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LDN making my chronic Yeast problem worse

Silence

Senior Member
Messages
102
Location
Northern CA
I have been taking LDN for about 3 years now and i consider it a miracle drug for how it has helped with certain symptoms ( sleep, anxiety, brainfog, fatigue, wired, panic attacks,). But the big drawback is that it causes my candida in my mouth ( thrush) and in my intestines to grow like mad.

Ive been on .5 mg for 3 years and have not been able to increase the dose because my yeast gets so bad which causes horrible diarrhea.

what is it about LDN that makes yeasts thrive? Has anyone been able to overcome this problem?
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
I have a hypothesis. It's a little wonky to describe in detail, but basically LDN may make it more difficult for bacteria to survive in your system, which may create opportunity for other sorts of pathogens such as fungi.

Eating raw garlic helps, but isn't fun. I slice it into pill-size chunks and swallow it, but I also chew a piece. The results are pretty good, but not a guarantee.

Good luck!

-J
 
Messages
56
It has a downregulating effect on the innate immune system. According to the immune restoration handbook (i believe its called) neutrophils play a significant role in keeping candida in check. Perhaps it would be worth putting some effort into finding and trying supplements/herbals that could counteract that. The one recommendation i remember from that book for that purpose is silica

Caprylic acid is awesome. Ive seen a study that called it as effective as diflucan, its cheap, easy to take, easy on the good flora, nearly resistance proof, and entirely non toxic. I've taken 5 grams a day for a few weeks at a time. The liquid gelcaps are the best form.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Caprylic acid is awesome. Ive seen a study that called it as effective as diflucan, its cheap, easy to take, easy on the good flora, nearly resistance proof, and entirely non toxic.

Isn't that one of the acids in coconut oil?

Yup. But I'm sure if you take it plain, it's more concentrated! Still, on the few threads I looked at, people were saying that coconut oil in and of itself is very effective (in tablespoon doses, though... I'd mix it into something!)

-J
 
Messages
56
If youre taking it orally, going topical can make a huge difference too. Any compounding pharmacy can put it in a cream. From my experience, 1 mg orally = 1 mg topically.

For some its only helpful in that regard, others it entirely takes care of the problem. In most cases, I think it depends on the persons level of sensitivity to yeast more than anything. If you are that sensitive, LDI might be worth a shot (no pun intended lol)
 
Last edited:

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
But the big drawback is that it causes my candida in my mouth ( thrush) and in my intestines to grow like mad.

Are you sure it is Candida (oral candidiasis) that you have in your mouth?

People can confuse oral candidiasis with geographic tongue.

You can differentiate between oral candidiasis and geographic tonguequite easily by visual appearance. If you perform a Google image search on oral candidiasis, and another on geographic tongue, you can see a clear difference, and you should be able to figure out which condition you have.

With geographic tongue, there are patches and borders that look a bit like a geographic map (hence the name geographic tongue). With oral candidiasis, the white Candida coating is often found on other areas of the mouth such as gums and the roof of the mouth; oral candidiasis is not just on the tongue.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
...some of those tongues are pretty horrifying, @Hip...

I will say that oral candidiasis is not normally that bad unless it's untreated for awhile. I've gotten oral thrush and it shows up as a pale, shaky tongue that is whiter than it ought to be, with a few small patches of white when it gets awfully bad. I've never had it spread to the gums or anywhere but the top of the tongue and a bit on the palate before I was able to kick it, and I'm immunocompromised!

-J
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
I've gotten oral thrush and it shows up as a pale, shaky tongue that is whiter than it ought to be

Does yours quickly clear up with fluconazole? That would indicate it definitely is oral candidiasis.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
As stated, mine clears up when I chew garlic. (Eewwww, but true.)

I missed that bit. Seems like fairly good evidence of oral thrush then. The garlic extract known as allicin is also pretty good at fighting Candida, as effective as fluconazole. Ref: 1
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
I do still doubt, @Hip... could be any fungal infection, I guess... I think it's probably pretty rough to diagnose between so many different potential infections by sight alone (sadly, I don't have my own lab... yet!) especially when the internet often features worst-case scenarios that make you feel like the poor person's tongue probably fell off later that day. :eek::eek::eek::cry:

-J
 

Silence

Senior Member
Messages
102
Location
Northern CA
Are you sure it is Candida (oral candidiasis) that you have in your mouth?

People can confuse oral candidiasis with geographic tongue.

You can differentiate between oral candidiasis and geographic tonguequite easily by visual appearance. If you perform a Google image search on oral candidiasis, and another on geographic tongue, you can see a clear difference, and you should be able to figure out which condition you have.

With geographic tongue, there are patches and borders that look a bit like a geographic map (hence the name geographic tongue). With oral candidiasis, the white Candida coating is often found on other areas of the mouth such as gums and the roof of the mouth; oral candidiasis is not just on the tongue.


Ya im pretty sure its a fungal infection. When it gets bad it grows on my gums, roof of the mouth, back of the throat. And under the white stuff is very red and painfull. I also suspect that its candida albicans becuase i have the same thing in my GI tract - evidenced by stool test. I think im more susceptible because of my low cd4 count.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Thats weird, I tried chewing garlic for a week, but didnt help my yeast problem at all.

WHOA.

I'm still battling, but no matter what, garlic helps me.

I'll tell you something else creepy: nothing makes it bad faster than eating nuts and nut products. Apparently, they're very mold-rich. :(

If garlic doesn't help, maybe it ISN'T fungal. Maybe it's viral or bacterial?

-J
 

Silence

Senior Member
Messages
102
Location
Northern CA
Just had a stool culture that came back positive for Candida albicans and also igg and iga positive also. Ive been using transdermal ldn for the past year but it still aggravates my candida.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
Just realized that walnuts (and wheat; and rice; and corn) are often infected with Aspergillus sp. not Candida sp.

Figured out the issue when I discovered that plain old sugar didn't cause as many problems as complex starches or certain nuts. It's gotta be black mold (nooo!)

-J