oils with alleged antifungal properties is mildly interesting for the average overweight housewife with vaginal thrush - not for someone with an impaired immune system and a potentially life-theatening fungal infection. In that case, just about none of the "beneficial" foods will have the slightest positive effect, neither will have the "bad" foodstuffs an exacerbating effect.
The ONLY factor in your case (again, I'm speaking as a layperson with a clue only) is the state of your immune system. It is bad, and it can't hold its own against a fungal infection. This is my opinion and I realize I may be wrong, and/or I may be demoralizing you. There are expensive and partially risky chemicals that can at least temporarily boost the immune system, but these are only available to people with very much money to spare. Interleukine, that kind of substances.
You should focus on getting sufficient sleep, stress avoidance and the healthiest diet you can arrange for yourself. I do not think that probiotics or yogurt are useful for you. They are not even useful for Candida-sufferers, really. Not when the Candida has entrenched itself already. I would spend all my spare change on the healthiest food available, and on stress-free holidays for example. You need to replenish your energy - nothing can keep a fungus under permanent control except the immune system. A fungus will come back when you stop the antifungal medication. It mutates, it entrenches in spore form, in mycelial form intracellularly, it suspends its metabolism until the concentration of antifungals is below MIC, etc. Often even when the immune system is not impaired. Your goal is to weaken the fungus and to strenghthen the immune system. Are you getting enough physical excercise (not _too_ much!) Do you smoke or use alcohol? The latter two are totally taboo for you!
Antifungal medicines such as the -azoles (Diflucan etc.) quickly lose their efficacy. Usually in about half a year. A Dutch researcher found that you can overcome Diflucan-resistance in fungi by adding relatively large doses of certain OTC-substances such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen. Candida and other fungi are very good at mutating into a resistant strain.
The leg cramps: I had them also, when my neuro-Lyme was much worse. They are very bad. They either made me scream of terrible pain at night, or I woke up with a painful, stiff calf. It takes days for the muscle to recover. I am quite sure they are a neurological symptom. First I thought it was a side effect of the Doxycycline. If you take it as well, it could still be a side effect of Doxy. Otherwise my best guess is you have a mild inflammation in the brain or spinal cord.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help [deleted], I hope you'll get on top of this soon.
Lufenuron is a very useful substance for Candida problems, but not for all fungi such as Aspergillus. The immune system is always relied upon to conquer the remainder.
Lufenuron's molecule is lipid-soluble but larger than 500 Daltons, meaning it can't penetrate the blood-brain-barrier. So it can't kill fungi in the CNS.
My best guess is that you have Herpes simplex in the brain. But it's a wild guess. I wish you good luck continuing your search for what ails you and how to overcome it.
He tried Lufenuron for a suspected Aspergillus (a fungus) infection and he complained of neurological problems as well.
Hi [deleted],
My credentials: I'm a retired certified nutritionist-turned-internet-marketer for my own products. I have been suffering from Lyme disease for the past 15 years.
John & I have no agenda. We are already "rich", we don't need to peddle miracle cures. We do this as a hobby, to do something useful.
I think my biggest asset is that I adopt a no-nonsense, logical, scientific approach to health issues. I reject almost all "common wisdom" regarding diet and illness.
I'm not with the doctors, and I'm not with the cure peddlers and armchair know-it-alls. I have no experience with fungal infections as it relates to HIV, but I know that HIV patients have a lot of fungal problems. Even healthy immune systems can barely cope with fungi!
The problem with fungal infections is that they're all incurable, and I mean that. Fungal infections are incurable. The only thing one can achieve, at most, is to suppress the infection such as to eliminate all noticeable symptoms. (And I'm even talking about people without compromised immune systems here). There are exceptions such as with very young people and with certain more benign fungi, but generally, once infected with a mycelial form of a fungus, all you can do is suppress it until it comes back when your immune system is down. No antifungal medicine can fully and totally kill a fungal infection that has progressed beyond the yeast "thrush" stage. It can only kill 99% and the immune system has to keep it in check indefinitely.
Lufenuron is a very effective Candida-killer but it performs poorly against about half of the other fungi out there, including Aspergillus. You should have gotten a strong, unmistakable dieoff reaction at around the fifth day, if you were suffering from a Candidiasis. I'm sorry it did not have the desired outcome. I did some research and found that Lufenuron actually does kill Aspergillus, but higher dosages are required (page 3):
http://www.owndoc.com/pdf/Lufenuron-patent.pdf
The fact that your symptoms greatly improved with the use of Diflucan (Fluconazole) is a valuable nugget of information - it means we can assume that those symptoms at least are of fungal origin, and should be combated with antifungal therapy and an immune-strenghtening strategy.
I would not buy more Lufenuron if I were you. If it does not give great relief at least temporalily, you simply do not have a serious Candida infection. I am confident of that, since there can't be resistance to Lufenuron in the wild yet. And Lufenuron does help tremendously with people with positive Candida tests (ELISA, WB etc.)
Your neurological sx (dizziness, emotionality, leg cramps) sound very failiar to me, as a Lyme patient. They MIGHT be symptoms of a very mild encephalitis, caused by an infectious agent that can be a virus such as Herpes Simplex, or a bacterium such as Borellia burgdorferi. I am not a MD, this is just an educated guess. It's a very complex field. The leg cramps could also be the lack or an imbalance of an electrolyte (Mg, Ca, K) or the lack of certain vitamins (B12). Considering the many supplements you take, the former may be the case (CNS infection).
But to rule out electrolyte imbalances or other depletion due to your stressed immune system, you should get full blood work done.
Mainstream medicine has a blind spot regarding infectious disease in general, not just fungal infections. They work with the old paradigm that blood is always sterile or the patient is dying, they think antibiotics/antifungals quickly kill 100% of an infection, they lack accurate diagnostic tests because of corruption and collusion in the diagnostic test world (testing positive for a fungal infection implies that a lot of money should be spent to cure it), they have no knowledge of the myriads of ways a bacterium or fungus can hide from the immune system (efflux pumps, intracellularity, DNA bleb-forming, cyst-forming etc.) Commercialism and plain old laziness are the main culprits. Unfortunately I also don't have all the answers.
People write books about antifungal diets mainly because they want to make some easy money, not because they necessarily are experts. 99% of those people simply regurgitate whatever they find elsewhere. The best anti-fungal diet is the most natural diet for Homo Sapiens. So no large amounts of high GI-food, a minimum of diary, a minimum of anything invented by agriculture, such as bread. Agriculture is at least 4 000, at most 15 000 years old. That's nothing in evolutionary terms, humans have not changed genetically in the past 200 000 years. Avoid diary, grains, processed foods and sugars. Eat nuts, salads, pulses, fish (sardines are about the healthiest fish available - little Mercury, lots of Omega-3 and fat-soluble vitamins), vegetables and fruit, especially berries. And don't fret over some dark chocolate - it's good for you too!
The advice about avoiding/recommending all kinds of food such as caffeine, yogurt, oils with alleged antifungal properties is mildly interesting for the average overweight housewife with vaginal thrush - not for someone with an impaired immune system and a potentially life-theatening fungal infection. In that case, just about none of the "beneficial" foods will have the slightest positive effect, neither will have the "bad" foodstuffs an exacerbating effect.
The ONLY factor in your case (again, I'm speaking as a layperson with a clue only) is the state of your immune system. It is bad, and it can't hold its own against a fungal infection. This is my opinion and I realize I may be wrong, and/or I may be demoralizing you. There are expensive and partially risky chemicals that can at least temporarily boost the immune system, but these are only available to people with very much money to spare. Interleukine, that kind of substances.
You should focus on getting sufficient sleep, stress avoidance and the healthiest diet you can arrange for yourself. I do not think that probiotics or yogurt are useful for you. They are not even useful for Candida-sufferers, really. Not when the Candida has entrenched itself already. I would spend all my spare change on the healthiest food available, and on stress-free holidays for example. You need to replenish your energy - nothing can keep a fungus under permanent control except the immune system. A fungus will come back when you stop the antifungal medication. It mutates, it entrenches in spore form, in mycelial form intracellularly, it suspends its metabolism until the concentration of antifungals is below MIC, etc. Often even when the immune system is not impaired. Your goal is to weaken the fungus and to strenghthen the immune system. Are you getting enough physical excercise (not _too_ much!) Do you smoke or use alcohol? The latter two are totally taboo for you!
Antifungal medicines such as the -azoles (Diflucan etc.) quickly lose their efficacy. Usually in about half a year. A Dutch researcher found that you can overcome Diflucan-resistance in fungi by adding relatively large doses of certain OTC-substances such as Aspirin and Ibuprofen. Candida and other fungi are very good at mutating into a resistant strain.
The leg cramps: I had them also, when my neuro-Lyme was much worse. They are very bad. They either made me scream of terrible pain at night, or I woke up with a painful, stiff calf. It takes days for the muscle to recover. I am quite sure they are a neurological symptom. First I thought it was a side effect of the Doxycycline. If you take it as well, it could still be a side effect of Doxy. Otherwise my best guess is you have a mild inflammation in the brain or spinal cord.
I'm sorry I can't be of more help [deleted], I hope you'll get on top of this soon.
Lufenuron is a very useful substance for Candida problems, but not for all fungi such as Aspergillus. The immune system is always relied upon to conquer the remainder.
Lufenuron's molecule is lipid-soluble but larger than 500 Daltons, meaning it can't penetrate the blood-brain-barrier. So it can't kill fungi in the CNS.
My best guess is that you have Herpes simplex in the brain. But it's a wild guess. I wish you good luck continuing your search for what ails you and how to overcome it.