Candida Overgrowth: The Role and Possible Dangers of Antifungals

coconut oilIt’s so easy to overemphasize the use of antifungals in a treatment for a Candida overgrowth in the human body, when in reality; although I imagine that the length of a treatment would be much longer without them, it’s still quite possible to bring a Candida infestation under control completely without antifungals.

Most people who start a Candida diet do so with the idea of “I’m going to kill all the Candida I can kill and as soon as possible.” This is probably the very reason that the role of antifungals appears to be so huge.

When you finally decide to start your Candida treatment and diet, your goal is not to kill as many of the Candida you can as soon as possible. The reason that this is not your goal is simple, and it’s called Herxheimer Reaction better known among Candida sufferers as “die-off” symptoms.

A Negative Reaction

Many sufferers see the die-off symptoms as a positive sign that something good is taking place in their body, when in fact the opposite is true. Creating enough die-off toxins to cause you to experience the strong headaches, the flu-like symptoms of aches and pains, and to experience the foggy-brain effect and dizziness, or in other words, to literally make you ill is not at all a positive action for your body and your health to endure.

The reason that you should not attempt to kill as many Candida as possible immediately upon starting your treatment is this; if you’re experiencing extremely strong die-off symptoms this is a negative situation for your body, organs, and general health because the die-off symptoms are created by toxins which are literally poisoning your body. So when you’re experiencing severe die-off symptoms, you have literally poisoned your body with a toxic substance.

Another mistake many sufferers make is using pure antifungals for long periods of time or for several months after starting their treatment. In fact, antifungals should only be used no longer than three months at the most and preferably for only one month. At that point you could stop taking the antifungals and concentrate on reestablishing the flora in the intestines with probiotics, kefir and plenty of good daily prebiotics (food for the bacteria).

Pure Antifungals

At this point some of you are no doubt wondering what I’m referring to when I use the term “pure antifungals.” Pure antifungals are those substances which present no other purpose in your treatment but to destroy the Candida. It’s true that some of these are in our Candida treatment, but these should be used for no longer than four weeks at the most. At that point the other antifungals could be continued, and I’ll get to the ‘other’ antifungals in a few minutes, but first I want to explain which substances are considered ‘pure’ antifungals.

Oil of Oregano is considered to be purely antifungal because it’s so powerful and its biological makeup is such that it is not only going to destroy the Candida and other pathogens in your body, but it’s also going to destroy some of the beneficial bacteria which you are already in short supply of (otherwise you would not be suffering from a Candida overgrowth). The only reason you would take oil of oregano for over 5 weeks is if your Candida symptoms grow worse during the first four or five week period. And the only reason your Candida symptoms would grow a lot worse after you’ve passed the five week point in your treatment is because you’ve given the Candida albicans a form of food that will sustain the population and allow them to multiply. This of course would mean that the size of the infestation has increased, but this will not happen as long as you are following the strict diet. If you’re strictly following the diet provided by this website, then you are not feeding the Candida, and therefore the size of the infestation should not increase. This does not mean that some of your symptoms will not grow worse or that you can contract a few new symptoms when the Candida first begins to die. The reason the symptoms may initially seem to be worse is because of the healing that will going on inside your body as the Candida are starting to die by the thousands. But this ‘healing crisis’ is necessary and happens with nearly every severe illness.

Oil of Oregano should be in a liquid form, and it should be the highest quality oil. A brand manufactured by North American Herb & Spice called Oreganol P73 Oil of Oregano is one of if not the highest quality oil you will find. Because of this, the taste is too strong to take alone, and in fact, you should never take the drops alone. You should either mix the drops in a glass of water, or you can put the drops into an empty capsule which is the safest way to take oregano oil. Empty capsules can be purchased from your local pharmacy or online at Amazon.

Oil of Oregano Dosage
Start with two drops taken morning and evening, for three days.
Then go up to four drops for three more days.
Then raise it to six drops a day.
Continue raising the dosage in this manner until you reach the amount you wish to take. This can be between 8 and 18 drops a day depending on your size and need and of course your die-off reaction. Remember to alternate the oil every 10 to 14 days with another pure antifungal form. If at any time while you’re taking the oregano oil your die-off symptoms become too apparent, you should reduce the amount immediately.

Caprylic Acid Capsules: Start slowly and work your way up to 2000-3000 mg daily, take with meals and alternate every 10 to 14 days with another antifungal.

Garlic: Eating lots of fresh garlic as an antifungal is acceptable during the first month of your treatment, and depending on your degree of die-off of course. When taking the pill form along with the raw garlic, you should be sure to purchase the pills which contain allicin. The different brands usually have close to the same amount per pill. After the first month of your treatment, I would be very care about eating a lot at one time, and you won’t need to take the pills at all. The reason for this is because garlic contains both antifungal and antibacterial properties which mean that it can also destroy some of the beneficial bacteria.

Virgin Organic Coconut Oil: (Virgin is absolutely necessary for this to work as it should) In addition to being a whole-food antifungal to which the Candida cannot adapt, coconut oil is especially beneficial in establishing a positive environment to ensure the survival of the beneficial bacteria. Plus, you don’t need to stop taking it when you stop the other antifungals as it does not destroy the beneficial bacteria you are trying to reestablish. You can, in fact you should continue to take coconut oil by the spoonful throughout your treatment as well as during your maintenance after you’ve completed the treatment and diet.

You can cook with the oil if you wish, but it would be much more potent and beneficial for your treatment to also take it raw by the spoonful in its raw form. When you first begin to take the coconut oil, start with (1) teaspoonful a day for three days. Then go up to (2) teaspoons a day for another three days, and then move up to (3) teaspoons. After this dose, continue raising the amount by one spoon every two days until you reach 15 to 18 spoonfuls a day. Please realize that the dosage information depends completely on the degree of die-off symptoms you are receiving. If at any time they begin to increase, please cut back on the amount of coconut oil you’re taking at that time.

Women can usually take as much as 12 to 15 teaspoons a day, though I’ve seen a few go up to 16 and one person as high as 18 for over a week. If you’re a male, you should be able to eventually raise the amount to between 15 to 18 teaspoons a day easily.

Do not alternate coconut oil with other antifungals as this is a whole-food antifungal which the Candida will not adapt to. In addition, it’s very beneficial for the flora which you will be trying to reestablish in your intestines.

Undecylenic Acid-CFort10
Start with one pill a day and work slowly up to six pills a day. Remain at this amount unless you have a naturopath who recommends otherwise. You do not need to alternate this with any other antifungal.

Grapefruit Seed Extract
This antifungal is not on our supplement or treatment plan, but so many people insist on using it that I wanted to make a few suggestions about it. If you decide to use grapefruit seed extract as one of your antifungals, I suggest that you take it only for a few weeks at the most. This substance is going to destroy the beneficial bacteria in your intestines, and after a few weeks, you should be concentrating on rebuilding the flora more than killing the Candida with antifungals. The antifungals are not going to heal the infestation, but the flora will.

If you insist on using grapefruit seed extract, keep in mind that a large percentage of the brands contain toxic chemicals such as benzalkonium chloride (an antimicrobial commonly used in disinfectants), benzethonium chloride, and an antibiotic called triclosan, and sometimes the preservative methylparaben. In our opinion, you’d be better off not taking any of these ingredients.

*NOTE: This is ‘grapefruit’ seed and not ‘grape seed.’ A few people have confused the two, but there’s a huge difference.

The Number of Different Antifungals:
Keep in mind that it’s not absolutely necessary for you to take all of the antifungals named, and you definitely should never take them all at one time. If you choose to take only two or three of the antifungals throughout your treatment, this shouldn’t be a problem unless your treatment period goes on for an extended period of time, then you may want to alternate a higher number of antifungals.

Always be sure to alternate oregano oil, Caprylic acid, GSE, and thyme if you take these. You do not need to alternate garlic, coconut oil or CFort10.

Whole-food Antifungals
Among the strongest and most beneficial antifungals aside from CFort10 are whole-food sources such as coconut oil, rutabaga, raw garlic, and Brussels sprouts. When taken for the first few times, any one of these, or all of them are capable of creating some rather dreadful die-off responses, so please be careful if you try any of these for the first time. Lightly steamed vegetables or juicing the vegetables are preferable to eating them raw or boiled.

NOTE: It’s of ultimate importance that you Do Not start any of these antifungal supplements “before” you’ve been taking the necessary supplements in our treatment for three whole days. You should start preparing for the treatment before starting the detox or the diet, but absolutely before any antifungals are taken. Remember, your goal is to avoid die-off toxins as much as possible.

You should know all about the die-off toxins and the possible dangerous they possess before starting an antifungal, the detox or the diet.
Everything You Need to Know About Herxheimer-Candida Die-off

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Comments

  1. very interesting info thanks a lot!

    • You might have Tinea Versicolor which is yeast that already lives on your skin. You’re susceptible to it if your immune system is lowered, cortisone shots, antibiotics, stress or a combination of the above. When the balance is disrupted, it becomes a fungal infection. It can mimic eczema but eczema is not an infection and there are no bumpy, scale lesions with macules. Eczema is more of flaky inflamed skin caused by an allergy with no lesions. Fungus does not grow well in cultures. The scales can be viewed under a microscope or a Wood’s ultraviolet lamp would show a yellow/green color. A dermatologist should be able to clinically diagnose Tinea Versicolor by looking at it. If they need to test it, they are probably not a good dermatologist but they could confirm the diagnosis looking at it under a microscope. Potassium hydroxide would have to be put on the slide or use the Wood’s lamp which is very easy to do. In addition, eczema is extremely itchy whereas Tinea Versicolor is mildly (pruritic) itchy and the itch maybe sporadic.

  2. Very informative. I have been treating Candida through diet, anti fungal meds and Candisol
    The past week or so I stopped the others and have been using oil of oregano. I feel better and the brain fog is about gone but am still working on energy level increase. The info you gave reaffirms the treatment I Have followed. Found the “die-off” most interesting as I was under the assumption the more die off at one time, the better. It was not pleasant. Thank you.

  3. Forgot to ask as I did not understand how long to continue oil of oregano. Should it be used for a lengthy time to kill off candida?

  4. and for the biofilms?

  5. Great article, its specific and full of useful practical information. Can you please tell me which supplements are best to take for 3 days before beginning this treatment?
    Thank you

  6. I would not dispute any of the anti-fungals used in this article. But I would dispute there how they are used and their effectivenes to a cure. Here’s why.

    The intestines of an adult is about 30 feet long and it has, because of all its villi, microvilli and folds, an effective surface area that is approximately the size of a tennis court.

    In a more realistic light, now consider six drops of oregano or six small pills of undecylenic acid effectively covering and acting successfully over an intestinal area the size of a tennis court. Will it be effective against systemic candida? Pretty unlikely don’t you think with such small amounts? You will certainly feel better using these protocols because they will kill fungus in the upper third of your intestines only, but if you suddenly stop your anti-fungal protocols then usually the candida comes roaring back because the dosage and coverage is insufficient in the intestines — hence, when you stop these protocols, you normally get “The Rebound Effect” where the candida always returns.

    Furthermore, using such small amounts of anti-fungals, these anti-fungals will undoubtedly either be completely used up, exhausted, neutralized or absorbed into the blood/lymph by the time it has passed down just the first 10 feet of the intestines. So these small amounts of anti-fungals become inactive or insignificant after traveling down the first 10 feet of your intestines — and they will have no further beneficial effect. Similarly, if you use anti-fungal enemas at the same time then this will only effectively treat the last 10 feet of the intestines not the whole intestines.

    But what about the middle 10 feet of the intestines? This region, as I’ve already explained, appears to be completely unreachable using the anti-fungals or enemas which means that the candida never goes away because it can happily breed, spread and continuously pump out its debilitating poisons from this central untreated region in the intestines.

    Another forgotten major point in the above article is that candida has two dimorphic forms. It can exist as a saprophytic yeast(skin, intestines, uterus), feeding off dead organic matter or it can exist as a parasitic fungus(in the blood, organs and tissues) feeding directly off the host and host nutrients. Therefore you must more sensibly have separate treatments for both the yeast form and fungal form of candida because they inhibit different regions of the body.

    I use Lugols Iodine, Borax and Alkalizing in a steady everyday protocol against candida. These nutrients act both in the intestines and in the blood and will act to successfully kill both the yeast and fungal forms of candida. I also advise supplementing pure gum spirit turpentine(distilled pine sap oil) mixed with castor oil (1 teaspoon turpentine, 1 to 4 tablespoons castor oil used twice a week). My advice is that if you want to successfully kill the candida in the intestines then the turpentine remedy is one of the best that I have ever seen. This remedy also does not kill the micrbiota in the gut. The turpentine and castor oil combination both kill candida and will remove biofilms (because of turps solvent cleaning effect), but the main reason to use castor oil is both as a laxative(for quicker riddance of poisons, parasites and candida and biofilms from the whole length of the gut) and as a useful medium to effectively spread the turpentine evenly throughout the whole length of the intestines to more effectively kill the candida.

    And, from my own experience and years of use, if you use this turpentine/CO protocol, you will likely see biofilms and large dead parasites(if you have them) in your stools as well. This has also been my experience using turpentine/CO successfully to help regress ASD kids back to normal — these kids all have serious systemic candida with large parasite issues — and I have been successfully using the turpentine protocol(at child’s dose) on these ASD kids for over 18 months now with huge benefit and without any problems at all. The ASD group I am involved with contacted me because many of the group, who follow Kerri Rivera’s MMS protocols, had hit a brick wall and could get no further improvement in the ASD kids. Adding just the turpentine/CO protocol to their other protocols made a huge difference to their ATEC scores.

    • @Bill. I am very interested in what you posted, and am curious as to how you know all this. I have never seen any of the treatment methods you outline mentioned anywhere. Is there any research out there to help verify your claims that this method works, kills candida, and does not harm good microbiota ? Not trying to be disrespectful. I am frankly desperate, and my hope is fading. I have pretty severe mental health issues, and have had to abandon my medications while I fight the candida. In very rough shape. Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

      • @Jeff. If I was you, I would NOT stop taking my prescribed medications. You should try to work with a good naturopath to get rid of your candida.

      • I had to take 6Fluonazole pills which killed the systemic candida but I caught it early. I take a 90 billion probiotic and stay away from sugar, refined carbohydrates. My liver is fine.

    • Bill,
      I have do disagree with you from what my personal experience with candida. While a lot of what you say does make sense, the thing that I disagree with you the most on is the tennis court area analogy.

      To gain benefits, you do not have to cover the entire surface area with all foods and treatment. If that was the case, we would never really benefit from anything that we eat. You recommend mixing 1 teaspoon of turpentine oil with 1-4 tablespoons of castor oil, that is far from enough to cover the entire intestines.

      I do agree with you though, I take 15 capsules of Undecylenic acid every day (5 capsules – 3 times a day), and sometimes more. It’s really made from the cracking of castor oil, and is not really harmful from what I’ve experienced.

      Coconut oil is also one of the best antifungals, and you cannot really get enough of it. If you take 10 tablespoons a day, that will do a lot of good as well. I personally would feel a lot safer choosing the right foods to eat, and am not a fan of ingesting Iodine and Borax (it can be used as a pesticide).

    • Hi Bill
      I read your article with interest can you let me know validity of this information. Your theory behind it makes perfect sense but I am rather worried with some of the products that you advise to use. Where can I obtain further information to back up your claims. I have got any literature on this?

    • Bill, sounds like great advice! How much Lugols iodine should one take and how often? What about the Borax, is this the cleaning product I’ve seen in stores? How much and how often with that. Should the turpentine be purchased at a paint store or is there a special medical variety? Do you have a web site? Please let me know. I’ve had these problems since 1977. Though I haven’t really tried to eradicate them in any intelligent manner. I do have bouts of intestinal bleeding roughly every year or year and a half. Sometimes they’re hard to arrest and I get anemic. I have funky little wart like things on most of my body that the doctor called karatosis. I sure love to solve this problem once and for all. I ran into a farmer once that told me he gave a teaspoon of sugar saturated in turpentine to his grand son and the boy passed a huge ball of worms. Please let me know of all the specifics! Thanks Gregg

  7. Hello! Just like to ask until when to take the virgin organic coconut oil? Is it for life already, so 15-18 teaspoons for life? Is it safe during pregnancy?

  8. Thanks for this, but it’s confusing. Do we take ALL the antifungals at once? Try Coconut oil? It seems doing all at the same time would be harsh, no?

  9. I don’t exactly understand your point about not alternating coconut oil. I’m working on yeast problems through diet and supplements. Taking fermented fish oil, minerals, blue green algae, a few other things, and a lot of coconut oil. I am about to start taking biocidin to kill off any infection. I plan to take it for one to three weeks, depending on how I feel. Should I not take coconut oil while taking biocidin?

  10. Thank you for taking your time to put this up. I’v decided to treat my 16 months old naturally. I need to know if I can give him crushed garlic tablets in his cereal, while also giving him probiotics and coconut oil.

  11. I believe I have a fungus / candida and mold problem in my gut and my mouth. With my mouth I don’t have any whitechnical on my tounge but it’s a slime that no matter how many times I wipe my the inside of my lips it is back with in seconds. This is killing me because I’m constantly trying to take my teeth and scrape it off which has caused a wrinkles on my upper lip which is very depressing. I have not seen anyone post anything about this slime. I believe it also making my gums recede or it at least looks like it.
    And as for my gut, it all started with a burning pain in the middle of my back, aprox where your bra would hook. This pain was and is awful and no pain pills helped it. Then about 6 months later I notice my belly was getting bigger but up high, up at the rib cage. At first I thought I might have pregnant because it would have been about the right amount of time since the last time I was with my ex but then it went away. But then would come back. Then when it came back it stayed and the pain was awful. Only way I can explain it is it felt like I had an inner tube under the rib cage and it was being inflated with air and more and more air. I was starting to have trouble breathing and I became so weak that I couldn’t even dress my self or write down my medication or even talk from being so weAK but I knew I need to get to the ER. I didn’t want to go but I felt like death wasn’t far. They eventually got to me like 6 hours later and I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to go nuts. I had to rock back and forth and tried to make my self breath because it was so bad. But finally they got to me and wanted to do a CT scan with dye to see what was going on in my gut. The Dr couldn’t understand my blood work. My WBC was very out of wacky and he said it didn’t make any since because my electrolytes were fine. But with the CT scan he came back to tell me I had something called ilius, something like that. It’s where parts of the small intestines quit working and he said he was baffled because when someone has that thereally electrolytes are out of whack also. But he admitted me to the hospital for a couple of days and wasn’t aloud to eat or drink anything. It took me 3 months to get into a GI Dr which was a waste of time. He had me drink the white chalky stuff and after the test he said being it went through that I had nothing wrong. But he never did a stool sample or anything on me . I don’t even think he looked at my blood work or CT Scan from when I was admitted because he said he believed my anxiety was causing all of my symptoms. Talk about someone being very mad and felt like he didn’t care to help me. I tried to explain how I felt, the pain in my back and into my right rib cage but nothing mattered. I have dealing with this pain for over a year, gained 30 pounds very quick. Gained 10 pounds from the time I saw my family Dr and it was aprox 10 days later that I say the GI dr and gained 10 pounds. I even told him that and he didnt seem to care especially when most of the weight gain was in my stomach. So I started searching the Web for help. The weird thing is that my little yorkie was haveing the same problems with the slime in his mouth and being bloated and in pain. So that is when I found out about the candida /fungus. Then I noticed I was smelling a urine smell in my apartment and it was so bad I was having headaches, massive bloating and in massive pain, loosing my voice, joint pain, couldn’t sleep amount many other things. So I seen that maintenance was in my apartment fixing things but I couldn’t see that they had did anything so I went out and asked then and he told me what he did and I let him know that they haven’t changed my furnace filter In like 6 to 7 months and I knew they didn’t because it was soaking wet and the guy said it shouldn’t be wet and I was like I know that, but the younger maintenance man went and got a new filter and when he pulled out the filter it was soaking wet and coverEd with black and pink mold. Every bit the size of a frisbee. So in asked him could he smell that urine smell he said no. But that is all I could smell. So when he left I looked up what kind of mold smells like urinem And it came up Toxic Black Mold and the more I read about what it can do to you and the symptoms that it can cause it was all making since, so much since. I believe this is what has been making my yorkie and I very ill. I went to my family Dr and explained to her what I believe was going on and asked her if I could get some yeast infection pills. I told her what I read and it said to take them for 30 days. She gave me 2 pills with one refill of 2 pills. So I took the first pill then the next day took the second pill and left my mold infested apartment and went to my dads for a few days. I actually started to feel human again. The burning pain was gone in the middle of my back and into my ribcage. The bloating went down quite a bit but not all the way but it didn’t feel like someone had an inner tube under my rib cage trying to make me explode. Even the slime in my mouth was a lot better then it had been. But once I went back to my apartment and was hit with that horid urine smell the head ache was back and was starting to feel bad again. And I noticed my little yorkie was starting to show a lot of his symptoms again. I did tell the managers over this apartment complex about the mold and told them they need to get someone in here and check things out. Well 2 weeks go by and nothing so when I went to go and pay my rent on the 4th of this month I asked what was taking then so long and let them know that mold was growing again all over the filter. They said that didn’t know who to call. Yes that is what they said. I know who I am going to call, the health department then maybe even a lawyer. It has been 2 weeks since the last time I told them about the mold growing again on the filter. And for all I know it is blowing it through out my apartment and I read if it has the spores that you won’t even be able to take your furniture with you because it would have the toxic mold spores over everything and if you take it with you, you will continue to stay sick. And I can’t handle feeling like this anymore and my poor little yorkie, I know he don’t feel good and if any of his health problems has to do with this mold they will pay for him to get the tratment he needs that I can’t afford. I have been giving him organic raw honey and it has seemed to help with a lot of his bloathing and upset stomach. I have bought a few different thingstyles that I read that will help get rid of the fungus and mold and parasites. I just need to figure out how much to give him. He’s about 3 1/2 pounds. But I know in my heart this is what is going on with him and I and I just want to feel better, feel like I’m me again, be able to go out and walk and do things that I enjoy and get this weight back off that I already lost once but due to all this fungus and mold issues I gained it back. I need help from anyone that is having the same issues as me. Especially with the slime in the mouth. It’s mostly on the insides of my lipss. But any help on how to fight this and how can I go about getting the apartment management to.do there job
    Thank you and god bless.

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