Candida Infection: From the beginning . . . what is Candida and how did I get it?

Posted by Dan and Carole McClelland

Many of you know that I have been fighting a Candida infection and have been praying for recovery and health.  Thank you so much as our prayers are powerful and effective.  It has been a hard trial in my life but can confidently say am doing much better and now can say that I do have the Candida infection under control and getting another check up on December 18th, which I know will reflect the healing and restoration that God has done in my body.

Through a series of blogs, I want to share what God has done and taught me through the joy of the trail of having Candida! I will start with this blog from the beginning. What is Candida and how did I get it and the process I went on to discover I had it.

First what is Candida? Candida is a fungus (a form of yeast) in all of our mouth and intestine and when it is under control there is no negative effect on us.  However, when it starts to grow and gets out of control it weakens the intestinal wall allowing food flow into the bloodstream and thus releasing toxins throughout the body.  Which then causes all kinds of symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain, headaches gas and much more.  You can read more about Candida and the process of getting it under control at this website: http://www.thecandidadiet.com/whatiscandida.htm

There are many causes of an overgrowth of Candida such as poor diet of a lot of sugar and carbohydrates, antibiotics, or a long period of stress or anything else that can weaken your immune system.   For me it was probably a combination of them (as I have a lower immune system, have always had a diet full of sugar, processed foods and carbohydrates) but the final blow that caused my Candida to over populate was the 3 weeks of antibiotics for my infected root canal in Costa Rica done in March.

After I stopped antibiotics and started to eat again, I noticed that I started to develop food allergies.  My body would start to react (fatigue, bloating, gas, headaches and body pain) when I would eat certain foods.  It was happening for a couple weeks before we identified what kinds of foods.  The first thing I noticed was dairy.  At the base we had cheese and broccoli soup one night and there was no doubt something was happening after that night (my stomach bloated to where I could have been mistaken for 7 months pregnant) and Dan and I began to research more.  So after that night, I stopped dairy from my diet (which was hard! no cheese, no sour cream means basically no Mexican food which I love and cut out all desserts).  But my body was still reacting so I started to keep a food diary, tracking foods that eat and when my body would react.  I started to eliminate foods that I reacted to like fatty foods like avocados.  And this was all happening when we were doing the 3 month intense bible school in Costa Rica.

We moved to the states the first week of July and the food allergies worsen and the effects became stronger, quicker and to many more foods.  My candida was growing! By the end of August, I had cut out almost everything from my diet and spend much time in prayer asking God for wisdom.  And through prayer God told me to go on a Daniel fast to clean my system.  I started to eat only fruits and vegetables I was already only drinking water (Daniel fast was only vegetables and water, I am not sure why I continued eating fruit but I did thinking it was part of the diet).  Anyways, my body was still reacting to the limited diet I was eating.

In late August, we made a trip to PA to visit Dan's family and share with our supporters in the area. On the way to the visit, Dan and I decided we would find a doctor when we arrived back to DC about my health. God had other plans! During that visit, Dan's mom, Patty, could not believe how much I was still reacting and the effect it was having on me and my daily life.  The heart of compassion and love that she has as well as the gift of service and hospitality, on Monday she called a Naturalist Specialist for a Health Analysis at Natural Solutions in Grove City, PA.  We were leaving on Wednesday morning so Tuesday was the only day we could see the doctor.  She called the this specific specialist was only in one day a week, TUESDAYS! And he only had one appointment for the next day! Completely God! We made the appointment.

Patty and I showed up the next day and saw the specialist.  He did a BioMeridian Testing, which assesses the energy meridians (channels) of the body and determines how each organ, tissues and systems are functioning! Through this test and by looking at the results he was able to tell me many things I was experiences such as food allergies, sleeping problems, going to the bathroom all the time, fatigue etc.  Then he tested me for food allergies.  And all the things I cut out my body was allergic to but the one I did not know was SUGAR was feeding my Candida.  Even the natural sugar in fruits was allowing the Candida overgrowth to continue to gain strength.  He put me on a strict diet basically vegetables and water (Daniel Fast that God already told me to do! He directs us to all truth and freedom!) and gave me a list of probiotics and antifugals to take for the next 4 months.  He also explained that during the next 4 months I had the opportunity to and he believed I could recover from the Candida infection because of the quick response we had to stop eating certain foods, the short length of me coming in and seeing him and the hope and joy he saw in my eyes (JESUS).  He explained that my body was under a great amount of stress and normally when the body is under as much stress my body was experiencing, people are very depressed and on anitdepressites.  He asked if I was experiencing any of that.  I looked at Patty, my mother in law, and she said that those were not words that would describe me at all.  I agreed that it has been hard couple months but I was not depressed but filled with joy! Again, only JESUS!

However he did share that during the 4 months I would get much worse before I started to get better.  There would be days where I would be weak and sick in bed and they were good days because the Candida was dying and loosing control and toxins were being released from my body.  Also that my body would naturally hunger for sugar and things that would feed the Candida but it would take self-control to say no and stay on the strict diet.  I shared that I understood and would see him in Dec.

It was that day, Tuesday Aug 21st around 12:30, that I promised God in my heart that I will go through anything and do everything I needed to do to see victory in my life in the area of my health.  Little did I know, how God has already prepared me and my life for this victory in my life and the lessons He planned to teach me through it! The next couple blogs will be about exactly that!