Are your carb cravings out of control? Do you have allergies or sinus headaches which don’t respond to treatment? Recurring infections like colds, ear aches or sinus infections?
Do you have symptoms of IBS, flatulence, bad breath or acid reflux? Or mental emotional difficulties like attention deficit, depression, irritibility, poor memory? Or perhaps have cold hands, cold feet or a cold nose?
If you’ve been getting thyroid treatment but still these and other health issues which won’t go away, its possible you might have another condition called Candida. Thyroid and Candida problems are direclty related and both may need treatment.
Most commonly we hear about Candida in the form of yeast infections of the genital area, but less commonly discussed is Candida’s affect on the whole body. Here is my experience with Candida…
Yeast in Unexpected Places
After I was on thyroid treatment for over a year, even though I felt a lot better in general, I still experienced low energy and lethargy, frequent sinus headaches, sinus infections, post nasal drip, chest congestion, wheezing, irritability and other symptoms.
Also I experienced a painful, red, itching, burning rash on the corners of my mouth, and the inside of my elbows. Over the years I had asked doctors and dermatologists about this rash but they didn’t have a diagnosis.
When I explained the symptom to Dr. Brummer, my super awesome doctor, he was the first one to suggest it might be “Thrush” or Candida, more commonly known as yeast overgrowth. I never had yeast infections in my girl parts, but he explained that yeast is throughout our bodies and when the body is out of balance the yeast can overgrow and cause many health problems.
Also Dr. Brummer asked about, ahem, my bowel movements. On a side note, bowel movements are a really important indicator of body health. More on that later. Anyway, I explained that some days I was very constipated (which is part of low thyroid) and other days I would have very loose stinky bowel movements (sorry TMI, but its important).
Dr. Brummer explained that the bowel movement problems and smell could definitely be Candida. Candida lives in the intestines so it can cause bad gas as well as bad breath. In fact, people who have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) may in fact be battling Candida.
How Yeast Grows
As noted on Overcomingcandida.com, the primary factor for yeast overgrowth is the use of antibiotics, especially over a period of time with repeated uses. The antibiotics destroy bacteria allowing the yeast to grow. In women, its common knowledge that antibiotics can cause vaginal yeast infections.
But what if the yeast infection wasn’t just in the girl parts? What if the yeast overgrowth was in the entire body? And what if it affected men the same way? That’s exactly what happened to me.
Yeast also feeds off of simple carbohydrates like sugar, grain, rice, potatoes, and alcohol. I always felt pretty awful after eating simple carbohydrates but never knew why. It happened because the yeast would make me crave carbs, then it would feed off the carbs, causing a yeast bloom which caused the various symptoms like sinus infections, thrush, flatulence and more.
So in addition to having yeast on my mouth and skin, I believe it was in my lungs, intestines, and also in my sinuses.
Allergies, Sinus Infections or Candida
For twenty years I had terrible sinus headaches and sinus infections. I would get sinus infections with a bad fever and chillsat least four to five times a year. Each time the doctor would give me antibiotics. When the antibiotics stopped working, they would put me on 3 week cycles of antibiotics. I was on antibiotics for years.
Over time, I believe, low thyroid and antibiotics led to Candida overgrowth in my body, and especially in my sinuses. Without knowing about the Candida connection, doctors continued to prescribe antibiotics for sinus problems when in fact the antibiotics were a big part of the problem!
The Candida Thyroid Connection
On Stop the Thyroid Madness, Mary shares her story of being undiagnosed hypothyroid and developing Candida. Eventually someone on the Yahoo Thyroid group explained told Mary:
“Hypothyroidism causes low body temps which allows fungal overgrowth. Get the temps up and the fungal/yeast will have nowhere to live.”
Some research even indicates that Hypothyroidism can be caused by Candida. Either way, there is a clear connection between Hypothyroidism and Candida.
Candida Symptoms
Here is a full list of Candida Symtpoms.
Treating Candida
If this sounds like you, there are treatment options for Candida. I will write a follow-up post with detailed treatment instructions.
More Resources
To learn more about Candida visit these websites:
