This is a compilation of everything I know about candida, and what has worked for me. I’m not a doctor, but I am very attuned to my own body, have basic understanding of how the body works, and currently studying traditional Chinese medicine to complete my massage therapy license in shiatsu. I was also a chef for 10 years, and have been studying nutrition and agriculture for 12+ years out of personal interest. I experimented to see what works and what doesn’t on my own body since there isn’t a lot of consistent information about candida, and it is not widely understood by Western medicine. This made me contemplate our culture at large, where we are conditioned to ignore and dismiss our bodies, rather than trust their high intelligence and wisdom. Discovering and treating my candida myself has deepened my relationship to my body and how I treat it.

I highly recommend that you listen to your body and see what works for you. If you listen closely, you’ll begin to see the signs of things your body agrees with and begin to heal. You can absolutely go to a Western doctor about it, but they may prescribe you medicines that will exacerbate the condition or dismiss it altogether (which is what happened to me). You’re better off going to a holistic practitioner like an integrative medicine doctor or acupuncturist. Candida has been studied and treated by traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, and I predict has been a prevalent ailment since the Industrial Revolution, when wheat and sugar rose as agricultural staples.

Candida is a fungus that we all have a healthy amount of it in the gut. It feeds on yeast, and can overgrow when we have a diet of excessive sugar and processed foods. Many foods get broken down into sugar and allow the yeast to grow wild and distribute through blood, causing damage to the internal organs, which have to overwork in order to maintain homeostasis of the gut. It also grows wildly if we take antibiotics, which kill off the healthy bacteria in our guts that typically keep candida under control. If you’re wondering how you got here, try and trace back when you last took antibiotics and/or what your diet has been like recently. For a Western explanation of what candida is and some helpful tips, this is a great video from a doctor.

Most candida information is targeted towards people who are assigned female at birth (about 75% of AFABs experience candida at some point in their lives), but folks who are assigned male at birth also have candida at high rates.

Essentially it wreaks havoc on the body, causing many symptoms, including but not limited to:

• Recurring yeast infections, vaginally and topically (including in the folds of skin like behind the ears and belly button)

• Eczema, psoriasis, hives, rashes (anywhere, including the eyes)

• Acne

• Brain fog, poor memory, ADHD, ADD, difficulty focusing

• Excessive hairloss due to hormonal imbalance

• Irregular and/or painful periods

• Chronic fatigue

• Stress, mood swings, irritability, depression, anxiety

• Chronic inflammation

• Joint pain

• Oral thrush

• Impaired immune system

• Persistent bloating, flatulence, constipation, IBS

• Severe allergies

• Skin and nail fungal infections

• Poor sleep hygiene (including intermittent sleeping and insomnia)

• Intense sugar/carbohydrate cravings

If you find yourself experiencing several of these symptoms, you may have candida overgrowth. If you want to be certain, you can try using an at-home candida test to get official results through a lab. This is the most affordable one I’ve found. If you’re on a budget and want to see if you have candida for free, simply spit into a cup after you wake up in the morning. If your saliva floats and foams up, you have candida. If it sinks without many bubbles, you do not have candida.

This plan will be 4-6 months long, and will require 3 phases:

1. Creating a care plan for yourself.

2. Starving the candida and replenishing healthy gut biome

3. Reintroducing foods

This is a lifestyle change. You won’t be on a super restrictive diet forever, but these 3 phases are incredibly important to restoring the health of your gut so that you don’t have to run into the same issues with candida down the line. Once your gut has reached homeostasis again, you may want to continue employing the habits you developed through the candida diet as a permanent change. Don’t go back to eating the way that you did that got you here, and lean into moderation to maintain the health of your body. Your body will respond to these radical changes in diet in a number of ways, and you’ll notice some physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual differences.