Dietary Therapy

Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, herbs and dietary therapy) is a great way to treat Candida overgrowth. In Chinese medicine we view candida as a condition exacerbated and created by dampness. In a simple way, one can think of it as a pooling of fluids in the wrong places (in this case the GI or urinary tract). Simple dietary adjustments as well as acupuncture to help irrigate the body’s meridians properly can help regulate this pattern.

What is Candida?

Candida is an organism that is generally colonized in the GI tract and skin. Candida results when an overgrowth of a common yeast, C. albicans, becomes over abundant on the intestinal of gentio-urinary tract. Women are frequently affected with vaginal candidiasis-especially after anti-biotic treatment.

In Chinese medicine candidia is related to dampness. General signs and symptoms of dampness are:
•    Feelings of heaviness and sluggishness
•    Mental dullness
•    Fatigue
•    Possible yeast infections
•    Edema
•    Eczema
•    Excess mucus

Candida overgrowth symptoms:
•    Mental sluggishness
•    Chronic vaginitis
•    Bloating & digestive problems
•    Mucus in the stools
•    Frequent colds
•    Sweet cravings
•    Lowered immunity
•    Fungal infections
•    Scattered, unfocused mind
•    Allergies to foods and environmental substances

Causes of Candida:

• Damp generating foods: sweets, cold foods, stale or rancid foods (like old nuts), fermented products, alcoholic beverages, yeasted breads,
• Excess raw foods
• Chronic worry and stress weakens the digestive system making it more susceptible
• Oral contraceptives
• Anti-biotic use

Moderating the effects of anti-biotis:

• Take an acidophilis culture
• Raw sauerkraut
• Deep green vegetables
• Barley grass

Dietary Modifications to control Candidiasis:
Grains: Millet, roasted buckwheat groats, rye, oats, barley, amanranth, quinoa
Legumes: adzuki and mung beans

Starchy vegetables:
Avoid sweet potatoes and potatoes add: carrots, parsnips, beets

Avoid refined sugar and artificial sweetners

Protein:
Raw goats milk, fish, free range animal products

Greens:
Parsley, kale, collards, chard, watercress, romaine lettuce, cabbage
Microalgae: barley grass, wheat grass, -best in powdered form

Other:
Raw saltless sauerkraut, seaweeds, garlic,
Flaxseed oil & olive oil
Kelp and seaweed-contain selenium which, is important for building immunity.

To make an appointment in Park Slope e-mail Laurel@ancientcurrent.com.