If you watched my last video about the results of my recent allergy test, you’ll know that all my current food sensitivities are pointing straight to a candida problem.

Luckily, I don’t have a serious level of candida at the moment, but I would certainly like to restore my yeast levels to zero and get my intestinal health on tract.

I’ve noticed my digestion has been very erratic and poor all winter, ever since I ended up taking a short course of antibiotics for a urinary tract infection back in the fall.

Anyway… it makes perfect sense that candida is what currently ails me, since antibiotics are the biggest perpetrator when it comes to killing good intestinal bacteria and letting the bad intestinal bacteria overgrow.

So I have just embarked on a short, yet strict candida cleanse. What does that entail?

What is Candida?

First, let me explain what candida is for those of you who don’t know… it’s a form of harmless yeast that lives in your intestinal tract.

Harmless, that is, until a poor lifestyle, antibiotics, birth control pills, or a seriously sugary diet comes along and causes an imbalance between the good bacteria and the bad bacteria.

Most people these days will have an overgrowth of candida (or some kind of bad bacteria) in the gut which can mess with your digestion and therefore, cause all kinds of symptoms (including acne and eczema).

If things get really bad, which is more rare, the candida yeast can transform into its seriously harmful fungal form, which then irritates the gut wall so much that it can get into the bloodstream and wreak all kinds of havoc.

How to Get Rid of the Pesky Candida

It’s a threefold procedure and it’s not always easy.

1. Step One: Cut off the Yeast’s Food Supply

The number one thing you must do is cut out or cut way, way down on sugar – this includes natural sugars like fruit, honey, and sugary vegetables like carrots and beets.

Yeast loves sugar – it’s what they thrive on and unfortunately, they don’t know the difference between healthy sugars and refined, processed sugars, so it all needs to be removed from the diet for a period of time.

Moldy foods (like peanuts) and yeast (like that in bread) will also help feed the candida, so any food prone to or containing these should be eliminated as well.

Candida cleanses also remove all processed foods, dairy, gluten, and other common allergens as a way to give your immune system a chance to catch up and fight the gut imbalance.

2. Step Two: Kill the Yeast

The second part of the procedure is to take supplements that kill yeast.

There are many different natural substances that inhibit yeast growth and these include pau d`arco, caprylic acid, grapefood seed extract, garlic, oil of oregano, olive leaf extract, and some others.

Usually people will take one or two of these (or a formulated product that contains many of them) for anywhere from five days to two weeks, and then switch to another couple of them, and continue to rotate.

Unfortunately, the yeast are tricky and if you take the same yeast killer for long enough, they will mutate and become resistant to it.

3. Step Three: Repopulate your Guts with Good Bacteria

Now that you’ve killed the yeast, or are in the process of it, you need to repopulate your intestine with friendly bacteria that will exert control over the bad yeasties and make sure they don`t overgrow again.

You can achieve this by taking strong probiotic supplements and eat plenty of foods that are teeming with good bacteria – like saurerkraut, and goat’s milk kefir.

Don’t forget to drink plenty of water, get lots of exercise and sleep, and take time for yourself to work on your happiness! All of these things will help you to detox and flush out the bad guys.

How long it takes a person to recover from a candida problem is quite variable depending on the severity of your infestation.

It could take months if you have a really severe fungal infection, but I expect mine is simply a gut issue and will be fairly easy to get rid of. I only plan to be staying on a strict version of the candida diet for about three weeks

Stay tuned… next post I will be letting you know the exact specifics of what I am doing for my own personal candida cleanse!

Click here to take a candida questionnaire to find out if you may be suffering from this common condition

[UPDATE] – Check out my official candida cleanse program!

photo by Mat.Tauriello