Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory. But you need black pepper and ginger to make it bioavailable. Unless of course you want to use it to heal the gut. Then you just want the straight extract from the turmeric. I've discovered recently, turmeric and cinnamon also has anti-microbial activity. So the golden milk recipe below is absolutely loaded to help fix up the gut. Since I have a known gut infection, I used this mixed with coconut cream to make a variation of golden milk. The whole point is to get the curcumin in the gut, seal it in there, and lower the inflammation. Step one Seal the gut 2 scoopsPremiun Pure Organic Marshmallow Root Powder, 4 oz. Non-GMO, Support Healthy Gut & Lung Function 2 - 3 cups water Boil the water. Allow to cool to 130° . Add the marshmallow root and let soak for at least 20 minutes up to 4 hours The marshmallow root tea increases the mucosal lining of the gut. It will also lower inflammation. Step two Make the golden milk 12 ounce can of Trader Joe's coconut cream four scoops of curcumin ( use the handy scoop included) (Cinnamon to taste but about 1 tsp to 1 tbsp is about the right range. ) water to taste (about 2-4 cups) Heat the water, coconut cream, and curcumin very gently over low heat, stir occasionally until the curcumin is dissolved in the coconut milk. Add other spices to taste. Makes roughly 4 servings This golden milk is rather bland except for the cinnamon. I was quite startled . I was feeling rather poorly one day and had no appetite. So I just decided this was a good opportunity to try fixing up my gut. I made the marshmallow tea , and drank it on an empty stomach which is the best way to use it. If you drink it on a full stomach it will interfere with absorption of nutrients from your meal. After I had sealed up my gut I drank some of the golden milk. I used coconut milk because I was out of milk that day. Throughout the day I alternated between marshmallow root tea and my golden milk recipe. I was very happy; my gut certainly felt soothed. The next day I discovered why coconut milk is considered a healing food. I experienced the Herxheimer reaction: this occurs when bacteria in your gut die off in large quantities. I was rather mystified, until I read up on coconut. It is a powerful natural antibiotic. It's strong enough that coconut oil will not go rancid stored at room temperature for over a year. I can testify to that. Symptoms include: gas, bloating, diarrhea, more gas, sore muscles, fatigue, and cramping which lasted for two days and then disappeared abruptly. This was the most ferocious Herxheimer reaction I've ever experienced . I'm using olive leaf extract, another antibiotic for the gut. I miscounted the number of pills required so I have done it before. The interesting part is, my recovery continued for well over a week. I've been out on medical disability for five years now. Some of my symptoms include fatigue , loss of memory and concentration . A week afterwords my energy levels were up significantly, more than doubled. And my memory and concentration had improved along with it. I am delighted of course. I was rather curious to see if there were more bacteria that could be clobbered by the coconut milk. But I've been unable to duplicate the Herxheimer reaction on that scale again. Well if I'm lucky, this means that the coconut milk has done it's good work and can now be moved to maintenance status (a.k.a., food). However I have discovered many other foods have antibacterial properties and I'm happy to continue the experiments elsewhere. Update: I've killed my Candida and into the mop up, maintenance that will go on forever. Because they come back you know. I am posting update which contains references to multiple products because I believe it's too important to scatter everywhere. I obtained the information from at least five different books written by M.D.'s (and Ph.D's) on Candida and related topics. I recommend you do ALL of the steps outlined below. It wasn't until I did all of the steps simultaneously that the Candida finally went away. 1) Use enzymes that target the cell walls of the fungal form of the yeast - I used Candi-zyme from RenewLife plus Candi-Smart which is an herbal mish-mash of anti-fungal, anti-inflammatories, etc.... Watch out for the berberine in Candi-Smart. Berberine inactivates at least 3 major Cyp enzymes in the liver which causes interactions with medications. NSAIDS won't work during this period. On the other hand, berberine is a major anti-fungal/anti-inflammatory and probably the most effective ingredient in the mix. By, the third day, I noticed the Candida was “going silent” in patches. By the 7th day, the whole mass had gone quite and I was down to a few lone twitters here & there in the gut. 1a) Eat salads with tons of leafy greens (esp. from the cabbage/superfoods category) everyday. First, they have fiber for your probiotics and second they have the enzymes that eat into the fungal form of the yeast. Use apple cider vinegar, the probiotics in the vinegar target the fungal form of the yeast (cell walls again) and eat them alive. The therapeutic dose for the vinegar is 2 tbsps per day. Finally, celery is loaded with those yeast eating enzymes. 2) Olive leaf extract - another major anti-microbial. Excellent against Candida, preliminary evidence that it works against E. coli, salmonella, shigella, and some other bad guys. I used Olive Leaf Extract from http://hardynutritionals.com full strength (6 caps) while using everything else. 3) Food based anti-fungals - cinnamon, cloves, coconut (very powerful - use MCT/ medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil for concentrated effect), ginger, raw garlic cloves (for the sulfur compounds - limit to two per day) or the garlic oil in capsules, curcurmin, spirulina. Also, herbs like parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage. Smoothies made with coconut milk with curcumin and spices are shockingly effective. Olives are good. These foods seem to provoke the herxheimer effect 2-5 times, then settle down. 3a) Coconuts: coconut has 3 anti-microbials, lauric acid, caprylic acid and capric acid. They are so strong that coconut oil won't go bad for a year. Lauric acid is converted into monolaurin in the body and is found in colostrum, the clear part of breast milk that is produced before the actual milk. It is strongly anti-microbial. However, producing monolaurin is pretty difficult using coconut oil because of all the calories AND the conversion rate is low. You can 1) buy bovine colostrum, or 2) buy monolaurin or Lauricidin from Med-chem labs. I am convinced colostrum lands in the gut and starts to clean the place up directly. The monolaurin seemed to take 10-15 days to act and my skin turned from an ashy color to an apricot hue. But no overt sign that the Candida was dying. 4) Anti-fungals or pro-probiotics - peppermint oil and oil of oregano - either alters the environment in the gut to favor probiotics or directly kills Candida - depends on who you talk to and probably effective only against a limited number of strains. I found the peppermint was helpful but the oregano seemed to have limited impact. 5) Marshmallow root (as a tea) - seals the gut and prevents some of the active ingredients from being digested away. Works for about 3 hours. Also, anti-inflammatory and works directly on the gut. Works well if you can avoid eating for at least 6-8 hours and load up on anti-fungals and marshmallow tea during that time. I did this unwittingly using marshmallow tea and a coconut milk smoothie with cucurmin added to knock gut inflammation and as an anti-candida agent. I alternated the two for about 9-10 hours and knocked myself out with the herximer reaction for 2 days (herximer is the reaction you get when you kill bacteria in your gut in large numbers, diarrhia, gas, bloating, belly noises, gut clenching/spasms, sore muscles, fatigue and many other flu-like symptoms. It's a good sign that the anti-candida medications are working but severe symptoms can damage your health. Better to moderate the dose). However, I recovered and kept on recovering. A week later I had doubled my capacity to work. It was up from about 2-3 hour cyles of work/rest/work to being about to work from about 10 AM to about 8 PM. This was the single most impressive improvement in five years of medical disability. 6)Starve'em out: Yeast LOVE CARBS. An anti-candida diet is about 60-80 gms of carbs per day. No sugar. No refined grains, peas, sweet/potatoes, parsnips, beans. No sweet corn, Even carrots are off the list. No, No, NO! Even leafy green veggies have some carbs. These are still OK. I was able to maintain about 15-30 gms of carbs for 3-4 days in a row. After that every time, I went above 10-15 gms of carbs, the Candida were agitated (made noise). Clearly, they were starving and any carb was now a good carb. Which is how I know, the enzymes and anti-fungals were working. I'd hit'me with it and suddenly a patch of gut would stop honking at me (they sound like young piggies in full cry). Nutritional depletion I've been trying to figure out what Candida will consume and the information is limited. It definitely drains magnesium, zinc, potassium and phospate. It goes after all proline. If you're having problems healing collagen, this is a smoking gun that you may have Candida. Supplement with collagen powder or just chicken/bone broth. Glutamate - required to heal the gut. Deficit results in inability to form new muscle. Also, reduces GABA levels in the brain resulting in mood inbalances. Required for immune activity. Could be the reason why this is depleted with Candida infestations. Therapeutic dose to heal the gut is 2-3 gms/day Tyrosine or tryptophan - deficit reduces dopamine and norepheneprine in the brain. Also, causes hypothyroidism. Shows up as "lack of willpower", ahedonia, lack of energy. I'm up to 2.5 gms per day and I still have trouble moving around but much, much less. The therapeutic dose for ADHD is 1 gm per day. If you suffer from extreme morning grogginess and find tyrosine helps but it take 5-6 hours to take effect, then consider N-acetyl-l-tyrosine. This is just tyrosine that has been tagged with an acetyl group which sends it straight to the brain. Since the gut was way off, I was very low on inositol (required to produce serotonin & produced by probiotics in the gut). Therapeutic dose is anywhere from 1 tsp to 2 tbsps. Inositol *might* fix panic attacks, anxiety and depression. I'm sold on the stuff because it fixed my panic attacks in about 15-20 minutes (clearly a gut-based problem). If the bottleneck is further along in your chemistry then it's about 5 hours for the "fix". Much longer than that and the problem isn't really inositol. If you have symptoms of “brain fog” - poor memory, lack of concentration, confusion – try phosphotidylserine and phosphatidylcholine (abundant in eggs and lecithin). Stress: Candida triggers stress and you may want to try an adaptogen to control your cortisol levels. Stress will reduce your working memory – the easiest test is to hold single digits in your head. The average person can hold 7-8 digits. I was down to 1 digit. I have tried rhodiola rosea (great for working memory & cortisol control – too energizing for late night use), American gingseng ( excellent for cortisol control, not as energizing rhodiola), ashwagandha (will control cortisol levels and convert your sleep patterns from night owl to morning lark – yes, it converted me), holy basil (controls cortisol), Relora (controls cortisol). I have found all of these adaptogens control stress eating. And yes, my working memory is back up to about 16 digits. Healing the gut Damaged Digestion If the gut is damaged, very likely, you need something to “activate” the gut. The taste of bitter greens does this automatically. You can eat bitter greens (dandelion greens, hops tea, not the beer, and more) or drink bitters. Iberogast is the medical grade bitter (no alcohol). If digestion itself is damaged, you probably need digestive enzymes. Daily stomach/gut troubles is damaged. Many of these recommended foods had increased effect on Candida after I started using a digestive enzyme. Clearly, the food wasn't even fully broken down in my stomach and I wasn't getting full benefit. HCL – damaged digestion often shows up as inability to produce enough HCL to digest your food. This can result in stomach aches, gas, bloating and more. Insufficient HCL can also lead to increased infections because your stomach acid is the first line of defense. Immune System Pau D'arco tea - Not sure if it helps yet since I just started but comes highly recommended - anti-candida & anti-inflammatory & stimulates the immune system. Vitamin C - boost to 4-6 gms to help heal collagen or to fight depression. Or just to help heal. Helps reduce excess histamine in the body if you've got that. Take 1 gm per hour, the body cannot assimilate more per hour. The optimal dose is 8 gms (which is what Dr. Pauling took in his latter years). Reduce inflammation for healing – eat anti-inflammatories like ginger powder, cinnamon, cucurmin, garlic, spirulina and more and I've found it replaces ibuprufen. Especially, the ginger. About ¼ teaspoon or 2 “00” capsules. Some of these are also anti-candida. Take Care of your Probiotics Split the day into "probiotics" and "kill the fungus" time. There was a huge difference once I stopped taking antifungal foods/chemicals along with my probiotics. Buy fresh probiotics with many strains and a super high organism count. Eat many probiotic foods - homemade really does make a huge difference but variety is crucial. I will recommend the instant pot just for the homemade yogurt function. Also, kefir and kombucha . Good kefir tastes like liquid yogurt. Kombucha has a tart/sweet flavor. If they overferment, it will taste unpleasantly like drinking vinegar. But once you drink real vinegar straight, Kombucha is quite refreshing. Eat prebiotic foods for fiber- avocados, asparugus, green bananas, popcorn. Glucomannin, derived from Konjac, a wild yam from Asia, is just about the best quality fiber (longest strands) you can buy. You can also buy Shirataki noodles (Japanese grocery stores or Amazon) which are nothing but glucomannin. No carbs, no calories, no gluten just fiber. A crazy good diet food and excellent in any ramen noodle recipe. Keeps you full for hours unlike regular noodles. Supplement with fiber. Right before bed is especially encouraged.