…our home and native land. Oh, wait. That’s Canada.

We are talking about Candida Albicans – yeast. We tend to think of yeast infections as being either of the thrush or Monistat variety.  But that’s just limiting the yeast and it won’t be kept down by The Man!  Candida can be so much more and is really rather insidious.

Yesterday I was grousing to my colleague Ed (you’ve met him) about how tired I was in spite of having slept a great deal over the holiday, he told me about a video he had just seen.  It was a segment from the Dr. Oz show in which guest Dr. Elizabeth Bonham describes a quick, self test to see if yeast could be the cause of your exhaustion: spit in a glass of water.  Within 30 minutes of waking, before eating or drinking anything, spit into a glass of water.  The saliva should sit on top of the water.  If it sinks or “jellyfishes” downward, you may have a problem.

We all have candida albicans in our bodies.  We need it; however, it can grow out of control. When it begins to run amok, we get thrush, genital yeast infections, skin infections and, yes, fatigue. Several years ago, I had a months long battle with strep.  Course after course of antibiotics has my system still so unbalanced that it doesn’t know which way is up.

If you think yeast may be keeping you down, you can take these steps to restore balance:

1. Reduce your sugar intake – take baked goods, ice cream, candy, and processed cereal out of your diet.  You will even want to cut back a little on your fruit intake. Yeast LOVES sugar. You’ve got to starve it.
2. Increase your fermented foods intake.  I said foods. This is not to say that you are now on a liquid diet of cabernet for two weeks.  (Tragic.  I know.) Sauerkraut and kimchi are good.  Dr. Oz doesn’t mention yogurt, but I used to add a serving of yogurt or kefir to my diet every day.  I’ve already had my kefir this morning; so, I’m putting that back into the rotation.
3. Take a probiotic supplement. Choose one that has at least 25 billion live active organisms.
4. Eat garlic.  The doctors suggest eating one to two raw garlic cloves a day.  I haven’t tried this and cannot speak to its efficacy to anything other than killing your social life for a few days.  I’ll try it and let you know. You might not want to visit during this time, just wait for a phone call.

Dr. Oz has a lot to say on this subject and I’m too tired to write more; so, check him out here.

This video (about 9 minutes long) from Dr. Whiting disagrees with Dr. Oz on some points and explains some other points. I warn you, though, he’s got a product to sell; so, bear that in mind.

Here’s another interesting site – again with something to sell, but still interesting.

I was thinking to close with a few more bars of  a twisted version of O, Canada! – remember, I’m a hockey fan, I know all the words and sing the anthem of the North American hockey mothership; but, I don’t want to offend my sweet Canadian readers.  Plus, I’m just too tired and fuzzy to come up with it!